Oh dear, I'm behind in here again...

Well, as of today, I am the utterly thrilled owner of a certain Riddle-Master trilogy!! Eeeeeee!

I have been searching for it forever with no luck. My library didn't have it (not even available for ILLing) and none of my local bookstores carried it. So today, we were at a Borders almost an hour from home, when I decided to randomly check the fantasy section and...there it was!! So after a ecstatic/geeky/book dance in the aisle, I splurged. Now I just need to restrain myself until after I finish a couple other books. And I will definitely be back to that Borders--they had The Bell at Sealey Head and a whole shelf of Robin McKinley!

Going back quite a bit...

Ooh, this will be difficult to answer... Perhaps Eight Cousins wins my favour the most. It's so courtly and interesting. But it's very hard to say! Under the Lilacs, An Old-Fashioned Girl, Hospital Sketches and some of the other short story ones might be called my favourite. What about you?

My favorite Alcott is definitely Jack and Jill. I love the pure fun and adventure and the New England-y feeling. And that group of lads and lasses are just adorable; Jack, Jill, Merry, Frank, Ralph, Molly...
An Old-Fashioned Girl is probably second favorite. It's a lovely rainy-day read.
I've never read Under the Lilacs--what's it about?

Yay for reading Sealey Head! Hope you enjoy! As for Solstice Wood, I can't tell you much, but I do believe it's one of her weakest novels (with maybe some content?). At the least, read Winter Rose first.

I have to ask, has anyone here read the Kingdom Series by Chuck Black? They may have already come up in discusion, but I had to ask. I just bought One of his Knights of Arrethtrae books: Sir Kendrick, and I LOOVED it! It was WAY to short!

My sister and I read that series when we were a bit younger. It's not half as well-written as the Knights series--especially Sir Kendrick, which has moments of brilliance--but we enjoyed it. There's some likable characters (Leinad, Tess, and my sister's favorite Cedric especially), and it's a lot of fun to see how he weaves in the Old Testament retelling. Definitely worth a read!

I'm also rereading the first volume of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, which is excellent. I really enjoyed them, especially Perelandra, which is beautiful. (I didn't like the third one, That Hideous Strength as much, at least not until the later half when Merlin shows up. Then it gets more interesting.) Has anyone else read them, and which one did you like best?

My favorite is definitely Perelandra, although I love OOTSP as well (the hrossa! The conversation with Maleldil!) I rather want to live on Malacandra. But Perelandra is beautiful and chilling and so very profound. I love, love, love that Ransom, a man from the world that fell, is the one Maleldil uses to save another world's Eden. And his philosophical struggle with the Un-Man is pure brilliance.

I need to reread That Hideous Strength. I think I read it at the wrong time and age, and so didn't like or remember much of it. Thus the only impression that remains in my mind is an odd jumble of Merlin and animals gone berserk and Nasty People.

WHAT? First Booky and now you? Betrayal all around, I tell you! How about we strike a bargain - you will make Riddle-Master your next McKillip, and I will make In the Forests of Serre mine.

I know, I know! And I call myself a McKillip fan! It's really dreadful.

Anyway, that's a bargain! *nods* You get an awesome book; I get an awesome book. Deals like this should happen more often.

My brother is nine. So he does some of the reading aloud, but he's still young enough to enjoy curling up with his big sister and being read to. I'd like to try him on the CoN, so we might start LWW next. He'd also like to read Ben and Me, especially since Mr. Popper's Penguins was such a hit. There does seem to be a lack of books, though, for boys between picture books and some of the older (10-11 and up) children's lit.
How old is your sister? Are you reading anything with her at the moment?

The Killer Angels-I forget.
This is a historical fiction book about the Civil war I'm fairly sure.

The Killer Angels (by Michael Shaara ) is one of my favorite books of all time. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and he makes the historical characters so vividly real that by the time the battle happens, it's like you're watching your friends charge up that hill. Enjoy, and do let me know what you think of it!

Ella, it's good to see you in the Books thread! I'd love to hear what you think/thought of Count of Monte Cristo!

In the Forests of Serre. Malkah, thank you, thank you, thank you! I loved this tale. It had mixtures of Grimm and other fairy tales (at least tones, if not direct allusions) in it. I loved.

Hurrah! I'm so glad you loved it too! Isn't it a delicious tale? Did you have a favorite character? And

mar_girl, awesome cartoons! And yet, a chicken and zombie Merchant of Venice is probably what will greet me the next time at the bookstore. If Jane Austen isn't safe from zombies and vampires, surely Shakespeare is next. Twelfth Bite, anyone?

What I've been reading lately:

100 Cupboards: Echoes of Magician's Nephew in this: I could almost believe that some of the cupboard worlds might be at the bottom of a pool in MN. Henry and his Kansas relatives are really well-done; mysterious, flawed, but so likable and just...homey. Very much enjoyed!

Dandelion Fire: Loved. The writing quality grew by leaps and bounds from 100 Cupboards (which is not bad by any means). The description of the life behind the dandelion is fiery and haunting and altogether amazing. And I loved

What an awesome, Tolkienish character; he did indeed remind me of Faramir, as well as Aragorn and bits of the Dunedain.
My only quibble is that

At the Back of the North Wind: My first Macdonald, not done with this yet. I'm...liking it, but it's not quite like anything else I've read before.

And I just picked up The Blue Sword at the library, so I might try to squeeze that in before Riddle-master. And then there's War and Peace...and summer's already half gone...so many good books and so little time!

The Blue Sword is excellent. I liked the exotic feeling of it. And if you like it, try the prequel, The Hero and the Crown.

And yes, I would thoroughly recommend The Iron Ring, especially if you want something different from the usual fantasy.
I liked At the Back of the North Wind, but not as much as The Princess and the Goblin, and The Princess and Curdie.
Kate, I agree with you about Lancelot. I do not like him at all. No matter how many heroics he did, I do not approve of him and Guinevere. But I especially dislike White's Lancelot, who keeps acting like he need a therapist to deal with his self-image issues.
Reading The Sea of Monsters, A Wizard of Earthsea, and still rereading The Lord of the Rings and The Four Loves.

About the only Lancelot I've ever come across who was even halfway likable was the version from The Squire's Tales books. Speaking of that series, the final book in it comes out this September. I wonder how many characters are going to get killed off in the climactic battle?

Gordon Korman is going to be coming to a school in a town near me! I might get to meet him! he's coming in October! yay!

if you like it, try the prequel, The Hero and the Crown.

Spoiler

In which you'll meet Talat, the best non-talking fantasy horse ever.

I loved the first half for exactly that reason. Second half, not so much... but I should probably re-read it here soon.

Dandelion Fire: Loved.

I wonder how many characters are going to get killed off in the climactic battle?

Too many.

The Killer Angels (by Michael Shaara ) is one of my favorite books of all time. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and he makes the historical characters so vividly real that by the time the battle happens, it's like you're watching your friends charge up that hill. Enjoy, and do let me know what you think of it!

Thanks! And thanks for the good review! I haven't really started yet. Finished 5 other books in the past two weeks I think... Make that 3? And I have one or two others started. But-- yeah. I'll get to it. And now I'm looking forward to it more.

Reading The Titan's Curse.

^yes! I am too . It's a great book, I just don't like the abrupt beginning.

*pokes head in*

My favorite Alcott is definitely Jack and Jill. I love the pure fun and adventure and the New England-y feeling. And that group of lads and lasses are just adorable; Jack, Jill, Merry, Frank, Ralph, Molly...
An Old-Fashioned Girl is probably second favorite. It's a lovely rainy-day read.
I've never read Under the Lilacs--what's it about?

Ooh, I had fogotten Jack and Jill! Ella did not like it, much to my surprise...but the reason she didn't like it was the reason that I loved it. The nice, calm, every-day life surrounded by friends and family made it so lovely and pleasant that I wished I could be put in the book right then.
AOFG is a great one, yes.
Under the Lilacs is about two sisters, Bab and Bet who are playing and find a boy, Ben and his trained dog Sancho. They find he's a runaway orphan from a circus, and his dog was a circus dog. It's a little different than usual Alcott books, but I loved it very much and reccomend it!

Yay for reading Sealey Head! Hope you enjoy! As for Solstice Wood, I can't tell you much, but I do believe it's one of her weakest novels (with maybe some content?). At the least, read Winter Rose first.

Yes, indeed! I finished it and see what all the talk is about. After reading what you and lys said about it...yeah, I guess I won't read it, then. Thank-you! =]

--

What I've read/been reading:

The Bell at Sealey Head: I found myself liking it immensley! The descriptions, characters, how they interacted with each other, etc were so...real. Only thing that came of as badly objectionable to me was

but otherwise, it goes on my list of good books I've read. I did have some trouble understanding exactly what happened, but things cleared off and hopefully will clear off after a reread.

The Long Winter: The only book I hadn't read from the series but always thought I had...very enjoyable, as a Laura Ingalls Wilder book always is.

100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names: Appeals to the botanist and historian part of me. I've been having fun noticing flowers and pointing them out. And using them in my writing! "Dandelions, Foxgloves, and Buttercups" was getting a leetle old.
Ironic, all these people reading/rereading The Thief. *is among them*
And I found a couple history books (*gasp* real WWII diaries and log books) at the library and am anticipating their arrival.
*ends this rather awkwardly*

Bella: what was objectionable about

Sorry. I should have been more clear.

oh yeah. That part probably wasn't too good but I tended to dismiss anything I didn't like in their conversations .

Still reading A Wizard of Earthsea. And waiting to read The Battle of the Labyrinth.

Almost done rereading Tahn- I just started this morning and I have less than 50 pages left .

Maybe because that particular era in the past seems so romantic and dashing?

Or dirty and violent? On a more serious note, the English language was invented then along with the fantasy genre. It is certainly one of the oldest genres (other than romance), so it's interesting that it's one of the genres most attached to the era that invented it (sort of. The invention of fantasy is something we can't really trace.)
I haven't gotten that far in Great Expectations so I'm not annoyed with Pip. He's still naive and sweet. PP just went waaaay over my head.
Very astute remarks about I Capture the Castle. I resonate with everything you said. I still love the book, but it is very sad and just sort of empty at the end.

Poor Stephen is just the Fanny Price of the book--servile, underappreciated, put-upon, a second choice.

Oooh! I hadn't ever thought of that. Of course, his intelligence and moral fiber aren't quite as strong as Fanny's, but he totally is. Hopelessly devoted second-rate surrogate family members for the win!

Lady Haleth: There are a lot of things about the Arthur legend that are considered "canon" and "unchangeable" that just don't make sense. Lancelot is one of them. Some person out there probably thought, "oooh, this will be an interesting twist on this worn out story! Let's make them have an affair!" and now it's cemented in. (Was it added in The Knight of the Cart or am I crazy? I never read it).

I finished The Riddlemaster of Hed. I was...less enthusiastic about it than many of you (or just Lys and Mel). I'm hoping the end of the series has a big payoff, but I found the book really confusing. I lost track of all the foreign names (only to discover at the end that there was a handy guide to people and places ) and I got really confused with the stuff that was going on. Dead children with stone faces and certain families that have certain powers, but some share? Wha??? I don't really get the whole "riddle culture" either. The ending was a jawdropper, but right now it feels like McKillip has this elaborate fantasy realm that she is trying to illuminate to the reader over the course of the series, but she's forgotten what she has revealed and what she hasn't.