Angieville

For the last several years I've been experiencing a more-than-passing longing to attend the legendary Book Expo America . It all started back when I used to frequent a lovely place known as Readerville . I met so many wonderful people there and a few of them used to regale us youngsters with tales of floors of bookish sorts, rows of publisher booths, stacks of free galleys, and line after line leading to authors willing to talk to you and smile at you and nod patiently while you tell them you love them. My longing grew. Soon I began plotting how to get around the minor obstacles of lack of funding and a location nowhere near New York City. Well, this year everything just fell into place. It should be noted that it helps to have a husband willing to keep the kids and garden alive while you go off gallivanting with a few thousand other hopeless bibliophiles. And every time you call to check in he tells you everything's under control, everyone's happy, and go back to enjoyin...

The gals over at 3 Evil Cousins managed to snag the fantabulous Libba Bray long enough to ask her 13 Evil Questions. It's a great interview and you should go read it. My favorite Libba answer: Evil Cousins: What advice would you give to aspiring writers? Libba: Don't kill off the hot guy. :-) Angiegirl: Why, Libba, why?!?!

And so ends the trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty , continued with Rebel Angels , and concludes in this final volume, The Sweet Far Thing . I liked the first one well enough because of its unique blend of a wild, magical, mythical realm barely constrained behind stiff Victorian curtains. I really got into the second one as the plot became more complex, Gemma came into her own powers, Felicity and Ann's stories became more layered, and poor beautiful Pippa was relegated to the Realms indefinitely. When I saw how thick the third one was, my eagerness ratcheted up a notch. After all, I have been sitting around lately asking for longer books. Suddenly, here one is. Unfortunately, 800 pages later, the best thing about it remains the first four words, it's lovely title, taken from a poem by W.B. Yeats. And it does capture the extremely bittersweet feel of the last portion of the book. But somehow this installment failed to capture my imagination. It frustrated me mo...