I was hoping to hear good things about Swamplandia! as well, Valiant_Lucy. I read Russell's short story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves earlier this summer. I enjoyed the collection pretty well, and one of the stories in there is what became Swamplandia!. I guess maybe she should have left it as a short story.

Both of you may well enjoy Swamplandia! so don't let me scare you away. I'm the first person I've heard of who just really didn't like it. My praise for the book is the same as Booky's for his disappointing reading venture: the world building is excellent. But the characters are pretty annoying, except Ava, and so far she mostly just observes her sister who has romantic relationships with spirits. So that's weird... I heard the book has a slow beginning so I kept waiting but I decided halfway was too far for a "beginning." And there isn't a plot really. They're trying to get the park back and running, but right now it just feels like they're waiting.

Hmm, ok. Well, good to know.
I wonder does anyone have any thoughts on I Am the Messanger by Markus Zusak (author of The Book Thief)? I'm almost done it...I think The Book Thief is my favorite of the two, but it's incredibly well written all the same. Check it out.

Has anyone read The Elegance of the Hedgehog? It's been sitting on my shelf for almost a year, and I keep meaning to read it but haven't got around to it yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement.

Since posting this two months ago, I've decided to read Les Miserables.

Yes, please do try to curb your inner shock.

All joking aside, this decision has been a long time in coming. I first got interested in it when I first heard about the upcoming movie with Hugh Jackman in it, though I'd heard about it many times long before that. Then, recently The Rose-Tree Dryad showed me some videos on YouTube that involved Marius, Cosette, and Eponine. On the principle that it is a brilliant love triangle and I related to it a lot, that alone made me think that maybe Les Mis was worth looking into.

Yesterday I read a post that one of my blog buddies had written about it, outlining the sheer genius of one of the scenes, and so that morning I told Mom that I was thinking of reading it. I wasn't totally sure if I would yet, but then she brought home a copy of it from the library. So that settled that.

I'm on page 9. We'll see how this goes.

I am knee deep in an advanced reader copy of Dee Henderson's newest book. It releases on Oct 2nd.

AI YI YI! There was a twist early on that has definitely thrown me for a loop. Took me about another 100 pages to absorb the twist. lol.

Her writing has definitely deepened quite a bit since the O'Malley series. This book doesn't follow the typical Christian fiction pattern of:

unsaved main character meets saved main character
adventure/mayhem ensues
unsaved character and main character fall in love
unsaved character is saved
problem solved, all live happily ever after.

For starters, both main characters are saved.

This one's got quite the plot to it. It also showcases her research into all of the various jobs of her characters. I'm into the last 100 pages of the book! Hopefully I'll get it finished tonight. If anyone wants spoiler details you guys can pm me.

All joking aside, this decision has been a long time in coming. I first got interested in it when I first heard about the upcoming movie with Hugh Jackman in it, though I'd heard about it many times long before that. Then, recently The Rose-Tree Dryad showed me some videos on YouTube that involved Marius, Cosette, and Eponine. On the principle that it is a brilliant love triangle and I related to it a lot, that alone made me think that maybe Les Mis was worth looking into.

Granted, I only read it once and that was a very, VERY long time ago, but I probably should warn you that if you're reading Les Mis solely for the love triangle factor, you may find yourself disappointed.

From what I remember (and my sister was a Les Mis fanatic so she imparted a lot of information on to me), the whole Eponine/Cosette/Marius triangle was largely an invention of the musical. In the book, it's much less of a factor to all the characters. It would probably better be described as unrequited "love" on the part of one character, if one could even call it that.

Anyway, I hope you'll stick with the book anyway; there really are some decent bits in it. Let me know how you fare once you get to the chapter about the Parisian sewers. Victor Hugo was nothing but verbose.

Ah, the sewers of Paris.

Hugo had a lot of these lengthy diversions in Les Mis, like the Friends of the ABC and the Waterloo discourse, that seemed secondary to the main plot but always tied in somehow. There were times, in the midst of them, when I was tempted to skip ahead to get back to our heroes.

I think I first read Les Mis at just the perfect time in my life for it to really be meaningful - and it was really helpful that I read it at the same time as several other NarniaWebbers (like Cymru and lysander), and we were able to discuss it in the old Town Squares or by PM. Those exchanges of ideas and reactions added so much to my experience!

*catches up from way back on page 92*

Bella! *coughs* In the 2+ months since you posted you were reading Swallows and Amazons, I'm assuming/hoping you've finished it? And, if so, did you like it? I hope so.

Mel, I think I may've already answered this question, but if not, the short answer for if I would recommend The Scent of Water to someone else is, yes but cautiously. If you read it, I'd be very interested to hear what you thought.

Ooh, that's a very nice book haul, Ithilwen! Have you been making your way through that stack yet?

wild rose, it sounds like you got some good book suggestions---I hope you've been able to read and enjoy some of them.

Val, I believe lys read The Elegance of the Hedgehog a while back. I don't think he liked it. Hold on, I found his post with a review! I think he had some other thoughts earlier in that Books thread, but I'll let you look them up for yourself.

Hehe, yes, Mountie, if you're looking for a love triangle, Les Miserables is definitely not the book to read. But I'm glad you're giving it a try anyhow! If memory serves, the love triangle is almost entirely made up/expanded for the musical.
(Oh, em, yes, Gymmie already explained that. Basically what she said then. )

Oh! I didn't know Dee Henderson had a new book out, Kat. I'm really glad you liked it. I'll keep an eye out for it, since I read and liked her O'Malley series years ago.

Mmhmm, I read Les Miserables with NWebbers too, gazer, and it helped a lot.

Alrighty, a short (it tried so hard to be short!) run down of some of the books I've read since I last posted:

A Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer: I finally finished this one right before school started. It was pretty bad. The book ended with the future of the secondary characters unresolved, and the main lady ended up with I'm thinking it's back to the book sale for that book unless anyone here desperately wants to read it.

Legend by Marie Lu: I'm kind of divided on this book, because the things I really liked and things I really disliked about it are about equal here. On the plus side, the great sibling relationships (including the quasi-sibling relation between Tess and Day) were really nice and different, and Day was a pretty good main character. On the negative side, I found June pretty annoying (I'm having trouble remembering exactly why, but I think it was largely because she was arrogant and had an inflated sense of herself), and

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: I was kind of uncertain going into this one because it didn't look particularly interesting to me, but I couldn't pinpoint why and I'd heard good things about it from other people.

The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond by G. K. Chesterton: This is less of a novel and more of a collection of eight connected short stories. It has some of the same characteristics as Manalive (mysterious central character who says odd things, admired but ridiculously useless people, dull sensible people), but more in moderation, which Manalive lacked (which is part of why I like this book so much better). Even if the odd things Mr. Pond says were a little frustrating at times, they all had logical stories behind them. Captain Gagahan is well-liked and a horrible dandy, but there's more to him than that, at least eventually. The sensible Sir Wotton, though a bit dull at times, is very sharp and is also a great friend of Mr. Pond, usually being patient with him and understanding the importance of his paradoxes even if he can't figure out what on earth he said. My favourite character, though, was Miss Artemis Asa-Smith, an American reporter who is supposed to be interviewing Mr. Pond about some family skeletons in the closet:

We have all heard of American interviewers who rip up family secrets, break down bedroom doors, and collect information in the manner of burglars. There are some; but there are also others. There are, or were, when the intelligent writer remembers them, a very large number of intelligent men ready to discuss intelligent things; and there was Miss Asa-Smith. She was small and dark; she was rather pretty and would have been very pretty if she had not dipped her lipstick in hues of earthquake and eclipse. Her finger-nails were painted five different colours, looking like the paints in a child's paintbox; and she was as innocent as a child. She was also as garrulous as a child. She felt something paternal about Mr. Pond and told him everything. He did not have to tell her anything. . . . She had written a play; and she just longed to read it to Mr. Pond.

Sorry for the long quote, but it amuses me so. Sadly, she's only in part of one chapter, but she keeps reading him parts of her play and sidetracking conversations, and he keeps trying to get back to what the interview is actually about.
My favourite chapter, though, was "Ring of Lovers"; not so much for the actual story, but for the character development in it and the truth or revelation that one of the characters comes to in it.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (re-read):
I was really struck by how Corrie and Betsie could see God's hand in everything, and how clearly His timing and providence were shown throughout it. Particularly with the fleas, and then earlier, during the bombings, when Betsie tells Corrie there are no "if"s in God's plan. I knew I'd loved this book, but I was reminded of exactly why this time around.

I've checked out a ton of other books lately (I can keep uni books for four months now!!! Yes, I've gone a bit crazy. ), including a few books connected to the Holocaust, some more Chesterton, a couple of books about unknown sisters of famous authors/famous women before they were well-known, and a book about planned sci-fi movies that were never made. I'm currently reading Dragon Sword and Wind Child, a Japanese fantasy novel.

Bear Grylls: Mud, Sweat and Tears isn't great literature, but that's not its aim. The book is an honest look at Bear's life leading up to his Man Versus Wild TV series and other projects. The beginning chapters are a little slow but the book becomes more and more interesting. Here, Bear shares his physical, emotional and spiritual struggles. He's proud of his own accomplishments but he appears to have a humble spirit. The writing styles makes for easy reading but Bear's adventures will exhaust the reader, as you really feel you're experiencing everything he did. A highly enjoyable read. 8/10

You know I've read a book that I really liked when the first thing I want to do is jump on the computer and chat about it with friends.

I don't usually find a lot of new material myself these days, so I tend to go off the suggestions of friends and others. One site I found that has directed me to a lot of really great young adult fiction is Forever Young Adult, a blog written by a group of women who love YA lit. Since YA is primarily what I read (it's hard to find mainstream fiction that I REALLY like; YA tends to check a lot of boxes for me); this was an AWESOME site. It has acquainted me with a lot of really great books that I never would have read otherwise.

Now, I do have to make the disclaimer that the site is written by a bunch of women with hardly any filters, so there is some swearing and adult humor to filter through.

Anyway, onto a couple books that I've read recently that I wanted to share!

Entwined - Heather Dixon
A re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses tale; a story that I wasn't all that familiar with but made for an excellent novel. The story has just the right touch of fantasy, humor, horror and sweetness to make it a well-rounded story. And holy crap, would this make a FANTASTIC movie. Seriously, I don't even like scriptwriting, but this make me wish Screnzy was happening RIGHT NOW so I could take this book on, because it would make SUCH A GREAT MOVIE. The dialogue was great; modern but not TOO modern. If you love fairy tales, you need to check this book out because it is REALLY good.

The Blue Castle - Lucy Maud Montgomery
Now, the fact that I had never read this until recently is shocking in and of itself because I read pretty much everything LMM wrote when I was a teen. But somehow this book escaped me, which is a crying shame because it's SO good. Although I am glad that I was able to discover it recently, because I felt like the problems and emotions of the protagonist were much more relate-able to a someone in their twenties than a teenager.
It's a really sweet tale of 29 year-old Valency, who is an old maid and has spend her entire life living under the thumb of her mother and extended family. Then one day she discovers that she's dying and has only a year to live, and suddenly wants to make the rest of her life COUNT. She stops "being" and starts LIVING, and while some of her actions are a little extreme, I thought it was a really cool lesson on living each day to the fullest and not just getting stuck in a rut because we feel like there's no way out. I know I'm often guilty of settling into what's comfortable and familiar, but it's so easy to miss out on the wonderful things in life because you're afraid of what change would bring.

So yeah, sorry for the confusing dissertation, but go read this book. I think you'll like it.

Code-Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Wow. Totally picked up this book on a one-sentance reccomendation, not knowing ANYTHING about it except that it was the sort of book that overly-protective parents would approve of (I disagree, but that's not the point. ). It's hard to classify what kind of story this is...it's a diary, it's a war story, it's a spy story, it's a friendship story...it's so many different things, and it is SO gripping. I haven't read a book cover-to-cover like that since I read the Hunger Games.

I'm gonna review the rest in spoilers so I can reply to ValiantArcher.

Spoiler

I thought Julie's dialogue was witty and hilarious, which is kind of strange considering that she's writing about really horrible things and is being treated in the most inhumane manner possible. There was times where I'd laugh and then I'd clap my hand over my mouth because I couldn't believe I was laughing at something so horrible, yet presented in such a witty way. That's the Scottish in her, I guess. But then I'd go to being all choked up on the next page, so it all evened out.

Before I started reading this book I didn't know much about it except that it was a WWII story about the friendship between two girls, so I think that definitely shaped my perspective in how I approached the book. If I'd gone in expecting a thrilling war story I may or may not have been disappointed, but since the story was largely about Julie and Maddie, I really liked all the cut-aways and description of how they met and what their lives were like. I didn't find Julie annoying and I was really sad that Maddie was being written in past tense; she sounded awesome.

Then the book flipped, and I literally was holding the book closer to my eyes as I tried to read faster, going "wait, what?!" The author totally played with my emotions, lol. First it was like, "This is a really bittersweet story, with one girl dead and another girl about to die. Wait, SHE'S ALIVE? They're both gonna make it! Oh...wait. Now she's dead. Sniff."

The ending was SO SAD, but since I'm one of the few who had little to no problem with how Mockingjay was written, I could handle it. I get that war is ugly, and people DO die...there's rarely a happy ending for everyone involved. Doesn't mean it's a bad story if there's no happy ending...just means that it's different and probably more realistic.

And regarding the Gestapo agent, considering that she was party to some of the suffering that Julie was subjected to while held captive, I didn't find Julie's feelings towards her all that surprising. I'm sure that if you were held and tortured, you'd develop less than pleasant feelings towards everyone involved, even if they didn't personally administer the torture.

Anyway, great book, go read it, yadda yadda. It's YA but it does have some swearing and stuff in it, so kiddies be warned.

Emily of Deep Valley - Maud Hart Lovelace
Another old-timey book that smacks of the stuff that L.M. Montgomery wrote, but this one is all American. Emily is an eighteen year old girl who has just graduated from high school and longs to go to college like all her friends, but has to stay home and care for her aging grandfather. She's resigned herself to lost years of youth and productivity when she finally realizes that just because she can't go away and learn the things she wants to learn, it doesn't mean she can't be just as productive and useful at home. She learns to dance, expands her circle of friends, takes up studying poetry and starts a outreach to immigrant families. By staying home and applying herself to the things at hand, she comes away far more mature and well-rounded than she would have been otherwise.

It's a really sweet story and one that I wish I'd read when I was younger and faced with a very similar situation, where I couldn't go away and get more formal education because we were in a really tight spot at home and I was needed. *I* filled my days with books and taught myself Photoshop and website design, but there certainly was a lot more that I could have done to make those years far more fulfilling than they were. Even now, there's so many opportunities to "redeem lost time" that I don't take advantage of, so I really thought this book was a great little reminder to never settle for less just because we can't aspire to the highest form of education that we want.

Ok, done rambling! I just came and typed up this post on a whim so I know it's pretty confusing and full of random bits, but if anyone has read any of the books I've mentioned, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

*agrees with pretty much everything Gymfan wrote in her post* Particularly on the subject of Emily of Deep Valley which I did read right at the end of high school.

re: Code Name Verity: I read about this book for at least a year on the author's blog before it was published and I read some of the stuff she mentioned she read while writing it so... I am not very objective about this book.

I just started rereading the Percy Jackson books yesterday; trying to finish them before The Mark of Athena comes out. I love that no matter how many times I read this series, it's always incredibly interesting

I'm currently reading Anne of Ingleside. And when I finish it, I'm going to read Rainbow Valley. I got both books on the 13th when we went to our favorite used book store in KC while we were visiting family. I started AoI on Sunday, I have read 130 pages so far. And I love it. So glad I got it. Now, I'm thinking it's time to watch the movies again, but that's for another thread.

While visiting my Mom's side of the family, one of my cousins gave me Arms of Deliverance by Tricia Goyer, The Trials of Kit Shannon series by James Scott Bell, and 3 out of 4 books in the Victorian Serenade series by Lawana Blackwell. Very excited to read all of those books again! And I also got Sarah's Song by Karen Kingsbury, but that was from someplace else. I have wanted The Trials of Kit Shannon for a long time, but never found them anywhere and now I have the whole series. I love Tricia Goyer's books, so AoD was on my wishlist.

SnowAngel

I'm currently reading Anne of Ingleside. And when I finish it, I'm going to read Rainbow Valley. I got both books on the 13th when we went to our favorite used book store in KC while we were visiting family. I started AoI on Sunday, I have read 130 pages so far. And I love it. So glad I got it.

ohhh!!!
Have you read them before?! I think I've read all of the "Anne books" except Rilla of Ingleside... and I believe I even started it once. Can't remember for sure. But, getting off of my tangent... I LOVE Rainbow Valley!!! That's probably my favourite of the lot! I can't wait to hear what you think! (even if it has been awhile since I've read it )

Now, I'm thinking it's time to the movies again, but that's for another thread.

Another thread, indeed! *will probably pm you thoughts on THOSE*

.................
What have I been reading lately? Not much of anything... I don't think. Does reading several chapters of the Bible a week count?

See, I decided to read the whole thing in a year/however long it takes me. I started this a few months ago... and back then I only did one chapter a week. I'm actually kind of discouraged a bit right now, because it's been months (at least three, but probably longer) and I just this week got into Numbers.

Hey, what can I say? Those early Old Testament books are LONG. Dad suggested skipping around so I don't get bogged down in the early books. But I'm just worried that if I don't read straight through, I'll skip only to my favourites... and the ones I've read the most. I know there are many parts of the Bible I haven't read yet... and being in my twenties, and having a Pastor for a dad... that's kind of embarrassing. So, straight through is what I'm doing. Anyone have tips on how to make it go a little faster?

I really want to get the most out of this endeavor that I can... yet still have it happen at a decent pace...

Last Tuesday, after months of commenting off-hand that i really should go, i went to ... the library (gasps, shocked faces). I didn't anticipate how good it would feel to read some good books again.

I picked up a couple re-reads - The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, love Shakespeare - and a couple new books; most notably to me is Mistborn, which i just finished. Literally, like under a half hour ago.

On the whole, i'm impressed. It took a while for me to get really engaged with it, the system of "magic" definitely took some getting used to, and it was more violent than i expected, but it was still a good read. The plot was creative, the characters were likable and distinct, and i laughed out loud more than once.

My only real complaint, apart from the weird (though i gotta give it points for inventiveness) magic system and the time it took me to get engaged, is

A little less recently, i read another trilogy - the Levithan trilogy - at the recommendation of my sister and brother. It's steampunk, set in an alternate World War One. It was decent enough reading, but it seemed to me that the characters didn't change at all from when they were introduced in the first book. Something bugged me, too, about the way various types of prejudice were handled, though i can't quite nail it down. Maybe it was the way they were introduced, occasionally referenced, but never discussed or resolved by anybody.

Anyway, next up is the second Mistborn book, The Well of Ascension.