From pages 8 and 9 of Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean:

"Hello, Molly," said Janet.

"Hi. Which of you is — oh, far out!" She lunged at the bookshelves, brought up with her nose an inch away from the book, and tilting her head sideways read her way down every spine there, nodding and exclaiming. "I hate Hermann Hesse," she said, wheeling around, "but the rest of these are my very favorites."

"They're mine," said Janet, beaming at her.

"So you're Janet. Can you really read Hesse?"

"My best friend likes him," said Janet, "and he's very intense."

"I thought he was boring," said Molly, "but never mind. What have you got in here?" She folded herself to the floor and looked expectantly at Janet. Janet . . . reached for the [box] containing the new books, the ones getting ready for college had not left her time to read.

. . .

"I haven't had time to read these," Janet said.

"Well, let's see," said Molly, turning the books over one by one. She had very long fingers. Till We Have Faces, All the Myriad Ways, Jack of Shadows, The Children of Llyr, More Than Human, The Daughter of Time, The Crystal Cave, and A Tan and Sandy Silence fell through her searching hands, accompanied by exclamations of approval and puzzlement and anticipation.

For those of you interested, here are further details on each of the above mentioned books:

• Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold is by C.S. Lewis, and the myth it retells is that of Cupid and Psyche. Originally published in 1956, it is currently back in print from Harvest Books.

• All the Myriad Ways is by Larry Niven. Originally published in 1971, this short story collection is currently out of print.

• Jack of Shadows is by Roger Zelazny. Originally published in 1971, this book is currently out of print.

• The Children of Llyr: The Second Branch of the Mabinogion is by Evangeline Walton. Originally published in 1971, it is currently out of print.

  This is one of four books in which Walton retells the first four books of the Mabinogion, an anonymous collection of 11 medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The other books are: The Song of Rhiannon: The Third Branch of the Mabinogion (1972), The Island of the Mighty: The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion (1936, 1974), and Prince of Anwn: The First Branch of the Mabinogion (1974).

• More Than Human is by Theodore Sturgeon. Originally published in 1953, this book is currently available from Vintage Books (ISBN: 0375703713).

• The Daughter of Time is by Joephine Tey. Originally published in 1951, this book is currently available in paperback from Scribner (ISBN: 0684803860).

• The Crystal Cave is by Mary Stewart. Originally published in 1970, this book is currently available in paperback from Fawcett Books (ISBN: 0449206440).

  This is the first of three books dealing with Merlyn and therefore with the Aurthurian saga. The other two books are titled The Hollow Hills (1973) and The Last Enchantment (1979). All three books are available in a single volume edition from William Morrow & Co (ISBN: 0688003478).

• A Tan and Sandy Silence is by John D. MacDonald. Originally published in 1972, this book is currently out of print.

I personally find it interesting that of the eight books mentioned, five are from the early 1970s (the time when it is set), while the other three are all from the mid 1950s... Perhaps favorites of Pamela Dean's? (She does have an official Web site, and although I saw no reference to this issue, there is a link to "The Annotated Tam Lin".)