Summer Reading

[lucylee]

Books I loved in childhood...
What Katy Did
Harriet the Spy
Anne of Green Gables
Gone with the Wind
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
* I know y'all were just talking about the racial issues, etc., but I still love the story for all the funny scrapes Tom gets into. I did not read Huckleberry Finn until college and did not like it nearly as well.

Dmom also loved Forever Amber, Cowinkie. I think I read it a long time ago... need to check it out again. I'm sure she loved it because of the historical setting, too. She loves anything about that period of English history.

I think I would enjoy Debbie Macomber; I've noticed her books in the bookstore before but never got started on any of them.

Right now I am reading Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult and it IS sorta depressing, but I'm pretty sure the guy is going to be found innocent, so I have to finish it to see how they solve the crime.

To relieve the dark/depressing tone, I'm also reading Good Wives, which I thought was a sequel to Little Women, but apparently it is more of a re-write of the last half of Little Women; which is sorta disappointing. Still, in my present state of mind, there's a lot I can learn from "Marmee," so I'm hanging in there with it.

I also have the sequel to The Shell Seekers on my nightstand,
along with Joyce Meyer's The Battlefield of the Mind,
and Sue Monk Kidd's Firstlight, which (I think) is a collection of short inspirational writings she did early in her career.

And I want very much to read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. It is a new novel about race relations between the black housekeepers and their employers during the Civil Rights era. I think it takes place in Mississippi or Alabama. I read part of it on Amazon and it looked sooo good. I may just have to break down and buy it, but I wish they'd get it at the library.

[helia]

I can't limit the list to one childhood book!! Several stand out! I was a pretty big fan of fantasy and later of science fiction. I never read What Katy Did. Was it good?

Elementary School favorites:
A Wrinkle in Time
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Chronicles of Narnia
Anne of Green Gables
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings - late elementary; a friend introduced these to me in 6th grade and I was stunned I'd never heard of them before! Among my all time favorite reads.

I LOVED these books about dogs, mostly Irish Setters, written by Jim Kjelgaard!! I read every one I could find!

Reading Gone with the Wind was my personal summer project the summer after 5th (or 6th?) grade. I should probably re-read it. I'd get a lot more out of it as an adult.

A little older, maybe early teens:
CS Lewis' Space Trilogy and George MacDonald books. I guess I was a big Inklings fan!! Then, I discovered Jane Eyre and a bit later Jane Austen books.. . .Then, I discovered Charles Dickens at age 15. . .

[BookSaver]

A couple of children's books that I still reread every couple of years are Elizabeth Enright's Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Gone-A ... 723/?itm=1

[LurkyLou]

Oooh, I loved a Wrinkle in Time! My dmom thought it was a crazy book, but she "allowed" me to read it...
Books that I've read recently
Suzanne's Diary to Nicholas--very good!
Lisa Gardner's "Say Goodbye" and "The Neighbor"--just started this one.
Want to read:
James Patterson's 8th Confession
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Seth something....
Janet Evanovich's 14th and 15th books---these need to be read in order (starting with One for the Money) and are for fun only!

[lucylee]

Books I loved as a child, continued...
all the Trixie Belden books!!! How could I have possibly forgotten about those?

[Indiana]

Harlequin books is offering 17 free books on line.

You can download the books at:

http://www.harlequincelebrates.com/index.php

[cathyy]

I thought the first Narnia book was "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," not "The Magician's Nephew."

[Harriet]

cathyy, dd29 here agrees with you. Dd10 picked up the book in the carefully shelved series of 7 at the library. She deliberately chose the one with "Book One" on the spine, The Magician's Nephew, and inside the cover the 7 are also listed with it first. But when dd29 came to visit, she was disappointed that dd wasn't going to start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Book Two in that listing). She says she considers The Magician's Nephew a sort of "prequel" and considers L, W and W as the proper start for reading the series. Unfortunately, she's the "resident" expert on the series not me, and I didn't know she felt that way when we were at the library.

The publisher's explanation is: "The editions of The Chronicles of Narnia have been renumbered in compliance with the original wishes of the author, C. S. Lewis. This is the first time the series has appeared in this order in the U.S."

We actually set that whole series to the side anyway, since dd has other choices she's more interested in right now.

[helia]

Yes, I remember as a very small child, my mother read the Chronicles of Narnia outloud to us kids -- and she started with The Magician's Nephew b/c it gives an account of the creation of Narnia, and sets the stage for the following books. However, I've heard that Lewis actually wrote The L, W, and W first. . . My mother told us she was reading the first book out of order on purpose. I think which book you start with depends on the reader. The L, W, and W may do a better job pulling the reader into the series; it's a little more engaging from what I can remember of The Magician's Nephew. OTOH, reading to very young children as my mother was, she likely felt it would make most sense to us if she started with the creation story that laid the foundation for Narnia. And I have no idea in which order my own children have read and re-read them.

[Nancy]

I loved the Nancy Drew mysteries.