Off Topic: A Novel Treat

Over this holiday weekend I treated myself to something special: a novel. When I was in high school I developed a taste for science fiction and fantasy, working through Tolkien, Frank Herbert's Dune series and a lot of really awful stuff along the way. With rare exception the women in the books I found were either "women in jep" needing rescue or buxom amazons sleeping with half of the Martian population. Neither stereotype was appealing. Then I stumbled upon The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip. It was wonderful. I would have followed her later writings but was distracted by some of Anne McCaffrey's dragon books. A few weeks ago I was in the bookstore and saw the newly-published Solstice Wood by McKillip and picked it up for nostalgia if nothing else. This weekend I read through it in rare moments of quiet. Her writing is still lyrical (not as much as Peter S. Beagel's, but whose is?) and it was like visiting with an old friend.

Anticipating the Memorial Day weekend I also picked up the latest novel by Elizabeth Berg (over-30 chick lit at its best).