Sex Meme and Kids' Lit. No wait, come back!

[amanuensis1]

The "First sentence on page 45 of nearest book describes your sex life in the next year" meme:

From A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz:

The woman continued to limp toward the table.

Ooh, if that means there will be table bondage and beatings, yay!

I have an ulterior motive in doing the meme, because I want to recommend the book (which is why it's the book sitting next to me). A Drowned Maiden's Hair is subtitled "A Melodrama," and it does fit well into that category, featuring orphanages and mysterious benefactors and crumbling old houses and lies. It's actually quite fun and optimistic, for all that. And I couldn't put it down. The heroine is plucky but earnest, in a way I enjoy. Eva Ibbotson has an endorsement on the book's back cover and the author actually includes her in the dedication for pushing her to write the book.

And speaking of Ibbotson, a few days later I read another "orphans and mysterious benefactors and crumbling old houses and lies" book by Eva Ibbotson, which nevertheless couldn't have been a more different story from the previous book. But still completely delightful and with that same upbeat direction. This heroine is more sweet than plucky, and quite lovable. It's called The Star of Kazan, and while I think Eva Ibbotson hardly needs the endorsement, this really was one of my favorites of hers I've read. (Though nothing can top Which Witch?.)

Both are available as ebooks on Amazon and I found them in the juvenile section of my public library.

Comments

[freed-wings.livejournal.com]

Damn. The closest book to me was Reznikoff's Holocaust. "Truck from Belgium reached the concentration camp last: when the doors were opened a stench almost unbearable; and the bodies of those within tumbled out..." :( This is why I can't do memes like this while studying WWII.

I haven't read any Eva Ibbotson in quite some time. I should remedy that immediately. I need a divergence from said purely and utterly horrifying material. I spend a lot of my studying time crying.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Read more Eva Ibbotson! I just finished The Dragonfly Pool tonight. She's a good cheerer-upper!

[mark356.livejournal.com]

I loved The Star of Kazan! I read it twice! It's one of those books where you know everything is going to end up just fine at the end.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's all of her books, too! I just finished The Dragonfly Pool and it actually had some sad twists but, as you say, everything all right in the end.