This isn’t a proper post, just a line to tell you to drop over by things mean a lot to enter Ana’s giveaway of Fire and Hemlock. If I had a spare copy I’d be giving it away too. We just love the book that much. Everyone should have a copy.
4 CommentsCategory: Favored authors
The Dalemark Quartet, Part 2
Published 5 Aug 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Dalemark! Onward! As you will recall, the country is split by North and South, the South full of angry earls who do not like to hear talk of free speech, and the North full of angry earls who do not mind it so much. There are gods, called the Undying, who continue to take a lively if unpredictable interest in the doings of Dalemark and its occupants. The Spellcoats jumps us back several thousand years into Dalemark’s past. Our narrator Tanaqui and her four siblings are forced out of their own village in a time of war, as they do…
22 CommentsRounding up links (part 1)
Published 4 Aug 2010
by
Gin Jenny
In case you were not aware, Diana Wynne Jones is very ill right now. If you enjoy her books and wish her well, now would be a good time to drop her a line and tell her so. Her semi-official fan site offers an email address; or if you prefer, her lovely publisher Greenwillow will forward snail mail to her: Diana Wynne Jones c/o Greenwillow Books, 10 E. 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. It is at times like these that I wish I could change the universe by wanting it to be different. I know Diana Wynne Jones is…
31 CommentsThe Dalemark Quartet, Part 1
Published 3 Aug 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Although I have charming matched blue copies of the Dalemark Quartet, the four books in this series are not among my favorites by Diana Wynne Jones. Why then, you ask, have I chosen the Dalemark Quartet as the only books to be properly reviewed during Diana Wynne Jones Week? Mainly for the exact reason that I have not loved them in the past–I wanted to give them another chance. Another reason is that they are among Diana Wynne Jones’ early YA-fantasy books, and I like seeing writers in progress. Hearts. In Cart and Cwidder, we meet Moril, the youngest son…
29 CommentsDiscovering Diana Wynne Jones
Published 2 Aug 2010
by
Gin Jenny
This one day when I was in middle school (I can’t remember if I was twelve or thirteen or eleven or what), I was at the public library looking through the plays, which were located near the young adults section. I used to feel terribly grown-up and sophisticated looking at the plays, which were mostly Chekhov, Shaw, and Shakespeare. I rarely checked any of them out, except for this copy of Romeo and Juliet that also contained the book for West Side Story, and this copy of Pygmalion that also contained the book for My Fair Lady. As I was…
62 CommentsDiana Wynne Jones Week begins
Published 1 Aug 2010
by
Gin Jenny
To kick off Diana Wynne Jones Week, I am holding a giveaway. I will be picking two winners, each of whom can select up to $20 worth of Diana Wynne Jones’s books from The Book Depository. The giveaway is open internationally, but make sure that you live in a country where The Book Depository ships. To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me which book or books you would like to win and why. If you post a review or other celebration of Diana Wynne Jones on your blog this week, you may leave an additional comment with…
87 CommentsReview: Promises of Love, Mary Renault
Published 21 Jul 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Obligatory pre-gushing blurb: Vivian, a nurse in between-the-wars England, meets Mic, a pathologist and the latest in a string of close friends of her flighty, unreliable brother. Though Mic initially seems interested in Vivian because of her resemblance to her brother, they soon become good friends and then lovers. I am experimenting with keeping a reading journal. I have not decided exactly what sort of thing you write down in a reading journal, but one thing it is definitely good for is saving anecdotes and quotations that I like. Then when I am done reading, I can go back and…
32 CommentsFagles’s Odyssey: Stories I know in the second quarter
Published 13 Jul 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Books seven through twelve of the Odyssey contain a lot of the stories I remember from my Latin II class: The Cyclops, the cattle of the sun, the Lotus-eaters, Scylla and Charybdis. Odysseus is washed up on the shores of Phaeacia and comes to the court of King Alcinous, who welcomes him warmly (his wife Arete slightly less warmly, as she suspects him of deception) and offers him transport back to Ithaca. As Alcinous offers Odysseus hospitality in his hall, he notices that Odysseus weeps when he hears the bard sing of Troy, and he asks him to tell them…
18 CommentsFagles’s Odyssey: Divided loyalties in the first quarter
Published 30 Jun 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Fagles’s translation of the Odyssey is so great it hurts my brain. Granted, I am a sucker for epic poetry. I took eight years of Latin when I was in school, and I never loved anything we translated like I loved the Aeneid. It is epic. Plus I love the Greek and Roman gods. So I am reading the Odyssey right now, in the Fagles translation, which I have to say appears to be the best translation in all the land. Fagles. (Not Lattimore, Capt. Hammer). Check this out: Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists…
44 CommentsDiana Wynne Jones Week: 1 August – 7 August 2010
Published 20 Jun 2010
by
Gin Jenny
Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favorite authors in all the land. In her long career as a writer, she has written around forty books (novels and short stories), mainly for children and young adults, and each one is new and weird and wonderful in its own particular way. She has been compared to J.K. Rowling, in that her books are set in fantasy worlds and are full of humor and charm; she has inspired many writers over the years, including two of my favorites, Neil Gaiman and Megan Whalen Turner. If you’ve been reading here for a while…
117 Comments