I thought Emily was more realistic than Anne - and the May/December "romance" is treated for what it is far better than with Kilmeny. Kilmeny creeped me out even in middle school.

I love the Blue Castle! I agree, it’s the perfect romance - it gives me warm fuzzies inside whenever I read it

Alien (1979) goes here, but it's a film.

We need more rogue spaceship AI taking control over its human crew. Like the stuff in the soap operas mentioned in the Ancillary Justice books. Or aliens that simply do not value human life for whatever reason - either cause they're too non-human or have a different set of moral standards. People getting lost in space in a universe without any other life and having to contend with the horrific reality that they are well and truly alone.

Agree that we need more horror.

Then there is Playing for Pizza

Yeah, it is super hit and miss. I enjoy Redwall & the Narnia series generally as much but my Madeline L’Engle re-reads as an adult have been disappointing.

That makes sense, plenty of people won’t continue a series but few will read book 3 without having read the first two! Though publishers nevertheless put out so many series that I assume they must get more overall sales anyway when seeing the sequels around causes more people to buy book 1.

It’s one of those books that I’m happy I read, but it didn’t have that same magic to it as when I was a kid.

Yes. My only caution to readers using this approach is to be aware that SparkNotes chapter summaries contain pretty big spoilers sometimes. If you hate spoilers then read the SparkNotes chapter summaries after you finish reading the book.

Haven’t re-read those since I was a kid! I remember them as more gothic.

Oh yeah, easier to do with an established fan base. If Morris (a woman btw) can make it work that’s more impressive since she only got 1-2 trad pubbed. Though still has the benefit of the publicity from those 1-2 I guess.

Those age gaps are still not uncommon.

I agree, Montgomery’s writing is better (but that’s not a very high bar)

Sounds quite nice though.

I've ran into quite a few things that read completely different with me now than when I was young. nod nod

This is like the fourth time I've gone from being called a boomer for torrenting only for it to become relevant again.

Style never goes out of fashion, I guess

Because that's pretty much what chatGPT does. It can't offer actual insight. It just regurgitates the average information for any given topic.

I agree. I think an author should have more say about the cover.

Such as my book, “The Sanguine Elf”, in which I worked with the cover artist in order to get the leading lady of the story to be as accurate as possible. As far as the sexy factor, I’m not sure if there is that because the expression on her face is so sullen and sad and full of resentment of her fate.

If you’d like, I can show it to you.

> I liked History and considered a Degree in it but it was still BORING for the most part.

Probably why I couldn't get into this 'historic' novel.

Apparently??? He surely goes on about how wonderful and unspoiled and unsullied Kilmeny is, though!

I felt similarly about the Emily books. Anne for me, all the way!

I may have misread the question entirely..

I think Barracoon The Story of the Last Slave by Zora Hurston is, it’s short, (1 hr audio on YouTube) and written in order to preserve the dialect of the last slave brought over to Mobile, Alabama. Some 100 years after importing slaves was made illegal. Was unpublished for + years IIRC. Definite must read. (Or listen on YouTube like I did)

Is Eric a virgin? Just asking. evil smirk.

Out of topic but

Should i read a book before watching the movie? I really have this urge to read "killers of the flower moon" before it gets released around October I guess?

I'm more shocked that so many professed book-lovers are anti-author. Yes, I'm sure if you're a Cory Doctorow acolyte you hate copyright, but pretty much everyone else would find the majority of the authors they enjoy are lined up against the IA on this issue.