(no subject)

[skygiants]

Man, the Great Dido Twite reread continues awesome. So awesome!

First we've got The Stolen Lake. Not only does Aiken completely jettison all claim to realism here, she expands her AU Britain to include possibly the most UTTERLY CRACKED OUT interpretation of the Camelot story I have ever read, involving as it does Guinevere calmly packing up the lake that leads to Avalon and moving it (and the court) to South America to hang out for a few hundred years while she waits for Arthur to come back across it! Of course everyone else, especially Great Britain, thinks she is a bit daffy, but that does not stop them forming inconvenient diplomatic alliances. There are evil shape-changing seamstresses named Mrs. Morgan, Mrs. Ettard and Mrs. Vavasour and desperate messages sent via cats and a dictionary; someone is crushed to death in a constantly revolving castle door, someone else escapes durance vile by riding on the back of a tiger, several other people ride off in a flying machine, and Dido Twite crushes hardcore on the Once and Future King. NEVER CHANGE, JOAN AIKEN. <3333

It is sort of hard for The Cuckoo Tree to live up to this level of cracked-out plot-twist glory . . . but it tries valiantly anyways with telepathic twins (or possibly triplets), dramatic elephant rides to the rescue, and an evil plot to put a famous building on rollers and send it into the sea! The tone is quite a bit darker in places than in some of the other books, and there is a highly problematic Ethnic Fortune-Teller Stereotype, but Dido remains gloriously herself (my favorite - when she calmly breaks an enchanted lock despite its constant shrieking at her) and I have never wanted to hug her more than at the very end of this book. So much so that I went ahead and read the first few pages of the next one on Amazon, since it has not yet come in for me at the library. >.>

IN OTHER NEWS: Flist, I need advice! This is one of those Adult Things I am supposed to know and do not yet. How much does it generally cost to have a picture framed? I wandered into Books of Wonder yesterday and saw some signed Charles Vess artwork from Stardust up on display, and basically there is NO WAY I am not buying one of those prints, but they are significantly more expensive with frame than without and I am wondering if it would be cheaper to buy without the frame and then take them somewhere else to get re-framed.

Comments

[ceitfianna]

It all depends on just how fancy you want the frame and how oddly shaped the picture is. Custom framing can be expensive but since places like Michaels tend to have huge amount of frames in sizes from picture to poster at decent prizes that's what I do.

[skygiants]

Hmm. Define 'decent prices'? *grins* I'm trying to do a price comparison in my head.

[ceitfianna]

I've been able to get an almost poster sized frame for about 10 bucks but they're always having sales and deals so I'd say 20 might be near the high end.

[skygiants]

Aha! Good to know, thanks - that's definitely helpful. :D

[magwana.livejournal.com]

Custom framing depends on size, matting, and frame fanciness, but it can run from between $50 and $200. But Michaels/AC Moore/frame stores usually have sales and you can get things for less. They also will give you the cost up front, so there are no surprises.

[skygiants]

Hmmmm. Okay, thanks - maybe I will drop by a Michael's or something and investigate. I mean, if it's only going to be a little bit cheaper, my innate laziness says 'just buy it with the frame on!' But sometimes my innate laziness needs to be kicked in the rear.

[magwana.livejournal.com]

Of course if they are a standard size, it's pretty cheap to buy a standard size frame and a standard size mat. So once you know that, you will have a better idea.

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