On Chuck Colson's Breakpoint commentary yesterday, I was intrigued to hear of this new version of the Father Brown mysteries, specifically for younger ones. Originally created by G. K. Chesterton, a favourite author around NarniaWeb, this edition has been compiled by a homeschooling Catholic mom. Good for her! And what a great Christmas present for younger siblings!

I just finished reading Regina Doman's books The Midnight Dancers and Alex O'Donnel and the Forty Cyber Thieves. Both of them are really good and I enjoyed them immensely! Though Alex O'Donnel and the Forty Cyber Thieves is my new favorite of her fairy tale novels!

Also, I've been reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle to my two youngest siblings. I don't know how many times I have read that book--more than any other book no doubt. It never fails to capture my attention. And it's been so fun reading it to my siblings. Every evening they would get all excited over Meg's, Calvin's, and Charles Wallace's adventures and couldn't wait to read the next chapter...

I love that book so much, I have to say I'm more than a little disappointed with all of the sequels/prequels that surround it. Ah, well. I guess the first book was a really hard one to live up to, but at the same time some of L'Engles books got just plain weird!!

I've been compiling a list of all the books that I've read and could read again because I like them so much. I have over fifty thus far. View my blog later to see the whole thing.

I finished Anna Karenina yesterday. It's a weird book, though not quite so totally depressing as I expected. I really loved the ending.
I didn't like many of the characters - Levin some of the time, Dolly some of the time . . . It annoyed me how everyone would keep making complete personality switches, or going from happy to sad, or confident to awkward, over and over again, within just a few sentences. I despised Anna and Vronsky the entire time, I had no pity at all for them. Ugh. And in the beginning I really liked Anna's husband. Made me really mad.
But I loved the scenes where Levin was mowing, and when he was thinking to himself in the end. That was just heavenly, though none of it had anything to do with the plot.

I really liked Anna's husband toward the middle of the book. Then he sort of fades from view.

The scene with Levin mowing is one of my favourites too.

Ruby, I reread A Wrinkle in Time recently too! I saw the quote

"We want nothing from you that you do without grace," Mrs. Whatsit said, "or that you do without understanding."

and wanted to find out what the context was. Though, I think A Wind in the Door or An Acceptable Time are my favourite Murray books. I've heard that it's the Austin family-centric books that are strange(r), so I've never read any of those...

I just finished Entwined by Heather Dixon on Adeona's recommendation, and I'll second it! It's a lovely and satisfying retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Has anyone else read A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L'Engle? I remember reading it a long time ago and really liking it. But my views on a good book have changed since then, and I can't remember if it was clean, etc. So if anyone has read it, how was it?

Lucy of Narnia: funny you should mention that! I just found out that there was a Disney Channel Original movie made based on that book! now I want to read it

The only one of the Time Quartet that I found very weird was A Wind in the Door. It just had so much wacky stuff in it. Though I still like a lot of it, I kind of disliked the idea that Charles Wallace had to change to make people stop bullying him.
My favorite of them was definitely A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I just loved the time travel, the words of power, the unicorns--pretty much everything.
On another track, would you consider the Time Quartet fantasy or science fiction?
I would say that its science fiction, even if it doesn't get very technical.

Re: A Ring of Endless Light It has been simply ages since I read this book. I remember liking it a lot except for the parts with Zachary Gray (probably the only fictional character that I truly despise). However, I don't really remember how "clean" it is. I do know it's not as bad as some of her other ones. Then again, it's hard to get worse than House Like a Lotus.

I've heard that it's the Austin family-centric books that are strange(r), so I've never read any of those...

Yes and no. Her strangest books are really her more "adult" books like The Other Side of the Sun and The Severed Wasp. The Austin books are really less weird than the Murray books, they just have more Zachary Gray in them. The Young Unicorns is a little strange, but it's not too bad.

On another track, would you consider the Time Quartet fantasy or science fiction?
I would say that its science fiction, even if it doesn't get very technical.

Definitely more sci-fi than fantasy. Isn't it a Quintet, now? I'm trying to remember....didn't it start out as a Trilogy (Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, Swiftly Tilting Planet) and Many Waters made it a Quartet, and An Acceptable Time made it a Quintet. I suppose it depends on which edition though.

I despised Anna and Vronsky the entire time, I had no pity at all for them. Ugh

Amen, sister.

I really loved the ending.

I consider Anna to be a literary supervillain, sort of along the lines of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. So when

I didn't like many of the characters - Levin some of the time, Dolly some of the time . . . It annoyed me how everyone would keep making complete personality switches, or going from happy to sad, or confident to awkward, over and over again, within just a few sentences.

I've heard it said that Tolstoy wrote himself into the story, in a way. Levin in this book and Pierre in War and Peace are supposed to be generalized versions of himself. If so I suspect I would have liked Tolstoy very much in person as I loved both of the characters. Levin tends to get a bit melancholy at times, but he's got big ideas in his skull and the woman he loves ditched him to be with some Russian army clown who ends up dating the biggest tramp in the book. No one does love triangles like Tolstoy, yes?

But I loved the scenes where Levin was mowing

That was insane, wasn't it?! I remember back when I read the book I thought Levin was some sort of machine to just start mowing, not with a Troybilt or Husqvarna, but a scythe, and then he keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. He can come tackle my lawn when he's done with St. Petersburg.

I finished Catching Fire, part deux of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy. It was also a very good book, although not quite up to the standards set by its predecessor. Then again how many sequel books are able to successfully pull that off? I'm tired and thus too lazy to put in spoiler boxes, so I'll cut my micro-review short by saying that the love triangle is getting a bit old. It's quite clear to me that one is better suited to Katniss than the other, but she pines away for that one anyway. Typical. This facet of the book tends to be a bit invasive, and not at all endearing. In addition to this Katniss, who was quite self reliant and able to think on her feet in The Hunger Games (qualities which made her so formidable in the tournament), in this one she kinda stumbles along at times while everyone else does the majority of the work. I don't know...Katniss was almost kind of annoying in this one at times, but in the end I still really enjoyed the story. Looking forward to Part III. My wife has it on reserve at the library, so hopefully the odds will be in my favor and I'll have it soon.

Lucy of Narnia: funny you should mention that! I just found out that there was a Disney Channel Original movie made based on that book! now I want to read it

I know that there was a movie made of A Wrinkle in Time. I first read that book, in the Children's literature module, for my first librarian's qualification in 1968. It was written, and considered worthy of study by that time.

On another track, would you consider the Time Quartet fantasy or science fiction?
I would say that its science fiction, even if it doesn't get very technical.

When Wrinkle in Time was first written it was quite technical and science fiction-ish. The idea of a Tesseract was quite a brilliant suggestions, and no more far-fetched than Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak or those Star Trek thingies that allowed the crew to visit other planets.

I did read one of the sequels, a bit later on, but I found it a bit dreary. I can't remember which one it was, as I was unaware at that time of more than one sequel. Unlike A wrinkle in time, I did not consider buying it for my two young daughters. The book I read had some reference to Charles Wallace being sick because of illness in his mitochondria, which was the first time I had heard of the term. Since then, in archaeology, in genetics and in forensic science I have heard so much about mitochondria that it is nowhere near the highly unusual technical term it would have been then.

Although Meg loved Charles Wallace so much, in what I read, I wasn't surprised he would be bullied, as to tell the truth, he seemed a bit too precocious to 'fit in' with others. Sort of like someone suffering from Asperger's syndrome. Did Meg go on to marry Calvin?

I finished Catching Fire, part deux of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy. It was also a very good book, although not quite up to the standards set by its predecessor. Then again how many sequel books are able to successfully pull that off? I'm tired and thus too lazy to put in spoiler boxes, so I'll cut my micro-review short by saying that the love triangle is getting a bit old. It's quite clear to me that one is better suited to Katniss than the other, but she pines away for that one anyway. Typical. This facet of the book tends to be a bit invasive, and not at all endearing. In addition to this Katniss, who was quite self reliant and able to think on her feet in The Hunger Games (qualities which made her so formidable in the tournament), in this one she kinda stumbles along at times while everyone else does the majority of the work. I don't know...Katniss was almost kind of annoying in this one at times, but in the end I still really enjoyed the story.

I will have to ditto this. I was like "come ON, tell me who she ends up with!!" (why is there no "holding at gun point" smiley?) by the end. However, I did like Katniss in most of it. I was crying at points in the book because Katniss is quite like me in character, attitude, and personality. I almost never cry for books or movies even in the most heart rending sad parts. I only cry when I can see so much of myself in the character that it's almost disturbing. I can see all my faults so much clearer.

The book I read had some reference to Charles Wallace being sick because of illness in his mitochondria,

That happens in A Wind in the Door, which is the first sequel. I liked that one quite a bit, but A Swiftly Tilting Planet was better.

Did Meg go on to marry Calvin?

I'm not sure how spoilerish the answer is, but just in case:

I have yet to read the Hunger Games, but the first one is sitting on my shelf. Maybe I'll get to it after I finish Harry Potter (I'm on the fourth book).

I have yet to read the Hunger Games, but the first one is sitting on my shelf. Maybe I'll get to it after I finish Harry Potter (I'm on the fourth book).

THG is one of the most addictive reads I've had in the recent past. There comes a moment in the book when it grabs you and doesn't let go, so when you read it I recommend doing so on a weekend when work/school won't be there to interrupt.

Narnian_at_heart, there are definitely parts that had me taken aback quite a bit in the book. I'm not opposed to romance in a good book, but sometimes it's handled a bit ham handed in THG. But then there are times when it really comes together, but then immediately squandered when Person X or Y comes along and destroys it.

. I liked Catching Fire, but like I said, it just doesn't measure up to the first one by and large, but the plot development at the end is certainly interesting.

I haven't read any books past A Wrinkle in Time. They seem particularly difficult to find in libraries. I enjoyed the first book very much in terms of content and the ideas portrayed therein. I was less impressed by the writing style - well-written but too sparse for my liking.

It has been years since I read or watched A Ring of Endless Light, but I remember being incredibly unimpressed by the movie. The usual cliched Disney Channel nonsense. The book, as usual, was better.