Jilli, thank you for the reminder. I loved Mary Poppins. The books after the first were even more surreal, perhaps because I found them later than the first, and had seen the movie, so it became sort of normal.

Tep, if you only made it that far, they were just getting good! (I've been devouring them myself for the past couple of weeks, and HMOG I always forget just how addictive they get once you hit Brothers in Arms.)

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Absolutely! This was my favorite book for years, until I first read Ender's Game. So very very good.

I would also like to suggest anything and everything by Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee! Stargirl! Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush! Fourth Grade Rats! Crash! There's a Girl in my Hammerlock! Wringer! (which is a little darker, but still good.)

Basically, I love him. And I just discovered that Stargirl has a sequel, so I'm gonna go buy that and read it.

I put milk in my coffee this morning and realized I was thinking of a line from The Black Stallion as I often do when I put milk in my coffee but without really realizing why I thunk it. He watched the milk (or is it cream in the book?) eddy and swirl but did not drink. I don't know why this line got stuck in my head but there it stays.

It was probably milk. I see Alex as a milk-drinking boy. ( Can you see the old-fashioned rounded edge fridge and the glass milk bottle when you think this?)

Tep, if you only made it that far, they were just getting good!

Really? There was a lot I liked about The Warrior's Apprentice (Bothari!), but, like I said, I can't even remember The Vor Game, which might be why I stopped there. I was trying to read the short stories that are in t memfault , and dovetail them in between the novels in the proper order, but they actually *really* lost my interest.

Maybe I'll re-read The Vor Game and carry on from there.

I think I liked Barrayar so much that the lack of Cordelia in the subsequent books (or the very small amount of Cordelia) made me sad.

I know! I like Miles okay - but I'm sad that Cordelia became such a small character in the books.

Can you see the old-fashioned rounded edge fridge and the glass milk bottle when you think this?

When this happens (and it's almost every time I put milk {or cream, or sometimes Bailey's} in my coffee) I'm just looking in the cup and watching the liquid behave as liquid does when the words coalesce in my head. It was only this morning, after our YA conversation, that I'd really thought about where the words come from and what is happening in that scene. I didn't see the fridge or the milk bottle but the camera on the cup in my mind panned back a little and I saw a green formica tabletop with a metal edge.

I mentioned the young adult conversation to Mom. She said she loved Nancy Drew and "all the dog and horse books" and I realized we've missed Black Beauty!

I'm in the middle of Warrior's Apprentice, and I'm already missing Cordelia. Barryar wasn't in the library, darn it.