Thursday, July 10, 2008

Possesive plural of "author"?

Hi! Diana Wynne Jones's new book is out and called "House of Many Ways", and it's my current read. I love all of her books, they're so full of humor, imagination and magic. This one is billed as a sequel to "Howl's Moving Castle", but she already wrote one, called "Castle in the Sky", which was excellent, with a flying carpet, Calcifer in a clever twist role, etc. I don't have a real problem here with the sequel blurb, they couldn't call it the sequel to the sequel, and the "Howl's" recognition among fans of Hiyao Miyazaki's animated film "interpretation" of the original book might catch interest. It worked on me. Already a fan of Miyazaki, I dove into the work of Ms. Wynne Jones with a passion. I read most of her books in the space of a year, carefully not glutting myself, by alternating her books with other authors', and periodicals, comic books, etc. Plus, some of them were a bit hard to find, but I managed, especially with Alibris.com, and the local crime/fantasy bookshop, Creatures and Crooks(located in Carytown, in Richmond, Virginia). Unsolicited plugs aside, it was worth it. Check out Diana Wynne Jones, and I'm a bit surprised she's not a Dame, she deserves the honor, though I think it would make her chuckle.

I am especially fond of Jones' "The Spellcoats", part of her "Dalemark Quartet". It's one of a handful of books I've felt the urge to read twice. Beverley Cleary's "Otis Spoffard" and "Beezus and Ramona" are two, as were a few classic chidren's fantasy novels, I'm not sure what that says about me. The subject seems to creep me out after seeing the documentary on Henry Darger. It's a great film, but clearly he had sex fantasies, set in fantasyland that were of inappropriate nature. I just like stories about griffins, dragons, and books with imaginary cartography, that kind of stuff.
Vote Obama!

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