I kissed him, and I told him that I loved him. And I killed him.
Buffy ,'Same Time, Same Place'
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."
Dana - Jun 24, 2013 2:46:56 pm PDT #20937 of 28370
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Pix - Jun 24, 2013 2:47:57 pm PDT #20938 of 28370
The status is NOT quo.
Dana, one of my students gave me Gertrude and Claudius for Christmas this year. I really need to read it.
megan walker - Jun 24, 2013 2:56:56 pm PDT #20939 of 28370
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
The Song of Achilles was one of my favorite books last year and I totally forgot about it.
DavidS - Jun 24, 2013 2:57:32 pm PDT #20940 of 28370
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Jane Eyre/Wide Sargasso Sea and Dr. Jeckyll.../Mary Reilly would be examples of ones more in the fan fiction vein, but I'm also thinking about books where a particular classic is a big plot point.
Updike wrote one based on Scarlet Letter titled, I think "S."
Ahab's Wife.
Foe by J.M. Coetzee - Robinson Crusoe told from the POV of Friday.
There are a bunch more but those are the ones I remember off the top of my had after Wide Sargasso Sea.
Dana - Jun 24, 2013 2:58:58 pm PDT #20941 of 28370
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Achilles in Vietnam is non-fiction, but is tied to The Iliad.
Steph L. - Jun 24, 2013 3:00:10 pm PDT #20942 of 28370
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
The first 3 Mary Russell books are definitely the best.
But I sure didn't see the assault-y part coming. At all. Kind of shook me up.
This is also exactly how I feel.
It's just -- I didn't expect the format of the entire book to be the way it was, with the flashbacks to Julia's magic training (for want of a better term), but I *loved* her backstory. LOVED. Right up to the OMGWHATISHAPPENING part. (And -- I was never quite sure about this -- was it anal, or just rear entry? I mean, sure, rape is rape, particularly by a mean trickster god, so I'm not at all trying to split hairs to say one is less horrific than the other. Mostly, I couldn't tell from the text what was what, and wondered how other people read it.
Tep, I'm still leery. I was a bit put off by the gender relationships in the first book, so I think I'm going to keep away from the 2nd.
The weird thing for me is that I *wanted* to love the first book, and found it fairly pretentious and lacking substance. So I didn't expect to like the second, and wouldn't have read it, but we were on vacation with Tim's family, and his college senior-aged niece (who is a nerdy Buffista spirit baby, and whose opinion I trust) had it with her and loved it, so I borrowed it. (Plus, I had The Night Circus with me, and she ganked it from me before I could even start it, so I figured I might as well read her book.)
DavidS - Jun 24, 2013 3:03:43 pm PDT #20943 of 28370
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I really liked and preferred The Magician King to the first book, which I did enjoy.
That scene is horrific though.
megan walker - Jun 24, 2013 3:05:45 pm PDT #20944 of 28370
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Foe by J.M. Coetzee - Robinson Crusoe told from the POV of Friday.
I love this idea.
Polter-Cow - Jun 24, 2013 3:06:27 pm PDT #20945 of 28370
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
When You Reach Me features A Wrinkle in Time very heavily.
Dana - Jun 24, 2013 3:08:05 pm PDT #20946 of 28370
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Tep, I thought it was "just" vaginal rape, not anal. FWIW. It did really piss me off that the transforming event in her life had to be a rape.
I have mixed feelings about both books.