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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a book this much. This novel is an unusual animal: a Victorian novel published in 2004. It has the scope, cast of characters, and wit of Dickens,…
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The Wizard of Oz
My daughters and I finished reading The Wizard of Oz. I read the book years ago, but I’d forgotten a lot of it. I remembered the movie better, which had made such an…
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The Children of Hurin
A deadly peril has come upon us, which only great hardihood shall turn aside. But in this matter numbers will avail little; we must use cunning, and hope for good fortune… For I…
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Phantastes
This is the book that C.S. Lewis read one day on a train and felt his imagination had been “baptized.” I read it back when I was in college and it didn’t capture…
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At the Back of the North Wind
Any story always tells me itself what I’m to think about it… I never can tell what they call clever from what they call silly, but I always know whether I like a…
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The Golden Key
These days I use the library as much as possible, but every once in awhile I come across a book I simply must have. George MacDonald’s The Golden Key is such a book.…
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The Black Cauldron
I read Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain chronicles when I was in junior high. Mrs. Greenblatt, the librarian, recommended them to me, and I wasn’t disappointed. Last year I revisited the first book, The Book of Three, and…