@mel I was disappointed in Darkness Reigns too. I kept reading hoping things would get better, and some things did, but others got worse/stayed just as bad, and overall it just was not as compelling. I have reread the BoK trilogy I think twice now, and while a few things still bug me about it (some of which relate to historical details—which could be explained by it being fantasy not historical fiction— and some to plot points) I do enjoy them overall and certain things about them do seem tailor-made for me.  

@col-klink and @valiantarcher I agree Loamhedge is frustrating for that reason, and I don’t think it’s brought up in any other book. It took me a while (comparatively) to get to the last book but I have read them all and while some were less memorable than others I’m pretty sure Loamhedge doesn’t get brought up again. I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Rakkety Tam, which is one of my favorites but I’d only ever listened to the first book as an audiobook. I forgot how good they are with the full cast! Worth it for the accents alone.

I did finish Idylls of the King, though one of these days I’ll probably read it instead of listening to it. Sometimes poetry begs to be heard, but this was not the narrator for it even though I did like his reading of The Count of Monte Cristo.

@jo I once had a kid’s biography on Fanny Crosby that I enjoyed. I cannot recall the title though (might’ve been one of the Heroes of the Faith series?) and it probably didn’t go into anything that her autobiography did not cover. I just looked up her autobiography and my library has it, so I think I know what my next nonfiction ebook will be.  

The Deulin tales do sound interesting, @Col-Klink!

@Lady-Merian, a family member listened to some of the Redwall full-cast recordings last year (first read of any of Jacques' books!) and enjoyed them.
I read Idylls of the King a few years ago and my main takeaway was frustration of how Lancelot and Elaine worked out (or, rather, didn't).

I just read A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie; it wasn't my favourite of hers by a long stretch, but it was a solid mystery, which I'd been in the mood for. Now I'm tackling a collection of mystery and suspense plays, the first of which is also a Christie (And Then There Were None); as far as I know, that's the only one I'm actually familiar with, so we'll see how it goes.

Posted by: @valiantarcher

It is a shock to the system, @SnowAngel!

Oh boy. Sounds like a net gain with the purchased books overall.
I could see Henty going further too if the reader has a strong interest in the specific time period or historical figures encountered and the stiff/formal characters probably read better in certain settings and historical contexts. Do you remember much your general impression of the Hentys you read?

Now there are four, soon to be five!   I've not read any of them yet, I just keep stacking them on my desk. And I decided I am going to wait to read the books until all the chapters for The Silent Bells are in my hands. 

I went through my collection of paperback westerns and found a few more to part with, probably still have less shelf space than before the most recent book shopping...but I think I'm keeping the number of books about the same. I'm trying to clear some shelf space so I can add to my nonfiction section, but it's hard to keep it neat with so many of the books varying so much in size.

On Henty, I did read ones where I was very interested in the specific time period, I think that probably makes a difference in enjoying them.

During June, I read a Stephen Bly series I hadn't read before and I should have left it on the unread list. It started off fine, but ended very poorly. I recommend skipping the Horse Dreams series, it was very disappointing.

I finished with the fourth Luke Short western yesterday, it's sticking on the shelf for now. Now I am reading Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer (switching from westerns to mystery for fiction) and currently on the first chapter of Honor Thy Fathers by Zachary Garris for nonfiction.

I recently received chapter 20, @SnowAngel, so you'll probably be getting it soon if you haven't already. I was trying to remember how many chapters there might be total and went back and looked at the email announcement - N. D. Wilson said 6-9 more chapters, which means there could be only 1-4 more to come!! If that's the case, definitely an argument for holding off on starting the read/reread.
Congrats on being able to clear a few more westerns off the shelf! That's a good point about the varying sizes of books causing trouble with shelf space, even if the number of books stay the same.
Sorry to hear you had a bust with the Stephen Bly series (I take it you didn't own it, though?)! Hope your current reads are better (whether or not you decide to keep them if they're ones you own)!

 I finished the collection of mystery/suspense plays; some of them were more interesting than others, but there were few that I think I'd go see, much less go out of my way to see. I then moved onto a read of Agatha Christie's first mystery: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I thought it was a reread, but it didn't seem at all familiar, so I'm not sure now if I've actually read it before or if it was my first read. Irregardless, it was a solid and fairly enjoyable mystery, so that was nice. I haven't started my next book yet but am still eyeing my shelves, trying to decide between a reread or a new read.

Henty... [sigh] Yeah I do have Opinions on him. I read a lot of his books and enjoyed them pretty well when I was young -- I read enough older books the pacing wasn't too far off from what I was accustomed to, and also they were encouraged by one of our homeschool catalogs -- but I feel increasingly ambivalent or at times negative about him as I get older. Not so much for stylistic reasons, as ideological ones.

He... makes me deeply uncomfortable with how he treats the issue of race. Skirts very close to Noble Savage in his writings about indigenous Americans, which I can sorta put up with, but is Bad about Black folks. There was a bit with an attempted slave rebellion in one of the novels that dealt with South America, where he had his characters concluding it was Obviously masterminded by the local "Indians" because the Africans were insufficiently intelligent to handle it. And the idealization of a Southern US Civil War Era plantation family didn't sit well either. I know there is still a lot of debate about complexities of the North/South division and causes of the war outside of one had slaves, but when you get to making a son of literal slave-owners who has not repudiated that system your preferred protagonist, something about that still feels Off to me. It's not... it's not adequately honoring God's image in the dignity of your fellow humans to have such a strong willingness to write them off as less-than?

And I know that he was a product of his time and that means he won't  be perfect! I know that! But so many homeschooled families read him entirely uncritically, and that doesn't feel good to me. And again, I enjoyed them and tended to skim over the awkward bits as a kid -- I didn't even start thinking twice about it until I started meeting Black families in our homeschool community, and realized how hurtful some of that stuff could be if I tried to recommend books to them.

[Edit] I guess it's less of an issue if you stick entirely to books focused on European conflict??

@silverlily It's good to see another homeschool graduate being critical of Henty! I've felt like an anomaly for years when it comes to his books. I, too, read quite a few in my early teens but eventually I began to feel they were extremely formulaic and were a one sided presentation of whatever history was featured. I joke that they gave me an enjoyment of battle scenes in other books but not much else.

This year has been extremely hectic for me so sadly my reading has fallen to the wayside but I am trying to make time for it again, as a lifelong bookworm I am definitely happier when I read! I have been slowly making my way through To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield, I am not quite halfway through and so far I am finding it to be enjoyable. At times it reminds me of C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy.

@narnian-in-the-north "one-sided presentation"... yes that's a fair term for him. Even on occasions when I mostly agree with which Side he has chosen I get the distinct impression he flattens the other Side into caricatures of themselves, because frankly, history is rarely as simple as a Boy's Own Adventure. Nothing wrong with the genre in its place! But Henty holds himself up as trying to be both adventurous and educational, so I expected better of him than from histfic that is transparently about throwing the character in a situation and having a fun ride?

As for my own reading...

I have been juggling a large list.

Some recently finished reads that I enjoyed pretty well --

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (with some help) was pretty good fun.

The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne was interesting to me. It's a YA graphic novel (which I differentiate from a comic in that it finishes its story in one issue), which is the sort of mix of magic realism and flawed narrator where you aren't always completely sure what really happened, but which seems to mostly be about Neverland as an internal narrative Wendy is constructing to deal with the recent tragic loss of brother Michael? It's not lighthearted and can be morally ambiguous as well but I liked following the way the author mixed the original story into the meta-story, usually indicated by flashes of color in a black and white world, and it did bring Wendy to a good catharsis-point. 

Journey and Quest by Aaron Becker are both picture books that tell stories entirely without words, following children going on quests with the aid of magic crayons. Clever and very pretty.

Two of my active reads are

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming, which is a YA-accessible account emphasizing the massive gap in lifestyles between the nobility and the lower classes at the time, using a lot of direct quotes from people involved at both sides of the spectrum, and kind of... showing the the tsar's family especially had kind of withdrawn into its own little world and refused to engage (at best) as things were getting worse? It's been rather fascinating to me, I knew bits of what went down but like... for instance, the direct contrasting of a costume ball held in a palace where one of the halls had pillars entirely made of semiprecious gemstones and one of the guests managed to lose an egg-sized diamond that he'd incorporated into his costume with how the average peasant family in the villages couldn't afford to have a chimney built into their home.........

An Elseworlds / alternate universe anthology of DC Justice League short stories, which has been pretty fun so far -- not that deep, but just watching the shifts in style and characterization depending on what time period or genre the characters are being tossed into?

And I have started Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Salmin Nosrat, which... I consider myself a pretty decent cook but am hoping this may help a bit with Refining my skills, or pointing in the right direction to do so? It's a very detailed zoom on what the author considers important in food, together with some interesting anecdotes about her own life. For instance I knew saltiness was an important flavor enhancer but hadn't understood how much the kind and shape of salt and at what point it gets added to the recipe can change how it tastes... things to think about!

Posted by: @silverlily

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (with some help) was pretty good fun.

I received this book a few years ago as a gift and found it a lot of fun also. That movie is one of my all-time favorites.

I think it was I you sent you that book, @stargazer?? If I recall correctly.  

I am 7/8 of the way through a fascinating and difficult read (emotionally), The Splendid and the Vile: a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the [London] blitz by Erik Larson (2022). This historical record takes place from May 1940 through May 1941, terrible months for England and the world. So many times when reading this I am thinking that there is no way the Allies will win, absolutely no possible way. Thankfully, through the dedication and sacrifice of millions, this was not the case. 

We have read a number of Larson's books (he is a great biographer), but for the first time, he has included usually short somewhat sleazy sections, which I don't appreciate and even feel are unnecessary. The various immoral situations could be put more modestly, if included at all. That is my only objection to the book. Otherwise it is a very memorable read at 500 pages.

Has anyone here read Say and Seal by sisters Anna Bartlett Warner and Susan Warner? If the first name sounds familiar, it is because she is the author of the well-beloved song "Jesus Loves Me". I have always treasured that simple, solid hymn, but, uh, not so much her book.   For me, the story and writing drag and are downright boring. I slogged through for seven chapters, then simply lost interest. I would like to persevere, but don't know if I will/can.    

I am also in the middle of a poignant account of the torpedoing of the beautiful British ocean liner, the Lusitania, in the first world war, May 1915. This short 55 page book (The Lusitania's Last Voyage) keeps you on the edge of your seat, and is a powerful first-hand record companion read to the much longer volume (by Eric Larson), Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania. The shorter book is written by one of the survivors, Jr. Charles Emelius Lauriat.

Three books I now have in my hands and am anticipating reading soon are:

Helen Roseveare: a life in her own words, over 600 pages. This tome comprises all three volumes of Dr. Roseveare's autobiography, and covers her working as a medical missionary in the Congo through civil war and brutality (she greatly suffered personally at the hands of her captors). She lived from 1925 - 2016).

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan, the author, of course of The Pilgrim's Progress, which, I have heard it said, behind the Bible, is the best selling book of all time. The first sentence on the back cover states: This is a short and honest account of how God demonstrated His exceeding great mercy to His unworthy servant, John Bunyan, with Psalm 66:16 at the head. The first edition was published in 1666.

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, with notes and reflections. Brainerd was a hugely influential American missionary to the Native Americans, and lived from 1718 - 1747. 

Some great reads ahead!  

I've just finished reading The Collected Plays of J. M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame.) Perhaps that shouldn't go in this thread, but I think it's OK since I read the plays rather than watched them. Honestly, I have a hard time believing some of them could be as fun to watch as they are to read. 

Although Peter Pan is the only one of these plays to be famous (nowadays anyway), I feel like it'd be completely wrong to say it was the only great play J. M. Barrie ever wrote. In fact, while some of the plays in the book were a lot better than others, I can't think of a single one that I didn't enjoy to some extent. According to the introduction, Barrie's first full length one, the farcical Walker, London, became an embarrassment to him later in his career but I think it's hilarious. I prefer Barrie's plays to either those of Oscar Wild or George Bernard Shaw. The copy of The Collected Plays that I read was an interlibrary loan. I wish I had a copy of my own but the only one on Amazon.com has only one review and it says they sent the wrong book.  

BTW, some years ago, I bought a draft of the screenplay for the 2003 movie adaptation of Peter Pan from ScriptFly.com. An interesting thing about it is that it included lines from two other plays by Barrie, Quality Street and Dear Brutus. These would be cut from the final film but the fact that they were almost included confirms my impression that despite those screenwriters making some ridiculous, cuckoo changes to Peter Pan's story and characters, they were real fans of the author or genuinely interested in him anyway. 

If you can check out, The Collected Plays of J. M. Barrie, I recommend you do so! 

@jo, that Princess Bride book is also special to me since it contains personal notes from NarniaWebbers at a Moot I was unable to attend. Great times!

I'm also reminded of another book from you, The Heavens: Intimate Moments with your Majestic God by Kevin Hartnett. It's a devotional from an amateur astronomer with the words of a poet. Highly recommended. 

I just picked up a copy of The Prince and the Pauper and will be giving that a  read this week! The last time I read it was over 20 years ago so I'm definitely fuzzy on some stuff. 

Posted by: @valiantarcher

I recently received chapter 20, @SnowAngel, so you'll probably be getting it soon if you haven't already. I was trying to remember how many chapters there might be total and went back and looked at the email announcement - N. D. Wilson said 6-9 more chapters, which means there could be only 1-4 more to come!! If that's the case, definitely an argument for holding off on starting the read/reread.

My brother found chapter 20 in the mailbox last Monday morning when he was placing outgoing mail in it, looked like the chapter sat there over the weekend, oops. Thankfully it hadn't gotten damp. My guess is there must still be more than one chapter...I would think if there was just one remaining chapter there would have been an announcement, but either way it's nearly time to start the Ashtown reread.  

The Stephen Bly series belongs to Scarlet, so it's her decision to make regarding keeping them, but I think she's leaning towards getting rid of it. She got five hardcover Perry Mason novels for her birthday not long ago, so she could use the shelf space.  

Oh, I've been meaning to read The Mysterious Affair at Styles, I think I read it a decade or so ago, but I'm not entirely sure. I just finished reading the first Agatha Christie book I have read in years, Passenger At Frankfurt. It was interesting, but I prefer plots that follow more specific characters throughout the book than what this one did, it had a number of characters and jumped around quite a bit. Also the ending seemed abrupt.

I think I'm going to borrow one of Scarlet's Perry Mason novels to read next, I still haven't read the ones I gave her for Christmas.  

@silverlily [Edit] I guess it's less of an issue if you stick entirely to books focused on European conflict??

Now, that is something of a moot point, when, if you do that, you might still get a somewhat one-sided view of how World history flows, overall. What about Asian conflict as well? Yes, British settlers did come into conflict with First Peoples, in Australia as well, though until 1840, at least, early Governors, not unreasonably, did keep a wary eye on any French who visited. Though under George III's reign, the so-called villain of the piece when the now USA, proclaimed their Independence from Great Britain, on 4th July, 1776, Great Britain had had Parliamentary rule for some centuries, and by 1776, did have more power, when at the time, it was headed by Prime Minister, Lord North. In 1807 Great Britain passed laws forbidding all British subjects to trade in slavery, and in 1833, slavery was banned altogether, in all of the British Empire. The American Revolution was achieved with the help of France, which, itself, exploded into revolution on 14th July, 1789, only 18 months after Sydney, Australia's 1st successful settlement, was established on 26th January in 1788. All the governors, including Arthur Phillip, the first, were sworn in, to give the Aborigines the same rights as they did British-born people, in accordance with British common law, but that didn't always happen as intended, especially in remote areas, & especially after Transportation of convicts ceased, in 1840, in NSW.

The French Revolution caused the Batavian Revolution, in which the French overran the by then Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium, then on 19/1/1795, they overran the now-called The Netherlands as well, which since 1579, after the Union of Utrecht, had been called the Dutch Republic, whose then Stadtholder (their Head of State), Willem V, fled to England, directing Dutch Republic colonies to choose Britain rather than France, whose explorers were sniffing around the Bass Strait area, maybe thinking that with the new Batavian Republic, then a French puppet, the then Van Diemen's Land automatically belonged to France. So, who was the bloke who was the first European to discover Australia, and when? And what nationality was he? More to the point, I guess, is why he or any other explorer came here. 

The fourth revolution, triggered after Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815, was the Industrial revolution, when by the 1820's economists, like Adam Smith, recommended changes from traditional subsistence farming, to enclosing livestock rather than grazing them in common, along with neighbours, thus making farming more profitable, & also encouraging farmers to form companies, combining to maximise profits. And, of course, along with free settlers, some with a bit of money, by 1849, the Gold Rushes in both USA, & Australia, brought many people from overseas, not only British, to cash in on these mining discoveries. By the time Henty was writing his late 19th century books, from 1868 onwards, the world had completely changed from 1776, & yes, better educated people, more technologically aware, did perhaps get a bit too cocksure & jingoistic for their own good, in those days, when the British navy ruled the waves. Up until 1914, competing nations were likely still in this frame of mind.

Then World War I broke out, finishing in 11/11/1918. That was when 4 empires collapsed. One was the Russian Revolution of 1918, in which the Tsarist Russian Empire became the USSR, but retaining much of the old Russian Empire, anyway. The second was the previously ongoing Austro-Hungarian Empire, which disintegrated into many different independent European countries. Then there was Kaiser Bill's militaristic German Empire, which only united on 18th January 1871, taking over from the Prussian Empire, but which was replaced after 1920, eventually by the Weimar Republic, until 1933. The fourth was the Ottoman Empire, which previously, even before Mehmet II conquered Constantinople on 29th May 1453, & which ruled much of Europe, the Middle East, loosely seen as the Arabian world, North Africa, & at times, even Egypt.  

Sorry for the long post, but I did feel that it was necessary to point out just how much the world has changed since USA's independence was proclaimed in 1776, not only in styles of government, but also people's attitudes across the World. One good book to read, to get an overview of world history, is Peter Francopan's 2015 The Silk Roads: a new history of the world. Unfortunately, he only mentions Australia once or twice if that, but I use Wikipedia to refer to, quite a lot. 

Does anyone here like Sir Walter Scott?  I have been reading Ivanhoe, which I have found quite interesting.  The book is very old fashioned being a story of chivalry.  I was just wondering if the people here would still enjoy something like that being a novel  that is so far from our modern world. Ivanhoe is more of a romance than most of C. S. Lewis’s books, although it has a similar old fashioned tone to much of his medieval philosophy. I think it is quite enjoyable, although reading it requires some patience since Scott takes longer than most authors to tell his story.