Just out of total curiosity, does anybody have children, younger siblings, or young relatives that are part of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library? I hadn't heard of it until my mother-in-law told me about it this weekend. I signed both of my kiddos up, and I guess they will receive one age appropriate book per month? Sounds cool.
Anyways, just wondering if anybody else knows about it and if the books sent are cool?

Oh, and my son came home from preschool with a Scholastic Books order form.

Has anybody read 'The Green Ember' ? And if so, did you like it? It was very highly rated by a Christian site I follow so I was curious for a second opinion.

No, I haven't read Taken, SA. Nor have I read The Witness. After the Uncommon Heroes series came out, I didn't read any of her works for quite a while (I think my library didn't get them? And she took a break from writing for a bit, I think, too), and now I'm slowly going back and picking up some. I'm actually reading Before I Wake right now, though a bit slowly. Does your library have the O'Malley series? Those were the first books by her my sister and I read, and I remember really liking them.

I'm getting ready to start Before I Wake. Did you enjoy it, VA?

I think my library has one of middle books and the prequel. My sisters have been interlibrary loaning books, so next time before we go to the library I will try to get the O'Malley series or at least part of it.

SnowAngel

Sorry, fk! Haven't heard of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. I haven't read it but I think WORLD favourably reviewed The Green Ember, maybe? (If so, maybe that's the review you're referring to. )

Before I Wake wasn't my favourite, SA, but I liked it pretty well. Just a heads-up, its ending it is kind of open; I think it was supposed to be a series, but I don't think she's ever written anymore in it.
Well, I hope you enjoy the O'Malley series if/when you get to read it.

I'm currently reading Begin Here by Dorothy L. Sayers. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I guess it's a kind of a reflection on history and society and work. She wrote it in December 1939, I believe, and I think it was a bit of a call-to-arms for the Brits in particular to be thinking and setting out a plan for a post-War society. She has a number of good points, though, and I think her overlying themes are still relevant today.

I'm still mostly trying to work through library books I have out and books I've owned but have never read which has been good, but I think I might need/want to break out into some fun/fluffy/different stuff. Maybe I'll do a re-read or two of something.

Whilst clearing out the clutter, I came across The Great Gatsby, possibly an old school book my children left behind. Poor them if they had to study it, without the spark notes so available now on Internet.

The author, F Scott Fitzgerald, seems almost sarcastic as he delineates his somewhat sleazy characters. There appears to be a huge couch in Tom Buchanan's house - probably the same one throughout, that either buoys up the two ladies sitting on it or else collects their drooping forms, depending on the draughtiness of the house or its oppressiveness. The ladies at the interminable parties seem to be bickering with "men who are claimed to be their husbands" and Gatsby is the owner of an "over-populated" front lawn plus a library with "real" books. Really?

I have to admit I am not fond of the 1920's as a literary era. It seems to have been a twilight era before the Depression and World War II showed that the "War to end all wars" was a misnomer. A time of carelessly failing to realise that after them came the tempest. Maybe I am just as appalled by the likes of Tom Buchanan, with his "bit on the side" whilst taking for granted his own wife's fidelity, as I am of stories of the British Raj, and of English high society of the time. But then I could never enjoy long running TV serials like Days of our lives, The bold and the beautiful, Home and Away or Neighbours, either.

Whilst clearing out the clutter, I came across The Great Gatsby, possibly an old school book my children left behind. Poor them if they had to study it, without the spark notes so available now on Internet.

The author, F Scott Fitzgerald, seems almost sarcastic as he delineates his somewhat sleazy characters. There appears to be a huge couch in Tom Buchanan's house - probably the same one throughout, that either buoys up the two ladies sitting on it or else collects their drooping forms, depending on the draughtiness of the house or its oppressiveness. The ladies at the interminable parties seem to be bickering with "men who are claimed to be their husbands" and Gatsby is the owner of an "over-populated" front lawn plus a library with "real" books. Really?

Wow!! A bit harsh there? Not that I disagree, but The Great Gatsby happens to be one of my favorite books. Still I believe the sarcasm of Fitzgerald is intentional, painting a picture of displaced morals and the disillusion of wealth. I must have read the book ten times and I still love it every time.

Yes, I thought there was a satirical element to the story. Even the Great Gatsby wasn't really the sort of person he was portrayed. And it wasn't him who killed Myrtle, or who was her secret lover. In describing West Egg and East Egg, not to mention the lake that abutted it, this book seemed quite similar to A series of Unfortunate Events. Do tell me, are there really places in USA called West Egg and East Egg?

West Egg and East Egg are fictional but patterned after locations on Long Island, I believe. I think the location names themselves are part of the sarcasm.

Before I Wake wasn't my favourite, SA, but I liked it pretty well. Just a heads-up, its ending it is kind of open; I think it was supposed to be a series, but I don't think she's ever written anymore in it.
Well, I hope you enjoy the O'Malley series if/when you get to read it.

So glad I saw your post before I got very far in the book, you were so right. I hate open endings, but other than that the book was good.

Right now I am reading Infidel by Ted Dekker, I got it for the teenagers. It's good, definitely want to read the last two books in the series.

SnowAngel

West Egg and East Egg are fictional but patterned after locations on Long Island, I believe. I think the location names themselves are part of the sarcasm.

Thank you for the information. I do realise some place names in the Great Gatsby, for instance, Long Island and of course, New York and Chicago, most definitely are real. I am not from America and I think I might miss a lot of meaning in such stories when I can't easily pick out what is fictitional and what is not. For example, if I were to write a story about a place called Come-by-chance in Australia I would have to be careful what I say, since there really is such a place. Even though, as an outback place name, it is all too apt. And if anyone has ever read books by Ruth Park called Harp in the South or Playing Beaty Bow, especially the latter, you would be interested to know that places like Surry Hills, Kings Cross or The Rocks, in and about Sydney, itself, are definitely real.

Meanwhile, I am re-reading Herman Wouk's novel, War and Remembrance, which is quite a saga. I would have liked to have seen a DVD of the series, but though it is available on Kindle, I haven't tried doing such a thing yet.

For a long time my diet of fictional literature has been pretty poor, because I always seem to talk myself out of sitting down and reading a storybook; it seems like there's always something else I ought to be doing. Lately, though, I've started listening to audiobooks while getting my daily exercise, which, of course, I can't excuse myself from. I've really been enjoying it and I've found LibriVox to be a wonderful resource for public domain audiobooks. While some of them are collaborative hodgepodges (but certainly better than nothing!), some of them are very good quality and read by skilled readers.

I just finished The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy today, which I enjoyed enough to probably check out the sequel at some point. The twist at the end really surprised me! I usually think that I'm pretty good at predicting things like that, but I was gobsmacked.

I've also been listening to the Father Brown mysteries by G.K. Chesterton and have loved them. I really like the intuitive methods that Father Brown employs to solve the mysteries; it's quite unlike Sherlock Holmes' focus on sensory details yet equally fascinating. This is also the first thing I've "read" by Chesterton and I really like his literary voice, particularly in his descriptions. He has a very creative way of setting a scene, and I love the words and images that he uses to describe landscapes. Does anyone have any recommendations on what next to read from Chesterton's novels once you have exhausted his Father Brown stories?

Glad my heads up was helpful, SA! I rather dislike open endings too, but sometimes they're preferable to endings I don't like, and I was okay with it in this instance.

I'm glad you're enjoying the Father Brown mysteries, The Rose-Tree Dryad! It's a bit weird, but I really like Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. I also remember enjoying The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond pretty well, as well as The Club of Queer Trades. I know a lot of people love Manalive but I couldn't stand it, so... Oh, and if you're into poetry, he has some good stuff---The Ballad of the White Horse is pretty interesting.

I'll second the recommendation for The Man Who Was Thursday. It has some hilarious sections of dialogue, so I hope you get a reader who reads them well.

(Also, if you liked The Scarlet Pimpernel, have you read The Prisoner of Zenda? )

I'm currently reading Morgan Busse's Daughter of Light and slowly working my way through The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski. It covers J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams.

Let me know what you think of Daughter of Light, Mel. I enjoyed it a lot, but haven't found the second one yet.

I'm currently working through Chesterton's Orthodoxy on my lunch breaks and alternating Prodigal Son (the first book in Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series) and Dreams Underfoot (Charles de Lint's first Newford collection) at night.

For some reason I thought you'd read all three of the series, stwin? Maybe that was some other book series I'd been looking at... Anyway, I'm about a quarter of the way through and liking it so far.