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I've read two books this week that each contained a character called Una. One was Provocation by Charlotte Grimshaw, a hard-boiled-ish crime thriller set in Auckland. The other was The New House at Winwood, by Clare Mallory, a girls' school story set near Dunedin. Two Una-tastic novels, both set in New Zealand. Neither Una was particularly brilliant, to be honest, which was a slight disappointment. Let's pretend that they're called "Yoo-na" then.

As an aside, The New House at Winwood was just great: it read like a political thriller. Winwood School has a new head, who has - in the term prior to the book starting - carried out all kinds of changes: tighter rules on sweets and sports and going into town and, worst of all, she has built a new house, accommodating forty new girls. The girls from the two old houses swear they will have nothing to do with the girls from the new house. But the Head has a number of cunning plans up her sleeve, not least moving two of the most popular old girls over to the new house, and making one of them head girl... So, really, a book about putting down a rebellion and generating a political consensus. Inspired. Loved it.

While we're on the subject of people called Una, here's that meme:

"Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes. Don't fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions."

I went to bed with a migraine last night, and I've spent the day in bed reading paperbacks. So this is what I look like the day after a migraine, having spent a day in bed reading paperbacks. (You should be able to see the bed and a pillow behind me.) I look more like one of my brothers than I usually do. Oh, and you can see the new specs of repute.


Date: 2008-09-23 06:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com
Well I'm very puzzled. Yesterday I went to mooch Jean in the Twilight. The person who had it would only send within their own country, but there's a mechanism for that, the Angel Network, where someone in that country receives it for you and passes it on.

I posted on the forum to ask for someone willing to help. The forum is very creaky and the message still hasn't turned up. And, in the meantime, the book has disappeared off the listing and the person who had it has set her status to 'on vacation'.

I'm tempted to suspect foul play, but perhaps it's possible that the person who owned it realized it was madness to give away a Jane Duncan book.

Anyway, the upshot is that I can't surprise you at some future date with the book :-(

Date: 2008-09-23 09:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katlinel.livejournal.com
How bizarre! But thank you for thinking of the surprise - it would have been a most joyous one.

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