Literary obsessions, take 452

[mrissa]

So I was thinking about Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy, because I do that a lot. Because it's such good stuff and hits so many of my buttons. Because I am bitterly opposed to total orderings, but The Kestrel is pretty close to the very best book if there was a very best book. And I had recently wanted to press these books upon at least half a dozen people.

Then I thought, hey, most libraries in the US have these books. (I have no idea about other countries.) They are readily available for purchase. It would not be hard for people to get their hands on them to read them and talk to me about them. And they are short, so people who would otherwise be interested in this sort of thing could read them without much investment of time or emotion. So I was wondering whether there was interest in that kind of discussion here on my lj after a suitable time for finding and reading them, and I was wondering what a suitable time for finding and reading them might be.

(Brief description for those of you who are unfamiliar: Ruritanian fantasy, if revolution came to Ruritania. No magic that I recall. YA. Very political and somewhat bloody in spots--bloody, not so much gory, if that distinction makes sense.)

[Poll #1342952]

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I would like to reread them, but haven't decided if I want to do so enough to order them. (Though bookstores here do carry some Alexander, so if I'm in one of the big ones I'll keep an eye out.) I've recently reread The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian and am curious how close The Beggar Queen is to it.