Comments on: The Vine: May 22, 2009

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:27:59 +0000

@Jill- I know this is old, but this site http://tiny.cc/x93Pn tells me you're right about the Jobie book- except it's actually Jobi. (Sorry, original poster, her name doesn't end in "ie" like yours!)

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:14:28 +0000

I'm almost positive that the book that Margaret is describing is No Traveller Returns, by James Wallerstein. It's a really strange book that I think is labeled as a children's book but certainly isn't (there's a lot of swearing and otherwise bizarre stuff). I've never been able to find anything else by the author.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:43:16 +0000

Just chiming in to say how happy I am that there were so many similar possibilities for Margaret's sci-fi story, and that all of them sound great!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:12:12 +0000

Margaret,

I'm chiming in that your book might be No Traveller Returns by James S. Wallerstein. I'm actually reading it right now, which is why I stumbled across your question. Hope that helps!

By: Becs

Becs — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:44:17 +0000

@Morgan – I thought of that book too but I couldn't remember the title! Now I can go reread it. I loved it as a kid :D

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:10:35 +0000

Grief porn is an excellent name for McDaniel's signature style especially considering I almost always read them for whatever romantic dribble was in them and would somehow be consistently grief stricken when yet another main character with cancer wouldn't make it to the end of the book. The one about the Amish girl was pretty awesome though.

By: secretrebel

secretrebel — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:41:06 +0000

Here we call the "grief porn" novels "misery memoirs" – there's even a section labelled that in book stores.

By: LynzM

LynzM — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:00:43 +0000

@Adrienne – "Grief porn" is so the absolute correct term for all the Lurlene McDaniel, etc., shit that I gorged myself on in middle school. LMAO, and blech!

@tulip – I also thought of The Grounding of Group Six, with the same caveat. Definitely not outer space, but everything else fits. That was such an awesome and creepy book at the time that I read it.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:12:27 +0000

The Jobie book sounds like Angels Watching Over Me, by Lurlene Mcdaniel of course, but the main character's name was Leah, not Jobie. This one had Amish people in it as well and a sequel.

By: Rinaldo

Rinaldo — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:23:57 +0000

"just wanted to say how delighted I was to discover (via the answers) that the name "Lurlene" exists outside of that Simpsons episode."

Another occurrence of the name (if one vowel change can be allowed): Queen Lurline was the leader of the fairy band that first enchanted the Land of Oz. (This is part of the mythos of the Oz book series — the real Oz, not the movie one.)