Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

This is a book given to me by Betty (I want her template) shortly before the Biscot and I left Malaysia. The start was slow, but gradually picked up and by the time I reached the halfway mark it was full speed ahead. A wonderful assortment of characters who change - I mean really change - and grow and break free. Lee's style of writing is enjoyable and is matched by the quality of the story that, although slow at the start, was descriptive and fun throughout. I would not have read this book if Betty hadn't gifted it to me, so terima kasih, ooma.

Drinking Sapphire Wine on BookCrossing.

a coward like me being a heroine

You don't get a coward like me being a heroine with a real dragon about. I hang my sword on the wall, and get under the float-bed, ooma.

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

Give me a no-lose situation with all variables accounted for and I'll be the biggest, baddest mofo you've ever seen.

BookCrossing: Unbound

I haven't wild released many books lately, but while I was making release notes this morning for four books that are now in the wild in Burnaby's Metrotown area I noticed my releases caught number increased by one. It couldn't be a catch for one of the four I just released, could it? It wasn't. It was for Unbound, which I released earlier this month in Vancouver's Kingsgate Mall. Here's the catch:

I loved all the details about rare books. Wasn't so fond of the conspiracy.

the Trapezium with the red-hot Star-Whip

'Oh no,' she said, 'you're coming with me. I've been reading the latest Jang love manual, the Purple Summit. You're going to marry me for the afternoon and we're going to do everything it says together, including the Trapezium with the red-hot Star-Whip, and -'

'Kley,' I said, 'look at me. Do I look strong enough to go through anything like that?'

'Of course you don't,' she snapped. 'That's how you had the body made, isn't it? But if I know you -'

''Kley,' I said, 'you don't.'

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

There are things I want to write here, but I shan't put fingers to keyboard. What do you think after reading the above? What would you write?

green and shells and stuff

Then we went to one of the underwater caves, green and shells and stuff, and had the most glorious love. I think when you're shaky and recovering from something, you receive better. Anyway, it was groshing.

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

I can get behind that sentiment.

genuine bewildered fright

I could have laughed it was so simple. It wasn't bitterness the pet had just displayed, but genuine bewildered fright. I'd changed. I was no longer the known Jang girl with long scarlet hair, willowy waist and exotic bosom, all beauty and physical grace. I was this lank, thin, paste-faced twig of life. It didn't know me. Farathoom! I probably even had a different smell!

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

That's because the change was so sudden. If the overall change had been extended over a period of years, little bit here, little bit there, it would've gone unnoticed. But a frog will notice if he's thrown into a pot of boiling water.

It makes me think of a philosophy professor I had. He would talk about crimes and how the person who commits a crime at, say, age 12 is not the same person at, say, age 30. That person hasn't just changed and evolved mentally and emotionally. Physically, cells die and cells regrow. That person is an entirely new person who is not guilty of the crime committed many years earlier.

all-blue eyes and eight-fingered hands

'You're Lorun's new marriage, are you?' horny-puss asked nastily. I could just tell her finger-long nails were more than mere Jang decoration.

'Oh, I thought you were still the last one,' said another female, with all-blue eyes and eight-fingered hands - even more nail danger. Well, honestly.

'Sorry,' I said sweetly, 'I'm the new one with the quick temper and the uncontrollable homicidal tendencies.'

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

How could one not like a book that has passages such as this?

why go off and dream about it

Of course, I could have had that added on to the dream if I'd asked. Only I never do. I know of people who go to a Dream Room just to dream about having love, but what's the point? I mean, you can have love any time you want, really, any way you want, and there are millions of pills and stuff to guarantee results. So why go off and dream about it too?

-- Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee

I like to dream of Canadian unicorns on ice skates. Some of them are of Scottish descent, some of them are of Malaysian descent. It is a spectacular sight with surprisingly graceful spins and jumps. A huge snake shows up and hands out hockey sticks and empties a bag of pucks. A lighthearted scrimmage ensues, leading very quickly to a passionate battle for the IUHL (International Unicorn Hockey League) title. No one keeps track of goals, there are no fights, the first intermission includes a performance by The Hero's Sidepunch, and both teams - all 76 unicorns - walk together to the closest pub for celebratory brewskis.

BookCrossing: The Open Door

So many of the books I release are books I have not read, but I still get a thrill when a journal entry is made on a released book. I've released probably a dozen or so books at Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip, WA, and have received some good journal entries. The shopping area is visited by mostly by tourists, and an incoming journal entry will say either that the book has been taken to a faraway land or that the book is back in British Columbia. I've released fewer books at Bellis Fair Mall, which is a little north of Tulalip. In fact, I think my only releases there were when I released The Open Door and one other book on November 28. Which means on March 15 I got my first ever Bellis Fair catch! And it's a good one, made by someone in Hollis, Alaska:

My daughter in Custer, Wa. found the book on a mall bench and was amazed! At first she was worried someone had left a great book, being a bookworm she was sorry for them! She loved the book, the whole idea and mailed it to me in Alaska. I loved this book. It was so much like the Catherine Cookson books I read long ago. This one especially struck a cord with me regarding the character having to overcome so much just to live, get so caught up in success she couldn't live and then finally succeeding in all. Just a wonderfully fine read.

BookCrossing: Kaleidoscope

A catch for Kaleidoscope came in on February 27! It's reassuring, because (as I wrote in the book's release notes) I wasn't entirely sure that that was the book I released. The catcher is a new member and put me as the referring member - I've now amassed 24 new member referrals. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I released the book way back in November of 2009 (man, those were the days) and the book was in the wild for a total of 99 days before this journal entry was made:

I found this book in the i hop and it was a great page turner.

all was hush'd

I find a letter in the mailbox. A single sheet of paper is inside. Written out by hand is a careful description of a man slowly drowning. It is (I look it up) from Byron's "Don Juan, Canto the Second."
And first one universal shriek there rush'd,
Louder than the loud ocean, like a crash
Of echoing thunder; and then all was hush'd,
Save the wild wind and the remorseless dash
Of billows; but at intervals there gush'd,
Accompanied by a convulsive splash,
A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer in his agony.

-- You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr

The poem's text may be off a little from how it actually appears in the book. I was reading this section while in a car in Malaysia, and figured I could just look up the poem at home. Well, the two versions I've looked at are very similar - just one small word differed. The one that appears above is from this page.

BookCrossing: High Country

A catch came in while I was in Malaysia; I noticed it while making release notes for books released in tandem with starbytes. It's taken me until now, a day short of four weeks after arriving back home, to post it. Hey, as I said in a recent post, I'm trying furiously to play catch-up while also tending to non-book stuff. So stop giving me so much guff! As with the last catch I posted here (Fine Things), I released High Country at the shopping outlets in Tulalip, WA. Just like most catches that come from Tulalip releases, this book found its way back to Canada. Here's the catch:

Found on a ferry crossing from Victoria BC to Vancouver BC. Travelled to Phoenix with me where I had intended to release it but I didn't finish it until flying home. I will set the book free in downtown Victoria in the near future. The book started slow with kind of an unbelievable premise but got much better. I could see this turned into a made for TV movie.

it's his kid

It's his kid," David says to her, leaving it, turning away.

She replies, "David, it's his kid." A rewrite of the line. A strong rewrite - with merely a change of stress she has retained the original dialogue yet fundamentally redirected its meaning and, neatly, the entire thrust. Ellie make a lot of money doing this.

-- You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr

Step in or not step in. It's a delicate area. Support. Share ideas.

eliminate the impurity

(And he then realizes that the boy from La Jolla turned him in to the authorities. He marvels for a second at the swiftness of the boy's instinctive reaction: Discover the impurity; eliminate the impurity.)

-- You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr

This is my favorite passage from the whole book. Simply beautiful. I both started and finished You or Someone Like You while in Malaysia (after finishing Catch-22), and the book is now with starbytes. I took some notes to post on here and on BookCrossing once I got home, so I'm now playing catch-up in a staggered manner.