Fair Peril by Nancy Springer

Attendees: Cyndi Dunn, Wes Dunn , Shirley Crossland, and Willie Siros.

This book begins with a woman who has just turned forty and is trying to get her life back together after her divorce. Walking through the park one day, she runs across a frog who tries to convince her that a kiss will turn him into a handsome prince. Buffy has had enough of men lately, charming or otherwise, but decides a talking frog would be a good addition to her professional story-telling repertoire. So she takes him home, never thinking that her teenage daughter may be more susceptible to a charming frog’s wiles…

Despite rumors that many of the male members of the reading group stayed away on the grounds that this is a “woman’s book,” the two men who were present seemed to have enjoyed it. Willie commented that it’s nice to see someone break out of the Celtic high-fantasy tradition to do something this new and creative. Springer combines some very humorous updating of traditional fairy tales with a

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Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

Attendees: A. T. Campbell III, Cyndi Dunn, Wes Dunn, John Gibbons, Karen Meschke, Shirley Crossland.

We gathered at ArmadilloCon 19 in Hunt, Texas to discuss Bujold’s latest book. Memory is another adventure of her continuing character Miles Vorkosigan, and in this book Miles turns thirty and his life falls apart. He’s forced to reevaluate his career and personal relationships and literally reinvent his conception of himself.

Our group contained people who’d read Bujold’s complete body of work, plus some who’d never read her before. We all found the prose readable and had no trouble finishing the book.

Opinions of the book were mixed, though generally positive. Many of us found Miles to be a well-developed character and we were sympathetic to his attempts

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