"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.

"The Lilies of the Field" by William E. Barrett

I loved this book even more the second time through.  Its simplicity, straightforwardness, and gentleness impressed me so much the first time I read it, and now I've added "feels like an old friend" to that list of reasons I love it.  I hugged this book more than once while reading it.

This is an uplifting and hope-filled story of how kindness can dismantle boundaries.  Black handyman Homer Smith does a day's work for a group of German refugee nuns in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, insists there's no way he will build a chapel for them, and then their faith and humility and ready friendship touches his heart, so he builds their chapel for them.  That's the whole story right there -- like I said, very simple.  And yet, so complex.  

I had my 6th through 12th grade literature class at our homeschool co-op read this, and we had a wonderful discussion of how the characters both reflected and refuted stereotypes of the 1960s, when the book was written and set.

Particularly Good Bits:

Their smiles made him welcome and Homer felt immediately at ease with them.  They did not have any color line; he was just people to them (p. 15).

He had a prayer in his own heart when he accepted food.  Nobody took food for granted when he was a child.  It wasn't always easy to get and a person learned to be thankful when it was there (p. 37).

He looked at them and his heart lifted.  These were people who needed something that he had to give (p. 60).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's a lovely, clean, uplifting book.

"Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile" by Kristiana Gregory

I picked this book for my 3rd-5th grade literature class at our homeschool co-op to read because I am focusing on the importance of settings this year.  I'm having the class read books set in a variety of places and times so that we can see how books expand our horizons, and how a book's setting can impact the story itself.  But I hadn't read this myself before, I'd just heard good things about this Royal Diaries series, so I had to read it first to be able to lead discussions in class.

This was a solidly entertaining and informative look at what life could have been like for Cleopatra VII when she was between the ages of 12 and 15.  She was one of several daughters of the Pharaoh, and although I knew she would eventually be the queen of Egypt, that future wasn't at all assured, according to this book.  Over the course of several years, she navigates some tricky political and social situations, including an extended visit to Rome and a burgeoning attraction to this cocky dude named Marc Antony.

This was a fast read, and I feel like I got a good taste of life in both ancient Egypt and pre-empire Rome, which was really cool.  The historical details were fascinating and very naturally woven into the texture of the story.  I was especially intrigued by Cleopatra's friendship with Theophilus, a young Jewish scholar, and how much of the Jewish religion was explored here, as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian religions.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murders (including stabbings, chokings, poisonings, and snakebite), drunkenness, and descriptions of crucifixion and gladiatorial games.

Top Ten Tuesday: Hello, there

This week, our Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024."  So, here are ten authors I read for the first time in 2024 and hope to read more from:

Dusti Bowling

Sarah Everest

Claire Kohler

Amber Lambda

Lydia Mae

Mary Mecham

Sarah Pennington

Tor Thibeaux

C. C Urie

Becca Wierwille

I've linked to my review of the first thing of theirs I read this year :-)  And, yes, fully half of those co-wrote a book.  It's thanks to that book that I was able to do this tag, because I just didn't read a ton in 2024, and many of the books I did read were either part of a series I've been reading for a while, or rereads, or comfort reads.  But, thanks to that one book, I had an answer to this prompt after all!

My Year in Books: A Tag

I spotted this fun blog tag at Christian Fiction Girl, but it originates at My Head is Full of Books.

A few rules:

• Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2024. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.) 
• The goal is to have fun. 
• Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting you own. 
• Once you've created your post, link it to the original post so others can see it, then visit others' posts to see how they answered the questions. 
• Spread the word.

The Questions:

In high school I was:  The Story Girl (L. M. Montgomery)

People might be surprised by:  The Bookish Bandit (Britt Howard and Erica Dansereau)

I will never be:  King of the Wind (Marguerite Henry)

My fantasy job is:  The Mistletoe Countess (Pepper Basham)

At the end of a long day I need:  Summon the Light (Tor Thibeaux)

I hate it:  Kill the Dawn (Emily Hayse)

Wish I had:  The Midnight Blizzard (Mary Mecham)

My family reunions are:  Weaving Roots (Heather Wood)

At a party you’d find me:  Lonely on the Mountain (Louis L'Amour)

I’ve never been to:  Treasure Mountain (Louis L'Amour)

A happy day includes:  Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus (Dusti Bowling)

Motto I live by:  One Must Die (Candice Pedraza Yamnitz, et al)

On my bucket list is:  Ride the Dark Trail (Louis L'Amour)

In my next life, I want to have:  The Solitary Summer (Elizabeth von Arnim)

This isn't a true tag, in that it doesn't ask participants to tag anyone else with it -- it's what we used to call a meme, before that word meant a funny picture and caption combo.  Anyway, I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to do this yourself, here's a clean copy of the prompts:

In high school I was: 

People might be surprised by: 

I will never be: 

My fantasy job is: 

At the end of a long day I need: 

I hate it: 

Wish I had: 

My family reunions are: 

At a party you’d find me: 

I’ve never been to: 

A happy day includes: 

Motto I live by: 

On my bucket list is: 

In my next life, I want to have:

"The Annotated Persuasion" by Jane Austen (annotated and edited by David M. Shapard)

Do you ever love a book so much that you draw the last few chapters out as long as you possibly can?

It took me almost a week to read the last three chapters of Persuasion this time.  They were such exquisite joy, and yet so cozy and comforting, that I simply had to revel in and savor them as long as possible.  Finally, finally, finally things went well for the patient and persevering Anne Elliot.  So satisfying!  So heartwarming!

And I love that Persuasion is the first book I finished reading in the new year.  This book is full of new beginnings and hope for the future.  It should go into rotation as a first-of-the-year book for me on a regular basis.

The annotations by David M. Shapard were once again a continual delight.  I will never remember even a tenth of what I learned while reading all six of these annotated Austen books over the past twelve months... but that's okay!  I will remember some of it, and I can always read them again one day.  There's enough information in these to make reading them equal to taking a whole college course on Austen, I think.  They aren't fast reads, but they are worthwhile.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G for the original text and PG-13 for the annotations, which sometimes delve into modern vs. 1800s notions about sexual purity and so on.

Reading Goals Past and Future

I've got a bit of time this evening, so I'm ready at last to look over my reading goals from 2024, and set some for 2025.

I set myself the goal of reading 55 books in 2024, and I read 68, so hooray!  I didn't just meet, I exceeded that goal!

I wanted to read 48 books off my shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.  I failed.  I did read 41 books that I owned this year, but only 28 of them counted for that challenge because their rules insist they have to be books you owned before the beginning of the year.  Oh well.

I joined the #DisneyOriginsBookClub2024 on Instagram again this year, but I quit after the first couple of months because I simply had less reading time this year!  A lot of that is due to my younger daughter's ballet lessons now overlapping with my older daughter's gymnastics lessons, so I spend a lot of time driving between those instead of sitting and reading while I wait/watch.

Also, I don't have a photo here to illustrate this, but I participated in the #JaneAustenDeepDive2024 reading group on Instagram this year.  I read all six of the annotated editions of Jane Austen's major works (edited by David M. Shapard -- one review still to come) and had a wonderful time learning about Austen's works and world.  But those annotated editions are not light reading!!!  They soaked up a lot of my reading time.

I wanted to read twelve books for my fourth Classics Club list.  I read ten, so didn't really hit that goal.

I wanted to read twelve books about people substantially different for myself.  The image here only shows eleven, but I realized after I took these photos that I left two books off, so I actually read thirteen for that list! 

Back in 2023, I decided to read all of the Sackett books by Louis L'Amour over the course of 2023 and 2024.  I read the Sackett short stories included in War Party and End of the Drive at the very end of December, thereby completing that goal!  You can read my reviews of all the full Sackett novels under the label My Years with the Sacketts.

I absolutely loved the Sackett books.  I've become a firm L'Amour fan over the past two years, and I am particularly fond of Tell Sackett, though I very much like quite a few of the other Sacketts too.

Now for my 2025 goals!

Once again, I want to read at least 55 books.  That's slightly more than one a week, and even when I have "low" reading years, I can still manage that, so I like that goal.  Achievable, but not inconsiderable.

I am NOT setting myself a goal of numbers of books to read from my TBR shelves for the first time in years.  I will read what I read.  My house will be full of books.  I like that life.  Time to stop obsessing over how many books I own and haven't read yet -- I think keeping a careful count of them for the past few years has actually made me buy MORE books, oddly enough.

Once again, I want to read twelve books for my fourth Classics Club list, and I aim to read twelve books about people who are substantially different from myself in some way.

And I have a new challenge for myself this year!  I'm joining Andy at @places_and_books in picking #25for25 -- 25 specific books I want to read this year.  From my list above, 8 are rereads and 17 are books I haven't read before.  I like that mix.  

How about you?  Have you set yourself some bookish or reading goals for this year?  Share a link if you've blogged about them!

"The Midnight Blizzard" by Mary Mecham

Awwww, this was exactly what I wanted to read during the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Sweet, funny, upbeat, and cozy.  And with lovable dogs galore!

Noelle has no intention of trying to get the prince to fall in love with her.  She wants to spend the week of the future-wife-finding-balls and parties searching the castle for any trace of her father's will, which has disappeared.  She's quite sure her father would have left her his estate so he could continue his work helping mages get more equal rights.  

In this kingdom, mages are people who can do magic, and ordinary people are suspicious and distrustful of mages.  Mages and non-mages can't marry, and mages aren't even able to attend most schools.  Noelle and her father were working together to change all that, but his death may have derailed all of that.

Noelle's stepmother ditches Noelle and her dog Kodiak in the middle of the forest, where they're attacked by wolves.  Kodiak is injured protecting Noelle, but they're both rescued by a handsome mage named Jack and his team of sled dogs.  After getting Kodiak to a healer, Jack takes Noelle to the castle.  While he helps her try to find her father's will, the two of them start falling in love, but marriage between mages and ordinary humans is forbidden, a law Noelle's father was trying to get reversed before he died.

This is a Cinderella retelling with a Christmasy twist, though it's really more wintery than Christmasy.  It's the first thing I've read by Mary Mecham, but I am sure it won't be the last.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some kisses and yearning.  No smut, no real cuss words (just fake ones like "by holly"), little violence (there's that wolf attack, and at least one slap).  I let my 13-yr-old read it as soon as I finished it, and she thought it was really fun, though it did have a bit more romance than she prefers.  That makes sense, since it's a young adult book, and she's not a young adult yet.