yuletide recs, part one

[raven]

Yuletide recs! I've been reading slowly through them all, and probably there will be more after this...

I'll Find You In The Morning Sun, Angels in America.
All previous Yuletide stories seem to have focused on Harper, for some reason. This is something I've wanted to read for years, I think - subtle, and funny, and nuanced. And I really like what's been done with Hannah, here, something there are only whispers of in the last scenes of the play.

Sharing The Kishi Sky, Babysitters Club.
The title is great. The story is very sweet.

An Evening With Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes
One Americanism almost threw me out of this story, but I'm glad it didn't quite, because this is gentle and lovely and rollicks along nicely towards the punchline.

Breathe, Shawshank Redemption
Via nos4a2no9, this is beautiful and subtle.

What Makes An Angel, Malory Towers
Apparently I have a weakness for this sort of thing - at any rate, I kind of gravitate to the Enid Blyton fandoms. But this, this is great, and not at all saccharine, which I think it could easily have been.

Hyper by Nature, LOLcats.
Dude. Just... yeah.

Five Times Geoffrey Really Should Have Admitted That Darren is a Fucking Genius, Slings & Arrows.
Yes. Yes, Darren is a fucking genius, and this is just brilliantly silly and glorious. The line "iambic platypus drunk" is something that's going to stick in my head for a while.

Little Miss Curious, Little Miss Sunshine.
500 words, and I'm not going to spoil it, it's great.

Five Kindnesses Charles Emerson Winchester III Performed (But Would Never Acknowledge), M*A*S*H.
This keeps its distance from its subject, and paints a picture of him with a very light touch.

That Shall Achieve The Sword, Merlin.
This is just excellent, and my favourite of anything so far, I think. It's not how the show wil do it, probably, and I don't know if the show even will do it, but if it does, I can't help but hope it will be like this. It's a mixture of boys and their small concerns and the familiar easy way they talk, with the gorgeous epic style drawn from Malory, that fits with sacrifice and magic and all the other things that make it a good story. I like it all very much.

Four Kisses, Merlin.
Another wonderful piece, this one: it manages to weave together the show and the wider elements of the legend very well.

And, finally! For me, personally, I got two:

True to Your Heart, Mulan
In which Shang is inept, and Mulan is gracious. It's very sweet and fitting.

An Arrow At Dawn, Mulan.
A brief snippet that packs a punch, this one. I liked it a lot.

Comments

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

I loved that Shawshank ficlet! And yes, that S&A story is AMAZING. You? Have good taste in Yuletide :-)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It's just lovely. I would've thought Shawshank wasn't fanficcable, but apparently so!

And, heee! I <3 yuletide THIS MUCH.

[mofic.livejournal.com]

The Little Miss Sunshine one was written for me, and I really enjoyed it. I think she got Olive's voice just right.

But I'm puzzled by what an "institutor" might be. Do you have any idea? The only thing I could find in any dictionary (and it wasn't in my desk dictionary) was something related to the Episcopal Church, which doesn't fit at all.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* A tongue-in-cheek attempt at "preceptor", possibly?

[mofic.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem very close to "preceptor" and that's also a word that doesn't seem to fit the milieu. I couldn't figure out who this man is and what his connection with the family is.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

He's her teacher, I'm sure, and it's a pun on "institution" as in Olive's school, whereas the more relevant meaning might be "institution" as in Frank's psychiatric institution. So, an attempt at the meaning of "praeceptor", rather than the word itself.

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the rec! I'm really glad you enjoyed it! <3