Re-Reading Anne McCaffrey

I discovered Anne MacCaffrey in college and read through as many of her books as I could get from the local library.  I loved her strong female protagonists and they often inspired me to forge my own paths in difficult times.  I often thought, "How would Menolly handle this? Or, what would Lessa do?"  In the years since my first readings of the Pern series, I've finished college, worked, got my Masters degree, worked in three different countries, returned for my doctorate, and am now instructing at the college level. Returning to favorite characters and places and see how they fit in my new world view could be either disappointing or rejuvenating.  Fortunately, immersing myself in Pern was comforting and like meeting a long-lost friend.

In the past few months, I've read or re-read the following Pern books (I tried to do them in Pernese chronological order:

• Dragonsdawn 
• The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall 
• Dragonsblood 
• Dragonseye
• Dragon's Fire 
• Dragon's Kin
• Dragon Harper
•  Dragonheart
• Dragonsblood 
• Dragon's Time
• Sky Dragons 
• All the Weyrs of Pern
• The Dolphins of Pern 
• The Skies of Pern (2001)

I've been craving tubers and klah, so I looked up some Pernese recipes and some of the axillary books such as The People of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and Robin Wood (a portrait book of some of the major characters).

Klah Recipe - a cinnamon coffee
Meat Rolls - a compact meal (with pictures on this blog)
Multiple recipes from the fan forum

I've also re-read Killashandra and for the first time, read the two sequels,  Crystal Singer and Crystal Line.   In college, when I first read Killashandra, I admired the audacity and fearlessness of Killashandra.  But in this second reading, I was a bit more sympathetic to the complaints of her peers and trainers.  She was arrogant and inflexible in the first book, though she mellowed through the others.  It is interesting how a reader's perception of a book can change over time.  And, if a book is good enough, it is worth a second or third read.

As Joan Wickersham, in her blog post,  "The joy of re-reading" states, "Re-reading never gets old. The books change because we change."