I'm not too familiar with Tolstoy, but I suspect that "transitions" aren't just the mechanics of getting from one scene to the next. A character arc is a kind of transition. I could be totally wrong, but if you think of "transitions" as "changes" it makes a bit more sense.

In "What I'm Reading" news, as a result of the Fandom Wank-ed kerfluffle about femslash, in which people kept mentioning Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty, I got it from the library. It's not *quite* Harry Potter's older, darker, sexier, Victorian cousin....but it's somewhere in the family tree. I really like it.

It's not *quite* Harry Potter's older, darker, sexier, Victorian cousin....but it's somewhere in the family tree.

Soooo, what you're saying is I really should get around to reading it?

Libba Bray's A Great and Terribly Beauty

Ooooh ooooh! I know the author, and she's one of the smartest, funniest, snarkiest people ever. I loved A Great and Terrible Beauty (although I am, of course, biased).

Just started Rebel Angels, the sequel, and am loving it so far, too.

It's not *quite* Harry Potter's older, darker, sexier, Victorian cousin....but it's somewhere in the family tree.

Soooo, what you're saying is I really should get around to reading it?

Yes, indeed. The beginning is a little *off,* in terms of it being historical fiction, b/c the protagonist's voice is a little too modern, but then the book really hits its stride and slips into fine Victorian voice.

I'm about halfway finished, and I just requested the sequel from the library, b/c I know I'll have it finished in the next day or so.

if you think of "transitions" as "changes" it makes a bit more sense.

Ah. Like movement? Okay, yeah, that does make sense. Thanks, Strega.

Libba Bray's A Great and Terribly Beauty

Is Yeats the most referenced poet ever? Or do I just know more Yeats than other poets?

Is Yeats the most referenced poet ever?

Shakespeare, surely. Although I have seen about five books in the last ten years that steal from Morrissey for their titles.

Hey all. I just finished Mary Doria Russell's latest, entitled A Thread of Grace. I probably could have guessed that it would be subpar from that subpar title, but about thirty pages in I realized I was basically reading War and Remembrance in Liguria. So I read it all the way through, but got about as much value out of it as I did out of War and Remembrance -- cast of thousands, treacly dedications, killings-off according to the need for bloodbath, editorial ponderings of how evil Hitler was, symbolic blah-blah.

(I mean, duh, in a novel published sixty years later, do we really need to state that Hitler sucked? Can you tell I never watch those OMG what happened to Hitler's fingernail clippings?!? shows on the History Channel?)

And unlike Herman Wouk (or Leon Uris, who is better), Russell can't or won't write a proper action scene, which is rather the disadvantage, in a novel about World War II. Could potentially have been a better novel, if it had been more focussed; but mostly, it was just lame.

Wow, that's so totally not what I got out of that novel, Nutty.