30 Days of Books ~ Day 12

Day 12 ~ A book you used to love but don't anymore

It pains me to admit that I do not love this series the same way that I used to... When I was younger I used to reread this all the time. As an adult, my one more recent reread didn't work as well... I obviously pick up on things that I never did when I was younger. But, all of her books will remain on my shelves because it is Madeleine L'Engle and I love her even if it is in a different way than when I read her originally. 

Madeleine L'Engle Read-Along - A Wind in the Door

Here it is the 15th, so that means announcing the second book in the Madeleine L'Engle Read-Along. I hope that there are still people reading it! I actually have all ready, so I will be posting a review of it soon. I hardly remembered the book at all, so it was almost like reading it for the very first time. I think it is my least favourite in the series, but I have to read the rest before saying for sure anymore.

It is November. When Meg comes home from school, Charles Wallace tells her he saw dragons in the twin’s vegetable garden. That night Meg, Calvin and C.W. go to the vegetable garden to meet the Teacher (Blajeny) who explains that what they are seeing isn’t a dragon at all, but a cherubim named Proginoskes. It turns out that C.W. is ill and that Blajeny and Proginoskes are there to make him well – by making him well, they will keep the balance of the universe in check and save it from the evil Echthros. Meg, Calvin and Mr. Jenkins (grade school principal) must travel inside C.W. to have this battle and save Charles’ life as well as the balance of the universe.

Leave links to reviews in the comments and feel free to use the comments as a discussion area.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Father is missing! His top secret job as a physicist for the government has taken him away--but where?--and how? Meg and her younger brother, Charles Wallace, set out with their friend Calvin on an exciting adventure through time and space to search for him. With the help of the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, the youngsters learn to expect the unexpected as they move in the fifth dimension known as the "tesseract".

With this award-winning story, Madeline L'Engle has captivated millions of readers throughout the world. Her universal themes of courage, perseverance, and love are interwoven with imagination and suspense. A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1962, won the distinguished Newbery Medal for children's literature in 1963.

This is a perfect example of why the blogging community is such a wonderful thing. When I read this book for the first time I didn't know anyone else that had read it. I couldn't even find the rest of the books in the series easily! Thankfully there was Barnes & Noble. I bought almost all of L'Engle's novels fro the States this way. This was before Canada had joined in on the online shopping, so my options were limited. Then, I went to a Barnes & Noble when I was in Texas and they had a whole section of books by her! So, um, I had a very heavy suitcase coming home... Fast forward to the present day and I have actually met people that have read L'Engle before. Not only that, but a group of us are reading her together. I really wanted that when I read her the first time around, so it thrills me that it is a possibility now.

Anyways, so it was a few years ago that I read this book the last time. I bought a four-in-one edition and reread it then. I am always nervous that I will hate the book when I reread it, so I try not to reread it too often. It was one of my very first science-fiction novels, though, so I think that for the memories alone I will always consider it one of my favourite books. I know that I notice things now when I read it that I wasn't really aware of when I read it all those years ago for the first time. I am much more aware of the religious aspects, for example. When I read it as a kid I knew religion played a part, but I guess I didn't pay a lot of attention to it.

Meg is still one of my favourite characters. I still don't entirely get all the science involved in the book. Charles Wallace is still cute. The three ladies still amuse me. Calvin is still a really good male character. I still find the books a tad bit old-fashioned at times, but I found that when I read the book for the first time. I find that with all of her books, though. Many of her famous ones were written during a different period of time than the one we are living in now. What else can I say but that I am glad that I had the chance to read this book with others and I look forward to reading the rest of the series!

A Wind in the Door

It is February, so that means it is time for the second book in my Madeleine L'Engle read-along. Yay! I still have to post the review of A Wrinkle in Time, but that's nothing new for me! I also need to collect all the reviews that people have posted so that other people can read them... January was a hectic and stressful month. I apologize for being a slacker!

In the meantime, it is time to read A Wind in the Door. I actually have read it all ready and I hardly remembered it at all! It's not that I didn't like it, but I think it is my least favourite in the series. I look forward to hearing what other people have to say about it. Enjoy!

A Wrinkle in Time Read-Along --- Discussion Post

Today is the 15th, halfway through the month, so as promised here is a thread to discuss any spoilerish-type things. Comment away!

I had thought that each participant could come up with a couple questions and then they could be included in the reviews, but that's just a brainstorm. If you are interested you can either post them here or email them to me: kellyreads (at) hotmail (dot) com. If you are not interested in this idea I will scrap it.

Hopefully people are enjoying the read-along so far! You can comment and leave links to your posts, too, and then I will link to them here so everyone can read them!

Amanda's Review
Care's Review

Madeleine L'Engle Read-Along

I am a little late, but believe it or not I am hosting a read-along for A Wrinkle in Time during January. I tentatively mentioned it back in December, but I need to announce it officially and lay out a few guidelines. I hope that people will join in!

Here is what I was thinking. I plan to read all five books in her Time Series. The first, A Wrinkle in Time, is the first book in the series. The aim is to read that in January. The great thing is that it counts for Carl's Sci-fi Experience, or, like me, it is a reread and counts for the reread challenge hosted by Aarti. And, actually, Meg is a strong female character, so she could work for the Unbound Challenge. If you plan to read-along you have 30 days to read it and it is not really all that long of a book.

Guidelines:

• You have until January 31st to finish the book.
• On January 15th I will post a place to talk about spoiler-related things. Things you want to talk about but can't mention in your review.
• The reviews should aim to be finished on the last week of January because I want to have questions that everyone answers in their posts and people need to have time to come up with them.
• For a sense of community I am hoping that people will come up with questions about the book. I am hoping to have them all by the 20th so I can post them and people can write their reviews. Even if you take the whole month to read the book I hope you will come up with questions. Send in a few so there are some variety. It isn't much fun if people send the same questions over and over again. How you choose to use the questions (and whether you choose to use all of them) is up to you.
• When I post the questions on the 20th, I will also post a place to post links to your reviews.
• Feel free to use the button, made by Jason, wherever you want. It's great!

I hope people will join in! (And when you do, I will add your name down below for organization reasons.)

Possible Participants:

Melissa @ Book Nut
Vasilly @ 1330v
Cat @ Beyond Books
Florinda @ The 3 R's Blog
Kate @ Kate's Book Blog
Care @ Care's Online Book Club
Amanda @ The Zen Leaf
Bellezza @ Dolce Bellezza
Joanne @ The Book Zombie
Kerry @ Saving my Sanity...

The Time Quartet Read-a-Long

Twitter really is a wonderful place. You can credit it with the birth of a lot of things! Last night it inspired me to write this post, and since I could use some inspiration, I am going to take full advantage of it. One of my favourite authors when I was a young adult was Madeleine L'Engle. Over the years I have read most of her books and I encourage everyone to read her!

I was on the library website the other day (big surprise) and I saw that they had all of her Time Quartet in audio format. Since I hadn't re-read the series in a while, I was thinking about it and mentioned it to Nymeth. She has read the first book, but not the rest. Then, you get talking about it in a public forum and other people start noticing and mentioning they want to join in, too! Someone suggested it could be a read-a-long like some of the others that are going on next year, so I decided to write a post about it to see if other people were interested. I was thinking of a very easy schedule:

January - A Wrinkle in Time
February - A Wind in the Door
March - A Swiftly Tilting Planet
April - Many Waters

Then, you technically should read An Acceptable Time. I consider it book five in the Time Quartet. (If Douglas Adams can turn a trilogy into a series; than L'Engle can turn a quartet into a quintet.) It seems to depend on who you listen to, though. (I was on her main web site and they have it as book five, so it is not only me.) There is also The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Water, and A House Like a Lotus.

So, what are your thoughts? Is there an interest in a read-a-long? What do people think about the schedule? I know there is a lot going on next year, so I didn't want to make it too restrictive, but maybe it is too relaxed... Let me know!

Madeleine L'Engle Part Two

So, I was making the post yesterday of all Madeleine L'Engle's books and I came to the conclusion that I don't really remember most of them. So, despite the fact I have a very large to be read pile that I have never read, I want to reread Madeleine L'Engle. I have reread them over the years but some of them have been a while and I want to know what is going on. This mainly came because I have the books in the other post labelled wrong. Some of the books I have being about the Austin family are actually about the O'Keeffe's. I will make the correct changes another day.

Last summer I reread A Wrinkle in Time, Many Waters, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. They came out with this 4-in-1 version and despite the fact I own all four of them, I bought the four-in-one book. Then when I want to reread all of them, I can. If I just want to read one, I have that too.

So, over the next few months, I hope to reread the following:

A Ring of Endless Light (Austin family)
The Young Unicorns (Austin family)
The Moon by Night (Austin family)
Troubling a Star (Austin family)
Meet the Austins (Austin family)
Certain Women (has some crossover characters but essentially a stand alone)
The Small Rain (Katherine Forrester)
A Severed Wasp (sequel to The Small Rain)
And Both Were Young (stand alone)
Camilla (Camilla Dickinson)
A Live Coal in the Sea (sequel to Camilla)

I am starting with the O'Keefe novels, which is Meg's family (from A Wrinkle in Time, but after she is grown up and married to Dr. Calvin O'Keefe)
Dragons in the Water
A House Like a Lotus
An Acceptable Time
The Arm of the Starfish (started last night)

There is no hurry to read them, it is just more for the fact that The Arm of the Starfish is familar to me but I don't remember the details. I am sure the other books will be virtually like reading an entirely new novel.

Somewhere in there I plan to read The Other Side of the Sun and I did some research on some of the older books that are out of print, hopefully I can use some online resources to fill in the holes. Some of her books are too expensive to bother with, but others are not so bad. Now I will stop boring people with Madeleine L'Engle rambling. It's just sad, she was born in (I think) 1918, so it is not like she is a spring chicken anymore. She was writing another O'Keefe book, but I think we have to face the fact that it seems unlikely it will ever be printed. :( It is supposed to be about Polly O'Keefe (Meg's daughter) all grown up.

This reread is also to see if I still come away with the same favourites.

Madeleine L'Engle

I have loved Madeleine L'Engle since I was little and read A Wrinkle in Time. Many other authors and genres I don't recall how they came into the mix, but I have never forgotten my love for Madeleine L'Engle and the resulting love for fantasy. Some of her books venture into very religious atmospheres that don't interest me. Below is a list of her novels and a few comments from me.


18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944 (never heard of before)
The Small Rain, 1945 (adult fiction, prequel to A Severed Wasp)
Ilsa, 1946 (From what I am told, really rare)
And Both Were Young, 1949 (good book)
Camilla Dickinson, 1951 (not sure what this is, unless it is the original title for "Camilla")
A Winter’s Love, 1957 (curious about this title)
Meet the Austins, 1960 (first Austin novel)
A Wrinkle in Time, 1962 (first Murry novel)
The Moon By Night, 1963 (Austin family)
The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964 (I think it is the Austin's, not sure why I don't have this one)
The Arm of the Starfish, 1965 (Austin family)
Camilla, 1965 (stand alone)
The Love Letters, 1966 (want but out of print)
A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967 (religion)
The Young Unicorns, 1968 (Austin)
Dance in the Desert, 1969 (religion)
Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969 (don't have this particular set of poetry)
The Other Side of the Sun, 1971 (the whole reason for this post, explain later)
A Circle of Quiet, 1972 (religion but almost bought the other day and then didn't. Went back for it, it was gone)
The Wind in the Door, 1973 (Murry family)
Everyday Prayers, 1974 (religion)
Prayers for Sunday, 1974 (religion)
The Risk of Birth, 1974 (religion)
The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974 (religion)
Dragons in the Waters, 1976 (Austin)
The Irrational Season, 1977 (religion)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978 (Murry family)
The Weather of the Heart, 1978 (poetry, have this one)
Ladder of Angels, 1979 (I assume religion)
The Anti-Muffins, 1980 (no clue, sounds like children's novel)
A Ring of Endless Light, 1980 (Austin family)
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980 (religion)
A Severed Wasp, 1982 (adult novel)
The Sphinx at Dawn, 1982 (religion)
And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983 (religion)
A House Like a Lotus, 1984 (Murry daughter)
Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children’s Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke) (religion)
Many Waters, 1986 (fourth book in the A Wrinkle in Time quartet)
A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986 (religion)
A Cry Like a Bell, 1987 <-- anyone know anything about this book? Two-Part Invention, 1988 (religion) An Acceptable Time, 1989 (Daughter to one of the main characters from A Wrinkle in Time)
Sold Into Egypt: Joseph’s Journey into Human Being, 1989 (religion)
The Glorious Impossible, 1990 (religions)
Certain Women, 1992 (a novel about women, been so long can't remember any details)
The Rock That is Higher, 1993 (religion)
Anytime Prayers, 1994 (too religious)
Troubling a Star, 1994 (Austin family)
Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase) (into the too religious sphere)
A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996 (Includes a character from her Austin novels if memory serves me correct)
Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996 (into the too religious sphere)
Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw) (into the too religions sphere)
Bright Evening Star, 1997 (into the too religious sphere)
Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw) (into the too religious sphere)
Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney) (into the too religious sphere)
Miracle on 10th Street, 1998 (out of print last time I tried to find it)
A Full House, 1999 (Will buy one of these days)
Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney) (into the too religious sphere)
Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw) (into the too religious sphere)
The Other Dog, 2001 (children's novel)
Madeleine L,Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase) (plan to pick up soon)

The whole point of this post? Do you know how hard it was to get as many books of hers as I own! A Wrinkle in Time quartet I got from a school book order back in the day, many of the other younger books I have read by her I got on a trip to Texas (in high school) because I couldn't find them anywhere in Canada (amazon.ca was not around yet). I spent most of my money on her books because I didn't know if I would ever see them again. Her adult novels I would order off Amazon.com and then ship them to a friend of my mother's in the US and then they would bring them with them when they visited. The reason for this post is why do books have to be so hard to find? If you love an author, why can't you buy their book? Ilsa is 250 dollars! I love reading, would like to eventually read all of her books (even the religion ones eventually), but it is so hard to do. This all started from the fact that I was at a second hand store the other day and actually found The Other Side of the Sun for two dollars. I mean, her other books are not as great as the originals, but they are still something that you wish you could buy. I just think books should be more obtainable. They are meant to be read, not collectors pieces to me...