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Mar. 14th, 2008 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Love Letters, by Madeleine L'Engle - This was a favorite of mine as a teenager; now I'm not quite so sure why. I love the double intertwining stories, but particularly the historical one. (Wikipedia tells me that there really was a nun named Mariana Alfocorado, and her letters do exist - though, as it says in the book, scholars debate her actual authorship.) As an adult reader, the modern relationship bugs me - Charlotte is grating and annoying and immature; Patrick seems like a jerk; I can't imagine what either of them sees in the other. (And their relationship echoes a few scenes from The Small Rain - was L'Engle recycling or reusing her own experiences?) But I could still read the historical sections of this book over and over as comfort reading.
The Young Unicorns, by Madeleine L'Engle - This basically has the same plot as The Arm of the Starfish (which doesn't have a great plot to begin with), only it's *more* annoying and unrealistic. I started getting a little fed up with my L'Engle Reading Project at this point, and was thinking about taking a hiatus. We'll see..... The next one on the list is another favorite of mine. Or used to be. Oh dear.
Local Custom, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - I wanted to like this book, I really really did. New universe that seemed interesting, funky-cool cultures, blah blah. Halfway through, I just couldn't bring myself to care. This plot wouldn't exist - or would take about 10 pages - if the two central characters would just sit down and *talk* to each other. The fact that they didn't was sort of presented as cultural differences between them, but I just wasn't buying it. Especially since they are clearly being pushed as true soulmates - it just didn't work for me. As much as I wanted to like the book, I gave up and had to put it down. Blech.
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The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold - This, on the other hand..... *happy sigh* Yes, Bujold can write fantasy as well as space opera. (
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Every Eye, by Isobel English - This was subtle and very fast. Written in the 1950s, and very British. A woman who always thought she'd be a spinster just married a much younger man, and she's reflecting on her life and the strong female figures in it (mostly her mother and her aunt) as she and new hubby are embarking on a honeymoon trip to Ibiza. This flowed along pretty fast, and not too much happens - it's more of a mood piece - but the last page kind of made the book for me, and I think I liked it relatively well, in retrospect. Not sure if I'll hunt down more books by this author, or not.
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Date: 2008-03-15 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-15 03:19 am (UTC)They were actually my introduction to Bujold. It was a good intro.
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Date: 2008-03-15 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-15 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-16 05:19 pm (UTC)