After seeing a movie preview for Prince Caspian, Francesca is re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia and loves it! There is a great debate about the order in which the books should be read; Francesca recommends reading them in the order in which they were written, not the order in which they take place chronologically. Anyway, here is the “movie tie-in” edition of Prince Caspian, and here is the boxed set of the entire Chronicles of Narnia series, which makes a great gift for yourself or others.
After Francesca suggested Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, Ottermatic wrote:
Oh Wilkie Collins! How I love thee. I just read The Woman in White and it is one of my favorite books now.
(Francesca, too, has The Woman in White on her bookshelf!)
And Margo wrote:
I love book recommendations – from intelligent people with oodles of style and class, that is. Have been on a bit of an autobiography kick lately, after I discovered V.S. Pritchett’s short stories I tracked down his memoir A Cab at the Door, which I can’t recommend highly enough.
(Francesca says: Thanks for the implicit compliment!)
And in response to Francesca’s love of The Handmaid’s Tale, two readers recommended other books by the same author:
Margaret Atwood is the best. Oryx and Crake is my second fave after Handmaid…third on the list is The Robber Bride, which is intelligent, yet somehow manages to be a fantastic “beach read”.
Happy reading!
xoxo!
Oh, I love Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake should come with a “seriously disturbing” warning…much more so than any of her other novels, I think. Cat’s Eye is also very good, and (quite appropriate for this website), I recommend The Edible Woman.
Comment by kristin — February 23, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
Yes! I second the recommendation to read Chronicles in the order in which they were written! There’s something so satisfying about realizing just who Digory is when reading The Magician’s Nephew as the next-to-last book that would be altogether missing if it were the first one read.
Comment by Lisa Laree — February 24, 2008 @ 1:34 am
I just have to agree with Francesca and Lisa about the order in which the books are best read! I’ve been trying to find a set that publishes the numbers in the original order they came out, and not in the chronological order.
Comment by Nariya — February 24, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
How fantastic! And at your recommendation, I just finished reading The Moonstone, which was truly wonderful.
Comment by ottermatic — February 25, 2008 @ 1:08 am
Nariya-
Francesca simply checks the original copyright dates for each book and reads them in order of those.
Ottermatic-
You have made Francesca so very happy!
Comment by Francesca — February 25, 2008 @ 5:19 am