Today is Read Across America Day, and Matilda's school encourages students to come dressed as their favorite literary characters.

Matilda is going as Alice Through the Looking Glass. So JZ made her the dress from scratch.

I could not finish American Gods, so that's why I asked.

Tone of the book is more Terry Pratchett than Neil Gaiman.

Yeah. I loved American Gods, but Good Omens is a much more fun read.

It's more Anansi Boys than American Gods.

Matilda, so cute!

I have been reading Michelle Sagara's Elantra novels--I got the first three bundled for Kindle from Amazon. I think Betsy might have recommended them.

And ... they are pissing me off. There's an interesting story there, and some cool world-building, but the prose is enraging me. It's so intentionally underwritten! Reads like a particular kind of fic, that stuff which is really allusive and spare, forcing the reader to pay really close attention and remember all the characters' histories and agendas in order to get the plot-related and emotional impact of the dialogue.

And seriously? I'm not willing to work that hard. Throw me a bone, dude. Don't treat me like I'm already invested, you gotta do some work up front, and she doesn't.

Also, I checked on Goodreads, and apparently six books in, the lead character hasn't actually developed much farther and still hasn't committed to any of her potential lovers.

Feh on that. I'm not wading through six volumes to discover that only four months have gone by and the character still refuses to learn or grow.

Good Omens is a much more fun read.

The book was my commuter-read this week and I had tough time staunching off the giggles several times.

They had me by the cast of character page, esp. at "Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)."

I had tough time staunching off the giggles several times.

Yeah, I admit that I don't see a lot of Gaiman in Good Omens: it feels like mostly Pratchett to me.

The Adam/Them chapters felt Gaimanesque to me, especially the ending. Crowley and Aziraphale are pure Pratchett.

I seem to recall that a lot of the stuff I thought was Pratchett turned out to be Gaiman.

Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever – by the end, large sections were being done by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots. Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock."[

Isn't today Dr. Seuss's birthday? Happy Birthday!