Tree self, daylight self
Apr. 9th, 2021 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12Today I ended up having to teach two classes, even though I'm still on holiday, but it only took up two hours of the day and I don't mind too much. It's grim and grey, and the idea of leaving the house was not hugely appealling.
Today's book meme asks for:
9. A book that reminds you of someone
I'm going to go with Robin McKinley's Sunshine. This was a book I first read more than a decade ago, during my MPhil year, the year I moved to the UK. One of the very pleasing things about that time was how easy it was to make friends, and find kindred spirits among the cohort of students in my department — not just with my fellow MPhils, but also the undergrads and PhD students as well.
One such friend was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
losseniaiel. You know how you can meet someone, and just know that they're fannish? This was the case with us, and we quickly figured out we had fairly similar tastes in books and TV. We spent ages that year watching random episodes of Buffy and Angel, we'd go and browse the shelves of Borders (oh, I miss that Borders shop!) after the weekly seminar ... and we introduced each other to lots and lots of new books.
One of the first that she recommended to me was Sunshine, which still remains my favourite of McKinley's books. It's a simple kind of Beauty and the Beast story about an alliance between a baker with magical powers, and a vampire, and I love it! It's ended up being one of my favourite fandoms in which to write fic (it's tied in equal first as my most prolific fandom for fic writing), and it's a lovely book that I've reread many times.
Although my friend is nothing like any of the characters in the book, and thankfully has a much calmer and safer life than any of their lives, the book always reminds me of her, and of that marvellous first year in the UK, where I found myself, and which felt like coming home.
It's a fairly commonly held opinion among fans of Sunshine that it's crying out for a sequel, and I recently read a fantastic new fic for it that did exactly that — and this post seems an entirely appropriate place in which to rec it:
Sunshine's Eschatology (11471 words) by storm_of_sharp_things
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Sunshine - Robin McKinley
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Constantine/Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, Mel/Rae "Sunshine" Seddon
Characters: Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, Constantine (Sunshine), Mel (Sunshine), Yolande (Sunshine), Pat (Sunshine), Aimil (Sunshine), Kenny (Sunshine)
Additional Tags: Canon Continuation, Family History, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Magical Tattoos
Summary:
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
Today's book meme asks for:
9. A book that reminds you of someone
I'm going to go with Robin McKinley's Sunshine. This was a book I first read more than a decade ago, during my MPhil year, the year I moved to the UK. One of the very pleasing things about that time was how easy it was to make friends, and find kindred spirits among the cohort of students in my department — not just with my fellow MPhils, but also the undergrads and PhD students as well.
One such friend was
losseniaiel. You know how you can meet someone, and just know that they're fannish? This was the case with us, and we quickly figured out we had fairly similar tastes in books and TV. We spent ages that year watching random episodes of Buffy and Angel, we'd go and browse the shelves of Borders (oh, I miss that Borders shop!) after the weekly seminar ... and we introduced each other to lots and lots of new books. One of the first that she recommended to me was Sunshine, which still remains my favourite of McKinley's books. It's a simple kind of Beauty and the Beast story about an alliance between a baker with magical powers, and a vampire, and I love it! It's ended up being one of my favourite fandoms in which to write fic (it's tied in equal first as my most prolific fandom for fic writing), and it's a lovely book that I've reread many times.
Although my friend is nothing like any of the characters in the book, and thankfully has a much calmer and safer life than any of their lives, the book always reminds me of her, and of that marvellous first year in the UK, where I found myself, and which felt like coming home.
It's a fairly commonly held opinion among fans of Sunshine that it's crying out for a sequel, and I recently read a fantastic new fic for it that did exactly that — and this post seems an entirely appropriate place in which to rec it:
Sunshine's Eschatology (11471 words) by storm_of_sharp_things
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Sunshine - Robin McKinley
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Constantine/Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, Mel/Rae "Sunshine" Seddon
Characters: Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, Constantine (Sunshine), Mel (Sunshine), Yolande (Sunshine), Pat (Sunshine), Aimil (Sunshine), Kenny (Sunshine)
Additional Tags: Canon Continuation, Family History, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Magical Tattoos
Summary:
A magical coffeehouse baker and a not-all-that-evil vampire, bonded for survival… no
Sunshine must choose between her love for her biker cook boyfriend and the vampire who fought at her side against… no
An epic tale of found family and family by blood… no
Look, Sunshine and Con try to work out what happens next, and Mel gets involved. Yolande helps out, and then Pat and Aimil show up near the end.
10. A book that belongs to a specific time in your mind, caught in amber
11. A book that came to you at exactly the right time
12. A book that came to you at the wrong time
13. A book with a premise you'd never seen before quite like that
14. A book balanced on a knife edge
15. A snuffed candle of a book
16. The one you'd take with you while you were being ferried on dark underground rivers
17. The one that taught you something about yourself
18. A book that went after its premise like an explosion
19. A book that started a pilgrimage
20. A frigid ice bath of a book
21. A book written into your psyche
22. A warm blanket of a book
23. A book that made you bleed
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
no subject
Date: 2021-04-09 06:41 pm (UTC)Ditto missing Borders, too. So many preteen memories!
no subject
Date: 2021-04-09 07:15 pm (UTC)We didn't have Borders in Australia when I was growing up — it only appeared there around 2007 — we had other large local bookstore chains, as well as Kinokuniya, which is a Japanese chain that has stores all over Asia. I only really encountered it when I first moved to the UK, and that was the year of the recession, which killed Borders, meaning that specific bookshop was associated with an extremely brief, specific time in my life.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-09 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-10 03:13 pm (UTC)