isn't the audiobook for Coraline just lovely and perfect?

*/random comment*

It is. I'm very sad because my tapes warped (!) in my car, but I did copy it onto my computer. <3

I really need to make one of those lists this year--but I've never been good at keeping lists of things...

Is that the order in which you read them?

I just finished reading Till We Have Faces for the first time. I am definitely still processing it. What did you think of it?

Yup--I keep the list on my profile at Readerville, and just add them as I finish them.

This was my fourth (ish?) time to read Till We Have Faces. I make no claims about understanding it, but I love it. I relate really strongly to Orual--I share all of her worst characteristics, honestly. And I think that the story and the writing are beautiful.

I just finished writing a (rather terrible) paper on it, about how the truth in the myth (C. S. Lewis says that myth is truth from God put into a form we can understand, only he says it better than that) is the story of the fall and of redemption--a person in fellowship with God disobeying and going into exile, where they must be transformed before they can return to fellowship with God. That truth is there in the simple form of the myth. In Lewis' retelling he expands that truth to encompass Orual, and (I think) metaphorically encompass the whole human race. Like Orual, we have all rejected God, held an agenda, and refused to recognize our own true, sinful nature, and we must be stripped bare, forced to recognize ourselves, and be transformed ('become Psyche') before we can enter God's presence at the end. All of this occured to me sometime around 2am on Tuesday, which was the day that my paper was due o.0 It had never occured to me before.

I think that is so true. It's just hard to wrap your mind around!

I really related to Orual too, but I feel like that's half of what screwed me over with that book. The idea of loving something so much that you suffocate it was very disturbing and convicting to me. And I was really fixated on her decision to wear the veil all the time - in some ways that is a frighteningly appealing idea to me, for all of the wrong reasons (having the ability to see out, but not letting anyone see in). I think it's definitely the kind of book you have to read more than once.

Great list. I abandoned Bring me the Head of Prince Charming too, though not this year--I picked it up quite awhile ago and gave it up. I think I still have it, but I don't think I'll ever finish it. And one of these days I really need to read Sunshine. I have it, in first edition hardcover--I even drove all the way to Dayton to go to her reading and get it signed (which was a great experience). It's a Robin McKinley. But. It's vampires.

Any particular reason your cut off for your list is Dec. 1?

Because that's when I started keeping the first one--there was a reason, but I forget it. It's a part of what makes me special, I guess?

Yes, read Sunshine. I swear it's worth it!

What did you think of Hexwood? I love that book, and mostly because it was so dreamlike and just when you were grounded in reality - surprise! That's not real either! Which was, as I recall correctly, your main complaint against DWJ books...

("as I recall correctly" was meant to either be "as I recall" or "if I recall correctly"...)

Well that was my main complaint against Hexwood, and I guess against Fire & Hemlock, but it's not my complaint against Howl's Moving Castle, and I can deal with it in Castle in the Air, and I don't remember it showing up in the two Chrestomanci books...so it's hard to say. But it did bug me royally in Hexwood and Fire & Hemlock, because how am I supposed to get attached to these characters or involved in this world if it keeps jumping around like a crazed poodle? I mean, I hate poodles.

Also, I am moving into an apartment Jan. 1, unless something goes horribly wrong on Friday when we go to sign the lease.

I remember you saying that was why you didn't like Fire and Hemlock... I sometimes forget that DWJ was the author of both the category of things like Fire and Hemlock and Hexwood and also of things like Chrestomanci and HMC.... I mean, I know this, but then I go and talk about her books as if they are all in one lump group - like I do about McKillips or McKinleys...

Score! That totally and completely rocks! You and... Hope? Crystal? Sarah? Anyone I know? Anyone I don't know?

Hope and Sarah, 850ish sq. feet, two bedroom, galley kitchen, living room/dining room, two full baths, second floor, balcony, carpet. Hope and I will share, and part of Sarah's room will be an artsy workspace, and we'll get a hammock for the balcony. It's going to be amazing.