"Eragon" by Christopher Paolini

All three of my teens got into the Inheritance Cycle last year, and they really want to read Murtagh, but I said I had to read it first (because hey, I'm the one who bought that new release hardcover copy, after all!), but then I realized I need to reread the series.  Because I finished reading the original series in 2011 when Inheritance was released, and that is a looooooooooooong time ago.  I mean, my youngest kid wasn't even born yet when that book came out, and now she's a teenager.

So, for my #25fo25 challenge of 25 specific books I want to read this year, I picked these four books and Murtagh so I would be sure to read them in a timely fashion. 

My favorite character in this series is Roran Stronghammer.  He's barely in this book.  I did not remember that at all, so yeah... that was kind of a bummer.  I do love Brom too, though.  He's got such acerbic sass and mad skills -- how would I not love Brom?

Anyway, as original stories go, Eragon is an enjoyable one.  A Chosen One who is unaware of their chosen status until Weird Things Start Happening, who first reject and then embrace their specialness -- it's a timeless story.  Which is why we have been using it as a storytelling framework for thousands of years.  

My one quibble with this book is how quickly they make soup.  Repeatedly, characters will throw some foodstuffs in a pot, wait until the water boils, announce, "Soup is ready!" and then eat it.  Um.  Um.  I guess that's soup, but it's not going to be good soup.  Even pasta has to boil for more than 5 minutes to be done.  And you're tossing chunks of meat and root vegetables in that pot and assuming they're done as soon as they have come to a boil?  I worry for Eragon's gut health.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to rereading the rest of the series :-D

Particularly Good Bits:

"Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common.  The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe" (p. 197).

"Find peace in where and what you are" (p. 429).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence.  Nothing gory, but not stuff for little kids, either.  One or two mild cuss words.  No smut.

"The Ark" by Margot Benary-Isbert

I read The Ark several times as a teen -- our rural North Carolina library had it and the sequel, Rowan Farm.  I still remember they were both bound in that weird orange hardcover binding that library books so often got rebound into when their original covers wore out.

I actually tried to find this book again every now and then as an adult, because I remembered loving it.  But I didn't remember the author's name, or the name of the sequel.  Do you know how hopeless it is to search the internet for a book called The Ark that is NOT about Noah???  Pretty hopeless.

And then one day, a few months ago, a new acquaintance casually mentioned that Purple House Press had released this book.  I went tingly with hope.  Was this the same book called The Ark that I remembered???  I investigated.  It certainly sounded like the same book!  So, I ordered it, and the sequel.  And then, over the past few weeks, I read The Ark aloud to my kids.  And it is definitely the same book I remember from thirtyish years ago!!!

The Ark is about a mother and her four children in postwar Germany of the late 1940s.  They are refugees from Pomerania (a region of Germany next to Poland) living in West Germany and waiting for their father to be released from a Russian prisoner-of-war camp in Siberia.  Matthias and Margret, the oldest siblings, find work at a farm outside the town where they have been relocated.  They gradually fix up an old train car on the farm for the whole family to live in.  Meanwhile, their mother takes in sewing to help support the family, and younger siblings Andrea and Joey attend school and make friends and have adventures.

This is an amazingly heartwarming and hope-filled book, especially considering it is based on the author's own experiences after WWII.  As soon as I finished reading this book aloud, my kids insisted I begin reading the sequel right away instead of reading something else in between.

Particularly Good Bits:

"Well, what about you, Margret?" Mother asked, taking her daughter's hands in hers.  As she did so, she felt how hard and rough those delicate child's hands had become.  But this did not trouble her; she knew that calloused hands are good for getting a firm grip on life" (p. 163).

The human beings, too, withdrew within the house and within the shell of their own selves.  After the intense activity of summer and hares there followed the time of quiet contemplation, of gathering forces, though within it the stirrings of the next spring were already present (p. 210).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for discussions of death (including a sibling who died during the war), war, and imprisonment that might be too intense for young readers.  No cussing, smut, or on-page violence.

This is my 33rd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  It's also the first book finished from my #25for25 list.

So Dawn Goes Down to Day: January 2025 Inklings

My friend Heidi at Along the Brandywine has gotten her wonderful monthly link-up series going again!  She's letting the January edition linger into the first week or so of February, so I am not too late to join.  Whew!  I used to participate in this a few years ago, sometimes on this blog and sometimes on my movie blog, and it was always fun.

Since this is my first time participating in a long time, I'll repost the rules here so you understand how it works.

Rules: 

1. At any time during the month, on your own blog post a scene from a book or film that matches the prompt, including a link back here in your post. 

2. Make sure to come back and leave a link to your entry in the box on this post. That's it!

The first prompt for 2025 is A scene at sunrise.  I'm choosing a quiet, but powerful moment from one of my absolute favorite books, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.  Two teenage boys from the poor side of Tulsa, Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade, are hiding out in the countryside because they think they're wanted for murder, and they wake up one morning to something that amazes them.

One morning I woke up earlier than usual.  Johnny and I slept huddled together for warmth -- Dally had been right when he said it would get cold where we were going.  Being careful not to wake Johnny up, I went to sit on the steps and smoke a cigarette.  The dawn was coming then.  All the lower valley was covered with mist, and sometimes little pieces of it broke off and floated away in small clouds.  The sky was lighter in the east, and the horizon was a thin golden line.  The clouds changed from gray to pink, and the mist was touched with gold.  There was a silent moment when everything held its breath, and then the sun rose.  It was beautiful.

"Golly" -- Johnny's voice beside me made me jump -- "that sure was pretty."

"Yeah."  I sighed, wishing I had some paint to do a picture with while the sight was still fresh in my mind.

"The mist was what was pretty," Johnny said.  "All gold and silver."

"Uhmmmm," I said, trying to blow a smoke ring.

"Too bad it couldn't stay like that all the time."

"Nothing gold can stay."  I was remembering a poem I'd read once.

(Chapter 5)

And then Ponyboy recites the Robert Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay."  When I read this book the first time at age 14, I promptly memorized that poem so I could recite it at the drop of a hat, just like Ponyboy.  It's such a quiet scene, but filled with amazing imagery.  All the hope and promise of the future are wrapped up in that sunrise, and here stand these two tough kids who are sure their futures will be anything but hopeful and promising, but they glory in that sunrise anyway.

The 1983 film version of The Outsiders is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations ever, so I'll leave you with this shot of that scene in the movie.

"A Study in Scarlet" (Manga Classics) by Arthur Conan Doyle (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), and Julien Choy (art)

FINALLY!  The Manga Classics folks are releasing new titles again, and the fact that their first new release in several years is a Sherlock Holmes novel fills me with absolute glee.  Especially since they are promising more Holmes mangas to come.

Y'all know I am a devoted Sherlockian.  I've loved the canon since I was in my very early teens, and I have read quite a number of pastiches and watched a lot of movies and shows based on the characters and books.  I can be a bit picky about how Holmes and Watson are portrayed -- Watson needs to be intelligent, Holmes needs to have an inner core of kindness and decency, and their friendship needs to feel genuine.  Happily, this manga version of A Study in Scarlet hits all those notes.

One thing I especially liked was how young they portrayed Holmes and Watson.  They should be in their mid-to-late 20s, and I think they hit that range really well.  Watson should be just a trifle older than Holmes, but less world-weary.  Mrs. Hudson is shown to be younger than I usually see her portrayed, but I don't recall anything in the canon talking about how old she is, so it's entirely possible she's not middle-aged or beyond the way she is usually cast in film adaptations.

Doyle's original novel is basically split into two halves, and I think Crystal S. Chan did a great job here of making the story feel more like one whole narrative instead.

Oh, and this manga is in full color!  The previous Manga Classics books have been black and white, so this is a really interesting and fun change.  I wonder if it's only the Sherlock Holmes titles that will be in color, or if their upcoming release of King Lear will be as well?

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple of old-fashioned cuss words and for discussing murder, including showing dead bodies and people being killed.  Nothing too gory.  Polygamy gets very briefly mentioned too.