5 Favorite Books {a guest post by my daughter}

As I was brainstorming blog post ideas, I thought it might be fun to have Miss A review her five favorite books from the past year. She readily agreed, and I have enjoyed reading the results. I hope you do, too! 🙂

God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew

God’s Smuggler is my favorite book of all time. It is the true story of the life of Brother Andrew, telling of his childhood in Holland during World War II and of his miraculous conversion to Christianity in the aftermath of a devastating and crippling injury. Brother Andrew then goes on to witness to workers at a candy factory, travel to England to train as a minister and embark on what he calls ‘high Christian adventure’, smuggling forbidden Bibles behind the Iron Curtain to Christians struggling to thrive under the watchful eye of the communist government. God’s Smuggler is inspirational, wonderfully written and an amazing autobiography of an ordinary man called by God to do extraordinary things, and I highly recommend it as a book that you will want to read over and over again.

The Emily Trilogy by L. M. Montgomery

Okay, I know, a trilogy is three books, but for my purposes I’m making it count as one review. By the same author as the Anne of Green Gables books, the Emily trilogy: Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest, chronicles the childhood, adolescence and coming-of-age of Emily Byrd Starr, aspiring writer and poetess. Emily is taken from her childhood home by her Aunt Elizabeth Murray after her father’s death to the ancestral Murray home at New Moon. Aunt Elizabeth doesn’t really love Emily, and keeps her only because it is her ‘duty’ to see that nothing happens to her young niece. Emily feels out of place at first, but soon she makes three friends who will last a lifetime: Ilse, a neglected and fiery tomboy; Teddy, an aspiring artist; and Perry, the ambitious hired boy. The books have a certain flavor, an underlying theme of loss and gain as Emily grows up and leaves behind the enchanted realms of childhood for the responsibility and troubles of adulthood. L. M. Montgomery always writes beautifully, but in the Emily books her work is gorgeous and joyful, tinged at the edges with the sadness and brokenness and, most importantly, the hope of a fallen world regained in Christ.

The Truth by Terry Pratchett

William de Worde writes letters to various lords and ladies, a kind of newsletter telling them about city gossip and recent happenings. But when the dwarves arrive with a newfangled printing press, William finds himself writing a new kind of news, a newspaper, which he sells to the truth-hungry people of the city of Ankh-Morpork. But the authorities don’t like this newspaper, and William’s going to have to wade through a lot of trouble with the city Watch, as well as trouble outside the law, to uncover the truth about a mysterious attempted murder and to keep his newspaper alive. The Truth is my favorite of the Discworld novels. In it, Terry Pratchett explores everything from the concept of truth and free speech to crime and regret. I am a huge admirer of Mr. Pratchett’s writing style and of the way he shapes words in his sentences, makes small and subtle puns and jokes and creates hilarious references to our own popular culture. There is some swearing and crude humor in this book, but it is still a brilliant work of art I am happy to have on my bookshelf. {Anna’s note: Other than the YA Discworld books, she has only read ones that either we or my sister have approved – some have inappropriate content.}

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Meet Moist von Lipwig, arch swindler, con man and fraud. He’s been fooling the world and taking its money hand over fist, and he loves every minute of it. Until, of course, it lands him in line for the hangman’s noose. When Moist wakes up, having been hung within an inch of his life, Havelock Vetinari, the benevolent tyrant of the city of Ankh-Morpork, offers Moist a new life: doing the job of Postmaster General for the Ankh-Morpork Post Office. The ancient Post Office is now inhabited by only two staff, the elderly Junior Postman Grote, and Stanley Howler, whose whole life is wrapped up in a world of the shiny, pointy pins he loves to collect. And the entire building is full of undelivered mail. Moist has quite a job ahead of him if he’s going to get the Post Office back on its feet.

Going Postal is a Pratchett treasure, introducing us to many wonderful new characters from the city of Ankh-Morpork, which never seems to run out of surprises. The villain, Reacher Gilt, piratical head of the Grand Trunk Clacks Company (basically a telegram communication system) is out to get Moist and stop him from stealing the communication business. Terry Pratchett is probably my favorite author and the humor is as swift and sure as ever in this book. There are numerous wry observations on hope, the business of business and life in general, in the sly, subtle (or sometimes ridiculously obvious) way which readers of his books have come to love.  The only caveat about this book is that it contains some swearing and crude humor.

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter

There is something immensely interesting and thought provoking about reading a novel written more than a hundred years ago. Perhaps it is comparing the style of the day and the things people were writing about back then to what we read in novels nowadays. Written in the early 1900s, A Girl of the Limberlost, a follow up/sequel book to Freckles (which I have not actually read), captures all the wonder and joy of a girl growing up in the great outdoors. Elnora Comstock, unloved by her mother since her father’s death, turns to catching the rare and wonderful moths which live in the Limberlost forest in order to pay for her high school education. She sells these moths to the Bird Woman, a collector, and in some ways the story is focused around Elnora’s search for the rare Yellow Emperor moth, which will complete her collection and pay her way into college. Along the way, Elnora touches the lives of her mother and a young orphan boy who lives in the poorest part of the town, opening the door for him into a new home and a loving family. I must say that I consider the first half of the book to be the best. The book isn’t actually divided into ‘the first half’ and ‘the second half’, but somewhere around the middle the inevitable ‘young man’ appears and things take the inevitable turn for the romantic. But A Girl of the Limberlost is certainly worth reading, if only for the wonderful glimpses of a carefree girlhood in the embrace of the forest.

Pinterest

0

Facebook

0

Twitter

email