A book about the Thomas Jefferson High School (a science and tech magnet in Northern Virginia) class of 1993, "Where are they now" kind of thing. I thought it would be interesting in a "hey, they graduated two years before me, will they make my life feel lame?". I was skimming the intro and realized I actually knew one of the people profiled. It was vaguely interesting, bits of it (wow, I'm so not a rhodes scholar like some of these people, but neither am I a dumpster-diving rail-riding anarchist...). But I think it only would've been truly interesting if it were written about my high school class, and people *I* wonder what happened to.

I looked through this book a bit in the bookstore a couple weeks ago; had I gone to TJ, that would have been my class. And I knew one of the people profiled at college. But, I found it depressing, though fascinating, and decided I didn't want to spend that much time reliving the past 10 years.

I read Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, last weekend. On the whole I liked it. But the baking stuff, while not quite up to Brust levels of food porn, is deeply frustrating if you're reading it after 2 years of low-carbing. I sat there thinking, "Scarfing three huge cinnamon rolls and a cherry tart? Yeah, I could do that right about now."

Meara, did the font changes in this book make you crazy. or was it me?

To a certain extent, yeah. It threw me more the couple times she opened a new chapter from the POV of a new character--one we hadn't even heard of.

There's a LOT of cases where transpeople have been beaten, raped, killed. Hell, we had a rash of them last summer here in DC. It's really fucking depressing. The reality is bad enough--fiction needn't make it worse!

For those of you who read Ursula K. LeGuin, which of her short stories -- short stories only -- would you say is her best, or her most still-relevant-today?

Nutty, I would suggest "Solitude", "Old Music and the Slave Women", or "Paradises Lost", all in The Birthday of the World, one of her recent collections.

I enjoyed Sunshine, though not as much as McKinley's other stuff. It reminded me a lot of her other stuff, like same plot, similar protagonist, different setting. If I had to pick I'd say Deerskin is my favourite, except when I re-read it, I always skip from where the queen dies to where Lissar is on her own. Just knowing what happens in that section is enough for me.

That's the place I stalled out in the book the first time. I eventually managed to read past it, and I like the rest of the book, but boy, is that section horrific.

I wonder where my copy of The Outlaws of Sherwood is.

I love Outlaws of Sherwood, but I've been writing too long, and the pov issues make me cranky. Which is a disappointment, because I really do think it's a marvelous version of the tale.

I didn't love the Orsinian stories, but I can't tell you why.

I have a big love for "Deerskin." I can hardly bear to read that bad section, but I always do. I sort of feel responsible to be with Lissar and witness her story throughout. This may be partly because of the cover art - the woman's face would be a dead ringer for my friend Alice (who passed away recently), were her hair and eyes black instead of white.

Nutty, I'm atypical in that I much prefer Le Guin's later short fiction to her earlier, and I also hate "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." But I would recommend "Solitude," or one of the novellas in Four Ways to Forgiveness, for your purposes. Or maybe "The Matter of Seggri."

A lot of her recent work has been novella length, though, which maybe too long for your purposes?