Edit- I'm reading The Beggar Queen now. I, too, am liking it better then the last book. In fact, I stayed up reading it until nearly 12:30am last night, and diden't go to sleep until (I think) after 1:00

I am reading a book called "Elephant Run" by Roland Smith and it's SO awesome! very epic!

*cheers* I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the book! Let us know what you think when you're done! Have you read much of Chesterton's work?

I finally finished! It's definitely one of my favorite books! The Accuser was an amazing chapter and an awesome ending. I loved how many twists Chesterton put into the book.
Thursday is the only Chesterton book that I've read. I have read three or four of the Father Brown stories which I also like a lot. Can you recommend any of his other works?

Isn't it a magnificent book? I love Syme . . it's one of my very favorite Chesterton books. Have you read Manalive?

Yes! It is indeed! I have not, is it as good as Thursday?

Has anyone here read the Raven King Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead? It's one of my favorite trilogies and a great re-telling of the Robin Hood myth!

@ Hurricane, I agree about the ending! It is certainly one of Chesterton's best books.

Can you recommend any of his other works?

Hehe! *rubs hands together gleefully* Let's see, a few of my other favorites are Manalive, The Ball and The Cross, and The Flying Inn. I would recommend reading the rest of the Father Brown stories as well.
I've also read The Napoleon of Notting Hill. It was pretty good, if I remember correctly, but I'd need to read it again to decide if it was among my favorites.
I have heard that Four Faultless Felons is good too, but I have yet to read it.

Another good Chesterton related book is Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist. It’s a book that’s not so much about Chesterton, as it is about everything from a Chesterton perspective. Really great reading!

Has anyone here read the Raven King Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead? It's one of my favorite trilogies and a great re-telling of the Robin Hood myth!

Read it and loved it. I found the story to be really well done, and the characters were well written. It's among my favorite trilogies as well. One complaint; despite understanding Lawhead's reasoning for not placing the story in Sherwood Forest, I do still wish it was in Sherwood. That's an important part of the legend for me.

--- flambeau

Lets see. Finished The Beggar Queen a few days ago.

I also finished The Cat Who Wished to be a Man. I loved it, especially how Lionel still had catlike mannerisms, like purring.

Flambeau wrote
I've also read The Napoleon of Notting Hill. It was pretty good, if I remember correctly, but I'd need to read it again to decide if it was among my favorites.

Then I'll make myself finish it. It's been sitting on my dresser forever, with a few chapters left . . I'll do it!!
And I want to read Common Sense 101 too!
Ooh, how I love Chesterton.
And I read a big book of Father Brown, I loved them all so much!

has anybody ever read "Raven's Gate" by Anthony Horowitz? it's a crazy thriller and it's awesome!

*randomly pops back in and waves*

I haven't had much reading time lately, but I did finally manage to finish Tolkien's The Book of Lost Tales (review here). What do you guys think about the posthumous publication of an author's drafts and outlines? I never really considered the question before...

I've recently started A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs. Between Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegles, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The Feegles are hilarious! (And I don't mind Pratchett staying a bit more G-rated either.)

I'm also reading Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers. It almost feels like a duty that I read a classic after all the YA and fantasy stuff I've been indulging in lately. Perhaps for that reason things are rather slow going in Barsetshire at the moment — though I can see drama looming. I do love Trollope's narrative voice. On author's devices to heighten suspense and/or mislead the reader, he says,

"Our doctrine is that the author and reader should move along together in full confidence with each other" (127).

Oh yes, I like him.

Of course sometimes I do enjoy tricksy dramatic authors too (Wilkie Collins, I'm looking at you). But Trollope's philosophy makes for a nice change.

oh yay I just finished reading "Burning For Revenge" by John Marsden and it's amazing! I love it! I freaked out at the end when

that was crazy!
I can't wait to read the next book!

I haven't had much reading time lately, but I did finally manage to finish Tolkien's The Book of Lost Tales (review here). What do you guys think about the posthumous publication of an author's drafts and outlines? I never really considered the question before..

I haven't read The Book of Lost Tales yet. I plan to, let us know if you like it!
I think its nice that we do get to see more of Tolkien's work. It would have been nice if they were finished and published in his lifetime, but its nice to see them nonetheless.

I have picked up Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (I've just started Eye of the World.) I was warned that this series has been dragging on for a long time and that the author is dead, but I wanted to see why everone seemed to like them (at least the first few books.) Has anyone read the series?

Actually I have finished The Book of Lost Tales already and the link is for my review . It was good, but do be warned that Christopher Tolkien gets very, very detailed in analyzing the way the manuscripts and ideas morphed. I will not say it was tedious because I did learn quite a bit that was fascinating, but I did find myself skipping over the lists and lists of name-changes...

I have not read The Wheel of Time series myself but I have friends who absolutely adore it. I do plan on trying it eventually, but I'm waiting till it's finished (Robert Jordan died, but the series is being completed by Brandon Sanderson).

Oh I see wisewoman. I didn't realize what the link is for (silly me). Thank you for the review.
The names sure can get confusing!

I heard that Jordan spent a lot of time on obsure details on his Wheel of Time series. So far, the book is pretty interesting though.

I am supposed to read A Great and Terrible beauty for my book club, although I'm not really liking it so far.

I am currently reading "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz and I love it so far! so awesome

Valiant, The Wheel of Time is one of my favorite fantasy series. It is true, Jordan gives an enormous amount of detail and that is one of the things I love about him. I don't think I'll ever have the whole thing entirely figured out (I suggest the Wheel of Time Encyclopedia if you feel you've missed or lost track of something) but the main plot is easy enough to follow. My favorite characters are Mat, Moiraine and Thom.

There are twelve books out so far. The 13th book, Towers of Midnight, is due out next Tuesday. I have pre-ordered it from Amazon. The last book is due out next year around this time as well. I hope you enjoy them, and I look forward to discussing them with you.

Valiant, I read the two sequels to A Great and Terrible Beauty and disliked them both, so you're not the only one. I found the series to be entirely too modern in it's thinking considering it was supposed to be about Victorian teenagers.