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landofnowhereFrom All False Doctrine, Alice Degan. This was recommended for on ladyherenya 's journal, and I was intrigued and picked it up. In some sense this is the same plot as Tam Lin by Pamela Dean: the Classics Department has gotten tangled up with sinister forces, and our protagonist must sort it out and fix it with the help of her college roommate and their boyfriends, but this may take some time as people explore romance and what they want out of their lives and relationship, with lots of clever banter, before they realize that they are living in a liminal urban fantasy universe and need to deal with it.
The major differences is that the metaphysics/mythology of the world, rather than being vaguely English folk paganism, is solidly Anglican. This is a conversion story, and it's worth knowing this going in -- the story did not particularly inclide me to convert, still a humanist atheist UU, but I don't have to fall in love to enjoy a romance novel either. Also the setting is quite different, 1920's Toronto, much less academia (would have liked more, though there is a good library scene), much more church. The Anglican details didn't resonate with me, but I still generally enjoyed it as a comfort read.
(Though this is one of these cases where having historical perspective makes me less sanguine that the protagonists about their future: the Great Depression is going to hit around the time that Elsa finishes her Ph.D., so she's going to have to deal with that in addition to all the expected institutional/structural sexism.)
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy Sayers. Reread, but actually I've only read it once before, after my first stint as a bell-ringer, at which point I had experience with tower bells and could ring rounds and call changes, but knew nothing about methods. (Nobody offered to teach me anything about them in Cambridge -- though I did hear/watch them being rung without really knowing what was going on -- I figured that overcoming my clumsiness with the ropes would be the hard part and than I'd learn methods relatively easily when the time came).
Anyway, now turns out to be the perfect time to reread, as the peal that Peter is about to ring with the locals is of Kent Treble Bob Major, which I have been learning on virtual bells (and was just ringing tonight!) And the book also references Grandsire and Stedman, which I already know. (How well my virtual bell knowledge will transfer back to the tower, when I get to ring in one again sometime post-pandemic, is an interesting question...) So far I'm enjoying it for the bells-nerdery. I guess there will be a mystery too? But I'm mostly there for the bells.
ladyherenya 's journal, and I was intrigued and picked it up. In some sense this is the same plot as Tam Lin by Pamela Dean: the Classics Department has gotten tangled up with sinister forces, and our protagonist must sort it out and fix it with the help of her college roommate and their boyfriends, but this may take some time as people explore romance and what they want out of their lives and relationship, with lots of clever banter, before they realize that they are living in a liminal urban fantasy universe and need to deal with it.The major differences is that the metaphysics/mythology of the world, rather than being vaguely English folk paganism, is solidly Anglican. This is a conversion story, and it's worth knowing this going in -- the story did not particularly inclide me to convert, still a humanist atheist UU, but I don't have to fall in love to enjoy a romance novel either. Also the setting is quite different, 1920's Toronto, much less academia (would have liked more, though there is a good library scene), much more church. The Anglican details didn't resonate with me, but I still generally enjoyed it as a comfort read.
(Though this is one of these cases where having historical perspective makes me less sanguine that the protagonists about their future: the Great Depression is going to hit around the time that Elsa finishes her Ph.D., so she's going to have to deal with that in addition to all the expected institutional/structural sexism.)
The Nine Tailors, Dorothy Sayers. Reread, but actually I've only read it once before, after my first stint as a bell-ringer, at which point I had experience with tower bells and could ring rounds and call changes, but knew nothing about methods. (Nobody offered to teach me anything about them in Cambridge -- though I did hear/watch them being rung without really knowing what was going on -- I figured that overcoming my clumsiness with the ropes would be the hard part and than I'd learn methods relatively easily when the time came).
Anyway, now turns out to be the perfect time to reread, as the peal that Peter is about to ring with the locals is of Kent Treble Bob Major, which I have been learning on virtual bells (and was just ringing tonight!) And the book also references Grandsire and Stedman, which I already know. (How well my virtual bell knowledge will transfer back to the tower, when I get to ring in one again sometime post-pandemic, is an interesting question...) So far I'm enjoying it for the bells-nerdery. I guess there will be a mystery too? But I'm mostly there for the bells.
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Date: 24 Nov 2020 23:58 (UTC)no subject
Date: 25 Nov 2020 00:16 (UTC)no subject
Date: 25 Nov 2020 00:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Dec 2020 23:21 (UTC)I don't think I have ever read a college novel of this type where the Classics department was tangled up with benevolent forces! I had not previously heard of this one, though, so it's useful to know it exists. Is it more or less Anglican than Elizabeth Goudge?
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Date: 3 Dec 2020 23:56 (UTC)I haven't read Elizabeth Goudge, but I'd say it's more Anglican than Madeleine L'Engle. The love interest is a priest, so there's actually more time spent around church than around college. (The protagonist is forced to drop out of her graduate program about a third of the way through the book.)