I am a Lorrie Moore fan, although it's been a while. "People Like That Are The Only People Here" ruled. Does she have a new one?

Nothing new yet, but have you read her other stuff? I recommend Self-Help and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? Mmm. Yay! I'm always glad to find another Lorrie Moore fan. I have a signed copy of Birds of America.

I have a "Vinegar Hill" I've finished with, Lilty-Cow. Do you want it?

I let her keep her name, erika. I'm progressive like that.

Although, admittedly, Lilty-Cow has a nice ring to it.

Lilty Cow and Polter
Sitting in a tree
R-E-A-D-I-N-G!

Haha, and here I thought she was calling me fat.

Oops...my bad, babe. I thought that was a lot of Cows, but we do go through animal obsessions around here. Be funny if you did hook up, though.

Tee hee!

Although, I must say, I do have a real penguin obsession, too. Always have. Awww, I wanna be Lilty Penguin! Is it too late to change?!?

Suela, I was also disappointed by Abhorsen. The characters weren't done very well, and I got pretty tired of reading about everyone's magical powers by the end. Which was actually the same problem I had when I reread the Dark is Rising series recently. There's not much of a personal emotional journey for the characters; each battle is won or lost according to how magically powerful the characters are, which means there are no surprises, because we already know from the beginning how powerful they are. The Grey King and The Dark is Rising are the best of the bunch, IMO, because they show Bran and Will, respectively, coming to terms with their powers, rather than just showing them off.

The thing that made me maddest about Abhorsen, though, was the fact that Nicholas was able to come back from death, at the very end. Can anyone explain to me how that doesn't violate the most basic and most important tenet of Old Kingdom magic? And for what purpose, exactly? To be Lirael's romantic interest? Bah.

And for what purpose, exactly?

Oh, yeah. I saw that coming, and was disturbed. I didn't get it. Would have preferred the Dog.

But that was one of the flaws in Sabriel, too. The pairing-off thing.

IIRC, Lirael and Abhorsen were originally supposed to be one book, which got split up more-or-less at random when the publisher decided it would be too long. So some of the pacing issues may follow from that.

Agree with most of Consuela & Kate P's comments, but I love Lirael for the Clayr's Library alone.

turns out I haven't been to my local library in a year. A year ago I returned some books late. turns out they were a month late and I had over $20 in fines. I haven't done that since college. SO I paid the fine adn took out three books today. I think I will mark the due date in my calendar in bold.

I updated my bookcrossing list, geez I was far behind.

Lilty, I registered VH, so when you get it, if you could go to the site and say so, also, feel free to pass on once you are done with it. I will try to get it mailed this week.