Micole, have you read Moorcock's steampunk stuff? The bastable books - set in a Victorian 1973 - are ace.

I liked Secret Garden better than Little Princess -- more magical elements, and the creepiness of the moors was just cool, and I could relate a lot more to Mary than to Sara.

Me too. Mary is pleasingly obnoxious, in a way that feels very real. She is surly and grumpy and not especially happy to be in this weird cold place. Where Sara is just all .. good at heart and cheerful, as far as I remember.

And I loved the Dahl books, especially Matilda. They are sick and twisted, but I really appreciated that as a child. (Still do.)

What do y'all think of Lemony Snicket? I read A Bad Beginning, and found his style irritatingly arch, but I know he's well-regarded.

There was a period where I felt like the series wasn't going anywhere, but now (by book 10!), stuff is finally happening. They're quick reads, and they're clever. I beat up kids at the library so I can check them out first.

but now (by book 10!), stuff is finally happening

Stamina defined!

I loved Powers and Blaylock soooo much when they burst onto the scene. I slowly lost interest in Blaylock, but still think Powers is a genius. It's not steampunk, but On Stranger Tides is cool and mysterious and interesting. Blackbeard! Puppets! Voodoo! Voodoo pirate puppets, and I am NOT making this up.

It's probably out of print, but Blaylock's Homonculus, probably his most steampunky, has an important character who is a street-seller of squid. I love Blaylock's matter-of-fact Surrealism.

I keep meaning to give the Lemony Snicket books another go; I read the first one and liked it, but never picked up any of the others. Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket's alter ego) wrote a book I read a few years back, The Basic Eight, which I liked a lot. And a coworker just gave me another of his books, Watch Your Mouth, which has a review on the back that calls it an "incest-parody gothic Jewish porn opera" or something similarly over-the-top, and I can't help thinking it can't ever live up to that.

I've only read the first Lemony Snicket - am a very bad bookseller. I keep meaning to get to the others, but I'm always distracted by shinier books. I met Daniel Handler once at BEA, and I was trying to get him to come and sign at the store I worked for at the time, and hadn't had any luck. He told me if I wrote a request and worked the word "syphilis" into it, he would definitely come. Heh. He never showed.

I loved Matilda and the two Charlie books.

The Great Brain books remind me of the Alvin Fernald books. Did anyone else ever read them? Am I showing my age again?

I'm pretty sure the novel Consuela is referring to is actually Old Goriot!

D'oh! Billytea is so totally right. Although the edition I read called it Pere Goriot. I got it confused with something I read by Zola not long after, the one about the courtesan.

D'oh! Billytea is so totally right.

I am! But I didn't say that. I'm right in other, more subtle ways, some of which don't involve me saying or even thinking anything. People say, "What's with the 'tude?" That 'tude? Is rectitude.

People say, "What's with the 'tude?" That 'tude? Is rectitude.

Damn straight!