@Narnian78, are you planning to read the rest of the books in the Anne of Green Gables series after you finish the first one?

@Arin, glad you were able to come to a satisfactory stopping point on the Murderbot books. I hope you're able to break out of the reading rut sometime soon - I tend to fall into them for a few different reasons, but not having a lot of free time to make good progress on a book is definitely one of them. 😐

Congrats on getting the Ashtown reread finished, @SnowAngel, and making it through The Silent Bells! Interesting about the ending being too fast - that would be disappointing. Your comment has me thinking, though, and I'm trying to remember if any of his endings actually were satisfactory to me. I know the series end of 100 Cupboards wasn't and I can't remember enough about the endings of his standalone books I've read to figure out if there's a pattern.
Too bad that you might not make all your reading goals for this year, but glad to hear you've knocked at least some of them off!

October hasn't been the best month for reading, but I've made it through some books at least. I read Green for Danger by Christianna Brand last week; I'd seen the movie of it a number of years ago and enjoyed it, but I found the book rather depressing. I know there were changes between the movie and the book, of course, but I can't remember if the murderer's identity was one of them or not, or if things ended any more happily for certain characters or not. I may have to track down a copy of the movie now and see how it stands up after the book.

@valiantarcher 

I borrowed Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea (both are written by L. M. Montgomery) from my church library, and I plan to read them soon. I have found the author to be quite enjoyable.  There are other books in the Anne series that look pretty inviting and maybe sometime I can read them too. The second book in the series, Anne of Avonlea, was changed considerably when it was adapted for television in its plot and some of the characters were altered.  But I think the creators of the 1980’s series did quite a good job especially with casting Megan Follows as Anne. That is why the series is so much loved even forty years later.  🙂

So I finished the Harry Potter books. 

It's weird but I think I liked the earlier books that were more for younger readers better than the more mature later books even though I'm not really a "younger reader." I just felt like they were more consistently engaging. I admire the mystery aspects of each book but towards the end of the series, I was reading more because I wanted to learn the solutions to the mysteries and be done with them than because I was enjoying the reading experience. (Also, I was a little miffed that the solution to the mystery of The Half Blood Prince had really nothing to do with the business of the story. It added some nice irony, I guess, but otherwise it could have been completely cut.) Much of the final book, I found slow going but the writing quality really picked up as it reached the climax, redeeming the whole thing for me. (I still think you could compress the plots of the last two books into one with only minor losses.) 

On the whole, I enjoyed the Harry Potter series, but I prefer the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander. I just think they're structured better. And I didn't get into either series when I was a kid, so I don't think nostalgia is affecting my judgement.

Anyway, my favorite characters were Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and maybe Percy. 

Recently, for my blog about adaptations, I did a list of which books that have served as source material for the adaptations the blog has covered over the years, I recommend the most. So if anyone is looking for reading material, they can always check it out for inspiration. The Adaptation Station’s Recommended Reading List | The Adaptation Station.com 

@col-klink I wanted to learn the solutions to the mysteries and be done with them than because I was enjoying the reading experience. (Also, I was a little miffed that the solution to the mystery of The Half Blood Prince had really nothing to do with the business of the story.

Do you mean, who was exactly the

Wasn't he the owner of the old potions workbook, Harry had found in the Room of Requirements? The thing about the titles of Rowling's septet is that generally she deals in "metonymy", when I can't remember the exact term we used on Leaky Cauldron, that I was looking for. The best example of what I mean is the Goblet of Fire, itself, when it wasn't the trophy being sought. Or the Silver Chair, itself, in the Narnian novel of that name? Or do you mean the mystery of Draco's task, involving his own many visits to the Room of Requirement?

The bit I found most tiresome about that particular book was the no-speaks between Ron & Hermione, when Ron & Lavender were an "item". As you have said, romance isn't really J.K. Rowling's thing, even when she is writing rather gruesome murder mystery novels under the name of Robert Galbraith, which also explains why Voldemort is also a much more gruesome villain than even the White Witch. 

As for the Deathly Hallows, yes, I agree that part of it dragged, & I don't understand why they made two films out of that book, alone. 

Anyway, my favorite characters were Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and maybe Percy.

Not sure I'd agree about Percy, when I thought he was too perfect, a real, proper, "Goodie Two-shoes". I'm afraid to say that I was more intrigued by Severus Snape, ably played by the late Alan Rickman. JK said she based him on a rather caustic former teacher she had as a child, but who was nevertheless a thoroughly good teacher. I see more of a resemblance between Severus Snape and a "Buccaneer of exquisite mind", who visited Western Australia twice, in 1688 & 1690, called William Dampier. 

I haven't read the Prydain books though I think I may have seen them in our rather slim stock of novels where I worked more than a decade ago. 

 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Not sure I'd agree about Percy, when I thought he was too perfect, a real, proper, "Goodie Two-shoes"

I guess he might be one of my favorite characters because I found the subplot of his estrangement from his family interesting. Also, I could tell the author really wanted me to like Fred and George better but in real life, I find people like them much more annoying than people like Percy, so my mind rebelled against the author's intent. It does that sometimes.  

I see more of a resemblance between Severus Snape and a "Buccaneer of exquisite mind", who visited Western Australia twice, in 1688 & 1690, called William Dampier. 

I haven't read the Prydain books though I think I may have seen them in our rather slim stock of novels where I worked more than a decade ago. 

I heartily recommend Prydain. I couldn't get past the first few pages of the first Harry Potter book but I finished all of the first Prydain book.

Was this Dampier the same one Dampier Land, in Western Australia, is named after?

  @cobalt-jade Was this Dampier the same one Dampier Land, in Western Australia, is named after?

Yes, William Dampier has to be one of the major names in world exploration. But, though discussion of his exploits in circumnavigating the world three times, 1st visiting Western Australia (1688) a full century before Sydney's foundation on 26th January in 1788, might belong better in our history thread, in writing his own autobiographical A new voyage around the world, published in 1697, he also became a literary figure in his own right. As a character, he was sometimes a regular captain of the British Navy but also a buccaneer, much like the earlier Sir Francis Drake, famous for "singeing the beard of the King of Spain", & for the 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada. However, like the later Captain James Cook, in 1770, who also circumnavigated the world in three expeditions, failing to return on the last, he was also responsible for many useful scientific observations that inspired Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution, plus the discovery of longitude as a navigational aid. 

In 2009 we (eldest daughter & myself) visited the National Maritime Museum at Fremantle, where I bought Diana & Michael Preston's A pirate of exquisite mind: the life of William Dampier, along with an account of the 1629 Batavia shipwreck in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, which I donated to the college library where I worked. We had a general Australian History collection, though the vast majority of the book stock was needed for student study in the subjects taught there. We also had a limited number of novels, music CD's & even some DVD's available for student relaxation . I'm not sure that the Prydain book I might have seen was the first of that particular series, & I never got around to reading it, being occupied otherwise. 

Dampier was involved with either the marooning or the rescue four years later, or even both, of Alexander Selkirk, an argumentative privateer, in the Juan Fernández Islands, west of South America. Daniel Defoe used this incident to write his Robinson Crusoe, which remains a classic story. Along with Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, a scathing satire of British society at the time of the Glorious Revolution & subsequently, despite Jack Black's cinematic version, which as far as I know, only dealt with Gulliver's Lilliputian adventure, & not the other bits about Brobdingnag etc, in sections 2,3 & 4 of that novel. Alan Rickman's portrayal of Severus Snape in the Warner Brothers' Harry Potter movies, did look a bit like William Dampier, as seen in his portrait (below, left) with a portrait of Alan Rickman in his role of Severus Snape on the right. 

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Congrats on getting the Ashtown reread finished, @SnowAngel, and making it through The Silent Bells! Interesting about the ending being too fast - that would be disappointing. Your comment has me thinking, though, and I'm trying to remember if any of his endings actually were satisfactory to me. I know the series end of 100 Cupboards wasn't and I can't remember enough about the endings of his standalone books I've read to figure out if there's a pattern.

Too bad that you might not make all your reading goals for this year, but glad to hear you've knocked at least some of them off!

I hadn't thought about it before, but his series' do end rather abruptly. I really enjoy most of his books, but the endings are rather sudden in the overall pace of the plot.

I'm blaming the poison ivy for missing my goals this year, all that time off from work and no reading to show for it.  

Ooh, I've seen the Green For Danger film, I'm pretty sure that Scarlet read the book before we watch the film. 

I'm currently reading Winter Is Not Forever by Janette Oke, it's the third book in the Seasons of the Heart series. My set of the books has the original covers from the late '80s which are the same as my older brother's set, but the younger siblings only remember the mass-market set that my parents have in their collection, so they weren't sure at first which books I was reading when they saw it.   I'm enjoying reading the series again, although The Winds of Autumn is still a very slow book.

Hope you've enjoyed the other Montgomery books, @narnian78.

I definitely have enjoyed the majority of Wilson's books I've read too, @SnowAngel, but it does seem odd that all the endings are pretty vague in my memory (except for the epilogue of The Chestnut King, which mostly stands out because I didn't care for it). Maybe he's just kind of weak at endings? Either way, hopefully this will help keep my expectations low for the end of The Silent Bells. 
Eep, poison ivy sounds rough - too bad about it derailing your reading too! Do you remember if Scarlet enjoyed the book of Green for Danger?
It's been a long time since I read Seasons of the Heart! We only owned the first three, and it took years before we found a library copy of the fourth one to borrow. I don't remember much about the series, so maybe I should reread it (if I can find copies)... I didn't know there were non-mass market copies, so that was new to me! Have you gotten on to the last book yet?

 I've been all over the place in my reading recently, but I'm currently reading a book about clothing in the US, primarily covering the 17th and 18th centuries (Two Centuries of Costume in America 1620-1820 by Alice Morse Earle). It's one I picked up at a book sale and I would've guessed it had been written in the 1970s or '80s, but it turns out it was actually a reprint of a book originally published in 1903! There is a distinct lack of sources and footnotes, but the author references a number of letters, shipping manifests, court records, and other primary documents, along with reprints of paintings and etchings, so it seems to be pretty well-researched. I haven't been able to make quite as much progress as I would like yet, but I have found it interesting. It appears to be the first volume of a two-volume set, so I may need to keep an eye out to see if the second volume shows up at another book sale.

@valiantarcher 

I just finished reading Anne of Windy Poplars. Before that I read Anne of the Island.  I will begin Anne’s House of Dreams very soon. L. M. Montgomery is quite a good author. I have never been to Prince Edward Island, but it seems like a very beautiful place with scenic lighthouses. I love the old fashioned atmosphere of the books. 🙂

Posted by: @lady-merian

I will be looking forward to seeing what you think of Alicia: My Story. It sounds right up my alley and it turns out I have easy access to an audiobook of it.

It was very, very good. And hard, as are all books on the holocaust/WW2. But also inspiring. Books like this cause one to wonder what one would do in similar situations. Tough stuff!

That is so cool you are reading the Anne series, @Narnian78! I hope you can get to Prince Edward Island sometime. It is absolutely delightful in so many ways. If it were not so far from family for us, we would move there. And, yes, the numerous lighthouses are iconic. 

I finished The Seamstress of Auschwitz by C. K. McAdam a short time ago. Now, this is an historical fiction novel, but based on tons of research facts. I also finished re-reading The Volunteer [Witold Pilecki]: the true story of the resistance hero who infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather.These are both difficult, excellent, extremely poignant, and very informative. Both highly recommended.

I am currently re-reading Village of Secrets: defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead, who also wrote the gripping A Train in Winter: an extraordinary story of women, friendship, and survival in WW2 (2011). This is a story I had know nothing about when I first encountered the book a few years ago (via NWeb, I think); it is fascinating - full of courageous, committed people to the cause of what is right.

@narnian78 when you say you’ve read the shorter versions of George MacDonald’s romances, do you mean the ones edited by Michael Phillips, by any chance? We have a stack of those which I think I’ve read only one of with the intent to read more at some point. I have considered reading an unedited one, but the dialect I got a sampling of was so thick that I had a difficult time parsing it—and I usually like a good Scots dialect! It could’ve been just that one character, but even so I decided I’d wait for a time and then haven’t gotten around to it since. 
Also I hope you enjoy the Anne of Green Gables series!

@snowangel I agree about the ending seeming rushed in The Silent Bells, but I actually thought it might just have been me reading quickly. Or else my usual issue of finding endings of particularly long-awaited books rushed just because I’ve had longer to build them up in my mind. 

@valiantarcher you didn’t like the ending of 100 Cupboards?  I didn’t care much for the epilogue, but the ending of the story itself I did like a lot. (Outlaws of Time on the other hand…  and not just because of what I’ve mentioned disliking about that before, I don’t think.) I didn’t read any of his standalone books. The Door Before, I’d say, has reason to not be as tidy of an ending, and I do remember a slight dissatisfaction with something but not particularly what. Not sure how I’d find it upon revisiting. But that one is in a weird spot of being a prequel to both series, neither a standalone nor an ending to a series.
You probably made it through more than I did for October. I only finished 3 books that month though I did make it most of the way through my reread of The Perilous Gard and could have finished it in October if the last chapter didn’t seem so particularly November-y to me.
The book about clothing sounds pretty interesting!

@col-klink I never got into HP but I LOVE Prydain! I also read those as an adult, but found them very engaging still.

@jo I have made sadly very little progress on nonfiction this year, but Alicia: My Story is definitely still in my favorites waiting for me.

What I have been reading (or listening to) a good deal of is Agatha Christie’s Poirot series. SInce I last posted about The Mysterious Affair at Styles, I have read 10 more and am on the 12th book now. Particular standouts in the lot were The Big Four, Peril at End House, Lord Edgeware Dies, and Murder on the Orient Express.

@lady-merian 

Yes,  the MacDonald books were the shorter versions edited by Michael Phillips. It has been at least twenty years since I have last read them. I don't know what MacDonald would have thought of someone else tampering with his work. But I don't think many people today would put up with his sermonizing in his novels. He was a good preacher but a poor novelist, as C. S. Lewis said. and Lewis was one of his greatest admirers.

I am reading Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery.  It is one of her better books with much old fashioned humor.  I don't think many of today's authors have the charm of storytelling that she had.  Her books are still in print, although some of that may be because of the television series, which has caused a demand for them.

@narnian78 But I don't think many people today would put up with his sermonizing in his novels. He was a good preacher but a poor novelist, as C. S. Lewis said. and Lewis was one of his greatest admirers.

Have you ever read Charles Kingsley's Water Babies? I was given that book as a 10 or 11-year-old, I think, but never liked reading it since it was so unlike the Sydney I grew in, and yes, I remember there was much sermonising in that book, also, about the life of a chimney sweep, I think it was. I remember an Irishwoman dressed in a ragged gown, and "Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby", and "Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid", but for the life of me I never worked out what the book was really about.     

At school we learned that we should be grateful to go to school, thanks to the English House of Lords member, Lord Shaftesbury, who did his best to stop children as young as five or little older, going down the mines & working in factories, to earn a few pennies, not even shillings, & so he would have helped stop poor children from becoming chimney sweeps or the Dickensian The Little Match Girl, which, I believe, was based on an all too true story, of Victorian England. One of our early NSW Premiers, also known as our Father of Federation, Sir Henry Parkes, was a great believer in universal education.  

@valiantarcher Yes, I have read the Anne of Green Gables series, but they belong to one of my daughters. It seems that Anne & Gilbert Blythe moved around Prince Edward Island quite frequently. The last one I read was Rilla of Ingleside, & I found the book the saddest of them all, & rather too predictable, in a way, when it is set during WW1. Wasn't that particular book the last book of the series?

@jo There are also other WW2 books you might also enjoy reading, one which I remember studying in Year 7 English literature called The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams about the escape of some prisoners-of-war from Stalag Luft III. There are also two hefty WW2 tomes, The Winds of War & Remembrance, both written by Herman Wouk, which, I think, might have been televised at some point. And, of course, I've also read Paul Brickhill's The Dam-Busters, which became a 1955 film, starring Michael Redgrave, a patriarch of the Redgrave family who have starred in many films. 

@waggawerewolf27 

I am not sure which book was the last of the Anne of Green Gables series.  I don't think my church library has all of them. I am trying to read all of them that the library has, but since my church is going to close in few weeks I don't know if I will be able to finish all of them. There is a public library across which may have more of the books, but I plan to read all of them in the church library first. The books are better than I thought they would be, and I would recommend them to anyone.

I have not read Charles Kingley's Water Babies.  I am not sure if that book is available here in the U. S.

I ordered The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. It is illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. I had not read the book since my children's literature course in college.  I ordered it to replace a worn out copy that was withdrawn from a school library. The 1905 edition, which I also own, does not contain illustrations (it is a replica of that edition).  It is surprising that there was an edition of that book without any pictures. 

I have an old paperback of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill. It is from the 1960's, and I remember reading that book in the early 1970's. The story was made into a famous movie starring Steve McQueen. I recommend both the book and movie if you like stories about World War II.