Emily’s Quest seems like a great story. I am enjoying reading it as much as any of L. M. Montgomery’s books. Did anyone watch the TV series based on the Emily books? I have never seen it, but I wonder if it was worth watching. According to some of the reviews the adaptation changed too much of the story. I wonder if the actress playing Emily was as good as Megan Follows. Anne of Green Gables (the 1980’s version) was one of the best television versions based on the books.

@Arin, are you still working your way through Team of Rivals? And I do find Christie rather mixed as well.

Team of Rivals  -- Arguably yes, as i haven't finished it and still have the ebook in my possession. I don't remember the last time i read anything in it, but it's been a loooooong time.

Personally i still find Christie the most appealing of the Golden Age mystery authors, but when you write -- what, 60-70 books? -- they're not all gonna be winners. 

Blue Sword was good, but it might be a bit overrated. I really like McKinley's writing, but I don't love her plots. I think my favorite book of hers is Beauty. Some of her other books have better writing but Beauty is the one with the best story IMO.

I'm thinking of writing a blog post about McKinley's fairy tale adaptations but if I do, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to share it on Narniaweb because of the adult content in some of her books. 

Posted by: @narnian78

He cannot be blamed for that especially if he was a clergyman.

I'm not sure why clergymen should be exempt from blame for anything, but I certainly don't feel that Hooper did anything wrong by publishing previously unpublished writings by Lewis. As you say, none of this has had a bad effect on Lewis's reputation. 

I just looked it up. Walter Hooper was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church.  I don’t know what his church membership was before that since he apparently was not always Catholic. Perhaps he was a member of the Anglican Church like his friend C. S. Lewis.  It was fortunate that he as Lewis’ secretary saved so much of Lewis’ writing for us to read.

Wait, is the Julie Rose translation of Les Miserables the one that referred to the...restaurant (?) as a "greasy spoon"?

That's the one.

It is true that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or the size of its print, but I like a book that is beautiful to look at. And now that I am older I tend to prefer larger more readable print. So I like it that the newer editions of Lewis’ books are easier to read. As an adult who occasionally reads children’s books I prefer books that are designed for children with colorful illustrations. And I also consider the paper the text is printed on before purchasing the book. A beautiful book means more to me than one that is plain and adequate but unattractive. It all depends on your value and taste.  :)

I would encourage anyone to read the Emily books by L. M. Montgomery. They are easily as good as Anne of Green Gables, and the author has created a delightful character Emily who is something like Anne but has her own personality. They are wonderfully old fashioned depicting life on Prince Edward Island about one hundred years ago. The three books of the trilogy are Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest.

A TV series was made about the books, although I have never seen it. Unfortunately, a lot of great television series from Canada aren’t broadcast here in Michigan. Anne of Green Gables made it to the U. S., but that may have been the only series broadcast on PBS based on L. M. Montgomery’s books.  I have read some reviews about the Emily TV series, and some say it is nothing like the original books. I am not sure if I want to watch it if it is not the same quality as Anne of Green Gables.

@Col-Klink, I'm intrigued by your theory about Till We Have Faces vs. the Space Trilogy, but can't really be a data point currently. {ym}:giggle:
Wait, is the Julie Rose translation of Les Miserables the one that referred to the...restaurant (?) as a "greasy spoon"? If so, I've read it.
And that is a great description of the antagonist prince by Brooke.

@Anfinwen, nice! {ym}:grin: Have you read that last Savery in your list by now?

@SnowAngel, I'm glad you got to enjoy your reread of Tahn more this time around!

@Arin, are you still working your way through Team of Rivals? And I do find Christie rather mixed as well.

You've had lots of interesting books on the go lately, @Jo! {ym}:grin: And I probably did recommend Silent Night as I own a copy and have read it. {ym}:giggle:

@Narnian78, I've read Black Beauty but not the Emily books. I haven't read any of the Narnia/Lewis books you've been asking about, but my understanding is that Jonathan Rogers is a Christian, yes. And I don't tend to pay attention to different editions of Lewis's books, so I don't factor them into purchasing.

@Silverlily, oh, I remember seeing Shadow Spinner at the library! I think I may've even read it once but I don't remember anything about it if so. {ym}:blush: I'm glad it helped up fairly well to the reread!

I've been going through some slow reading spots and most of the reading progress I have been making has been bouncing between older mysteries and older children's books. My current read is technically both - Ginny Gordon and the Mystery of the Old Barn by Julie Campbell, published 1951. {ym}:giggle:

https://www.amazon.com/All-My-Road-Before-1922-1927/dp/0062643584

This book Of Other Worlds I have owned since I was in college. I have a much older edition than the book shown on Amazon.  It is interesting to read Lewis’ views on how children’s stories should be written.  The essays and stories are in the same book, which is quite unusual, but it is quite a variety of material. Did you like the book and the essays and stories in it?  

https://www.amazon.com/Other-Worlds-Essays-Stories/dp/0062643541

Do you like the newer editions of C. S. Lewis’ books?  I have replaced some of the older paperbacks with new editions because they are in better condition and have larger, more readable print, and also they are more attractive volumes. I have kept my hardcovers because they may someday be valuable as vintage items, and therefore mean more to me. They are beautiful books. :)

I've given up on War and Peace. {ym}:blush:  It has some really powerful scenes in it, but it takes forever to get to them and when I do, I almost find them anticlimactic after waiting so long. This may be a rare case where I prefer to watch adaptations of a classic work of literature to actually reading it. Someday I may try to finish it when I'm more in the mood. I stopped because I realized I was reading it more to be done with it than because it was giving me much pleasure. That's not a good sign.

In the interest of reading that gives me pleasure, I reread William J. Brooke's trilogy A Telling of the Tales, Untold Tales and Teller of Tales recently. While some of the fracturing of fairy tales in them is pretty old hat by now, the prose is succulent. It's a shame the books aren't better known. Doesn't this description of an antagonistic prince in one of them perfectly describe Rabadash? 

He hated anything that was beautiful that he could not possess.