Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Good books, good memories

I just finished reading A Little Princess in French (I bought it over there and yes, it's taken me a year to read it...but I did lose it for about 8 months of that <g>). And while I was in the midst of happy sighs of bliss (what can I say? I love the book), I looked up at my sister and said, "I love this book." (Well, actually I said, "Que j'aime ce livre" and then she gave me a dirty look because she doesn't speak French and I kindly translated for her. :p )

And then I said something about how I can't even count the number of times I've read it.

But I always love coming back to it.

As a writer, I look at some of the things in there as not the best -- whether it be with the prose or the plot -- and yet, I love it. Absolutely and unequivocally love it.

So, I was wondering (and no, Labby, you don't have to limit it to one ) if anyone else had any special books like that. Ones that are like slipping on an old, soft pair of jeans and fuzzy socks and a baggy sweatshirt -- they're just plain good.

Any takers? And hey, maybe it'll give us all some good book recommendations/reminders.

Bethy

Oh, you people have got to stop posting fascinating stuff! <g>

Okay, favorite books... The Lord of the Rings.

Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers.

Pretty much everything by Lois McMaster Bujold -- she writes mostly science fiction with some fantasy -- lately it's been "The Curse of Chalion" (and the sequel's coming out this year! yippee!).

About half of the books I own by Jayne Ann Krentz (also known as Jayne Castle (futuristic setting) and Amanda Quick (Regency romance)) -- they're really all the same sort of plot, but what the heck, I like the plot And some characters/situations appeal to me more than others. If I had to pick one, it'd be "Absolutely, Positively." And maybe "Scandal" for Amanda Quick...

I have a feeling I'm forgetting a lot <g> but I like re-reading books, so if I liked it the first time, chances are I'll get to it again sooner or later.

PJ

Thanks for making it easy, Bethy.

Hmmmmmmmmm...let's see. Well, I have a lot of favourite books and authors of course, which I revisit all the time. David Eddings's Belgariad, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (although very disenchanted with the latter books), Patricia Kenneally's Keltiad novels, Joan De Vinge's The Snow Queen, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Time and The Firebrand, almost anything by Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm, to name but a few....

But I guess for me the answer to your question would have to be a couple of childhood favourites which have stayed with me through the years: Watership Down and The Chronicles of Narnia. I've worn out copy after copy of these and each time I revisit I never fail to be caught up in the adventure.

LabRat

Let's see...

Everything by John Grisham
The Lost World by Michael Crichton
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls *sniff*

and...

Dave Barry in Cyberspace by Dave Barry
People think I'm psycho, but this book has me ROTFLing everytime I read it.

Okay, did I just forget how to speak English today?! I've had to edit every single post!

Ooh, good thread, Bethy!

Well, there are a few classics which have been among my very favourite books for years:

Stendhal's The Red and the Black - the story of a man who always runs after a happiness that eludes him, and learns from his experiences in life, through contact with other men or relationships with the two women in his life.

Zola's The Ladies' Paradise - a fascinating social picture, as well as a sweet love story between the daughter of a small shop owner and the owner of a big mall.

Balzac's Pere Goriot - another fascinating social picture, with a hero who learns from the encounters and experiences he makes.

Top of the classic list would be Madame de Lafayette's The Princess of Cleves - completely enthralling love story focusing on the psychological aspect of an impossible relationship.

More recently, there was a book I couldn't put down: Racing the Moon, by Terry Prone. It tells us the life story of a fascinating heroine, Darcy King, who is hilarious and moving in turns. The more classical format of the novel is interspersed with entries to Sophia's diary (Darcy's twin sister) and the letter-exchange that Darcy has been entertaining with an American teacher she has never met.

And lately I've been reading lots of regency romances.

I'd recommend anything by Mary Balogh, though I have a few favourites:
The Secret Pearl - heartwrenching story of a man and a woman brought together under dreadful circumstances, and who only find some peace by getting closer.
More Than a Mistress - the relationship between the hero and heroine is antagonistic and hilarious at first, then the novel progressively unveils their haunted past as they're brought together.
Heartless - a tortured hero that you loathe at first, then progressively understand, and in the end I dare you not to love him [g].
Silent Melody - original and fascinating story showing the world through the eyes of a deaf-mute in the regency period, and her sweet love for a man she's convinced will never be hers.
Irresistible
A Certain Magic - both "best friends falling in love" stories.
The Notorious Rake - another tortured hero!! Unpredictable and purely poignant.

Anything by Mary Jo Putney, but most especially:
Thunder and Roses - heroine in the hands on a rake who might be more than met-the-eye, plus social picture of a village living through the exploitation of a dangerous coalmine.
The Rake - the reforming of an alcoholic rake thanks to the help and support he gets from the woman who (amazingly!) manages his estate.

And of course there's Mrs Drew Plays Her Hand (one of the rare romance stories that convincingly show that one can love twice) and Reforming Lord Ragsdale (another reforming story, with funny and poignant moments), both by Carla Kelly.

I think it's a lot more than you wanted to know about my reading tastes, so I'll shut up now.

Kaethel

Ooooo, good topic. Ok I have two favourites that I love, have always loved and could re-read over and over!

To Kill a Mocking Bird– my English teacher gave this to me when I was 12 and I thought that it was the most amazing thing that I had ever read. I went on about it so much that she let me keep her copy (she was a really great teacher) I’ve read it so many times now that its getting really worn, but I cant bring myself to read a new one, it just wouldn’t be the same!

Little Women – I cant actually remember the first time that I heard this story because my Mum would read a chapter of to me before bedtime every night and as soon as we got to the end I would make her start all over again the next night! Then once I could read well enough, it became the first book that I read all by myself from cover to cover.

I guess I love them both because they are amazingly well written books but also because they hold so many personal memories for me. Plus I’ve always had an interest in American Literature (I did part of my degree in it) that I guess started at an early age.

Sarah-Jayne

I can see that a lot of my responses are going to be the same as Kaethel's.

Ohboy, you would ask this, would you. Let's see

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women series. Not just Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys, but also Eight Cousins, A Rose In Bloom, Jack And Jill, Under the Lilacs, and An Old-Fashioned Girl. I can't count how many times I've read them. And I still cry during Little Women

C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia I still cry during the Last Battle (not a theme, I swear!)

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess are good, too.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series. I still love it when Anne (with an E!) smacks her slate over Gilbert's head. *giggle*

I think those are the only ones I reread a lot, other than Jude Deveraux's series about the Montgomery/Taggert families. LMA's childrens books always put me in a simpler state of mind. Her thriller novels are slightly odd, but still fairly good if you can find them.

Okay:

All time favourite (and my nomination for the BBC's big read, for those who've heard of it) is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. I've read it from cover to cover five times (which is pretty good going, if you've ever seen the size of it) and I've dipped into it far more often than that. I haven't done so much recently, but that's more because I know the book too well, rather because I don't like it any more.

Michael Strogoff by Jule Verne is terrific, too, even if the ending had me wanting to spit. It's fantastic up until the dramatic climax, and then... Ugh. I always want to rewrite that bit.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. I like that one rather a lot.

I'm also a Dick Francis fan, and I particularly like the Sid Halley books, Odds Against, Whip Hand and Come To Grief.

Oh, and Harry Potter of course... Yes, I was one of those sad thirty thousand people who preordered The Order Of The Phoenix on the same day its release date was announced.

While I wouldn't put it on my must have list, I also want to endorse the recommendation for Thunder and Roses. Wendy pointed me in the direction of Mary Jo Putney, and that is my favourite (by quite a long way) of the books I've read.

Oh, and two last books I'd recommend: The Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff (a delightfully quirky fantasy novel -- not my favourite genre normally -- set around Cornell university) and The Crow Road by Ian Banks. Both these books have plots that seem very fragmented at the beginning but which come together into very satisfying wholes towards the end.

Chris (who has spend far too long reading these boards tonight and has probably doubled the number of her posts in the process.)

Wow...lots of good books out there...

For me, I'd have to say:

Chronicles of Narnia of course,
Harry Potter series,
The Left Behind Series,
anything by RA Salvatore,
The Merlin's Legacy Series (the only "Romance" type novels I have ever read...besides some nfics).
and
A Wrinkle in Time

-Breanna

Favourite books. Great topic, Bethy!

Let's see...

A book that I absolutely adored and that I keep reading over and over again is Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse.

Another one is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The first time I read it I stayed up till 5 am. I just couldn't put it down.

[EDIT: thanks to some help on IRC (thanks, Wendy!), I finally remembered the title. It's One Good Turn by Carla Kelly.]

I'm now reading also a number of vampire romance novels. Christine Feehan wrote some good ones.

I could list many books I really liked, but since it took me almost 40 minutes to write this (yeah, I know, pathetic), I guess I should stop.

[EDIT: Just remembered other books I'd like to add to my list.
Racing The Moon by Terry Prone and The Three Musketeers and its two sequels by Alexandre Dumas.]

Elena

Wow, I go to dance and come home to find a whole new book list to read. And I went to the library before dance, too. Silly Bethy.

And reading these posts made me remember more. Add another Chronicles of Narnia to the list. My mother read those aloud to us when I was around 6 or 7 and I have loved them ever since. And the more I learn about CS Lewis and the allegorical aspects of the books, the better they get. Unfortunately, in the US they changed the order! (Did they act as stupidly in the UK, too?) They put The Magician's Nephew first, because chronologically in the world of Narnia it comes first. But it's not meant to be read first! I will recommend the books to complete strangers in the bookstore and tell them the correct order to read them in. O:-) (The Horse and His Boy is moved to right after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because of 'chronology' too -- it technically takes place in TLTWATW. :rolleyes: )

And I love Little Women, too, but part of that is because I was in the play (hence the nick Bethy...) and so it has a special place in my heart because of that. I also read it first in the "Children's Illustrated Classics" version -- a picture every page and the text is veeeeeeery simplified and chopped down -- then found the original and was wowed by how much had been cut out.

Another one that I just recently re-read (and re-watched because I got it for my dad on DVD for his b-day) is The Scarlet Pimpernel. "They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? That demmed elusive Pimpernel."

A recent find that I think will probably turn out to be in the same category of familiar-blue-jean-books for me is The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey. It's a novelization of the ballet Swan Lake but it adds soooooo much more, along with making one of the ballet's principal bad guys into the main character and a good guy. I love fairy-tale novelizations, and since this is a ballet and I'm a ballerina, it just connects even more. Not to mention it is a just plain good book.

Oh! (I was going to end there, honest I was.) Pascal's Wager by Nancy Rue. Honestly one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I've read it twice in a year and it's going to get read many many many more times.

Bethy (who is going to save this list -- and give her library card a workout this summer)

Ooh, great topic!

Count another Jayne Ann Krentz fan here!

Also love the L.M.Montgomery books -- not just Anne, she had some others too... /me tries to remember

The Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane.

The Pern books, by Anne McCaffrey. Some of her other stuff too.

Anything by Orson Scott Card. Especially Songmaster!

The Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, by Douglas Adams. Also the Dirk Gently books.

Three shelves of Star Trek books! I reread many of them all the time.

Funny thing is, haven't read any of these in weeks. Wonder what I could possibly have been doing with my time...

Oh dear - thanks for the lists guys. I'm heading off to the largest bookstore in Seoul, which has a not bad English section, and was going to try to hunt down some books that Loriel had suggested to me. Now I'm printing off this thread so I can look for these books too.

I've got about 5 large bookshelves full of books at home, but of course only brought my Lonely Planet Korea and Baron's Korean phrasebook along with me. And seven months later I'm going crazy with nothing to read. Well, I mean yeah there's fanfic, but I can't print it off, and I don't have a Palm Pilot, so I can't carry it with me. And sometimes I just like to curl up with a good book, ya know...

Keep the recs coming! I'll have some for you a little later...

Melisma (going upstairs to get ready to go out...)

Okay, obviously I don't read very much because I don't recognize, well, almost all of the authors that were already mentioned.

Recently, I have read all 4 of the Harry Potter books. My two best friends are completely obsessed with Harry, and they talked about the books all the time. Even though they dragged me to see both movies, I felt a bit out of the loop. Finally, I was convinced to read them (grumbling the whole time about how they were childrens' books) and I ended up wanting to find out what happens next.

My all time favorite book of all time is Anne of Green Gables. I saw the movie when I was a little girl and I demanded that my mom go out and get me the books to read! To this day, it is my favorite book of all time.

- Alicia (who is a little scared that all of the books she has read in the last 5 years are children's books... and movies )

That was good!

However I'm an Asimov fan , so I stick for the Foundations Trilogy:Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation, or The Gods Themselves.

Anything more new, in science fiction, The Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card, at least,
Ender's Game and Speaker for the Death

Jose (last book read Passage by Connie Willis)

A Wrinkle In Time! How could I forget it? Probably wasn't on my list because I've only read it once, way back when I was nine, and so it doesn't really qualify. But it probably would if I'd had a copy all these years. Twisted logic there, but it kind of works. <g>

Anyway, I remember being absolutely blown away with this one at the time, filled with wonder at the revelation of the ending. Which seemed awfully profound to me at that point. <sigh>

I really need to try and build up a collection of Madelaine's stories, I think. Thanks for the reminder, Breanna!

I have about 400 books, all of which I really enjoy! Most, if not all, are in the sci-fi/fantasy category.

All time favourites have to be Imzadi by Peter David and Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, both Star Trek novels. Erery so ofetn I re-read them, or, if I don't have time, I'll re-read my favourite bits!

Other favoutites include Anne of Green Gables series, (Rivka, are you thinking of the Emily of New Moon and Road to Avonlea series? I loved Emily too!), Harry Potter (another of those 30 odd thousand people), anything by Anne McCaffrey, but especially the Pern and Freedom/Catteni series, Chronicles of Narnia (I read Magician's Nephew, TLTW&TW, The Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle in that order) and every so often I have a yearning to go back and re-read some of Enid Blyton's books - Shadow the Sheepdog, Adventure series.

Also really enjoyed David Eddings, Elenium and Tamuli series and Daid Gemmell's Rigante recently.

And I remeber reading and loving Little Women, Secret Garden and A Little Princess.

Karen, could you tell me the order of the Little Women series, I always wanted to read the, but not in the wrong order!

Loriel (who really will have shares in Amazon soon - a lot here I haven't read! )

See, I knew I was forgetting a lot <g> How could I not mention Georgette Heyer??? I think my all-time favorite of hers is Black Sheep -- I still vividly remember the first time I got to the ending and fell over laughing Venicia and Frederica are faves, too. I like the characters, the stories, and the language <g> Both because she's good at prose and because she uses a lot of Regency slang which, like any slang out of context, sounds hilarious today <g> There are whole passages I read aloud, every time. "Well, I don't want to say anything unladylike, but," she said, overcoming this reluctance, "you're one as would marry a midden for muck, and that's the truth!" okay, I'll be re-reading Black Sheep today... <g>

I really love The Secret Garden.

And add me to the list for the Chronicles of Narnia. How on earth could anyone put The Magician's Nephew first??? I've got a box set of the seven books (had it for years and years), and they have numbers right on them so you can keep them in the proper order... There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. C.S. Lewis also did a sci-fi trilogy ... "Out of the Silent Planet," "Perelandra" and "That Hideous Strength" ... that really impacted me at the time... Definitely for an older audience than Narnia. I still re-read the last one, sometimes.

I like most everything by H.B. Piper -- he wrote the Little Fuzzy stories, but I'm more fond of his future-history novels. He wrote decades ago (40s or 50s) and the first thing of his I read was "Omnilingual," a short story about an archeologist team in the Martian ruins, and the woman who figures out how to translate their language. Isaac Asimov and Anne McCaffery are classics, too. Especially the first Pern trilogy.

Okay, I think that's all I can remember for now

PJ
(all quotes above were from memory and might not be entirely accurate)

The Narnia books I have (a mixture of my mum's and new ones from my gran) are all numbered starting from Magician's Newphew, etc as I listed above, so I was wondering what order everyone else read them in. They seem to make sense to me in the order I read them. Tho, I do remember thinking at one point (possibly in The Horse and his Boy or Prince Caspian (I haven't re-read in a while)) 'So that's where Aslan went when he disappeared!' I liked finding that bit out.

Did anyone else watch TLTW&TW on BBC, possibly on a Sunday evening, maybe about 10 yrs ago. I never saw the other one's they did, but I'll always remember that one. I can still remember hiding behind the couch when The White Witch had tied Aslan to the table and turned him to stone. My heart broke (got a tear in my eye as I type!) and I just couldn't watch the 'evil' White Witch, and this is despite knowing what happened next!

I must go and look for CS Lewis's sci-fi series. I remember finding out, a while, back that he hadn't only written Narnia and that he had done other novels too, but I never went and looked for them!

Loriel

I think I must have them in publication order -- the order he wrote them in.

TLTW&TW
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the 'Dawntreader'
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

My set was by Collier Books, printed in 1970 as far as I can tell, though that would have been a little bit early for me

I can see that TMN is the book set the earliest within the series -- and for some series, I think internal chronological order is important -- but that one just doesn't seem a good introduction.

Never saw TLTW&TW on BBC but I was in London 10-12 years ago, and there was a children's theater doing a live version And before we went home, they switched over to another one... don't recall which one... so we got to see that, too. It was fun <g> Plus, even though we had seats in the back, we had a great view, 'cause most of the other patrons were under 4ft tall

PJ

Well, I made said trip to said bookstore this afternoon. And thanks to this list and Loriel's suggestions I dropped just over 90,000 won on a *stack* of books - unfortunately I couldn't find most of the books or authors you had listed. Had decided that I really wanted to start with Anne McAffrey (oh dear, did I spell that right?) but only her latest Pern book was on the shelf, and I didn't want to start in the middle of a series. Looked at a bunch of other fantasy/sci-fi books, but couldn't decide which ones looked good enough, or they didn't have the first book of the series, etc. So finally settled on the first four Harry Potter books and the seven Narnia books. The Potter books are new to me, but I read the Narnia books as a kid. Repeatedly. Think I read 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' at least twenty times! Yes, they are certainly sci-fi/fantasy, but my parents let me read them because CS Lewis was a Christian writer and they are Christian allegories. We were never allowed to read fiction when I was growing up, otherwise. I think finally I found some biblical fiction books that my parents let me read because after all, they were Bible stories. And then after I left home, I was very careful not to let them see my bookshelf. Until I moved back in with them this summer. And my dad had a fit. But I told him basically, 'Dad, I'm 34 - I don't give a flying flip what you think about my viewing or reading materials.' (I just made sure that I didn't subject him to anything he doesn't approve of, like me watching shows he doesn't approve of when he's downstairs working in his office.)

Anyway... If you like Biblical fiction, I love any of the books by Ellen Gunderson Traylor. Also, I really enjoyed the Zion Chronicals series by Bodie Thoene - these two series piqued my interest in the early State of Israel as well as WW II and the Holocaust, and Judaism, which I admit, I'm really *really* ignorant about...

I can't really name books anymore - I had a lot more books on my shelf before I was forced out of my apartment last Jan (2002). I had to dump a good 4/5ths of my books. Only kept my Star Trek books, some major music and education books, and a few novels. Mostly classics. I'm reduced to about three shelves now, and those are double-stacked. (Another shelf, also double-stacked, house my video collection, which I refused to do anything to!)

Hopefully these two sets I just got today will be a start to re-building what I'd lost...

Melisma (under her Rock, off to start in on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - a new English-language book: Yippee!!! )

It's interesting just how many people here are keen on The Chronicles of Narnia. I also read them as a kid, and enjoyed them thoroughly. In fact, I gave a set to my nephew last summer. (They were supposed to be set aside as a Christmas present, but mum got confused when she took them over -- my brother lives abroad -- so the lucky kid ended up with a Christmas present, too!)

All the discussion about the chronology of the books intrigued me; I always thought that The Magician's Nephew came first, although I certainly didn't read it first. Anyway... So intrigued was I that I did a little websearch and... For anyone who is interested, you can find the result here .

Suffice to say, they weren't written or published in chronological order; Pam's list looks about right for the order they were written in. The author of the article linked to (above) seems to put forward a pretty good case for not reading them in chronological order, too, but points out that it really doesn't matter all that much.

Yes, the mentions of Narnia have stirred up some good memories, but I don't think they're quite up there on my most treasured book lists.

Oh, and whoever mentioned Shadow the Sheepdog? I'd forgotten entirely about that one, but I loved it when I was little. I also loved What Katy Did, What Katy Did At School and What Katy Did Next, plus the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.

I'm going to stop now, before I drown myself in nostalgia.

Chris

Pam,

Now that you've mentioned it, I seem to recall the publictaion order differing from 'suggested reading order'. The much older copy of TLTH&TW that I have, doesn't list MN in the inside cover, which struck as odd at the time, since, to my mind, it should be listed there if it was written first. I remember I had trouble trying to figure out which order I should read them in.

I was just discussing it with a friend, and she read

TLTW&TW
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the 'Dawntreader'
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

The Horse and His Boy was an 'additional story' for her and she's not read The Magician's Nephew.

It looks like its preference where in the series you read MN and The Horse and His Boy. For me tho, I much prefer to follow the chronological order of the story. (Tho, that theory got blown out the water with Star Wars - you can really only watch the new ones *after* you've seen the originals, IMO! )

Loriel

Chris,

You've listed more I enjoy! I was going to mention What Katy Did the first time, but they aren't in my 'all time favourites, tho I did enjoy them, so I thought my list was long enough. And you've reminded me of Little House on the Prairie as well, another series I really enjoyed!

Just been to read the link you posted, it was actually very enlightening. Thanks.

Loriel (who now wants to head home to read Narnia instead of going to see X-men 2 with friends!)

Ooh, what a wonderful thread! I have so many books that I love to read over and over that I don't know how I could possibly list them all... but I'll try.

Several other people said ones I love, but I'll still mention them.
Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, (and the other Anne books, but especially that one)
Emily of New Moon, by L.M. Montgomery, and all the other Emily books
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (also, to a lesser degree, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Northanger Abbey.
The Physician, by Noah Gordon.
Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel, as well as the others in the series.
Crooked House, by Agatha Christie.
Isle of View, by Piers Anthony, and the other Xanth books.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (did I get that name right?). Never really liked A Secret Garden, though. And never read it in French.
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey, and the other Valdemar books (but especially Talia's).
Fiddler Fair, by Mercedes Lackey.
Those are probably my biggest "comfort" books, books I reread and reread when I want the comfort of an old, familiar friend near me. The L.M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, Jean M. Auel books, as well as A Little Princess, are probably the biggest comfort books when I'm feeling down. Some of them also have movies, which, coincidentally, are some of my comfort movies as well (except for the Clan of the Cave Bear movie, which stunk).

Let's see. The whole listing of LMA's Little Women series is actually several series, but I've seen it listed as such. First is Little Women, then Little Men, then Jo's Boys. Eight Cousins and Rose In Bloom are part of another series. The other books all stand alone.

I've read the Narnia books both ways. To me, it makes more sense to read Magician's Nephew after Lion, because then you go "Oh, THAT'S who the Professor is!" Then again, it's a little easier to read chronologically, since Horse and His Boy takes place in the middle of Lion. I guess it depends on personal preference. I have to get new copies, as my current copies met a disastrous fate at the hands of terrible high school kids. I loved the live-action series, but its hard to find it on.

I've also read the Harry Potter series (forgot to add them since I've only had the books for a year and a half, read 3 times, and need to get them back from a friend ) and have pre-ordered the 5th one, but only a few weeks ago.

I'd completely forgotten about the Emily series. I'm going to have to get those now, because I don't think I have them. Also on my list of books to get are the Pollyanna series and the Little Colonel series. My grandmother has the older editions (turn of the century for the most part) and I would love to find similar copies. I might have to settle for paperback, though. I also have almost the whole Little House series, but I don't like them as much as I do LMA and LMM.

BTW, Elena, kudos for reading Crime and Punishment. I read it in 10th grade for a knowledge bowl, and thought that reading it *was* a crime and a punishment. It took me a whole month to read that book, when at that time I was reading a book that size in about 2-3 days. It just didn't hold my interest, so I would read a few pages, read another book, read a few pages, read a few other books..

Oh, I also want to add Stephen King's The Stand. Most of his books have a tendency to depress me within 2 chapters, but this is one that I keep coming to.. even though the author's extended version is a lil more disturbing than the first print.

I have read quite a few of the books mentioned in the thread. I have a particular fondness for Sherlock Holmes , and To Kill A Mockingbird.

My all-time favourite book? I have to say it is Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.

--meclone2--

[quote]Oh, I also want to add Stephen King's The Stand. Most of his books have a tendency to depress me within 2 chapters, but this is one that I keep coming to.. even though the author's extended version is a lil more disturbing than the first print.[quote/]

The King book I return to again and again is It. The characters are like old friends and I love them. Which also reminds me of another very battered and well-loved favourite, Dean Koontz's Watchers. Has me in tears every time.

Actually, I said on a thread a few months back that he'd begun to disappoint me as an author, but something weird happened lately. Bereft of anything new to read and without the funds to buy anything I started revisiting my bookshelves. And so far I've discovered that every Koontz book I've picked up thinking, 'Hmmmmmm...don't remember much about this except that I hated it' I've been throughly engrossed in and really enjoyed. To the point where I've resinstated him on my list of authors to add to my collection.

Going back to The Stand. Is there a lot of difference in the two versions? I keep meaning to buy the extended version, but I've never gotten around to it.

And, oooooooh - Phantom Tollbooth. Remember reading that as a kid and loving it.

LabRat

Well, the extended version had a lot of extra stuff in it, which really fleshed out the characters.. or just made them really weird. It's been a few years since I read either version, but I remember that the extended version has more about Trashy's trip from Gary to Las Vegas (Cibola!) and it has more of an epilogue. Maybe I should reread it.

I also love many of the McCaffrey Pern books, but the original trilogy remains my favorite. I think I "invested" the most in the original characters, and haven't gotten as involved with some of the later ones. In fact, I think I'm a couple of books behind...

The Anne of Green Gables series is, of course, wonderful. I haven't read these for years, but I introduced them to my 10-year-old son about a month ago. I was afraid that he would be unwilling to read books about a girl - I think only the fact that I have suggested a lot of other books that he has really liked is why he went along with it. And he's loving them, so I guess I'll have to reread them as well. It's probably time to try the Little House series next.

A series that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I just checked with Amazon.com and see that a fifth book came out last year (which did NOT get a good review). I really enjoyed the first four, however: romance, time travel, great attention to detail (which I assume is accurate).

But, honestly, I haven't read a print novel in ages. Spending too much time online...

Kathy

Thanks, Karen - I really need to check it out.

I have to confess I've enjoyed each book in this series less than the previous one read. I adored the first one, really loved the second, I lost a little bit of interest when it moved from Scotland to the US <g> and I thought the fifth book - The Fiery Cross was absolutely appalling. My apologies to any die-hard Gabaldon fans. I think in that one, somewhere along the line, she forgot she was telling a story and just wanted to impress us with the historical research she'd done. It was hard work getting to the end and I'm not that keen to look out book six to be honest.

LabRat

This thread has set me off on a nostaglia trip on all the books I loved as a child. Among them the Carbonel books by Barbara Sleigh (about a magic cat and his adventures with some kids who save him from a witch).

I'm also remembering (though not very well, hence this post) a series of books about a boy and a dragon and their adventures. He had some kind of chant or spell that he used to summon the dragon to him. Yup, that's all I remember. Except that I have the idea that the author's first name was Rosemary. They'd have been written around the same time as the Carbonel and Madelaine L'Engle books.

I know I'll be extremely lucky if anyone recognises them from that - but thought it was worth a try as I'd love to rediscover them.

LabRat

Is "All of the above and then some" a valid answer? It's kind of exciting to see how similar some of my tastes in books are to the other people on theses boards. Yay!

I'll just do a quick run-back-through of the ones already listed that are on my favorites and then see what new ones I should add:

Lord of the Rings - really just read them for the first time back before the first movie came out, but I LOVED them.
The Chronicles of Narnia - count me in as another who loves them - although I guess I'm just a stickler for order, it makes me feel weird to read things in any order other than the way they are presented to me, so I read The Magician's Nephew first, and so on, as in the box set. Although I had seen the cartoon version of TLTW&TW already.
Where the Red Fern Grows - traumatizing as all heck for a 9 year old, but still a GREAT book!
Little Women oh, how I love this book!!! First time was 4th grade and I can't count the number of times since! I've read Little Men too and enjoyed it, but never went back to re-read it...
Janey Eyre and Wuthering Heights were really great too, but all my friends thought that I was stark raving looney-tunes to like them.
The Harry Potter Series yep, I'm another of the nuts! Knocked off the 4th book in about 3 days times. <g> And my roomie pre-ordered The Order of the Phoenix for me for my b-day - she's my new favorite friend in the whole wide world.

Ohmygoodness, I didn't think anyone else had read the Dark Is Rising series. I picked up the first book when I was about 14, and devoured the whole series. I now have all 5 books bound in 1. It's a great series, and I'm almost tempted to name my son Bran. But I have enough problems getting people to pronounce my internet name right, let alone trying to correct the pronounciation of Bran! (pronounced brahn, not braan like a muffin, if I remember correctly) It also taught me a bit about Welsh pronounciation. I still have to get the other book by her, Seaward.

I haven't read the Nancy Drew series in quite a few years. I have most of the original series in the yellow-bound covers, but they're still boxed up. I have to get a bigger bookshelf so I have room for all of our books.

I keep forgetting to add in authors and books. Another author I reread is Piers Anthony. I've read all of the Xanth novels out so far, the whole Apprentice Adept series, the whole Incarnations of Immortality series, and a few other random books of his.

Maybe I should buy stock in Barnes & Nobles or Amazon, since I give them so much money. ;-)

Hey, can I change my status from Cub Reporter to Bookworm? I think it'd fit me more.

Hm... Has anyone noticed that I've been pretty quiet on the boards the last couple hours? That's 'cause I've been reading Harry Potter for most of them. After I made my last post, I went upstairs, stayed up until 4am (got home about 10ish I think) reading, then got a little sleep. Woke up about 10am or so, started reading again, broke for some brunch, went back to reading, took a break, checked my email (but not the boards), read some more - and am just now (4pm-ish) checking the boards. And I've finished book one, and am halfway through book two. I'm really going to have to try to ration the 11 books I bought yesterday - 90,000 won is a heck of a lot to drop in one day, and I could easily finish all of them within a week, even with taking time to teach the 8 classes that I have this term, starting on Monday!

Melisma (under her Rock, completely sucked into HarryPotterLand )

Don't know why that reminded me, but it did. <g> Another King book that's a big favourite is The Green Mile. Wonderful movie too.

And another author in the same genre, Robert McCammon, keeps me enthralled with his Swan Song and The Wolf's Hour novels.

LabRat

Oh, yes "The Dark is Rising" is a great series Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series was great, too.

My brother was nutty about The Phantom Toll Booth, but I never went wild about it -- I preferred a different book, which was about an apartment building full of people who were all connected, in some way, with this reclusive old guy, and he set up an elaborate puzzle game for them to figure out where his money was; he set them up into teams of two, and the first ones who got there got to keep it... one of the main characters, as I recall, was an 11-yr old girl called Turtle <g> It was a very funny book, and there was lots of character development as they all re-evaluated how they interacted with other people. Haven't the slightest clue what it was called <sigh>

Thanks for the link to that Narnia essay, that was pretty cool

And add me to the list of Madeline L'Engle fans The first three plus a lot of the follow-ups, though at some point I lost track. Had a terrible time figuring out how to pronounce Dennys (? one of the twins). <g> The one I remember was about dolphins and marine biology -- A Ring of Endless Light, I think it was.

PJ

Everything and anything written by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss or Virginia Henley. They write historical romances. Okay, I admit it. It's my one guilty pleasure I just have to live with it. That may be why I love reading nfic so much.

And anything rewritten by H.P. Lovecraft. He's the gothic horror writer who inspired others, like Steven King. It's harder to find his stuff, but if you do, it's definitely worth reading. Just make sure it's a nice sunny day out and all the lights are on!

PAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's The Westing Game! I loved that book!!! Forgot all about it, thanks for reminding me!!!

Jill

Oooh, look we got Melisma all distracted!

I loved the film The Green Mile, sobbed my heart out, but have never read any of Stephan Kings books. I'm trying to remember, did he also write Shawshank Redemption? I *love* the film, but again have never read the book (very unusual for me!).

After seeing Pam's summary of The Westing Game, I may have to go and find it, it sounds great!

Another book I've read, but not seen mentioned, is Sophie's World. It was a good book, though heavy going in parts. I enjoyed reading the philosophy parts, tho that was generally the bit that slowed me down - for some reason non - fiction just doesn't hold my attention. The ending was a little... odd/unusual. You had to be paying attention for it to make sense, and even then it didn't make much sense!

Loriel

Yup, another superb movie that makes me cry every time I watch it, just like The Green Mile. It was based on King's novella, Rita Heyworth and the Shawshank Redemption, one of four stories contained in his collection, Different Seasons. Another of the stories in that collection, The Body was filmed as the wonderful coming-of-age movie, Stand By Me.

LabRat

Oh, wow, reading everyone's posts is reminding me of many I forgot the first time!

Harry Potter! Of course! I have all 4 in paperback, reread many times. I'll get 5 when the library has it -- I'm too poor to buy HCs these days.

THE SECRET GARDEN! I reread that so many times when I was a kid! And A Little Princess too!

Loriel, I think of the Avonlea books as part of the Anne series, and I don't think I'm talking about Emily either... /me tries to remember ... something about a house that she didn't want to move away from?

Didn't watch on the BBC, but they came to the U.S. as Wonderworks episodes. I loved that show!

XANTH!!! I love those! And also Anthony's Phaze books.

Oh, and I used to read books by Enid Blyghton every time we visited a country that had them (England, Wales, Australia). A bit harder to get them in the States.

Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie! Definitely! Still love mysteries! Favorite current mystery writer is Diane Mott Davidson. Yummy recipes are a bonus!

My favorite Pern book is also my first -- which was Harper Hall -- my mom left it lying around. And I have a whole stack of Pern 'zines.

How did I foget Madeline L'Engle?! Wrinkle in Time was probably my first real SF. And her non-SF books are also amazing! A Ring of Endless Light is actually one of the Austins books, I believe, Pam. I love those, and the two Camilla books.

The Westing Game! Pam, Jill, I had forgotten that book! It was GREAT!

Oh, and books by E.L. Konigsburg! Mixed up Files..., Scarlet and Miniver, Jennifer, Hecate..., Rats of NIMH!

/me is reveling in memories of all these wonderful books

The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin... LOL, that *does* bring back memories!

Many, many of the books/series mentioned here bring warm smiles of nostalgia. But since this thread is supposed to be for the all-time favorites, I'll restrict myself to three:

Watership Down, by Richard Adams. Kind of a given, considering my nick and avatar! I read this to my little sister when she was ten and I look forward to reading it to my own children, sometime after I finish reading...

Laura Ingalls Wilder's books to them. Mind you, the last few are too old for them at the moment. Grey eyes and dark hair still sound good to me!

Hazel, who also liked To Kill a Mockingbird and The Phantom Tollbooth and the Narnia books (although, as an adult, I was a little taken aback at just how *blatant* the Christian allegories were) and Madeleine L'Engle and Graham Martin's Giftwish and Catchfire and the Hardy Boys and Asimov and the first few Pern books and Francis and Rex Stout and Scarlet Pimpernel and Macbeth, for some reason, and Ngaio Marsh Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and a few Agatha Christies and Terry Pratchett and Lois McMaster Bujold and Eddings' Belgariad (although not the other books) and Gordon Korman's child and teen books and the Harry Potter books and Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave and Hollow Hills and Anne of Green Gables and Gillian Bradshaw's Hawk of May and... oh, never mind, just call me a literary omnivore.

LOL, Hazel, I found this interesting because I still remember the 'huh?' moment I had many years later when the Christian connection in the Narnia novels was pointed out to me. Until then (and I was twenty-something by that point) it had passed me by entirely.

I found this interesting too because although I adore the Belgariad and (having re-read it recently and decided I'd been a little harsh on it) enjoy the Mallorean, although I didn't think it was as good, I've tried and tried and simply cannot get into the other series/novels.

I know that there was something I heard vaguely that it was actually Eddings' wife, Leigh, who had written The Belgariad and I've often wondered if this was true and that David Eddings wrote the others and that's why I find one series so enthralling and the others leave me cold. Anyone else know anything about the story behind this? Was it just a rumour or was it confirmed at some point by his publisher? Memory tells me it was confirmed, but I wasn't paying too much attention at the time, I have to say.

LabRat (who also thought that Belgarath the Sorcerer was an annoying way to get more cash out of a story already told...)

Well, LOL both of you - the Christian connection was the *only* reason my parents let me read them when I was eight, nine and ten. Because CS Lewis was this great Christian author, and he'd written such a classical Christian allegory - otherwise, fiction? Ban the trash from the house, kids. We read only true stories here, and Bible stories. :rolleyes:

Oh and of course Pilgrim's Progress. Can't forget that one. Actually I liked that, so I'm not saying nothing against it...

Anyway, what I mean to say is, the Narnia books were my first fiction (other than PP, but PP isn't counted as fiction, right?), and thanks to them, I got interested in all other fiction books, and later, TV. So despite my parents' ban on all non-true books in the house, because they let the Narnia books through, I'm sitting here with baited breath as Harry and Hermione and Ron are meeting Sirius Black finally, and finding out that their teacher (what'shisnameagain?) is a werewolf, and that Ron's rat is Peter someone, Harry's dad's friend... Well sheesh, I'm reading so fast here you can't expect me to remember all the details, right? That's what re-reading is for! Besides, we have spoiler virgins here, LOL...

But anyway, that's how I got into reading novels and fiction (and later, fanfiction), so if it took reading a book with *Christian* overtones to get me hooked, I'll say thanks very much, and oh yeah, I LOVE the Narnia books, which is why I got myself yet another set on Thursday...

Melisma (shutting up for now, here under her Rock)

Oh my god, I should *never* have come into this thread. I've been avoiding it, knowing I'd be sucked in. Of course I was right, and now I'm going to sit here thinking and writing for hours, and then I'm going to wander through my house looking for books on bookshelves and in boxes so that I can read them again.

I have to agree with most of the choices listed so far.

Classics and Childhood Favorites
I love Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Sense and Sensibility and Emma.

I'm also a huge Chronicle of Narnia fan. I own the box set and still read them occassionally. Definitely something I want my kids to read someday. I definitely read them out of order, starting with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which is still my all time favorite in the series. I also really liked The Magician's Nephew which is definitely the first story chronologically because it explains where the wardrobe came from. And I liked The Horse and His Boy a lot when I was younger. I liked all the stuff about the talking animals. I did see the miniseries and I loved it. As a matter of fact, I think we wore the tape out watching it so much.

Anne of Green Gables is probably my all-time favorite book or series of books. I was named after Anne, and my mom read me those books over and over and over again when I was little. I read out numerous sets of them. I don't even have a coherent set now, just the surviving miscellaneous copies of each story. I think Gibert was my first love. I always loved the way he loved Anne and wanted to find a guy who would be so patient and encouraging with me. (Hmm, come to think of it, his relationship with Anne is pretty similar to Clark's relationship with Lois. Funny how I never noticed that before.) I watched these movies too (I own the boxed sets of both Anne of Green Gable and Anne of Avonlea) and I love them, but every time I watch I cringe at the way they slaughtered the books. They crammed four books into two movies and...wow. Some of the scenes are identical, but there are MAJOR changes. There is a third movie which I just couldn't bring myself to watch. It's more like an elseworld fanfic than an actual sequel. Somehow the movie has them has a young married couple during WWI even though Gil and Anne had a son who died in WWI. IIRC, Gil goes MIA and Anne goes to find him. I'm sure it's a good movie, but I just couldn't do it. I just want Gil and Anne to be at Ingleside with their seven children where they belong, not galavanting through Europe. It makes no sense to me.

I loved A Wrinkle in Time and all its sequels too. I thought Meg was the coolest. <G>

Another book I loved as a child was Caroline B. Cooney's The Face on the Milk Carton. I read and reread it. Years later, the author finally came out with a sequel, Whatever Happened to Janie which I also devoured. Then, a couple of years ago, I was babysitting for a 10 year old little girl who was just as adorable as can be and she was telling me all about her favorite books. I was listening and reminiscing about the books when I was her age, when she started describing a book that sounded eerily familiar, but I knew I hadn't read it. Turned out to be yet another sequel. So, I borrowed it and read it. I think her mom thought I was insane, borrowing a book from her 10 year old. <G>

1984 and Farenheit 454 were also big favorites of mine. Terrifying, but inspiring at the same time.

The Princess Bride - I remember discovering that this was actually a book and being thrilled. I also remember wondering if there actually was a longer version that it was excerpted from as the foreward claimed, and searching to see if I could find it. Little did I know that I was one of millions to try that.


Newer books I love:

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. Incredible book. It covers three generations of family secrets, mental illness, abuse and love.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berent. Set in the most beautiful city on earth - my future home - Savannah, GA, it's got amazing characters, a murder mystery, courtroom drama and an intrepid reporter chronicling the whole thing. What more could you want? Oh, yeah. It's a true story.

Catch-22 There is no other book on earth this funny. Everytime I read it, I see something new.

Personal History is the autobiography of possibly the most influencial woman in journalism, Katharine Graham. Kay Graham became owner and publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 after her husband committed suicide. She went overnight from being a shy, overlooked, housewife with minimal experience as a journalist to the head of a Fortune 500 company. She rose to the occassion became both loved and feared within Washington. She created the empire that is the Washington Post, Co. while bringing down Nixon with the Watergate stories. She's my hero and I've wanted for most of my life to work for her. When she died two years ago, I cried. The book, told in her own words, is the story of her life, The Washington Post, and the city of Washington, DC.

Let's see, what else...

Romance and Light Reading

I'll read anything by Mary Jo Putney or Mary Balogh. I definitely owe those obsessions to people on the mbs and IRC who convinced me to start reading and got be hooked. I also love Linda Howard books, especially the newer ones. I honestly think I might own every one of her books, barring the one that's still in hardback. (Give me time... <G>) I love the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich. The new one will be out soon, and I can't wait.

Oh, and in the same vein, I love the Bridget Jones books. I actually read Bridget Jones' Diary in an airport and had to stop because I was laughing out loud and people were looking at me like I was crazy.

The Nanny Diaries is a new favorite. Not sure if it would be as funny to anyone who hasn't actually *been* a nanny, but I was cracking up.

Okay, I HAVE to stop now. See, I knew I should never come in here....

Annie

Editing to add *one* more thing. A couple of people have mentioned Jane Ann Krenz/Jayne Castle. I read one of her short stories (published as JAK) that was in an anthology and loved it, so I borrowed a JC novel from the library and just couldn't get through it. If she's this good though, maybe I should give her another try. And maybe I just need to stay away from the JC stuff, since I tend not to be overly fond of futuristic stuff.

Oh, yes, the books she wrote as Jayne Castle are VERY different. Read some of the ones she wrote under Jayne Ann Krentz or... sheesh, what's the 3rd name she writes under?

LOL, Annie. You know, kids can be excellent conduits to good things. My very favourite animated movie is The Swan Princess - hilarious, waffy and brilliant musical numbers.

I discovered it while visiting my brother and his three-year-old of the time happened to be watching it while I was there. I quickly had trouble focusing on the adults' conversation as I became more and more engrossed in the story and then I had to leave before the end!!! Nonchalently pretending I didn't care, of course.

Dashed out the next day and bought my own copy, wore it out, and now I have it on DVD.

LabRat

Well, Rat, I wonder if the clerks in Kyobo thought I was crazy on Thursday, going in there and buying *two* sets of children's books. Except that I do look like I'm 11 months pregnant, and I'm old enough to have kids of that age at home - except that every good Korean mother (or grandmother), it seems, won't leave the kids at home. Nope, I'm constantly tripping over kids here!

Melisma (under her Rock, swearing that yes, she likes kids, really - in moderation. And provided she can give the kid back to the mother at the end of the lesson. And provided the kid doesn't come with other kids attached - groups of kids give her the heebeejeebees, which is why she no longer teaches classrooms of kids...)

Yeah, well kids can provide good camouflage too. <g> Just tell any nosey clerks it's your three-year-old niece's birthday. <G>

LabRat

Yeh, that might do it. If only I *did* have a three-year-old niece <whine>. My sis and bro-in-law have been married for 11 years now, and they are showing no interest in having kids of their own.

But you know, looking like you're 11 mos pregnant has it's benefits - people always give you their seats in the subway, and all the little old ladies smile at you and start jabbering at you in Korean and try to pat your tummy.. Oh wait, that's not a benefit! I'm actually considering ordering a t-shirt that has a picture of a baby in a circle with a line through it, like a no-entry sign, that says "no baby on board". It doesn't just happen here, I've had it happen at home, too...

Melisma (seriously debating abdominal adipose reduction surgery, here under her Rock - if she ever wins the lottery of course!)

Wow... you guys have been having too much fun! <g>

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the camp gym, watching all the kids run around, when all of a sudden I was thinking "west... west... Westing Game!" <g> And I'm honestly stunned to see that anyone else recognized it! Maybe I need to take a little trip over to amazon...

re: JAK -- for the most part, she writes contemporary stuff as JAK, futuristic/sci-fi stuff as JC, and Regency romance as Amanda Quick. Some of the older sci-fi stuff was published in her name, though. As for good... well, I'm hesitant to say she's a great writer -- she is *definitely* formulaic, and I know that's a serious flaw in some eyes. But as I said, I like the formula Still, there are some of her books that leave me cold. <shrug> She's certainly got tons of books to choose from!

And since some others have mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold, I'll expand on that a little bit... that woman is an *amazing* writer. Intricate plots, subtle characterization, layers of meaning all over the place, and some great phrasing... There was one chapter in A Civil Campaign that started out hilarious, got very dark and serious in the middle, and had me laughing through tears at the end...

You can read ACC all by itself, I suppose, but there are so many layers of history there, which make it a much richer experience if you've read some of the earlier Vorkosigan books.

And she just keeps getting better! The most recent is The Curse of Chalion which has a fantasy/historical setting, a great adventure plot, vivid characters, and some very deep thoughts about the nature of faith. She's created an entirely new belief system, and it took me a bit to catch on, but it's really fascinating, and deeply cool. I have re-read that one about a million times.

PJ
who actually met LMB in person last fall! and she's a really fabulous lady. Oh, and she started out writing fanfic

That's exactly how I feel about the Anne series.

I'll always remember reading the books and agreeing with Anne; that when I have kids I'm going to remember what it was like to be their age and not do to them what adults did to me (and Anne)! I haven't had a chance to put the theory into practise, but if I ever forget what I said, you guys can remind me!

Loriel

Ok, so great may be too strong a word for JAK. It is true, at some point her formula wore a bit thin with me, and I stopped reading her books. But I got over it, and came back.

After all, she is the author that a friend from another fandom used to, as she put it, "corrupt" me. This was back when I was 16, and relatively, uh, uncorrupted. No, really!

I remembered another one I reread and reread when I was a teen: Momma's Bank Account

Oh, and how did I forget the All of a Kind Family books? My daughter is old enough to read them now -- it's so cool to share books that I loved when I was a kid!

Back again... I've been browsing barnes & noble (got a gc for my birthday that I haven't used yet... )

Found The Westing Game in a recent paperback reprint, and that got me free-associating some more... I also found Mara, Daughter of the Nile -- a book that I absolutely *adored* in junior high school. I think I wore out the library copy all by myself It's also been recently reprinted, which means I can't have been the only one who liked it ... which is making me worry that I'm not nearly as unusual as I've always liked to think

And I don't know how on earth I managed to not mention Tryst! Tryst isn't in print anymore, but B&N listed some second-hand copies for sale -- ranging from $10-15 (a bargain! Four years ago the lowest price I could find was $30) all the way up to a paperback copy that's priced at $211. And also by Elswyth Thane there's a whole series of Williamsburg novels, following a few families from the Revolutionary War up to World War II.

Oh, and I've read most everything I can find by M. M. Kaye. I started with the big fat historical novels (Trade Wind was the best, IMO) but then moved on to her murder mysteries, which are all good, too.

PJ
who is loving this nostalgia trip!