The Last of the Lost Boys finally came in at the library. Tomorrow I am going to start a quick reread of The Legend of Sam Miracle and The Song of Glory and Ghost before reading The Last of the Lost Boys. I have no time to linger over the series, since three of my sisters are waiting for me to finish it so then they came "fight" over who's next in line.

I finished the Gwen Marcey series a couple days ago, it was awesome. But I need a fifth book...I simply must know how things turn out with Gwen and Blake.

SnowAngel

Valiant_Nymph, I haven't read anything by Robin Hobb (though the name keeps coming up it's still in the 'someday' category ) but I misread Farseerer as Farsala--which is a YA political fantasy adventure series by Hilari Bell--and was like, Wow! Someone else who's read...wait, no, that's not what it said. I'd recommend the author for fans of Lloyd Alexander, Sherwood Smith, and Leigh Bardugo.

*makes a note to hunt down Last of the Lost Boys* I wonder if I ought to also refresh my memory of Peter Pan?

Last week I went on a Janette Oke binge and devoured 3/4ths of the Prairie Legacy series and the last three of the Love Comes Softly series. I found a cameo for A Woman Named Damaris in the second Prairie Legacy book and would have read that one too if it had been on the shelf. I'd forgotten just how much story could be packed into a few simple words and this was a good change of pace as well as a much enjoyed re-read.

I know I should probably switch to ebooks, but somehow I just can't. I can't even focus on the book when I'm looking at a screen, I need the feel and smell of paper.

Ditto-ditto and hear-hear! I'm with you in this.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Book Thief and enjoyed it much more than the movie. (Though I have to say the movie is awesome as well.) It's just the book had so much more detail

Indeed! And, yes, having Death as the Narrator is fascinating.

That is such an interesting reading list, fantasia! Many of these titles bring back memories of reading when our kids were young. ♥ And when I was young!

The originals [Winnie-the-Pooh] are surprisingly different from what you might expect. And hilariously funny. At least, I found them so when I finally read them as an adult.

Yes, yes! I couldn't get over how clearly and humorously they were written when I re-read them as an adult. I thought they were adorable 'when I was very young' ( ), but there is no doubt much of the humour went right by me then.

I'm rereading The Return of the King right now.

Aahhh, enjoy! ♥ I always slow waaay down when I approach "The Grey Havens" chapter, because I never want that marvelous book to end!

Oh dear, I last updated my reading in January of this year, gulp. I can't recall all I have read since them, but there have been some great books, a few of which are:

Secret Germany by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh: an in-depth look and analysis into the July 1944 assassination attempt of Hitler by Claus Stauffenberg and co. Not only is the story recounted, but much of the book deals with the history and what brought Germany—and Stauffenberg—to this point. (The 2008 film is well done, and very accurate, according to the book, but we do wish that instead of casting Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg, they had cast the marvelous Thomas Kretschmann instead.)

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (one of the climbers): What a page-turner, as, in detail, it tells of the disastrous 1996 Everest climb. (The comparable movie was out in 2015, simply called Everest. Very well done.)

A Special Fate by Alison Leslie Gold: I find more and more stories are being written about everyday heroes in the WW 2 era, who rose so bravely to the occasion. This book covers the life of Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who saved hundreds of Jewish lives by going directly against orders by issuing visas to them so they could escape.

Winston Churchill by his Personal Secretary by Elizabeth Nel (who only passed away in 2007 at the age of 90): this is a favourite! I'm nearly finished it now, but as with other treasures, I do not want it to end.

William Wilberforce by Kevin Belmonte: this is a re-read for me. I never tire of delving into the life of this great man, and a hero of the faith for me.

To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon: I think this is her latest Mitford book, which is delightful, as always.

I have on order:
The Radium Girls (WW 1 female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning in their workplaces)
At Dawn We Slept (Pearl Harbour)
The Astronomy of the Bible: An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture, and written in the early 1900s! (recommended to me by MotherMusic)

A question: I really enjoy listening to audio dramas whilst doing working around the house ... what is an excellent audio drama for the Harry Potter books? I would also be interested in a well-read audio book of the same. Suggestions, please.

I'm not aware of any radio dramas of the HP books, jo, but both the American (Jim Dale) and British (Stephen Fry) narrators of the audio books do a fantastic job with the voices. They have different voices for all the characters, so it's almost like a radio drama with all the narration included.

My May reads:
* The Trial by Robert Whitlow - 5 stars (if I had read a bit faster this would have been an April read.)
* Deadly Exchange by Lisa Harris - 3 stars
* Grayfox by Michael Phillips - 4.5 stars
* The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone (audiobook) - 4 stars
* A Cry From The Dust by Carrie Stuart Parks - 5 stars
* The Golden Vial by Thomas Locke - 2 stars
* The Bones Will Speak by Carrie Stuart Parks - 5 stars
* When Death Draws Near by Carrie Stuart Parks - 5 stars
* The Accidental Guardian by Mary Connealy - 4.5 stars
* Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie (audiobook) - 4 stars (this was fun to listen, maybe more so because I had seen the movie the month or so before.)
* Portrait of Vengeance by Carrie Stuart Parks - 5 stars
* You’re Gonna Love Me by Robin Lee Hatcher - 3 stars
* The Case of the Tapping Heels by Carolyn Keene - 3.5 stars
* Zorro Rides Again by Johnston McCulley (audiobook) - 4 stars
* The Legend of Sam Miracle by N.D. Wilson - 5 stars
* The Song of Glory and Ghost by N.D. Wilson - 5 stars
* The Last of the Lost Boys by N.D. Wilson - 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading the whole Outlaws of Time series as did my sisters. My favorite of the series is book one The Legend of Sam Miracle, maybe somewhat because of the western setting.

I have actually read quite a bit this month and I have listened to one audiobook (The Prisoner of Zenda).

I have seen the 1937 version of The Prisoner of Zenda once, and after listening to the book I really want to watch it again. I enjoyed the book more than I expected to given that the guy and the girl don't ended up together, I like my fiction with a "happily ever after".

My June reads so far included The Door Before by N.D. Wilson (loved all of the cameos), Deceit by Brandilyn Collins (Scarlet said to read it, so I read it and enjoyed it), The Innkeeper's Daughter by Michelle Griep, The Pirate's Bride by Kathleen Y'Barbo, A Most Noble Heir by Susan Anne Mason, and a few others.

Yesterday, I read over 100 pages of Black Hawk Down. I have been reading it on and off for well over a month, I want to finish it this week. It's taken me this long to read it because I haven't read it at night, I prefer fiction before sleep.

SnowAngel

I've been re-reading a lot of Rick Riordan's books recently, mainly the Heroes of Olympus series. I do like the twist on mythology, though I wasn't so impressed by The Hidden Oracle, the first book in Riordan's latest series featuring Apollo. I don't like Apollo very much, which I think is the problem. Has anyone read any others in that series?

Books I'm currently reading include (but are not limited to) The King in the North about Oswald of Northumbria, Glencoe and the Indians highlighting the story of a family who had connections between massacres in Scotland and the US, and The Canterbury Tales.

A new book I have actually finished recently is Elementals - Water, a collection of short stories by Peter Dickinson and Robin McKinley. I liked some of the stories better than others (generally I preferred McKinley's) but the variety of theme and tone made it a really good read.

Megan Whalen Turner just announced the title and release date of her next book: Return of the Thief, March 19, 2019.

Recently I've been re-reading Jeanne Birdsall's Penderwicks series because the fifth one came out last month. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them. Stylistically they are very similar to books I enjoyed as a little girl, but there are parts I appreciate as an adult now. Such as

Wait, there's a new Penderwicks? I need to pay more attention. *disappears to the library*

I know I'm way ahead with this post, but I'm trying to finish out my homeschooling year schedule. I'm looking to come up with some good Christmas stories to read to my kids that aren't the standard Christmas stories. (ie Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Twas the Night Before Christmas, etc etc). So I'm just curious if you all have some good, simple, Christmas stories that you'd recommend for young readers?

I'm looking at The Snow Queen, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Gift of the Magi, etc.

The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle is always a fun one.

Two of my childhood favorites were The Legend of the Poinsettia and An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola. He wrote and/or illustrated quite a few other Christmas themed books as well.

Oooh, I must look that L'Engle Christmas book up, Dot!

Along from the classics, which are always delightful, here are a few I grew up with. Now, remember, this was back in the 60s, so maybe these are not even available anymore. In turn, we read (and re-read numerous times) these books to our own kidlets.

*The Shiniest Star by Beth Vardon: a sweet tale (poem-form), with adorable illustrations

*The Little Lamb of Bethlehem, words and beautiful pictures by Margaret Tempest

*Robin Finds Christmas by Molly Brett

*The Christmas Kitten by Janet Konkle (with photographs, rather than drawings)

I'm sure there are more, but those come to mind at the moment. We LOVED reading to our kids, and truly miss that time of life. But now we talk about—and recommend—books to each other, so that's pretty special too. But honestly, nothing can replace those reading times together. ♥

Mel, very interesting re: The Emperor's Soul - I was under the impression the connecting novel WAS out. (I also liked the text version of the graphic novel better.)
It was fun to hear of your Janette Oke binge, though you read the wrong end of the Love Comes Softly series (I think I read the last 3 once and...really disliked them). I immediately went to look up the Prairie Legacy series because I had no recollection of them...I still have pretty much no recollection of them; they look vaguely familiar but I have no idea if I ever read them or not. But I do remember A Woman Named Damaris being a favourite.

SA, glad you enjoyed The Last of the Lost Boys. I still haven't read The Door Before - I'm not really keen on the idea of

...plus, if there was a sequel, I wanted one on Dotty and Frank.
Also, what were your thoughts on The Woman Who Smashed Codes? I read it recently too (thoughts below) - please thank Scarlet for the recommendation.
I think I've read Murder on the Orient Express...but I don't recall for sure. I also saw the movie recently (the 2017 one), so I imagine I will try to find the book soon to be sure one way or the other.

Jo, your reading list always looks fascinating. You'll have to let me know what you think of The Radium Girls!

AJ, your book list always looks way too interesting too. I may have to look up Glencoe and the Indians as the Scottish-Indian connection is one I've been rather curious about.

Dot, after the last two Attolian books, I've had a very mild opinion of the new book news - but watching the reactions has been hilarious.
Is the fifth Penderwicks the last one? I read the first couple but haven't kept up after that.

fk, I was sure Jo would suggest this one, but she didn't, so. You might consider looking into The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot. And that's the only suggestion off the top of my head - we never really did seasonal books.

I finished Sad Cypress a while back - it was fine, but not a favorite Agatha Christie.

I have also recently read:
American Grit: A Woman's Letters from the Ohio Frontier by Anna Briggs Bentley, ed. by Emily Foster. I picked this one up at a whim and, while it had its interesting parts, it wasn't that impressive. On one hand, it was a good reminder that human nature hasn't changed. On the other, there was a lot of complaining about not receiving letters and begging for her family to write because surely they weren't that busy.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gail Tzemach Lemmon. This one I also picked up on a whim but it was much more rewarding. The book was about a Kabul teenager and her family learning to survive under the Taliban's rule (late 1990s, I believe). As her father and brothers disappear to avoid being imprisoned or drafted, Kamila Sidiqi turns to dressmaking to support her family - and becomes an entrepreneur.

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rhinehart. This was the author's first work, and I suppose it showed; it alternated between being pretty humourous and being clunky, cliched, and frustrating.

Women's Diaries of the Western Journey by Lillian Schlisser. I enjoyed the look at accounts of journeys on the western trails, though they were often discouraging and/or sad - and I didn't agree with all the commentary the editor had in putting them together.

Country Life in Tent & Field by Mrs. Orsemus [Frances] B. Boyd. This was a memoir about the author's life with her Calvary husband during the late 1800s. Although she has some of the racial/cultural bias of her time, she's skirts around a lot of the worst of it - and she's a pretty humourous storyteller.

American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy by Bob Welch. This was a well-written and pretty well-crafted account of one of the first Army Nurses to land on Normandy after D-Day. Army nurse history is an area of history that I don't know much about, and I found this book very touching and informative.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone. I got a little lost while reading this - I'm still not sure how a lot of the codes were smashed - but, overall, I enjoyed this one a lot. I especially appreciated how the Smith-Friedman relationship/marriage was portrayed - the only downside to it was the occasional oversharing of information by the author.

We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman. This book covers the Army (and Navy) nurses who were stationed in the Philippines when the US entered WWII. Again, this was very informative, but occasionally hard to read as the author didn't shy away from what was endured - first in the battefield and then in the Japanese camps. I disagreed with some of the author's commentary, but did appreciate the conflict the Army/officers dealt with between allowing the nurses do their calling and trying to protect the nurses.

Panhandle Cowboy by John R. Erickson. I'd only read Erickson's Hank the Cowdog books before, but I was intrigued by the idea of nonfiction by him. It turned out that the book was Erickson recounting his time ranching in the panhandle of Oklahoma during the 1970s; I found it a quick but entertaining read. It was nice to see his great sense of storytelling applied to real events.

fk, I was sure Jo would suggest this one, but she didn't, so. You might consider looking into The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot.

I simply cannot believe I failed to include this precious story by one of my favourite authors! So, ditto, Valia. But don't just consider it ... buy it!
That story is with my other James Herriot books, rather than in our kids' Christmas book section, so maybe that's my excuse.

Valia, your reading list is always very interesting to me! I would love, especially, to get my hands on American Nightingale and We Band of Angels.

*pokes head in briefly*

To the best of my knowledge, the only published story connected to The Emperor's Soul is Elantris, and the connection is limited to both take place on the same planet. Reading one won't spoil you on the other any more than reading The Silver Chair will spoil you on The Horse and His Boy.

I'm making my way through R. J. Anderson's "No Ordinary Fairy Tale" series ... very slowly, as i read the second book last month, several months after reading the first. They're fun reads, but not particularly gripping.

And that's all the book news i got.

I suppose that's an excuse, Jo.
Aww, thanks! I seem to find interesting books mostly by either perusing the uni library catalog/shelves or at the local booksales. Either way, extra copies seem to be hard to find. But I do keep an eye out for them.

Thank you, Arwenel! Good to know that The Emperor's Soul is connected to Elantris and in a non-spoilery way. (So we were both wrong, Mel. )
Oh! So the R. J. Anderson series has changed titles yet again. I'm glad to hear you're liking them; I read the first three but didn't like any of them. I also tried reading another of her books, but disliked it too; guess her stories just aren't my cup of tea. (Though she has a middle-grade book/series out that sounded interesting, so I might possibly try it sometime. )

I've just started Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico, a diary written by Susan Shelby Magoffin in 1846-1847. I've barely gotten into the diary portion as there's a pretty substantial foreword giving historical background - but it was very informative.