Hi, everyone! So this marks Week One of the Sunshine Book Club, which means that we are all scheduled to have read through at least page 51. Did everyone make it? Do I need to change up the schedule
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This is very much not the first time I'm reading Sunshine, but what I remember being surprised by the first time was the amount of world-building. Everyone had sold it to me as a minor twist on a vampire book or just as urban fantasy and it, of course, is those things, but they kind of imply a certain amount of this-is-happening-in-mostly-our-world and this was so clearly NOT. It always makes me so happy just how much the history of the world has changed there and left scars because it makes so much sense and yet a lot of urban fantasy doesn't feel like the backstory goes that deep. I can entirely understand why people have been badgering McKinley to write more about this universe and the Voodoo Wars since this book came out because there's so much THERE. Shit went DOWN and I wanna KNOW. D:
(Also I just realised that my ebook version doesn't have the recipes that the library copy I read first did and now I am sulking. :()
Yess, the worldbuilding in this book is amazing, isn't it? There's so much going on and I would love to know more (I want to know ALL THE THINGS). I will take 500 histories of the Voodoo Wars right now, please and thank-you.
ALSO WAIT WHAT THERE WERE RECIPES IN SOME VERSION OF THE BOOK??? I MUST FIND THIS VERSION.
It's always astonishing to me how much exposition happens in the first part of Sunshine because I could eat it up with a spoon and beg for more, but seriously, it's pages and pages of "my family is like this and the recent political situation was like that" and yet it's super readable?
I'd swear the first copy I read had recipes in the back! With adorably awkward preludes by McKinley going "sooooo, I'm not actually much of a cook? But I have GREAT FRIENDS, YOU GUYS! :D" SURELY I DIDN'T IMAGINE THIS ENTIRELY? 0_o?
I cannot believe I completely forgot about this book club. I want to participate, but I haven't even taken my copy of Sunshine off my bookshelf, but I will catch up! It is now my goal for 2014 to figure out how to make every single one of Sunshine's recipes.
There was a considerable gap between the initial idea of the book club and it's implementation, so don't feel bad! Everyone is welcome to participate. :)
Re: Sunshine's recipes - If you figure them out, let me know? I love to bake and all of her stuff sounds so GREAT, I want to be able to make it all. :D
I picked up Sunshine for the first time because it was Robin McKinley and I love Robin McKinley, but I think I knew there were vampires going in. I spent most of the book waiting for her to explain what was going on with all the hinted-at word building, which was awesome and yet vaguely frustrating. Oh, and the slang! I still love the slang. :D
So last night, as I was reading, I was thinking about the recipe question because I love to cook and bake and food is such an important part of the story. I think you could do a good approximation of Bitter Chocolate Death by making David Lebovitz'sLebovitz's Chocolate Orbit/Idiot Cake. (It originally appears in one of his cookbooks as an Orbit cake, but online it's an Idiot cake. Don't know why!) It's what flourless chocolate cake aspires to be.
The slang is so much fun, isn't it? I'd love to try using it irl but as most of the people who surround me have not read Sunshine, I suspect that I would mostly get a bunch of blank looks. *shrugs* what can you do. And yes, her worldbuilding is amazing and fantastic and I would love to have all of it explained at some point, but alas.
I'm on my fourth re-read, but when I first picked it up it was literally because the cover was eye catching. (I have the yellow/golden paperback with the holographic sparkle in it.
I kind of like how it feels like the narrator is sitting down to coffee with a friend and telling the friend about things in her life. it has that comfortable air to it you know? Sometimes I find myself having to reread passages though, because I get so caught up in the cadence of words. Sunshine is definitely on my top 10 list of favorite books! (I often shove it at friends and recommend it as "the contemporary vampire book twilight wishes it could be")
LOL I have tried to market it to friends like that as well! It's so great. I definitely agree that it feels a lot like someone sitting down and telling you a story - there are lots of little asides and stoppages and the whole thing has a very conversational feel. Dragonhaven has that same sort of feel, actually, which might be part of why I like it (the two books also feel like they take place in similar, if not the same universe, which is another reason I like it).
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(Also I just realised that my ebook version doesn't have the recipes that the library copy I read first did and now I am sulking. :()
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ALSO WAIT WHAT THERE WERE RECIPES IN SOME VERSION OF THE BOOK??? I MUST FIND THIS VERSION.
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I'd swear the first copy I read had recipes in the back! With adorably awkward preludes by McKinley going "sooooo, I'm not actually much of a cook? But I have GREAT FRIENDS, YOU GUYS! :D" SURELY I DIDN'T IMAGINE THIS ENTIRELY? 0_o?
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Re: Sunshine's recipes - If you figure them out, let me know? I love to bake and all of her stuff sounds so GREAT, I want to be able to make it all. :D
Reply
So last night, as I was reading, I was thinking about the recipe question because I love to cook and bake and food is such an important part of the story. I think you could do a good approximation of Bitter Chocolate Death by making David Lebovitz'sLebovitz's Chocolate Orbit/Idiot Cake. (It originally appears in one of his cookbooks as an Orbit cake, but online it's an Idiot cake. Don't know why!) It's what flourless chocolate cake aspires to be.
Reply
The slang is so much fun, isn't it? I'd love to try using it irl but as most of the people who surround me have not read Sunshine, I suspect that I would mostly get a bunch of blank looks. *shrugs* what can you do. And yes, her worldbuilding is amazing and fantastic and I would love to have all of it explained at some point, but alas.
Reply
I kind of like how it feels like the narrator is sitting down to coffee with a friend and telling the friend about things in her life. it has that comfortable air to it you know? Sometimes I find myself having to reread passages though, because I get so caught up in the cadence of words. Sunshine is definitely on my top 10 list of favorite books! (I often shove it at friends and recommend it as "the contemporary vampire book twilight wishes it could be")
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