half the joy of leaving was the space I left behind

Within five messages she remembered why she didn't do this more often. Nobody could spell, punctuate, or write a sentence longer than five words unless they did it by leaving out the period and sailing gaily on to the next five-word sentence. -- Gentian, Juniper, Gentian, Rosemary by Pamela Dean

On Broadway there were these tough-looking girls, a few years older than me, in sexy leather pants and funky little jackets, their spiky hair dyed in streaks of green, maroon, orange, and their earlobes pierced and glittering like mine. Except they wore nose rings, too. Were they cool! Seeing me, they whistled. "Hey there, sexy!" They were grinning and waving. I smiled back but didn't say anything, feeling shy. I kept walking.
Still, it felt good. They were Ugly Girls, too. -- Ursula, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, by Joyce Carol Oates

Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary is my first Pamela Dean book. I've heard of her, for Tam Lin and the Secret Country books, but they are either apparently out of print/and or extremely hard to find in public libraries. So I came into Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary, with little knowledge or expectations. It's a promising story, but ends up running over-long in some plot and stylistic points, while skimping on the ending.
( book review! )

As summer goes on, and I'm finishing some kinds of summer reading, I also want some relief - next week is the big G!P!M! extravaganza with the girls - and I can't wait for that, and I've just watched Young Frankenstein for the second time (Oh My God. I want to compose a shrine to Marty Feldman), I find myself looking for ice-cream books - and I think I've found my new obsession. Fruits Basket. I want the DVDs, man.

Waaaaah.