AJ, we can get Eoin Colfer and Beatrix Potter in the states, though they may not be as popular. Arthur Ransome is hard to find (mostly in library booksales and used bookstores!) and I
don't know if I've ever seen Cornelia Funke over here. (Edit: Mel jogged my memory and, yes, we very much have Cornelia Funke books over her; I was apparently thinking of someone else.
) We also don't really have Enid Blyton on the shelves.
I'll keep your recommendation of
The Blue Sword in mind, though I have so many books to read and it's still very low on the list, so I can't say I will get to it.
Gotcha, re:
Snuff, Dot. Thanks!
Mel, your thoughts about Ashtown not making the halfway mark between intuitive and logical makes sense.
The J. P. Gallagher book sounds very interesting! And the title marks it as something right up your alley.
Arwenel, I understand the plot nods towards
Treasure Island bugging you in
The Dragon's Tooth - I remember them rubbing me a bit funny too.
I'm sorry you haven't liked either 100 Cupboards or Ashtown, but I understand your reasons; they just haven't bugged me the same way or the same extent. (Then again, there have been a number of books my friends have LOVED that I absolutely hated.
*looks guiltily at Mel*)
I finished
The Mind of the Maker!
It was very good; I think I probably still mostly learned about authors, but that's not all bad.
I recently read
Phantoms in the Snow by Kathleen Benner Duble, which is fictional, but with the historical setting/hook of the Tenth Mountain Division in WWII (I had never heard of them, but apparently they were skiing soldiers who were involved in driving the Germans out of Italy? At least that is what I gleaned from the book). I struggled with the book - the premise of a pacifist boy being sent to live with his uncle (a soldier) after being orphaned was intriguing, but I felt like it never really found its footing. The pacifism aspect was brought up and dropped several times without really explaining exactly WHY his parents were pacifists or Noah's own thoughts on it; the pieces were there, but never really handled well. I also thought the ending was a bit rushed... But, to a certain extent, it served its purpose as I checked out a non-fiction book about the Division from the uni library.
In working through the stack of books I got from the library booksale a couple months ago (only six more to go!
), I also read
The Riddle of the Ring by Karin Anckarsvard this week. It's kind of a children's adventure/mystery book from the mid-1960s. Overall, I thought it was pretty fun - the mystery wasn't overly heavy, and the characters were pretty nicely drawn. It felt a bit heavier, almost, than what I was expecting (not in a bad way, just there was a bit more depth than I thought there would be) - I'm wondering if this was because it was translated from Swedish...? I'd be curious to try to track down some more books by the author, but I don't know how much success I'll have with that. I'm thinking of asking a Swedish colleague if she's heard of the author and/or possibly read any of them growing up...
I went to the uni library on Saturday and checked out a good stack of books. Incredibly enough,
Arcanum Unbounded was not only actually in the library but also on the shelf where it belonged.
After picking it up, I wandered over to the WWII non-fiction section, as I had a list of call numbers written down to try to find; I think I found two of them, but picked up a good half dozen other books that looked interesting (out of many!). *looks innocent*