Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters
What? You haven't read Fingersmith? You must remedy this terrible oversight, and I mean right this moment. I don't know, myself, how I missed this writer and I'm going to power my way through her other two books post haste.
What this book has: the eponymous heroine, a pickpocket; the thick, Dickensian atmosphere of 19th Century London; boatloads of Victorian underclass slang; a mystery; a second, very peculiar heroine with an unusual history; a stymied love affair and several breakneck plot twists. I don't think I'm giving anything away there, since the front cover will throw the words "plot twists" at you.
This is the kind of book that leaves you amazed at the author's powers of invention, and if I had three more copies I'd start lending them out right and left. I know that a lot of my flist are fan fiction types, and Fingersmith is the sort of detailed, completely convincing world that I suspect fan ficcers love.
~oo00oo~
In other news, I'm having one of those Friday mornings in which I can't get myself going. Was up from 6:30 to 8, sending the kids off to school and spending time with Toby (that's a euphemism, you know) then fell asleep again till 9:30. Now I'm drinking a whole pot of coffee and then I'm going to do something that I really enjoy - drag out the Christmas gifts that have accumulated in the two closets, go over my lists, check for Package Parity for the kids (I keep moving them around - two shirts in one box, or two boxes - until they both have the same number of packages because other than that, they don't care), figure out who isn't covered yet and then wrap like the wind.
I have a new copy of The Snowman on DVD, to replace my VHS copy, and I can watch it while I wrap. And someday I'll replace my DVD copy with a disc the size of a contact lens that you insert into a port behind your ear.
My best gift idea so far: I'm getting Toby a gift certificate for Fridays at the Track, a program that lets people drive their own cars, with an instructor, super fast around a real track in West Virginia. My lamest gift idea so far: well, my brother-in-law Sheldon, who is married to Toby's sister, is such a complete person that he never wants or needs anything. Laurie told me what book to order for him from Amazon, and that's done. Honor is getting a banana case. She loves bananas but won't take them in her lunch because they bruise. When I found out that there is such a thing as a banana case, I knew she must have one.
If anyone else out there loves the choosing of gifts, I would adore hearing about it -vicarious pleasure! - in comments or in your own post
What this book has: the eponymous heroine, a pickpocket; the thick, Dickensian atmosphere of 19th Century London; boatloads of Victorian underclass slang; a mystery; a second, very peculiar heroine with an unusual history; a stymied love affair and several breakneck plot twists. I don't think I'm giving anything away there, since the front cover will throw the words "plot twists" at you.
This is the kind of book that leaves you amazed at the author's powers of invention, and if I had three more copies I'd start lending them out right and left. I know that a lot of my flist are fan fiction types, and Fingersmith is the sort of detailed, completely convincing world that I suspect fan ficcers love.
~oo00oo~
In other news, I'm having one of those Friday mornings in which I can't get myself going. Was up from 6:30 to 8, sending the kids off to school and spending time with Toby (that's a euphemism, you know) then fell asleep again till 9:30. Now I'm drinking a whole pot of coffee and then I'm going to do something that I really enjoy - drag out the Christmas gifts that have accumulated in the two closets, go over my lists, check for Package Parity for the kids (I keep moving them around - two shirts in one box, or two boxes - until they both have the same number of packages because other than that, they don't care), figure out who isn't covered yet and then wrap like the wind.
I have a new copy of The Snowman on DVD, to replace my VHS copy, and I can watch it while I wrap. And someday I'll replace my DVD copy with a disc the size of a contact lens that you insert into a port behind your ear.
My best gift idea so far: I'm getting Toby a gift certificate for Fridays at the Track, a program that lets people drive their own cars, with an instructor, super fast around a real track in West Virginia. My lamest gift idea so far: well, my brother-in-law Sheldon, who is married to Toby's sister, is such a complete person that he never wants or needs anything. Laurie told me what book to order for him from Amazon, and that's done. Honor is getting a banana case. She loves bananas but won't take them in her lunch because they bruise. When I found out that there is such a thing as a banana case, I knew she must have one.
If anyone else out there loves the choosing of gifts, I would adore hearing about it -vicarious pleasure! - in comments or in your own post