Book Reviews
How could you enjoy life without a good book?
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On my blog, I recently have been reviewing fiction books that are enjoyable for middle school through high school. I venture into books for younger and older groups when I review classics and even nonfiction, but I haven’t spent much time reviewing books for the youngest children. I have been wanting to write this post
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The Door in the Wall is an amazing little novel with a main character who is disabled that has all the elements I want in a book, both for my children and myself. It is rightful a Newberry winner.
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Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis was truly the most horrific and deeply moving book I have read in a good way. It was C.S. Lewis’s last novel and far darker than any of them.
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Many Christian novels focus on a non-Christian believing on Christ. Pilgrim’s Progress does this at the beginning, but the vast majority of the novel is about how to stay on the Christian walk your entire life. I
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The Mermaid’s Apprentice is a young adult novel that follows Mabel Sinclair as she tries to rescue her brother and follows Antonio Cortez as he tries to finish his required time in the navy before opening his tailor shop. It is a fun story about mermaids and pirates that is part of Palmer’s world of…
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The Tale of Despereaux has been around awhile, I have been wanting to read it for years. It is a children’s novel and appropriate for the young chapter book readers, but the plot appealed to me even as an adult. I also have to admit that the gorgeous illustrations drew me in as well.
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When my dad bought me a hardback version of this novel and had it signed by Brandon Sanderson at a Comic Con, I squealed like a little girl. The hardback edition of this novel is gorgeous! I love the color illustrations, the beautiful flourishes, the font, and the lovely bed sheets.
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The Walking Drum is a historical novel that is very different from the westerns that made Louis L’Amour famous. The book is a stand-alone only because Louis L’Amour never write the sequel he hinted at at the end of the book. Even so, it does have an ending and I found the book very enjoyable.
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Darts is a small book for those who love traditional fantasy tropes in a fun new setting. The setting I am talking about for this book is a bar game of darts (hence the name).
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Reuben the Rooster is an engaging and heartwarming children’s book that tells the tale of a courageous rooster who learns the value of standing up for his friends.
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Discover the underwater adventure of Thorton, the Grumpy Whale, in this heartwarming tale of self-discovery, forgiveness, and redemption. Join Thorton as he navigates through the challenges of anger and pride, and learns the true value of humility and understanding. Thorton, a young and stubborn whale, becomes angry and decides to swim away from his sad
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The Last Unicorn is another one of those older fantasy fiction books that are considered classics. I have been intentionally reading through these greats of the genre to improve my own writing. This one really surprised me with the pureness and lack of many of the modern-day conventions.
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865 by Lewis Carrol, who was a professor at Oxford. His interest in puzzles and word plays is very evident in the written versions of the books and is very difficult to translate well in a play or movie.
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The Island of the Blue Dolphins is a great award-winning novel for middle school and older readers. It is fantastic as a fictional classic, but also great as a discussion starter.
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A Wizard of Earth Sea is one of those novels that always comes up when people list their all-time favorite fantasy books. This was written at a time when people were not so concerned with breaking away from the tropes of the genre, and yet it still pushed boundaries in subtle ways.
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I highly recommend this novel to readers of middle school age and up. Younger readers would find the content emotionally difficult, though that definitely depends on the child. The Call of the Wild is well-written, descriptive, captivating, and intellectually challenging. It is a classic children’s novel for a good reason.
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This book review is of a slightly different kind of book that what I typically review. The “Can You Survive” or the “Choose Tour Own Path” books are a series of books based on classical novels that are appropriate for young readers. I am not a fan of abridged classics, but this is more like
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The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett is a remarkable book that captures the process of grieving, even in children, in an optimistic and uplifting light. I have not seen a movie adaptation of this book that captures the depth of the very well.
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The Cricket in Times Square is a classic of children’s literature for good reason. It is a simple story about healthy friendships.
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Silver on the Tree is the last book in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising Series. As with most of the books in this series, my review is mixed, but I still recommend it as a high-quality middle school and up book.
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“On Fairy Stories” is actually more of an essay about a genre of literature rather than a book about how to write. Even so, as a writer of young adult fantasy fiction, this essay is incredibly important for shaping my writing career.
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The Hobbit is a classic book for good reason. It was originally marketed for children, and it often still is, but this novel is great for any age. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a sequel to The Hobbit and is more epic.
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Downfall by Caleb Ward is a Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy Fiction novel. I would recommend this book for adults with some background in the church and its theological debates.
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The Gray King by Susan Cooper is the fourth book in The Dark is Rising Sequence. There is only one more book after this that concludes the series.
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Greenwitch is the third book in The Dark is Rising Sequence. This novel brings back Simon, Jane, and Barney from Over Sea, Under Stone and also Will Stanton from The Dark is Rising. It returns to more of the feel of the first novel, which has less overtly magical elements and odd magic rules.
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The Dark is Rising is the second book in The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper. It follows Over Sea Under Stone, but it has a very different feel and a different main character child who discovers his identity as an Old One.
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Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper is the first book in The Dark is Rising Series. Some times I review a whole series at a time, but these classic young adult fantasy fiction books have been around since the 1960s and are often recommended individually, especially the first two in the series.
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Even though it is not a Christian story in the sense of talking about Christ or theology, it is still a story about redemption. I would argue that mercy, undeserved love, and redemption is the true meaning of Christmas… not the presents and decorating.
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My first encounter with the world of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne was on a ride at Disney World in Orlando Florida, USA. That may sound overly commercialized and cheesy to you, but it was an awe-inspiring experience for my very young self.
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Pippi Longstocking is a classic children’s book written in 1944. There are two sequels that I haven’t read. The novel was originally written in Swedish, but I read an English translation.
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Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling is a thin book (compared to Kipling’s more famous Jungle Book or Kim) set off America’s coast.
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The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh is a Christain historical fiction chapter book for young readers. It shows up in many of the lists of books recommended by homeschoolers.
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When I was starting out homeschooling, I read a book by Maria Montessori called “The Absorbant Mind.” It was tranformative to me as a parent and teacher. I highly recommend it to everyone who works with children.
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A Wrinkle in Time is about three kids, Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace, who go meet three magical women, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. These women help the kids travel through space to rescue Meg and Charles Wallace’s missing father.
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The Princess Bride is perhaps the only book in which I think the movie was better. That being said, the book was still pretty good, but the movie is one of my all-time favorites.
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This is a very beautiful book and extremely Christian. All the pagan elements from the cartoon I grew up with were not in the book at all. What made me love this book more than the animation was the deep relationships and the inner strength Heidi exhibits.
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I had read Tom Sawyer when I was a kid and remembered it vaguely as a good book. My oldest son and I decided to reread it together, and as a mother, I had some different responses.
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People often ask me what led me to start writing. My answer is I ran away from it. Here’s how it happened.
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Separated from the world of darkness by a bottomless chasm lie the stones of light. The King has built a bridge from that world to His kingdom across the chasm to give people access once again to the stones. He has established seven cities of light and seven towers as beacons to The Darkened Land.
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The Island of the Blue Dolphins was one of the first novels I ever read, and its descriptions still linger vividly in my imagination.
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Treasure Island is a classic young adult book for good reason, but I have been surprised at how many adults remember this book negatively. Mostly the complaint has been that it was boring. I honestly find this baffling.
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The Guardian of Ajalon by Joan Campbell is the third and final book in “The Poison Tree Path Chronicles”. I had not read the previous two books but decided to read the blurbs for them before starting this book. I am glad I did. Even though the author does well to catch up the reader
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Dragon’s Fire is a well-written epic fantasy very focused on the epic. It includes all the traditional elements I love from fantasy: dragons, elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls, and gryphons. At the same time, it holds a very solid Christian message.
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Men of Iron was written in 1891 by an American author, Howard Pyle. It is a classic young adult novel that is clean, fun, and easy to read.
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The novel Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie is about Wendy, the Darling children, and the lost boys all choosing, on their own… without an adult, to grow up.
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The Paper Magician Series is a traditionally published young adult fantasy fiction trilogy, sort of. The Plastic Magician is part of the series and world, but not part of the trilogy.
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I decided to review both of these books at the same time because they take place in the same fantasy world, but really, they have two very different tones.
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Etania’s Worth is a Christian young adult fantasy fiction book that checks all the boxes for the genre’s stereotypes while, at the same time, being fun with a refreshing new spin on some important issues.
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am reviewing this series as a continuation of my review of Neil Gaiman’s Don’t Panic. Don’t Panic is part biography of Douglas Adams and part guide to The Hitchhiker’s series. This review of the series will incorporate some of the elements I had learned beyond the stories themselves.
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Don’t Panic is one part a biography of Douglas Adams and one part a guide to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘s assortment of works. The biography part stops about three quarters through the book, and the guide doesn’t start until about halfway into it. All of it is written with Neil Gaiman’s particular style
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I am back reviewing some young adult fantasy fiction, this one fits the category perfectly. The Nameless Soldier by Annie Douglass Lima checks all the boxes for me as being the perfect summer book for young adults ages 12 through the young at heart adults.
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Thanks for stopping by! Take a look at this brand-new fantasy adventure story with a hint of romance by author Annie Douglass Lima.
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From the moment he could walk, Bowmark has trained for a fight to the death. The Disc awaits him: a giant bronze platform suspended over a river of lava. He dreads the day of proving—when he must kill or be killed—to claim the throne.
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I have been trying to focus my book reviews on young adult fantasy fiction, but periodically, I also review books that help me on my journey in my writing career.
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Salvatore has become a legend in the world of fantasy fiction having 23+ books with the character Drizzt Do’Urden. Each book, including each book in this trilogy, are self-contained adventures.
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I usually review only one book at a time, but since I haven’t written a review of any of these books, I am going to review the whole Winternight Trilogy in this single post. First of all, before I even get to these amazing books, I have to say that I have never seen more…
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The Finding by R.E. Joyce is a young adult epic fantasy novel very much in the fashion of Tolkien. The story starts with Ariah, an adopted speaking horse who transforms into the unicorn she had always been but had not come to age yet.
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Raising Steam is one of the last books Terry Pratchett wrote and the second to last of his Discworld Series. Since I have only read his collection of short stories that he wrote as a teenager, Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Stories, I don’t have much to compare this book.
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The story seems to come to me as a vague notion to start. An impression. The Sorcerer’s Bane (my first book and book 1 of The Seven Words) started out one afternoon in August 2015.
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In the spring of 2015 my friend Jan asked me to join her and another neighbor in a small writing group.
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The Light Arises is epic fantasy. Themes of trust, hope, and redemption thread through Rayne’s story as he continues his journey to reclaim the seven hidden scrolls of the One and defeat the rising darkness that would enslave the worlds of Ochen.
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“As the flames consigned to dust the last existent written prophecy about the Light Bringer on the planet of Corylus, a shadowy figure watched the words vanish with satisfaction …
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The brass-skinned automaton buzzed and clicked before replying, “All mail has been sorted into the pneumatic system. There is one message for you.” The monitor on the automaton’s chest activated to reveal the face of a man. He had a thin mustache and even more of a thinning hairline.
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Bridger: a Dystopian Serial is a science-fiction story told in episode form. It’s set in a world bled dry by global war and swiftly running out of resources.
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Sir Gibbie was written in 1879 by a Scottish minister named George MacDonald. George MacDonald was the favorite author of C.S. Lewis and has been well-known for both his theological writing as well as his fiction.
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Since it’s Christmas time and everyone is putting out their list of top books, I decided to do the same. This is not my list for just this year though.
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Mercedes Lackey is a master writer with over 140 published novels, and the quality of her stories are reliable. This novel tells the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Rune who is the illegitimate daughter of a tavern wench.
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As a small child, I watched a cartoon of Gulliver in Lilliput and had firmly formed the image, as so many people do, that this was a children’s book.
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How to Write Funny is a Writer’s Digest book that is a collection of essays and interviews like many of their other how-to books. In general, I liked the book and learned a lot, but I do have a few complaints.
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I don’t often write reviews with spoilers, but I can’t really explain why I like this book so much without talking about the ending. As with many of my reviews of classics, I find that I must review this book in comparison with the movie that I had seen first.
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Dragons at Crumbling Castle is a collection of short stories written by a seventeen-year-old Terry Pratchett when he worked as a junior reporter at a local British newspaper in the nineteen sixties.
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I really love this children’s story! Being a fan of classic fairy tales, The Princess and the Goblin fits that format perfectly.
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The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, as with so many books, is much better than the movie. I am honestly surprised how many of my reviews start this way.
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The Sea-Hawk follows Sir Oliver Tressilian right after he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for buccaneering.
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Lauren H Salisbury was an English teacher for sixteen years with an MA in Education. She is now a writer who dabbles with tutoring and lives with her husband and a room full of books in Yorkshire, England.
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Pinocchio is an Italian children’s book that is well worth reading. I had never read this book until now and had only known it from the Walt Disney movie. As with most films, the book is much better. In this case, it is almost an entirely different story.
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Jane Austin is by far my favorite author, which is surprising since she isn’t my typical genre of book. It still can remember my emotions the first time I read Pride and Prejudice. I was completely captured.
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Astray by J.F. Rogers is a young adult Christian fantasy fiction book. The main character, Fallon, is an orphan who receives an amulet on her seventeenth birthday from a neglectful and abusive grandmother. The artifact leads her through a portal to a mythical realm in which she learns that her mother is still alive and…
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Heart Song is a well-written teen science fiction novel about space colonization. The protagonist is a thirteen-year-old orphan girl who is part of a space colonization program to build the first base on a planet outside our solar system.
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Why have I never heard of this book before! Seriously one of the best books I have EVER read, and I downloaded it on Kindle for free as a lark. This book was written in the 1920s and should be included on the lists of classics that everyone should read.
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All Things Now Living by Rondi Bauer Olson is a young adult science fiction novel. Amy is a sixteen-year-old girl whose father shoves her into the dome-locked world of New Lithisle with coding to stop the dome from collapsing.
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How Fiction Works apparently thinks of itself as the modern replacement for E.M Forester’s Aspects of the Novel and debates with that classic continually. Though this book has some good observations, it is quite a bit more academic.
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Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster is not a how-to-write book. It is a collection of lectures delivered in the 1920’s by Forster at King’s College in Cambridge. The point of the book is to discuss what makes a good fiction novel work.
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Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantastic book, but don’t read it thinking it will teach you how to write a novel.
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I have read a few writing books, and I think this is one of the better books out there. It is optimistic and encouraging. Rather than telling you all the things you shouldn’t do when writing fiction, Jack Smith focuses on all the options of what you can do.
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This Christain urban fantasy/spiritual warfare novel was probably one of the most fun books I have read in a couple of years! Seriously, if I could give it a bonus star, I would. If you like Frank Peretti’s novels, you will love this one more.
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I had started reading George MacDonald’s writing because C.S. Lewis loved it so much and I love C.S. Lewis’ writing. When I sat down to read this book I expected it to be light and easy like The Princess and the Goblin. Boy, was I surprised!
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This children’s book was written by my husband, Dr. Kerry Lee Jr. and illustrated by me over 14 years ago when we were dating. I had submitted it to many publishers because I had always wanted to write and illustrate books, but it just would get lost in the slush piles.
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What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles is a classic for job hunters for the past zillion years, so I won’t bore you with how great it is and how you need to go out and buy it. The fact is millions of people already have gone out and bought it.
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The Retail is a satire on modern American under-employment. Penn, the main character, gets a job at a home improvement store which all but destroys his life. It is so funny and yet I find it also disturbingly sad.
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I started this blog mostly to be an encouragement to those like myself to slow down and savor life. In the past five years my family has gone through illnesses, hospital stays, deaths, financial loss, drama of relatives crises and divorces, personal spiritual crises, depression, homeless wandering, and extreme reduction of personal property.
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I had kind of expected this book to be just another cutesy home decorating book which I tend to read one after another like some guilty obsession akin to chocoholics eating chocolate. It turns out this book ended up being more than what I had expected.
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I had been very excited about this book because I had hoped from the description of it that I could learn what good conversation past and present was like and therefore improve my own style of conversing.
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Forever Chic by Tish Jett is a well-written survey of French culture that highlights the strengths that brings so much admiration while dispelling myths such as “French women don’t go to the gym”.
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Orchids on your Budget was a lifestyle book first published in 1936. I found this book so fascinating for my quest to enjoy my life because it was about just that with similar conclusions that I have discovered.
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I have another biography to review and this of the controversial Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was born in 1124, was married to the King Louis VI of France, went on the second crusade, divorced, married King Henry II of England, was the mother of King Richard the Lion-hearted and King John, and then died at…
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I read a biography of Abigail Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin this past month. This is probably one of the best biographies I have ever read (and I LOVE reading biographies!).
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The book I chose was by Justine Picardie. She was very thorough, and I enjoyed her book, but like a lot of modern British writers, she was a bit over dramatic and liberal with her opinions.
