BTW, anyone know anything about the University of Tulsa? It seems to be the front runner for my daughter.

*blinks*

*looks up again*

Oh, Susan *C*, not Susan *W*. Okay. 'Cause otherwise, man, talk about trying to set a child's college plans early...

(And, er, no, I don't know anything about the University of Tulsa, I'm afraid.)

Hee-that's ok, Katie M. There are just so damn many Susans out here. At our little bookstore 4 out of 20 employees are named some varient of Susan. At the previous one, it was Ann(a) : Rosanna, Joannah, Anna and Anne. Almost had to change my name to Susannah.

Susan, I attended the University of Tulsa for a semester in an abortive attempt to get a PhD. From what I remember of it, the campus is beautiful, the classes were far harder than anything I'd ever experienced before in my life, the instructors were from all over the world and very well educated in their various fields, the advisors were helpful and supportive, financial aid a little less so but not bad, and they had a rugby team. It's my understanding it's a very well regarded school.

Thanks, Deena! She filled out the rest of her forms today so we'll be seeing a lot of Tulsa over the next 4 years.

On topic, I saw that Jonathan Kellerman has a new Alex Delaware book. I really enjoyed the first 4 or 5 in that series but some of the later ones were too dark and bitter for me. Anyone know about this new one? I need a good mystery/thriller fix.

The Susan-confusion thing becomes even funnier when you know that my husband grew up in Tulsa. No one in his family went to UT, though. He went to Colorado and everyone else went to Oklahoma.

Football is a very popular topic at family gatherings.

*blinks*

*looks up again*

Oh, Susan *C*, not Susan *W*.

Look, Ma, I get the second double-take of the day. Welcome, Susan C. I don't know nothing about Tulsa, except that Mercedes Lackey lives there. And it's flat.

msbelle, I believe you are right that Atwood, sadly, assembled "Handmaid's Tale" from various bits of verifiable fact. It makes me have a cold shiver and a deep sense of gratitude that I myself have enjoyed a goodly portion of civil rights in my time.

Here is probably a good moment to mention that I've just read the new Sharon Shinn novel, "Angel-Seeker," and the storyline goes into the question of slavery. Not just your traditional kidnapped from your home and laboring in the fields slavery, but also the sort of restrictions upon women practiced by certain cultures who like to keep their women all locked up.

Amazon really, really believes I want to read Barbara Erskine's Lady of Hay. Do I? Especially given that I hated Outlander?

I remember Lady of Hay being a really entertaining book. Then again, I read it years ago, so I may have blanked out anything bad about it.

It was the second book my mom (a big historical romance fan) recommended to me; the first was Jude Deveraux's Knight in Shining Armor, which is my most favorite guilty-pleasure book ever.

I couldn't get into LoH, but that was years ago. Just didn't grab me. But I loved Outlander so YTimeTravelRomanceMV.

Atwood: Love, love her! But I didn't love Oryx & Crake at all. I just kind of wandered through it, undrawn. I don't remember "BA" all that well, but I need to give it a re-read after finals are over.

I second the notion of "Cat's Eye" as my favorite -- it deals with the cruelty of girls to girls. It's a fucking great book, and yes, it is disturbing as hell, but it's right.

After that, it's Alias Grace, which I also love, and have read several times (wasn't there talk of a movie? Must go look) and then the Robber Bride. I love the characters in that book.

Handmaid's Tale got my int Atwood, and I wrote a couple of papers on it in college. Haven't read it in years, but it's more anvilly than her others.

On another note, has anyone seen "Mean Girls?" Yes, I know, movie, but I'm interesting in it because it was written by Tina Fey, and based on her reading of a NF book: "Queen Bees and Wanna-be's" which is about the ways that teenage girls deal with one another. I'm interested to see how it pans out. Anyone read the book? Thoughts? Opionions? I haven't seen/read either, but I'm kinda curious.

I had no interest until I saw that Tina Fey wrote it. Now I'm intrigued.

I remember Lady of Hay being a really entertaining book. Then again, I read it years ago, so I may have blanked out anything bad about it.

Lady of Hay was a time-travel book? I remember reading it, quite a while back, but my memory must be more faulty than usual.