cyphomandra

Really, I should just give up on entry titles. Two books with remarkably little to do with each other, both good. I have a few more books after this that I'm still thinking about, but I'm also working on my pre-July 21st Harry Potter series re-read.

I re-read this because of Julian Barnes’ Arthur and George, and Dennis Burges’ Graves Gate, both of which feature Arthur Conan Doyles whom I like much less than this one. Dark, good and intriguing.( The Night Calls, David Pirie. )

A Fistful of Sky, Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Gypsum is the middle child in a family of five growing up in California, a family where all the children, around puberty, go through transition and develop magical powers – except her. In addition, she’s overweight, plain, and uninterested in changing either of these states, something which her mother – beautiful and a little too fond of doing things for her children that are “for their own good” finds very difficult. But Gyp does transition, eventually, after her family have given up on her ever being other than ordinary – only to find that, like other people in the family who have transitioned later, she has one of the unkind powers, the power of curses. And if she doesn’t use it, the power will kill her.

( A Fistful of Sky, Nina Kiriki Hoffman. )