jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Nov 21, 2006 2:49:36 GMT -5
I recently bought four of the later CD books of eBay ($76 for four books!! But man, I wanted them), and so for the past couple of days, I've read them all in quick succession. Well, all the ones that I have (I'm still missing 12, 14 and 15).
A couple of points:
I'm impressed by the continuity and how time actually passes. Each diary is a follow on from the one previously, and events that occurred in previous diaries are mentioned and progressions get made (e.g. Alex's depression, Mrs Winslow's cancer, Carol's baby, Maggie's anorexia). The plot-story arc seems a lot tighter in this series than in the regular BSC series.
Ann wrote Dawn Diary 3! I'm surprised she was still writing books at that stage... I'll have to check to see which other ones she wrote.
I really like Amalia. I think she's a great character, and I love her family.
Ducky drives me mad sometimes. I love him, but I wish he'd stop being such a doormat. Even he admits that he's a doormat. I wish he'd stop obeying Sunny's every command.
I've bought CD 12 from an online bookshop, so hopefully that'll arrive soon... Then I'll just have to track down the last two. God, I love these books!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2006 13:21:04 GMT -5
I'm going to have to get my hands on some of these. I really want to read more about Maggie!
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Nov 22, 2006 21:26:00 GMT -5
Just read Sunny Diary 3 last night. What a great book! Makes me wish that Ann wrote more of them.
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Nov 23, 2006 0:45:45 GMT -5
*sigh*
You're so lucky.
Sunny Diary 3 was incredible. Definitely one of the best anti-smoking resources out there, without being preachy (a rare thing in BSC land)
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Nov 23, 2006 6:33:40 GMT -5
Sunny Diary 3 made my cry! BSC books hardly ever make me cry. The only ones that have made me cry are the CD ones, actually...
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macca
Sitting For The Newtons
Posts: 2,084
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Post by macca on Dec 2, 2006 21:29:47 GMT -5
Found CD 14 and 15 at the library! Course it's not as good as having my own copies, but still, I never thought I'd get a chance to read them!!! ;D
Currently halfway through 15... Ducky is definitely supposed to be gay. Considering it's a BSC spin-off, chances are that won't be the outcome, but if it was any other book, it absolutely would be. Ducky feels like his manual for "being a guy" was missing some pages etc. There are other not-so-subtle quotes, but I can't think of them now.
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Post by booboobrewer on Dec 2, 2006 22:07:42 GMT -5
I loved Dawn, Diary 3. It felt longer than most of the other CDs too. How much Dawn obsessed over the concert, and what she'd wear, and what everyone was drinking was really amusing to me.
Ducky was very sweet in this CD too, totally agree about wishing he would have stood up to Sunny more.
Amalia was a great character. I found it interesting how she seems pretty confident and put together from Maggie's point of view, for example, but in her own diaries worries so much about what people think, her mistakes, etc. She seemed like a completely normal 13 year old girl and was very likeable.
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jen
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,156
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Post by jen on Dec 3, 2006 0:43:57 GMT -5
Amalia was a great character. I found it interesting how she seems pretty confident and put together from Maggie's point of view, for example, but in her own diaries worries so much about what people think, her mistakes, etc. She seemed like a completely normal 13 year old girl and was very likeable. I thought Maggie was like that, too! From Amalia'sdiaries, Maggie seems to be really perfect and put-together (if you could call it that), but from Maggie's perspectives, she has the same problems and insecurities as everyone else.
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courtky10
Sitting For The Johanssens
Posts: 1,125
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Post by courtky10 on Jun 18, 2008 15:33:56 GMT -5
I've only read three. It's hard to find CA Diaries. Maggie is my favorite character in this series, though.
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Post by mistrali on Feb 15, 2014 20:36:02 GMT -5
I read most of them in one fell swoop, excluding Amalia's. I found Dawn to be less distinctive here; she doesn't seem to have a voice. I wish they'd kept some of her BSC traits (concern about the environment, etc.) or given her some of her own new plots that dovetailed with those. I liked Gracie being born, but that's about all I can remember. A lot of her plot seemed to revolve around fights with Sunny, which makes for great continuity but doesn't give Dawn much of her own stuff.
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Post by merrymelody on Jun 9, 2020 8:34:03 GMT -5
I found Dawn to be less distinctive here; she doesn't seem to have a voice. I wish they'd kept some of her BSC traits (concern about the environment, etc.) or given her some of her own new plots that dovetailed with those. I liked Gracie being born, but that's about all I can remember. A lot of her plot seemed to revolve around fights with Sunny, which makes for great continuity but doesn't give Dawn much of her own stuff. Yeah, it's weird to see Dawn talking about how she wants her vest to be mistaken for leather, or how she's so laissez faire about drinking (I'd have thought someone as hot on healthy eating as Dawn would be a bit more worried from the first about not only her designated driver drinking, but also 13 year old Sunny drinking spirits from some older guy.) And the fights make Dawn more unpleasant than in BSC, I think - like there, she'd be fighting people like Mary Anne or the other BSC members, who could generally be relied upon to dish it back as heavily as they got it and weren't going through personal crises at that point; whereas her 'sweetly' making comments about how Sunny's dad 'doesn't care' because her mom is dying; or fighting with her over how she is with her own mother is cruel. (TBH, I think Sunny and Dawn were too alike in terms of spite, like when Sunny lashes out at Ducky for 'not doing anything', it's very similiar to how Dawn tells Mary Anne she's too passive and that in contrast, Dawn 'acts' and makes decisions. But the playing field isn't really fair when Sunny's like 'You're a baby' and Dawn comes back with cracks about parental terminal illness.)
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