Mel, I just looked it up. It's called Goliath, which sort of fits with the biblical creature names, I guess? It comes out in September. Not too far off, but still waaaaay too long of a wait.

I liked exactly half of the stories in Cloaked in Red. I liked "Little Red Riding Hood's Family", which had a hilariously absurd twist, "Granny and the Wolf", "The Little Red Headache", and "Little Red Riding Hood's Little Red Riding Hood". The rest were more miss than hit.

Currently reading Liar by Justine Larbalestier. I'm really enjoying it so far. On the surface it's about a girl who's kinda-sorta boyfriend is murdered and dealing with the aftermath of that and her weird family and personal issues. Then

Finished reading Men at Arms. I liked it.

No time to do a catch up post on what I've missed in here, but I have been following the conversations since my last post. Just wanted to give an update on how my reading was going.

Since my last post, I have finished Taliesin and read Merlin; they were both pretty decent overall.
I've read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Appointment With Death, The Labors of Hercules, and Death on the Nile, all by Agatha Christie, and I enjoyed them greatly! I must admit that, from what I have read of Agatha Christie's novels, they may very well be the best mystery novels I have ever read. She constantly stumps me, and I have yet to guess who is guilty before the ending, although I was very close in DotN (I guessed who did it, but was unable to figure out how he did it, then the information about

came out and everything made sense after that.). My favorites were TMoRA and DotN.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was pretty good, though if any of my sons (if I ever have any, that is) ever behave like that, they would be in a load of trouble!
The Princess Bride was average in my opinion. It was amusing, but the movie was better. It was rather confusing to read with all of the 'interruptions' and everything; what an unusual way to write a book! And why, oh why did he have to include the reference to The Lady or the Tiger at the end??? It made me want to go ram my head into a brick wall, for I loath that story.

...And so all of that brings my current total for the year to 9 books.

Next on my reading list is The Napoleon of Notting Hill by Chesterton. I also just started reading a book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and I'm finding it veeeery interesting so far. Lots of history that most people don't know and all that fun stuff.

Oh, and Booky's comments about True Grit piqued my interest, so I've put a hold on it at the library, and am just waiting for it to come back in.

Edit: I forgot to mention earlier, congratulations on your book, Fencer! I've been following your updates in the WW thread and it's exciting to see that it has finally been released! I'll be looking into getting it sometime soon, hopefully.

--- flambeau

I have been re-reading a book called "Million Dollar Throw" by Mike Lupica. that book is awesome! I love it!

Finished Liar and Reality Check by Peter Abrahams. I have to say, I am not a fan of the current trend in the YA genre to drop the f-bomb constantly. It's tedious and a bit childish, though that was somewhat the point of the language in Liar.

Anyway, thoughts on the books:

Liar: I'd read two of Justine Labalestier books previously and they'd been pretty much straight fantasy. Good, even great in bits, but not really anything groundbreaking. This book was completely unexpected. I've read a few books with unreliable narrators, but nothing to the extent of this novel. Literally at the end, you have about three or more possible explanations for the events of the novel and no clear idea which is true. It's possible some of the characters in the story aren't even real. It's a headtrip. But it's definitely not a book for younger teens, there's quite a bit of language and some other content. Not graphic, fortunately.

I was browsing the internet to see what other people had said about the book and stumbled across the fact that it actually stirred up quite a controversy when it was published in the US. Micah, the main character, is a girl with a black father and white mother so she's darker skinned, yet the first cover for the book here in the States depicted her as being blonde and white. Apparently this is a big thing in publishing, never putting black people on the cover of books because they claim they won't sell as well. It's rather sad and ridiculous that this sort of thing is still going on in the 21st century. Anyway, there was so much objection to this that they actually changed the cover.

Reality Check: Decent enough mystery novel about a teen boy searching for his missing ex-girlfriend. Not anything terribly special, which is disappointing since I've enjoyed some of the author's previous books.

Current total is now at 11 books.

I (re)read The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and found that I liked it more than I remembered from my one other reading of it (which was several years ago). Something about the style just sort of jumped out and grabbed my attention, and there were several passages which have now jumped on to my favorite quotes list.

My mom picked True Grit up for me from the library this morning, and I just now finished reading it. It was shorter than I expected. I liked it pretty well, though the dialog seemed rather... stiff, I guess is the word I'm looking for. The characters were memorable though, and Mattie was... this is gonna be so cliche, but I think the only way to say it is that she had real grit. Only fourteen years old, and she sets out to avenge her father's death by tracking down his murderer; definitely noteworthy, that's for sure. I think my favorite part was where she rides her horse across the river to keep from being left behind; I ended up with a very cool mental image of that scene, for some reason.

Up next on the reading list... I'm not exactly sure. I've got two more books that I need to finish, as well as a couple new non-fiction books that I need to read, so I'll probably start tackling that. I'm a bit sick at the moment, which is leaving me a fair amount of reading time; plus it looks like we might be getting some snow down here, which is just the perfect weather to curl up in front of the fire with a book.

*departs thread, and goes back to bugging the local library website* ... still not loading.

--- flambeau

Last night I finished The Count of Monte Christo - it only took me three days! But I was so sad to have it finish - you can tell a book is really good when you are sorry that there are only 500 more pages. I could have done with another thousand!!
That has to be the best book ever. It has to be. It's completely magnificent, conflicting, heartbreaking, joyful . . . everything. I love Edmond Dantes, and The Count of Monte Christo, though I'm no longer sure which I love the most.
I love that.
So it's altogether an amazing book and probably the best in the world. IMO. If you haven't read it - do it!!!!

Edit
I felt like writing a longer review about it, talking about some other things. The characters.
Franz: I've always liked him, and it makes me mad that in the end, What grounds does he have? Surely he can't be blamed for and he acted gallantly through it all. I liked him so much through that!!
Mercedes: I don't know if I like her or not. She was weak, but not entirely blameable to the things that happened. It does add to the book.
And I can't help feeling sorry for Fernand in the end - I almost forget how he deserves it. I mean - that's just heart breaking.
So - it's an amazing, unsatisfying book, and I have the hardest time reading anything after it. Everything else is so worthless, compared!
I need to read more Dumas!

Narnian1, I hope that you will have a better time with Water for Elephants than I did. Maybe you will not find the scene(s) as eye burning as I did or maybe you can just skip over them. Whatever, I hope, since you are going to read it, that you like it.

I was reading this book. I read eleven chapters. Though much of the way it's written I don't like, the story was still interesting enough for me to keep reading. however I do understand where you are coming from. I passed several portions I could have done without, but since there have been few and far between I kept going. But with each "part" it gets more off-putting for me. So I quit the book at this point. I do not plan on finishing it either.

I moved on to the third book in Brian's Saga. The first being Hatchet, and the second The River. The third, Brian's Winter, thankfully is a supposal. It just before Hatchet finishes, and it's a "what would happen if the book ended differently?" This is a detail I prefer much more than if it had been a direct sequel.

Also I have been (re) reading Harry Potter. One chapter a day since late December. I am in Chamber of Secrets, with one week to go on it.

I definetly want to read Cloaked in Red..

Saw this a few pages back:

Ooh, I love those books! They're so funny, and well written! Normally, I'm not a huge fan of the whole teenage romance plot, but I thought it was good, and not overly-what's the word I'm looking for?-I hesitate to say "Twilight-ish", but that really is the sort of teenage romance that I despise. And to top it off, Alley Carter is from the same region as me! Did you have a favorite character? Favorite book?

I know what you mean, I don't mind "teenage romance" but it has to be done well, which it was. Also it helped that it wasn't the whole point of the books. My favorite character would definetly be Cammie, and my favorite book is...*thinks* well I basically like all of them, although I seem to recall the second being pretty great...and the third...and the most recent one I'm not as much of a fan of the first one though, her boyfriend in that one REALLY irritated me.

Have you read Heist Society? And, that's pretty cool about Ally Carter living nearish you!

You should reread Herriot!

You wish is my command . I'm rereading All Creatures Great And Small for the umpteenth time and it's just great. He has such a gift for brilliant character sketches.

I simply don't talk about BM enough, nor post enough, that's why. I think it must have been you who got me hooked on BM in the first place though - it was you who first started talking about it here, yes?

Yes, I can take all the blame for that

I was interested in the book [Brideshead Revisited], but when I saw your review and that you liked it, I was really inspired to read it, so thank you for the recommendation.

*sigh blissfully* This is the kind of thing that makes my day!

The only thing that annoyed me were the epithets. Percy's eyes were always lazy, his laugh inane, and Chauvelin fox-like.

I didn't like The Scarlet Pimpernel after my first read for that very reason; the writing is just a touch stiff. But when you consider it was Baroness Orczy's second language, it becomes much easier to forgive. And the story is just so fun, I ended up revising my initial opinion and enjoying it very much indeed the second time around

Thanks for your Review of Paradise Lost!
Do you have the link to the rest of your review? Or is that the whole thing?

So sorry I didn't see this sooner! Thanks Valia for digging up that link .

So, I now have these two Chestertons all to myself until May.

Genius . I have a book to review called The Quotable Chesterton and I'm really looking forward to it!

At the moment I am reading a massive book called Les Misérables.

You know, I think I've heard of that title...

I finished From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It was a thoroughly enjoyable re-read, and I shall have to read it again before another 13 years have elapsed

I just love that book

I've never heard a mention of Cather on NarniaWeb, I really think she'd go down well with a lot of the people here.

She's on my long-range list, but if you guys keep praising her she might make it to the short list. (Randomly, I bet "Shanra" came from seeing the LT posts by a person of that username.)

Last night I finished The Count of Monte Christo - it only took me three days! But I was so sad to have it finish - you can tell a book is really good when you are sorry that there are only 500 more pages.

There is just so much to love about this ^ ! It's been awhile since I read this, but I remember being fascinated by Dantés's character. He is even more interesting compared to Jean Valjean of Hugo's Les Misérables; both suffer unjust imprisonment, but respond in such different ways. Good stuff.

Lately I've read:

The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris (review here). Kelmscott Press = amazing.

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis (review here). Profound and thought provoking, but that's no surprise, right?

Is God Just a Human Invention? by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow (review here). Good but only half the story when it comes to apologetics.

Striding Folly by Dorothy Sayers (review here). I wanted a quick Lord Peter fix

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (review here). Another fun one from the queen of the Regency romance!

I have a bunch more books to review, and about six currently being read...

*wanders in attracted to current discussion and to share a very cool book she got today*

I agree with ww on The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Even though it was cliche, I must admit I'm a tad embarrased to hear that most found it obvious who the Scarlet Pimpernel was. I had a very slight guess, but only until right before the person was revealed I guessed. I liked it a lot, but I don't know if I liked it so much that I'd reread it.
The only thing I could've done without is the sappiness, but it's not untolerable.

Percy's eyes were always lazy

This, too, was my one complaint about the descriptions. It gave me the worst mental picture of Percy.

On another note, I know this was talked about a little while ago, but RE The Bell at Sealey Head, I'm among those who are fans of it's writing style. It was so real but beautiful; and, too, I have an uncanny liking for stories regarding things by seas and lighthouses and things like that. However, I found the word "trifle" used a little too much, and I couldn't grasp a lot of the plot (then again, this could be because I rushed) but I don't know, it seemed a little confusing and ending on a low note that made one go, "Oh! It's over now?" . Perhaps it was just me.

All this good talk of TCoMC and Les Mis is making me want to read them both.

And, lastly, something I was terribly excited about and wanted to share somewhere in length-- Today, my book called Pixar Pedia came from the library. It's pretty much a written record of every detail of all the Pixar films (well, this was written in 2009, so UP is the last one mentioned), and all the "cameos" of previous characters, hidden Mickeys, Pizza Planet truck, etc. and interviews. I'm finding it awful interesting.

Another book I was planning to read was C. H. Spurgeon Arnold Dallimore. I came home all excited, but only to find the first chapter (his childhood, the one I was very interested in) ripped out along with some fifty or so other pages. Lovely. Perhaps it's a sign from God I should focus on the other things rather than his childhood, personality, and life as an author... I might just go ahead and read it.
... *slips back into lurkdom*

I'm currently trying American Gods by Neil Gaiman for the second time. I'm about half-way through the book. The premise and characters are very interesting and quite original takes on old world mythologies and the stories of American immigrants. Personally I'm not familiar with the latter (being an Australian), but I presume they have many of the same difficulties and experiences that Australian immigrants have here. Neil Gaiman is an amazing writer, very original with a simple but not simplistic writing-style. I'm disappointed and disturbed though that he feels he needs to cater to people who want graphic adult content (it lowers the quality of his writing) - whether it's needless anatomical references or graphic sex scenes or both.

I'm also reading The Ultimate Lost and Philosophy edited by Sharon Kaye. The title pretty much says it all. The book is a series of essays looking at Lost from a philosophical perspective. I'm about 1/3rd of the way through and finding it to be a good read (some of the essays, works they reference, and/or writing styles they use, go over my head though).

I've just begun Yours, Jack: The Inspirational Letters of C.S. Lewis. I'm only 20 or so pages in but so far it's an enjoyable look at the man we know as Jack. He seems to be more human than some biographies would have us believe and look at the struggles and joys of being a human (later on, I think it will look at them from a Christian perspective).

Aslanisthebest, I've never heard of the PixarPedia before but it sounds very interesting and looks good. The layout is more aimed at children than older audiences but that's okay given that Pixar movies are very much aimed at children (not only them but they're a big part of the audience).

Here's a YouTube Book review I found for PixarPedia.

I finished Hogfather, and am rereading A Wizard of Earthsea. Still on Going Postal, and trying to decide which Pratchett I should read next. The library has a rather limited selection.

Just finished Polgara the Sorceress, by David Eddings. Fantastic book -- definitely one I'll read again sometime. I love the humanity of his characters. Even though they live for thousands of years, they still have very human flaws and faults, and they're easy to relate to. Of course, the story itself is wonderful too.

I also recently read Patricia Wrede's Talking to Dragons. It's a children's book, with beautiful illustrations. I loved it because it shamelessly pokes fun at all the stereotypes of fantasy. A damsel in distress is really annoying when you think about it. I laughed all the way through.

Right now, I'm reading A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne. I'm not quite sure what I think yet.

And with all the interesting discussion going on, The Count of Monte Cristo is next on my list! I saw the movie, but never read the book .... so I'm excited.