Jayne (Husband): Oh, I think you might wanna reconsider that last part. See, I married me a powerful ugly creature. Mal (Wife): How can you say that? How can you shame me in front of new people? Jayne (Husband): If I could make you purtier, I would. Mal (Wife): You are not the man I met a year ago.

'Our Mrs. Reynolds'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Rayne - Oct 13, 2012 6:44:26 pm PDT #19913 of 28344
"Oh no! Has falling sky liquid once again caused you the sadness?" -Starfire

Heh, this is what I wrote in my Goodreads review about "Among Others".

The thing I love most about this book is how much the main character LOVES books! She practically lives and breathes them, and they are so important to her! I identified with her so much because of this.

Basically this book is a giant love letter to pre-1980 Sci Fi books with some fairies and magic mixed in (but the fairies and magic were so refreshing compared to what's typically out there these days.)

And the quote you mentioned above is one of my all time favorites! That is also me!

Oh! And this quote too! It's just lovely! “Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.”


Ginger - Oct 13, 2012 6:57:39 pm PDT #19914 of 28344
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

"If you love books enough, books will love you back."

Also, she's persuaded to live by the reminder that she's only read half of Babel 17.

There may be stranger reasons for being alive.

There are books....There's interlibrary loan. There are books you can fall into and pull up over your head.

When things were very bad in high school, if I finished a book at night, I had to start a new one to have a reason to get up.


Typo Boy - Oct 13, 2012 8:56:07 pm PDT #19915 of 28344
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

I'd rec Hereville, but I don't what age you are looking for. I think you'd have to be 10 or older to appreciate it (or maybe a really precocious eight). [link]

BTW - NOT "a cross between fiddler on the roof and Harry Potter". I think the review is by someone who does not read much fantasy and who has not watched Fiddler on the Roof in a long time. But the hero is a late 19th or early 20th century Hasid girl who rescues witches and fights trolls. But otherwise I think the review is not a bad representation of the book.


Hil R. - Oct 14, 2012 12:24:18 am PDT #19916 of 28344
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

But the hero is a late 19th or early 20th century Hasid girl who rescues witches and fights trolls.

I think it's set much later than that. In the scene where she falls down the hill and ends up in someone's backyard, they're having a barbecue with a propane grill. And there's an automatic coffee maker in the kitchen, and a cordless phone. I think it's the 1980s at the earliest.


Typo Boy - Oct 14, 2012 1:53:21 pm PDT #19917 of 28344
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Forgot about that. I guess I thought of it as 19th century because so much of the setting sounds 19th century.


Hil R. - Oct 14, 2012 2:27:02 pm PDT #19918 of 28344
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

It seemed pretty modern to me, especially in that scene about preparing for Shabbat -- the cooking and cleaning would have been totally different in the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century preparing-for-Shabbat scenes seem to always include someone either killing or plucking a chicken, and a whole lot of fetching water.


Typo Boy - Oct 14, 2012 3:25:37 pm PDT #19919 of 28344
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

There did not seem to be electricity. Maybe I've forgotten that too.


Hil R. - Oct 14, 2012 3:59:31 pm PDT #19920 of 28344
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

There's definitely electricity. There's no TV, but there's plenty of other electric stuff. That Shabbat scene includes vacuuming and ironing.


Typo Boy - Oct 15, 2012 8:03:02 am PDT #19921 of 28344
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

My memory does not seem to be getting beter. I do remember it was a very cool book though.


Kate P. - Oct 16, 2012 9:48:53 am PDT #19922 of 28344
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Hil, I think the books you've settled on for your friend's kids are great (I've been meaning to get a copy of The Snowy Day for Rose), but thought I'd put in a plug for our current favorite book, Ten Nine Eight by Molly Bang. It's our bedtime book and is really warm and sweet and charming: [link]