Valiant_Lucy, is that book by Erin Healy? I think I read an excerpt in the back of hers and Ted Dekker's book, Burn.

I just got Book of Narnians: The Lion, the Witch, and the Others from BookMooch. I really like it a lot- very nice

And I'm more than halfway done with TTT! I should be done in less than two weeks

After that I shall be rereading The Last Olympian and then reading the third Guardians of Ga'Hoole book, and then I'll finish The Riddlemaster of Hed. I'm thinking of reading Silas Marner after that, or finishing the trilogy. We shall see

Rereading The Last Olympian, but not reading The Lost Hero? :O I seem to be the only NWebber who has read it so far.

Trust me, I REALLY want to read it, but I'm extremely low on funds and my library has a ridiculous amount of holds on it . I'm going to read it as soon as possible.

My favorite book of his is A Tale of Two Cities, and mostly because of the ending. It could be a very sad and depressing ending, but it's not somehow. I was saddened by what happens, but at the same time I found it uplifting. Then again, I may have just been thoroughly stunned/amazed by a certain character in the final chapters. *coughSydneyCartoncough*

Goodness, I hate to disagree with ya' flam, but I found the book to be dull, plodding, and monotonous, and Sydney *cough cough* was the character I disliked the most. His "oh woe is me" attitude through much of the book made me think he needed therapy...he'd make a pretty horrible motivational speaker . To be fair I've only read two of Dickens' works, that and Great Expectations...I liked the latter marginally better although it's one I'm not rushing to pick back up again.

And yes, I am a cretin, so you don't have to announce it now.

I started The Beggar Queen today. I'm actually liking it better than The Kestrel.

Goodness, I hate to disagree with ya' flam, but I found the book to be dull, plodding, and monotonous, and Sydney *cough cough* was the character I disliked the most. His "oh woe is me" attitude through much of the book made me think he needed therapy...he'd make a pretty horrible motivational speaker . To be fair I've only read two of Dickens' works, that and Great Expectations...I liked the latter marginally better although it's one I'm not rushing to pick back up again.

Well, I never said it had good pacing. In fact, I pretty much skimmed through the first 3/4 of the book the first time I read it (and I rarely ever do that). After reading the ending, I decided I should go back and become more acquainted with the characters now that I knew what happened to them. I agree that Sydney's attitude throughout most of the book is less than stellar, but it's his change in the final few chapters that makes him so great in my opinion.
I have read Great Expectations, but to be honest, I expected it to be better than it was (*cough* Bad joke. Sorry. ). Uh, I think I remember liking it, though I thought it was rather long and drawn out. It seemed to take a really long time to reach the ending. It was a good story though. I think my favorite part was the wedding (the name of the character who gets married is escaping me at the moment...). The dialog was cute.

No, you are not a cretin.

--- flambeau

Valiant_Lucy, is that book by Erin Healy?

No, it's by Kazuo Ishiguro...

Lady Haleth, I'm a huge fan of the Westmark trilogy! I haven't read it in a while but I seem to recall the first book (Westmark) was my fav, and The Kestrel wasn't as interesting of the three. Have you read any other of Lloyd Alexander's books?

Ali: yay! how do you like TTT? better or the same then FotR?

I'm liking it MUCH better. I think I had the wrong attitude with FOTR or something, because these books aren't as bad as I remember .

^^ yay! I am SO glad! wait til you get to RotK! it's the best one of them all! it's my favorite!

*loves The Kestrel* I think I can safely say that it's one of the books that's influenced my own writing the most.

Lady Haleth, I think you asked several pages back who are my favourite Mistmantel characters? After refreshing my memory on the first two books, I'm going to say that Crispin and Fir are my favourites, with Hope, Sepia, Padra, Lugg, and Fingal close behind.

I'm also re-reading The Two Towers for the second time this year.

I've been doing a lot of reading for school, but for fun, I also read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I also really enjoyed it, though perhaps not quite as much as Val. I thought it was very well written, very simply written. It was definitely very poignant and thought-provoking. The characters were very well-drawn.

For my Shakespeare class I read Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Much Ado About Nothing (a reread for me). I found Merchant to be particularly interesting. It is definitely very complex and is impossible to really feel comfortable with--no one is the true villain or victim.

For my Russian Lit. class, I read Tolstoy's Childhood and The Death of Ivan Ilyich and A Confession, in addition to some short stories. This was the first Tolstoy I have read and I was enthralled. What a magnificent writer! Childhood, in particular, was especially truthful and moving.

I also did a re-read of Persuasion for my Romantic lit class (it was very interesting to contrast her to her Romantic contemporaries). I was glad to read it again because the first time I read it, I didn't really like it. I was able to see whether that was just because I read it at the end of an Austen marathon, or whether I actually had reasons. I came up at the end with the same opinions. It's still Austen, which means it's very well-written, but I found the lack of dialogue dragging and Anne a wearing protagonist. I know that idea is not one held by many here, but she's such a vacant character. I don't feel that I knew her mind at all. She shares Fanny's doormat syndrome, but without the same excuse. For the purposes of the plot, Wentworth remains an enigma nearly the whole book and you finish the book unsure of whether the two will make a good couple or not.

Lady Haleth:

Spoiler

No, Padra doesn't die. Crispin does. Sorry if I scared you there... but I am worried that Arran is going to check out in the next book. (Assuming there is a next book...)