Two books I can't remember

[telophase]

Cross-posted to whatwasthatbook

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I'm trying to remember the titles of two books at the moment:

1) a book that I hated, actually. It came up in a conversation elsewhere and it bothers me that I can't remember the title. It's a fantasy that I read sometime in 2002-2004 and published around then. I believe it's supposed to be the story of how the protagonist became an evil character. It's told in first person and the character spent some time in his youth in a religious order like a monastery. The key part I remember - and what caused me to hurl it with great force put the book down was when the protagonist, during some sort of strategy-plotting session with other characters, led them on a sort of guided visualization exercise for one of the plans that they were considering - asking them to respond with the actions they would perform as he described the circumstances of their infiltration of a town (I think), with the help of some sort of storytelling dice. Yes, you got that correctly, he DMed an RPG in the middle of the book.

Anyway, although the book read basically as a D&D session log, it is not Villains by Necessity. And although I think they may have called the dice "destiny dice," it is not Bischoff's Destiny Dice. I think the author is female. puppleball, I may have passed this book on to you - I certainly remember telling you about it back in 2003 or 2004, when we were cleaning out J&C's apartment after the fire.

2) a children's book I read over and over as a kid, which means it was published in the 1970s or earlier, most likely. I think it was set in New York City, or some large metropolitan city like that. The main character and her family lived in an apartment building. Her little sister loved horses so much that she either thought she was a horse or pretended she was a horse all the time, and I think may even have made a tail for herself to wear. At one point, the main character or her sister got hit on the head by falling masonry from construction on a building, and I think the main character's friend made her a paper charm to wear that looked like this:



ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A


and she was supposed to cut a row of letters off every day, which was supposed to help her (or her sister, whichever one got hit) get better, I think.



Whoa, the LJ posting form changed radically between, like five minutes ago and now...

Comments

[animarelic.livejournal.com]

I remember the second book, but not the title. Something about how her sister spent a whole year pretending she was 'A five gated mare' and would speak only in whinnies and neighs.

And I remember the Abracadabra necklace too! Argh, this is going to drive me crazy!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Someone on the book-finding community remembers it, too, but not the title. XD

I hadn't thought about it in years, but once I did ... aaarg!