fk, what about The Snowman by Raymond Briggs? It isn't really for reading out loud, but it's beautifully drawn. And, of course, the film is beautiful too.

Valia, that's exactly why I ordered it. Unfortunately it's not the best-written book. But the history is interesting!

re: Emperor's Soul: On the bright side, I had already read Elantris so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

That's hilarious that we like the opposite ends of Love Comes Softly, Valia. I think the first one is my very favorite of all of them, but I like the ending arc because that's what we had on the shelf when I was growing up. Somehow, going back to fill in

wasn't as satisfying as reading in order or close proximity would have been.

I also read The Woman Who Smashed Codes and likewise enjoyed it very much. The Friedmans were a very interesting couple.

SnowAngel, I picked up The Accidental Guardian and The Pirate's Bride after seeing them on your reading list--nice for when I was on the road and in the mood for fluff.

If anyone likes the magical circus genre, I recently read Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley which has a boy who ties magical knots and a friend who tries really hard to find a logical explanation for everything. It ended up being very sweet and the backstory was well-done.

I also read Her Father's Daughter by Gene Stratton Porter. It was peak 1920s romance, and the parts that were good were really good and the parts that were bad were HORRID. You just don't find lovingly poetic descriptions of very specific landscapes anymore, and the part of California where the book was set sounded stunning... and that was the best part of the book, though I did kind of like the sister (who was a selfish, grasping woman who finally got what she thought she wanted and discovered she preferred the wholesome family she'd left behind).

VA, I wasn't sure I was going to like the 100 Cupboards with a dash of Ashtown Burials story that is The Door Before, but I did. I'm sure some fans loved it, while others hate it. I would love a book about Dotty and Frank, they're not mention at all in The Door Before. Did I mention I got another sister hooked on N.D Wilson?

I chose to listen to the audiobook for The Woman Who Smashed Codes so I think that changes the reader experience. I thought there would be more details about the codes and how she smashed them. Overall though I really enjoyed learning about Elizabeth and her husband.

I agree with Valia about Love Comes Softly, although I like the whole series I love the first books. I never really cared for The Prairie Legacy series, Virginia seemed so flat when compared with most of Janette Oke's other characters. If I remember right my very favorite Janette Oke books are Love Comes Softly, A Gown of Spanish Lace, and Roses For Mama. Since When Calls The Heart the show imploded in the most recent season, I think I need to reread a bunch of Janette Oke books this summer/fall.

Mel, I loved The Accidental Guardian, but I definitely went into the story wanting to like it because I love the cover. The Pirate's Bride is definitely a fluff read, fun, but fluffy.

I finished Black Hawk Down and immediately started In The Company of Heroes by Michael J. Durant, I have less than 80 pages left and I hope to finished it this month too. I am raiding my brother's bookcase while he isn't home.

My current fiction read is The Choice by Robert Whitlow, it's my first of his books - Scarlet's a fan. It is a really interesting book, but I have the latest Charles Martin book sitting on the top of my library stack begging to be read.

I almost forgot Christmas books...I love the James Herriot stories. I still have a cassette tape of my Dad reading them, I don't have anyway to play it, but I am not getting rid of it.
Some of my family's Christmas favorites are:
*The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
*Jacob's Gift by Max Lucado
*Punchinello and the Most Marvelous Gift by Max Lucado
*Silent Night: A Mouse Tale by Betsy Hernandez
*Follow That Star by Elizabeth Raum
*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
*The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
*The Legend of the Christmas Stocking by Rick Osborne
*A Cowboy Christmas: The Miracle at Lone Pine Ridge by Audrey Wood
*The Pine Tree Parable (The Parable Series) by Liz Curtis Higgs
*The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald by George MacDonald

SnowAngel

AJ, it's too bad the book wasn't better written!

Mel, that is funny about the Love Comes Softly series. We had all of them available one way or the other growing up, but I started at the beginning and loved Clark and Marty, then Missie and Ellie - but once the perspective switched to Belinda, it was far less interesting (and I didn't like her arc of

).

SA, I actually haven't heard any negative reviews of The Door Before. Which I suppose is a good sign, but doesn't make me any happier about

I would mention that there are parts in The Woman Who Smashed Codes where the author lays out some explanation on how codes were broken (but not enough or clearly enough for my understanding!); I would guess those parts would be hard to carry over into an audiobook easily, so it may be a case that those sections are better read.
*high-fives SA* You've got good tastes in Janette Oke books! Your favourite list looks similar to mine, though switch out Roses for Mama (which I think I read once or twice but never really made an impression) for A Woman Named Damaris.
Hope you've been enjoying raiding your brother's bookshelf!

So, since I took a longer break from this thread than I meant , here are a few highlights of books I read:

Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico by Susan Shelby Magoffin: This had some really interesting parts and observations (especially as Magoffin's Christianity comes up a number of times), but felt really bogged down by the overabundance of footnotes the editor put in. On one hand, it was interesting to see some of the broader history connected to the people Magoffin met and the places she went. On the other, some of those footnotes went on for pages...

The Picts and the Martyrs, or Not Welcome at All by Arthur Ransome. This is the next-to-last book in the Swallows & Amazons series, but the only one I hadn't been able to read before. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wasn't sure how I would like it once I realized it doesn't deal with the Swallows at all, but with the Amazons and the Callums (neither of whom I have found that interesting/likeable in the past), but it was hilarious and close to being a comedy of errors. I think I will have to do a reread of the series, but this is definitely high on the list of favourites.
Also, the copy I got to read was a first edition U.S. release, which made me very happy; it even had back flap notes about the book coming to the U.S. from wartime England.

No Life for a Lady by Agnes Moreland Cleaveland. Cleaveland grew up and lived on a New Mexico cattle ranch at the end of the 19th century through the early 20th century, and this book is her memoir of that time. I found it very informative and entertaining; Cleaveland was a pretty talented storyteller.

I've also been slowly working my way through a reread of the Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman; I started last year, stalled, and picked back up this past month or so. It's been a lot of fun, though with the benefit of some time and such, I've found a few rough parts or things that fall a little flat. However, in contrast, I have a much better appreciation of some characters and arcs - especially in Waking Rose. I hope to finish my reread soon.

I am currently reading And if I Perish by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee, which is about frontline U.S. Army Nurses in the Mediterranean and European theaters during WWII. It's a hefty book (over 450 pages of text), but it seems pretty thorough - and, boy, have I learned a lot. I've learned not just about the nurses, but also have a much better understanding of how certain military actions came about - and how they tied together (such as the invasions of Rome and Normandy!). The authors have done a pretty good job of tying in the military actions with the hospital locations and casualties. The nurses showed much courage and fortitude, especially as they were unprepared for the sheer scale of casualties and lack of infrastructure and supplies they encountered. I do wish the authors had put maps in more easily accessible locations, though, instead of burying them in chapters, but oh well. I've got around 100 pages to go.

Hello everyone! just popping in to see what everyone has been reading.

I also read Her Father's Daughter by Gene Stratton Porter. It was peak 1920s romance, and the parts that were good were really good and the parts that were bad were HORRID.

Ah yes, I have read and re-read several of her books and loved them, then there's THAT one! I think "The Harvester" and "Keeper of the Bees" are also a bit weird, but please don't let that put you off her other books. "Laddie" is absolutely fantastic! And "Freckles" is one of my favorite books ever! "Girl of the Limberlost" is a sequel to "Freckles" and is really good too. I live in Indiana, so her being an Indiana author and setting those three books in that state is a special draw to me.

I've never read the "Love Comes Softly" series, but I did really like "A gown of Spanish Lace." My particular favorites are the series Janette Oke authored with Davis Bunn, "Song of Acadia" and "Acts of Faith."

Also, I can't remember if Georgette Heyer has come up in this thread or not. Does anyone have any favorites of her books?

*high-fives SA* You've got good tastes in Janette Oke books! Your favourite list looks similar to mine, though switch out Roses for Mama (which I think I read once or twice but never really made an impression) for A Woman Named Damaris.
Hope you've been enjoying raiding your brother's bookshelf!

Oh, I like A Woman Named Damaris too. I considered adding a three or four more JO books to my list when I posted, but I thought for once I should keep a list small.

I am loving raiding brother's books, I currently reading a Christian non-fiction from the library and debating whether to read Rough Riders by Mark Lee Gardner or September Hope by John C. McManus next.

ValiantArcher, you are so much like Scarlet sometimes it's crazy. All of your historical non-fiction reads sound awesome. I need more hours in a day.

Anfinwen, did you like the last book in the Acts of Faith series? I loved the start of the series, but felt like the last book was really flat.
I love Freckles and A Girl of Limberlost, they're somewhere in the middle of my very long list of books to reread.

I am currently reading Cherry Ames Army Nurse by Helen Wells and The Courage To Be Christian by Mike Nappa. And I'm listening to The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie, just past the halfway point in the audiobook. I think this is one of Agatha Christie books I read in 2014 or 2015, but I don't have a list of the ones I read. The story is seems very familiar, but since I don't remember the ending it doesn't really matter when I read it or that I read it.

Two of my suspense reads for August were Purgatory Road by Samuel Parker (Scarlet's rec) and Centralia by Mike Dellosso. Both were excellent, but I loved Centralia...it was like a great action flick, but so much better since it's a book. Now I have to get my hands on the sequel Kill Devil, I must know what happens to Jed Patrick and his family.

SnowAngel

"Laddie" is absolutely fantastic! And "Freckles" is one of my favorite books ever!

YES! I've adored them both ever since my great aunt loaned me her copy of Laddie when I was a wee thing (and we picked up a copy of Freckles that has super nice line drawings a little while after that). I insisted on getting our own copy of Laddie soon after we returned my great aunt's.

I don't remember Girl of the Limberlost as being the sequel to Freckles that I read... I sort of remember starting Girl, and getting bored by her being called Cornstalk? (silly younger me ) whereas the one I remember as the sequel has Freckles being the Duke and the Angel playing her guitar and going on a European tour and angst about their being together...

What I mean to say is, THERE ARE THREE FRECKLES BOOKS???!!!

My favorite Georgette Heyers are The Grand Sophy and a toss up between Thursday's Child and Cotillion. A friend loaned me A Quiet Gentleman and it was hitting all the sweet spots--competent cousin, dandy who isn't as dumb as he looks, nice house--and then I guessed who-done-it

I've also picked up two more at various sales (Talisman Ring and False Colors) and have no real excuse for not reading them yet.

Valia, I was particularly attached to the last Belinda book.

...having revealed some deep-seated trope loves, I think I'll just go on and mention that I also really liked T. Davis Bunn's Book of Hours.

Among my recent reads was Ender's Game, which I'd never read before. It was quite interesting to see how it had influenced later books I have read (Red Rising comes to mind) but some of the impact was probably lost by having read others of the type.

My favorite Georgette Heyers are The Grand Sophy and a toss up between Thursday's Child and Cotillion.

Are the Georgette Heyer books still around then? They used to be popular books at a council library where I first worked, along with Jean Plaidy historical fiction. Georgette Heyer usually wrote about the Regency period of British history, that is to say, in the early decades of the 19th century, didn't she? It was years later before I realised that one of her books called The Prince and Perdita was based on an actual historic incident, involving George IV, probably the most despicable and disliked king the UK ever had.

wagga, There was a reprinting of Georgette Heyer's work in the last ten years, so they're easier to find; at least, the Regency Romances are. The murder mysteries might be as well since I've seen at least one in the recent set, but I've not run across any of the more historical fiction pieces.

Jean Plaidy, on the other hand, is an author I've never heard of before.

wagga, There was a reprinting of Georgette Heyer's work in the last ten years, so they're easier to find; at least, the Regency Romances are. ... I've not run across any of the more historical fiction pieces.

Jean Plaidy, on the other hand, is an author I've never heard of before.

Jean Plaidy is one of the many pseudonyms of Eleanor Burford whose married name was Hibbert. Two of her other pseudonyms include Philippa Carr and most notably Victoria Holt. She also wrote romance novels, like the very famous Barbara Cartland, a quite phenomenal and prolific romance author known sometimes as "Her Pinkness". Jean Plaidy became fascinated by history by a visit to Hampton Court in London, and she wrote quite extensively, including about the Regency period. She also wrote Perdita's Prince (1969), as well as a novel about George III, another one called Victoria Victorious, and a trilogy about Catherine de Medici, the Italian-born wife of the French king Henry II. Some of these novels, I saw in the Wikipedia article, have been reissued, sometimes under different titles. Jean Plaidy also travelled extensively, including to Australia, before her death in 1993.

I remember a book or maybe more than one about Katherine Swynford, a mistress of John of Gaunt who went on to marry him after the death of his wife, and who came to be the ancestress of the Dukes of Somerset and the family of Beaufort. I am trying to track it down, because I am not sure that it was Georgette Heyer who wrote it. I think the author was someone called Anya Seton.

I don't remember Girl of the Limberlost as being the sequel to Freckles that I read... I sort of remember starting Girl, and getting bored by her being called Cornstalk? (silly younger me ) whereas the one I remember as the sequel has Freckles being the Duke and the Angel playing her guitar and going on a European tour and angst about their being together...

What I mean to say is, THERE ARE THREE FRECKLES BOOKS???!!!

. . . SAY WHAT NOW??? Any idea what the title of the other one was, Mel? A quick google search wasn't much help. My mother loves Gene Stratton Porter books, and it would absolutely thrill her if I found another one for her.

I finished reading the first two Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett (picked them up in a one-volume book at a used bookstore quite awhile ago and never got around to reading it until now). They were delightful. More fairytale-esque than a lot of his other ones, and obviously YA, but still excellent reads.

And I finally started Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo after hearing several friends recommend it. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far I am very intrigued by the world-building.

I don't remember Girl of the Limberlost as being the sequel to Freckles that I read... I sort of remember starting Girl, and getting bored by her being called Cornstalk? (silly younger me ) whereas the one I remember as the sequel has Freckles being the Duke and the Angel playing her guitar and going on a European tour and angst about their being together...

What I mean to say is, THERE ARE THREE FRECKLES BOOKS???!!!

. . . SAY WHAT NOW??? Any idea what the title of the other one was, Mel? A quick google search wasn't much help. My mother loves Gene Stratton Porter books, and it would absolutely thrill her if I found another one for her.

The three books are "Freckles", "Freckles Comes Home", and "Girl of the Limberlost", but here's the deal, Jean Stratton-Porter's daughter Jeanette wrote "Freckles Comes Home" and she deviated a bit from her mother's work in what Freckles ends up doing and by giving Angel an actual name.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112 ... Comes_Home
There's an old movie made off of it, so maybe that's why she wrote it.
"Girl of the Limberlost" can stand alone, but first time readers will be confused by references to Freckles "room" and his box he kept stuff in, as well as the bird woman giving Elnora clothes belonging to someone called "Angel." I guess it's more of a Limberlost book two than a Freckles book two, as that's what it's called on Goodreads. At the end of the book, Mel, someone visits Freckles and Angel and spends time with them and their spirited children. I do remember it being harder to get into because it's such a hard luck story, but it gets way better with the mother straightening up and the addition of a love interest.

My favorite Georgette Heyers are The Grand Sophy and a toss up between Thursday's Child and Cotillion. A friend loaned me A Quiet Gentleman and it was hitting all the sweet spots--competent cousin, dandy who isn't as dumb as he looks, nice house--and then I guessed who-done-it

I loved "The Grand Sophie"! One of the first tall heroines I've come across. I haven't read the other two, though. I thoroughly enjoyed her first book "The Black Moth" despite it seeming to have every cliche imaginable. My all time favorite, though is "A Civil Contract" because it's such an anti-romance. With it's reasonable and gentlemanly hero and down to earth heroine, it's a breath of fresh air.

Anfinwen, did you like the last book in the Acts of Faith series? I loved the start of the series, but felt like the last book was really flat.

I did, not perhaps as much as the others, but sharing the name of the main character may have had something to do with it. I thought it was a really interesting look at some of the practices of the times and how a Christian might have to deal with them.

I don't remember Girl of the Limberlost as being the sequel to Freckles that I read... I sort of remember starting Girl, and getting bored by her being called Cornstalk? (silly younger me ) whereas the one I remember as the sequel has Freckles being the Duke and the Angel playing her guitar and going on a European tour and angst about their being together...

What I mean to say is, THERE ARE THREE FRECKLES BOOKS???!!!

Well, sort of. There is Freckles, of course. Then (chronologically) Freckles Comes Home (the European tour with angst one) by Gene's daughter, Jeanette Stratton Porter.In Girl of the Limberlost, we get brief glimpses of Freckles and the Angel, as well as their family. So in one way, it's not really a Freckles book, but we do find out what happened to them--satisfying in that regard. And they also play an important role in the resolution of the plot.

Personally, I found Comes Home to be a bit jarring, read immediately after the orginal Freckles. At least half the issues that had been adequately resolved in the first book seemed to be reiterated, under slightly disguised circumstances. It felt rather contrived, not a bit real, which is one of the things that I like about the better GSP books. But that doesn't mean that one couldn't enjoy it, just that for me it wouldn't rank as a five-star read.

What I mean to say is, THERE ARE THREE FRECKLES BOOKS???!!!

. . . SAY WHAT NOW??? Any idea what the title of the other one was, Mel?

I checked my booklist and found that I must have read Freckles Comes Home before I started keeping track. Fortunately for both of us, other people here knew the answer. (Thanks, Anfinwen and aileth!)

Do let me know what you think of Six of Crows, dot! I thought it was pretty good overall.

*scribbles down A Civil Contract as a to-read* Sounds like my kind of story! And I may have to give Girl of the Limberlost a second chance.

My favorite author might be Charles Dickens. But from I what I remember from being a lurker on this forum, he isn't particularly popular here. Figures since this is a Narnia site and his writing style is pretty different from C.S. Lewis's, Dickens being more emotional and Lewis intellectual, aside from Till We Have Faces anyway. (Jane Austen also tends to be popular on this site and she was a cold fish if ever there was one.)

I thought I'd ask anyone who dislikes Dickens' writing to recommend an author who was as good or better at creating larger than life characters, particularly villains. Recommendations for fun over-the-top books are always welcome.

Another of my favorite authors is Leon Garfield. He's not famous but his Young Adults novels are really good. He might have the best prose style I've ever read. Here's a list of his books that I've read.
Devil in the Fog
The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris
Night of the Comet
Jack Holborn
The Apprentices (This is the only I don't like.)
Shakespeare Stories volumes I and II.
The God Beneath the Sea
The Golden Shadow

Has anyone else read Leon Garfield?

P.S.
I have a lot more admiration and respect for Jane Austen than my reference to her in this post would indicate. I just don't love her. How can you love someone with no character flaws and no emotion?