Booktalk

[listersgirl]

Pamela Dean Tam Lin

I really enjoyed this. It's a story that takes place on a college campus in the 70's, based around the old Scottish ballad Tam Lin, which gives the whole thing an air of surrealism and mysticism that I really liked. Actually, it almost felt like two different books, so much time was spent on the school part, but it was actually the school stuff that sucked me in more, making me want to sit around reading and discussing the classics. In fact, the day after I finished the book I caught myself wanting to study Latin, which has never happened before. I think partially this was because the college experience described in the book was so completely different to my university experience that it, too, felt like a fairy tale.

Laurie R. King The Moor

The more of these books I read, the more I forget that one of the characters is actually Sherlock Holmes. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm a little 'meh' about this book - I loved the atmosphere and the setting, but the story didn't do much for me.

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

It's hard to know what to say about this book because I'm still digesting it, having just finished it at lunch, but I can definitely say that it was very powerful, and pretty devastating. It's nominally the story of a group of people who find a transmission of music that indicates there's life on another planet, and put together an expedition to find out the source of that music. What makes it especially interesting is that four of the members are Jesuit priests, and the book talks a lot about issues of faith - where faith comes from and what it does for you. For me, as someone with no belief system, it was like being offered a window into another person's culture, and that alone was fascinating. Sorry, I'm not very articulate today, but I would definitely recommend this book.

Comments

[minervacat.livejournal.com]

Because I am unable to let any reference to Tam Lin pass, I must note here that Blackstock is the thinly fictionalized college that I attended. And, you know, aside from the Faerie aspect of it all, and including a great deal more drinking, it's pretty accurate to how my college years were. Which is kind of freaky in and of itself. (Pamela Dean is an alumna. And while she claims no people were based on real people, it is generally held to be true that Professor Evans was an English professor named Owen Jenkins, who actually used to return papers to students cut up in plastic bags - "The parts in the bag were the only good parts" - and who sadly passed away the year after I graduated.)

I reread Tam Lin whenever I miss Carleton. It helps a great deal.

[notmonochrome.livejournal.com]

I think that Carl Weiner, a history professor, is in there, too. I need to read that again.

[minervacat.livejournal.com]

He is. He's described as a young, bearded professor with a speciality in the French Restoration, a penchant for banging on tables and shouting, and who is rumored to be a Marxist.

Heee. <3 Carl.

As was having him teach, of course.

[notmonochrome.livejournal.com]

He called the computing help line once and screamed "Stop fucking with me!" into the phone before hanging up. I <3 Carl too. Changing out the memory on his computer with him watching was quite the experience.

[listersgirl]

I meant to ask you how accurate it was - I had read that about Carleton before I read the book, so I was curious and thought of you while I read it. :)

[minervacat.livejournal.com]

It's pretty accurate, I mean, as far as a Scottish folk ballad overlaid on the college can be accurate. The geography is almost entirely accurate, and there are some lovely details - like the fact that there was actually a student production of The Revenger's Tragedy done in the right era - that you would only know if you knew the history really well.

And yes, there is a bust of Schiller that lives amongst the student body and is quite a coveted possession.

If you have questions, of course, about specific things, just ask. It's one of my favorite books even outside of the Carleton connection, and I love talking about it. <3