Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I just finished Jo Walton's Among Others, which means I can now go read my friends' posts about it. It's very good, at least if you're our sort of person, the sort whose mind is furnished partly by what we've read. I think it would work even for someone who hasn't read large amounts of the fiction that Mor refers to in the book, though the familiarity helps. Mor reads mostly sf, and some fantasy and historical fiction, and some poetry: I liked the bit where she got back at a teacher by doing her Latin translation in the style of T.S. Eliot, and the teacher couldn't say anything because it was also an accurate translation.

There are books, and fairies, and deniable magic—not splashy, and not following neat rules or spells that a person can read and memorize. The book is also about family, and feeling alone, and finding people that you can really talk to and connect with.

Read this. Yes, Jo is a friend of mine, and I generally like her writing, but I think I'd be recommending this book even if I'd never met her. Knowing her and knowing that parts of this are autobiographical, I was noticing similarities and differences between Among Others and things she's said about her life, but that's not why I liked it.