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.

Barryar wasn't in the library, darn it.

Did you read Shards of Honor first, or the smooshed-together Cordelia's Honor, which is (IIRC) Shards of Honor and Barrayar in one volume?

Barrayar is SO good, because Cordelia kicks SO much ass.

Mom also recommends The Secret Garden and Thunderhead.

Shards of Honor, it was a separate volume. Months ago the folks here listed the books in chronological order, and that's how I'm trying to read them.

I loved Black Beauty!

When I was young, my cousin and I would draw and cut out paper horses. (Similar to Velvet Brown in National Velvet but she cut out photographs of horses - also - NATIONAL VELVET.) Anyway, I made paper horses of ALL the horse characters from Black Beauty even the really minor ones.