I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin a few years back, and it's actually a pretty controversial book.

Some readers thought that Harriet Beecher Stowe's intentions were to start the Civil War (there had been numerous wars in US History, but nothing like the Civil War).

While Tom's final owner, Simon Legree, who was cruel and vicious, owned a plantation in the south, he was actually a northerner because the author didn't want to offend the southern audiences. (if you have heard of someone who is a harsh employer, it has been known to be a "Simon Legree". Uncle Tom's Cabin was where it all came from.)

Uncle Tom keeps true to his Christian faith throughout the novel. Even with the different slave owners he's been serving, whether it's the descent Mr. Shelby or the cruel Simon Legree, Uncle Tom never denied God.

I finished Awake & Alive To Truth by John Cooper and it was really good. Scarlet read it, much quicker than I did, and she thought it was good too...although she's not so pleased with how much or how loud Skillet has been played when the parents aren't in the house since I finished the book. I definitely recommend it. I am excited to see what John Cooper writes next.

My sister picked up Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman from the library for me last week, I started it today. I just finished reading three Terri Blackstock books (first 3 books in the Newpointe 911 series), so now it's time to read another older book. I'm trying to go back and forth with the newer books and the older books for fiction reading.

And I am back to trying to finish reading The Other Worldview by Peter Jones. I have only read about 40 pages since I posted that I was reading it way back in June, to be honest I set it aside right after that post and only picked it back up this past week. It's a well written book, it's just I am having a hard time getting through the middle part of the book. I do want to read it, worldview is such an important topic especially right now.

SnowAngel

I recently read three twists on the fairy of tale of Beauty and the Beast, all in a row!  

One of them was recommended by my best friend, and I read it through, but we have somewhat different tastes in literature (it was altogether too much of YA romance genre type of novel for me). Another was given to me by a friend who is family to the author and wanted to do her a favor by advertising her first book, and I liked it well enough, but had the same problem with the style as the first. I simply don't enjoy YA romances the way I used to when I was younger (I consider it a lower form of literature ) They were both alright books in their own fashion, I suppose. But they were overshadowed in comparison by the third: Beauty by Robin McKinley.

Beauty was recommended to me many, many months ago on this discussion by @valiantarcher when I shared that I was a fan of Gail Carson Levine. I must say that the first half or so of the book was a bit slow for me. Though I first picked it up long ago I did not finish it until recently, when I had enough spare time to really try to devote my attention to something that was not automatically attention-grabbing. I stuck with it, anxious to get to the part where the magic came in and it really began to be a fairy tale. It was well worth it! I absolutely loved the second half of the book (from about the time that Beauty's father returns from his journey, bringing the rose from the Beast's castle--along with a frightening tale--to the end of the book). I must say, all in all, it is a splendid retelling of a timeless tale. Thank you for the recommendation @valiantarcher  

Posted by: @snowangel

I finished Awake & Alive To Truth by John Cooper and it was really good.

He is quite the Christian apologist, isn't he?! I have enjoyed listening to him when Alisa Childers has had Cooper on her podcast. I have not yet read his book, but thanks for the recommendation, SA!

Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin a few years back,

To my chagrin, I only read this for the first time a few years ago. As soon as I finished the final page, I thought, "I totally want to go back and start this all over again!" Really powerful. I did not second-read at that time, but will no doubt do so in the next few years.

When we were caring for my elderly father for six months in our home, I needed lighter books to read, rather than my usual heavier (and excellent) fare of biographies, so zoomed through a number of Frank Perreti's books, as well as some of Ted Dekker's. Those two sure know how to keep one on one's reader's toes. Talk about intense!

And now, I am into my biennial re-read of The Lord of the Rings, which, as with Narnia, only becomes more wonderful and meaningful with every read. ♥ I have just begun The Return of the King. Excellent, so very excellent!

Someone (I can't recall who) recommended  Anthony Doerr's All The Light We Cannot See (2014), an historical fiction tale taking place during WW II. I picked this up, and will be reading it after The LotR. We also recently purchased Tim Challies' (one of my favourite bloggers) Seasons of Sorrow: the pain of loss and the comfort of God, which was released last month, as well as Joni Eareckson-Tada's Songs of Suffering: 25 Hymns and Devotions for Weary Souls, also recently released.

And two apologetic books I am eager to dive into are:

*Faithfullly Different by Natasha Crain (2022) and

*Live Your Truth and other Lies by Alisa Childers (releasing October 18)

@rainyweather, you're welcome - I'm really glad you liked Beauty in the end! Have you been reading anything else of late? (Also, out of curiosity, what were the two other retellings you read?)

I'm currently trying to clear out books that have sat on my shelves for a long time, and which I don't think I need to keep. These include ones bought second hand, half read, and put on the shelf with a bookmark in, and most are a good read. In the 'Out' pile now are a pair of Philippa Gregory historical novels and two local biographies which I never got round to reading, plus the very interesting account of the invention of sea-going clocks 'Longitude'.

I'm currently reading one of the interesting historical books by Edward Rutherfurd; this one is Sarum, which I think was his earliest. It tells the history of the area around Stonehenge over the centuries and millennia. Each section is set in a later period, but he creates family names that turn up later as descendants. This will leave 'London' and 'The Forest' to be re-read sometime. They are my favourites, and I will definitely keep London.

My next reading will be a non-fiction, as it's time I read some more of Lewis' works.

@coracle Is that Longitude by Dava Sobel? Fantastic book — I haven't forgotten there was a 4-part TV drama (in the 1990s) to coincide with the book's release, alternating between the stories of John Harrison, the man who in the 18th century was determined to design a clock that kept time accurately at sea (essential for determining longitude), and of the 20th century man who restored Harrison's clocks to working order as he recovered from the trauma of WW1. I think it was a BBC production; we had it on the ABC in Australia and I enjoyed it so much that I got the book from the library immediately afterwards. It's a cracking good read as well — amazing how much opposition Harrison came up against from the scientists of his time who saw him as a meddling amateur and totally on the wrong track, but he was vindicated at last. (I used to live not that far from Greenwich, where his clocks are on display in the museum, but for some reason I never managed to get there myself!)

@courtenay indeed, it's that book.
The first time I visited Greenwich was late in the afternoon, on my first visit years ago. I looked politely but had no idea what I was seeing.
The second time my friend and I had watched the TV series, and we went together to take photos of the Meridian line, and to look at the clocks. We were both thrilled to see the actual clocks there! 

(Courtenay, you seem to share so many of my views, and sometimes I check to see which of us wrote a post that I agree with! Are we related?)

Posted by: @valiantarcher

(Also, out of curiosity, what were the two other retellings you read?)

If I remember correctly, the one my best friend recommended was A Curse So Dark And Lonely and the other was called Enchanting Fate. They weren't bad books, I'm just a bit picky (the first one is part of a series, and I won't be continuing it). I tend to prefer books for a "Juvenile" audience to those deemed "Young Adult".

Posted by: @valiantarcher

Have you been reading anything else of late?

Yes, I just finished rereading The Beatryce Prophecy. The first time I 'read' it, I listened to an audio book. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything (as well as to see the lovely illustrations), so I decided to reread it and bought a copy. It was just as wonderful as the first time (with the added enjoyment of pictures) and it reminded me how very much I love the writing of Kate DiCamillo! Her stories convey such emotion and depth in what appears to be simple writing (her stories are consistently branded as children's books). Reminded of my great admiration for DiCamillo, I picked up her The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I read the whole book one night when I couldn't sleep . Since then, I've been too busy with school to read much, though. What about you @valiantarcher ? 

@coracle, hope the decluttering and sorting of books is going well!

@rainyweather, thanks for the book titles! I'm pretty sure I've heard of the first before, but never picked it up. And I understand the greater interest in "juvenile" vs. "young adult" books - there seems to have been a shift towards YA books being heavy in romance and often of a style I'm not keen on in recent years.
 Rereading books, especially short ones that you can get through quickly, can be such fun. I'm glad you've been enjoying the rereads you managed.
 Like coracle, I have recently been trying to go through books that I've either had for a while and need to decide if I really want to keep or ones that I've bought and haven't read. It's been slow progress of late but there has been progress. I'm currently on a break, though, to read Mr. Standfast by John Buchan after having listened to/read the first two books in the series earlier this summer. There have been a few things I didn't anticipate in the book and, while I'm not reading quite as quickly as I would like, I'm enjoying it pretty well.

@courtenay @coracle I remember enjoying Longitude when I read it awhile back, though much of the math was lost on me. I wonder if the TV drama visuals would allow me to make sense of what they were doing? It sounds like it would be interesting to watch. 

@rainyweather It's rather disappointing that the two newer retelling were only so-so, because they look like books I would pick up. Have you read other fairy tale retellings/has @valiantarcher recommended Waking Beauty to you yet?

I'm still plugging away at the Julia Child biography. She's finally got the cookbook published after years of painstakingly testing and retesting the recipes and other challenges. 

For lighter reading, I revisited the first four books of the Ranger's Apprentice series and the newest installments of the Boxcar Children series (it seems to be still going strong). Also a book on perennial gardening. If I read enough of them I should eventually pick up some plant names and know what they look like...

Posted by: @mel

@courtenay @coracle I remember enjoying Longitude when I read it awhile back, though much of the math was lost on me. I wonder if the TV drama visuals would allow me to make sense of what they were doing? It sounds like it would be interesting to watch. 

If the TV series is still available anywhere (maybe on DVD?), I'd definitely recommend it. It was really well scripted and acted and as far as I remember, it brought out very clearly what Harrison was doing without viewers needing to have a lot of background in maths or science. The main thing to know — which Harrison proved — is that in order to calculate longitude, you need to know the difference between the local time where you are and the time at some other fixed point of reference (for which the Greenwich Meridian was eventually adopted as the worldwide standard). Hence why he needed to invent clocks that would keep accurate time even when being jolted about in all directions on a sailing ship! I'm pretty sure that's just about the level of knowledge the TV version assumed of viewers — I know I had no trouble following it as a high school student, anyway.  

@mel I watched the TV serial of Julia's biography. Interesting  seemed to pull no punches. 

A theatre acquaintance here in NZ was Julia's assistant for about 17 years. Her name is Stephanie Hersh. She's a real achiever, has been a teacher, and worked on a cruise ship more recently (? demonstrating cookery to passengers?).  She spoke about her life and working with Julia, to our women's group at church, the night before our big earthquake. 

I am now reading a book by my former professor, Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds buy Peter J. Schakel. I have fond memories of the C. S. Lewis course I took at Hope College so many years ago.  The book was written about twenty years ago, but the information in it could never become dated. It is one of the best studies of Lewis that I have read. Reading with the Heart: The Way into Narnia is another fine book on Narnia by Dr. Schakel that I strongly recommend.

Posted by: @narnian78

Reading with the Heart: The Way into Narnia is another fine book on Narnia by Dr. Schakel that I strongly recommend.

I think I've got that one, although my edition is just called The Way into Narnia: A Reader's Guide — I've only read it once so far, but I know I appreciated it greatly. How fantastic to have taken a C.S. Lewis course with the author! I think I remember you mentioning that before.