In 1983, Bryan and I were still living in my house near Green Lake. I went to the Mediawest Science Fiction convention in East Lansing, Michigan, I think for the second time.
During this year, I read a combination of “grown up” novels by my favourite author (to this day), Iris Murdoch, and others, mixed with a lot of young adult fiction (which I enjoyed and which I also read because I kept thinking I might write such a novel myself) and some quite simple science fiction, as you will see. If you click on the screen shots to embiggen them, you will be able to read the titles.
I had read Murdoch’s Sacred and Profane Love Machine and the hilarious Under the Net in the mid 1970s and re-read them in 1983. I was smitten with the Chronicles of Tornor science fiction trilogy by Elizabeth A Lynn: Watchtower, The Dancers of Arun, The Northern Girl. I did not like The Firelings by Carol Kendall one little bit, even though she had written a favourite children’s book of mine, the Gammage Cup.
Lloyd Alexander was my favourite author in Junior High school because of The Prydain Chronicles; in 1983 I read his three two more recent books.
I was still working my way through the complete Georgette Heyer (Bryan’s favourite author). We both went on a months long binge of not very good Doctor Who novelizations. They were quick reads, like candy, fun but not especially satisfying, and yet we could not seem to stop.
I adored The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and just learned today that it has two or more sequels! I reread the perfect humour novel, Cold Comfort Farm.
Dorp Dead stays in my memory as an excellent young adult novel. I think I own it. I read it in high school, also.
I discovered the Kate Fansler mysteries by Amanda Cross (Carolyn Heilbrun) and read them all in a month (along with more Doctor Who…)
Brideshead Revisited was superb, of course, and a Murdoch, and an awful lot of Doctor Who.
Lois Duncan is a great writer of young adult suspense fiction, especially Down a Dark Hall and the one I read in 1983, Killing Mr. Griffin. I re-read The Secret Garden. I gave many stars to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s feminist sf/fantasy novel, Thendara House.
This was when I discovered P.D. James, with An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin. The film biography of Quentin Crisp got me to read his two memoirs, and I found a good gay novel, Dancer from the Dark, and I discovered mystery writer Josephine Tey, and was very pleased with a new Dave Brandstetter mystery by Joseph Hansen.
I read only one book all year, the groundbreaking collection Shadows on a Tightrope: Writing by Women on Fat Oppression, the first of its kind.
And I was going to science fiction conventions too, back east. There was a Worldcon in Boston in 1980 that I had fun at. I didn’t discover P.D. James till the 90s.
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I went to Mediawestcon and a couple of Doctor Who and a Blake’s 7 convention: East Lansing, Chicago, Columbus!
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I’ve read The Mists of Avalon, and still have it here in the bookcase. Enjoyed it very much.
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Now that I know there are sequels, I had better look on my shelves. I bet I still have it.
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I’ve also been to a few SciFi conventions. Enjoyed those too!
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They were fun!
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