Devourer of Books

The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller

When Laura Miller was young, she was introduced to “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” by a teacher; Narnia quickly became one of her favorite places, feeling more real to her than any place she had been.  Later, as a teenager who had become disillusioned with her church, Miller was quite unhappy to learn of C.S. Lewis’ status as a Christian apologist and his use of theological influences in Narnia.  Later, as an adult and a literary critic, she returned to Narnia to try to capture some of the magic she had found as an adult.

“The Magician’s Book” ends up being part memoir, part literary criticism, and part biography of Lewis.  I’m not entirely sure that is what Miller intended when she started this book, but that is how it came across to me.  It was at first a bit disconcerting, I imagined it would focus more on the literary criticism, some on the memoir; it simply wasn’t fit together quite as I expected it would be.  By the time I had gotten further into the book, though, I couldn’t imagine her putting it together any other way.

Although I do not share many of Miller’s views on religion – or even Narnia itself – this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed.  Yes, I occasionally found myself disagreeing with her aloud, but it was a civil disagreement, being able to see her well-rationed side of things and perhaps understanding my own views better through the disagreement.

Surprisingly engaging for a work of literary criticism, I would recomment “The Magician’s Book” to anyone who has ever loved Narnia.

Buy this book on Amazon.

To Hold the Crown by Jean Plaidy
Originally published as Uneasy Lies the Head

Just over a week ago I read the fantastic “Sunne in Splendor” by Sharon Kay Penman, which chronicled the majority of the War of the Roses and the life of King Richard III of England.  Following the reign of Henry VII from the birth of his son Arthur – not long after his defeat of Richard at Bosworth Field – “To Hold the Crown” was a perfect follow-up by another masterful writer.

“To Hold the Crown” is not the story of Henry VII himself so much as the story of his reign.  The third person narrative is omniscient in turn with specific characters: Henry VII; Elizabeth Woodville; Elizabeth of York; the future Henry VIII; Katherine of Aragon; even Katherine’s brother-in-law Philip I of Castile, also known as Philip the Handsome.

Here I just need to take a quick detour to say that I really don’t understand the 15th/16th century concept of beauty.  THIS man is “the Handsome”????

Philip didn’t have that much to do with the story, though, so enough about him.  The meat of it was Henry’s worry about his throne when members of the House of York – either real or imagined – threatened his claim to the crown, his worry about his heirs – weak Arthur and flashy Henry, and his attempt to be recognized by other heads of state as a legitimate ruler.

Although I didn’t particularly like Plaidy’s description of Elizabeth of York as a woman who was quite content to be a milquetoast, the book as a whole was very engaging, perhaps even one of Plaidy’s better works.  Plus, I quite enjoyed reading about a man who is usually skipped over in historical fiction, overshadowed by his infamous son and his controversial predecessor.

Buy this book on Amazon.

So this Sunday Salon is incredibly late.  First of all, it would have been much more timely over the weekend of Martin Luther King Day.  Second of all, now that I am finally getting around to writing it, it is Monday, not Sunday.  Normally I would have just skipped the Salon in this case, but I did want to share this with all of you.

Over the long weekend last week my husband and I took a little ‘babymoon’ – a nice trip before the baby comes and makes it harder for the two of us to get away.  This was good timing for us because of the long weekend; plus, I’m not so big yet as to be unwieldy and am far enough along that I’m not constantly nauseous.  Now, a three-day weekend isn’t really all that much time if you have to do a lot of traveling, so we decided to do somthing in driving distance.  Our plan was to go to a bed and breakfast somewhere in Wisconsin or Michigan.  Then we found out about Door County, WI, just north of Green Bay (actually right on the bay itself).  A friend and coworker recommended a little Inn she and her husband had stayed at and since it is just about a 5-hour drive from us, we went for it. 

It was a very nice little Inn.  Our room had a bedroom (with whirlpool tub), a living room with fireplace, and a kitchenette where we made almost all of our meals.  It was pretty cheap, too, since this is definitely the ‘off’ season up there (yes, the temperature did hover around zero with windchill the whole time we were there, yes that actually felt pretty nice after the -30 windchill we had the week before we left).  The area was absolutely gorgeous.  It was overcast and snowing the first day we were there, as you can see from the above picture of the Inn, but Sunday and Monday it cleared up.  The picture to the left is of the state park across the frozen lake.  It was a very bucolic landscape and with all of the snow it was a veritable winter wonderland. 

One of the best things in this bucolic little area was the sweet little barn-looking, snow-capped bookstore, “Passtimes Books”.  I clearly have a very good husband, because he noticed a reference to the bookstore in the little guide to the surrounding towns we picked up at the Inn and happily assumed we would go there.  Although he’s not anywhere near as big a reader as I am, he does enjoy browsing through bookstores.  This was a little mom and pop operation, with handmade signs about reading and writing decorating the ends of the shelves. 

Another neat and clever thing at this little bookstore, is the way they had figured to dispose of the ARCs they and their few employees didn’t want or didn’t have a chance to read.  Since one isn’t supposed to actually sell ARCs, they basically used them as a reward to the customers that supported them financially.  For every $25 you spent in the store at one time, you could choose an ARC from the shelf they had.  Again, I have a good husband.  He assumed that I would want an ARC and we set about finding what we would like to read in the store that added up to at least $25.  Because of his last minute addition to the pile of books, we actually got to choose two ARCs.    Our little haul included the following: For me, “Monsters of Templeton” by Lauren Groff and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver; for my half-Danish husband (really, for both of us), “Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend” by Kvideland Reimund; and my two ARCs, “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave (being released next month) and “Shakespeare: The Biography” by Peter Ackroyd (a couple of years old). 

The rest of the weekend was lovely as well.  We spent our evenings sitting by the fire listening to the audiobook of “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova, which we had originally brought just for the car ride but which my husband really got into.  Our days were spent either lounging around or cross-country skiing through the gorgeous state park. 

All in all, a great babymoon.

Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

There really isn’t one main thing that inspires my reading and to really, fully answer this question I would almost need to go back and analyze everything I read last year to see WHY I read each thing, but here are some of the main points:

• What I am interested in: I read a ton of historical fiction.  I don’t read necessarily read it because I love the genre (although I do love the genre, and there are some GREAT authors of historical fiction out there), I read it because I can enjoy a good narrative story and learn at the same time.  I will often seek out historical fiction by a variety of different authors about the exact same time period, place, and even person (or related places/people/etc.) in order to ‘read around’ the subject and discover much of the truth of that event or that person’s life.  I generally start with time periods/people in which I’m already interested and sort of branch out from there (moving from Tudor history to Plantagenet history, from 15th and 16th century England to other parts of Europe and the middle east, etc.).  Often what I read in historical fiction prompts me to want to read more, which leads us to the next category…
• What I’ve already read: All of my historical fiction reading of England has led me to explore some non-fiction works on different aspects of British history, including a book on all the queens of England.  Also, if I’ve particularly enjoyed a book by an author, I will tend to seek out their other work, even if it is on a different topic or in a different genre than the work I previously enjoyed.  I also may be inspired to read more on a topic, even by another author, by an interesting book.
• Happenings in the world/my life: I wouldn’t be reading pregnancy books if I weren’t pregnant, and I wouldn’t have read “Dreams From My Father” when I did if I hadn’t been moving to Chicago and known Barack was my Senator (I probably still would have read it when he ran for President, though).  Other events in the world can also prompt me to get a book on that or a related subject.
• What I see/hear: LibraryThing is a ridiculously fantastic source of recommendations, as are some of my friends who have similar tastes to my own, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, NPR, and of course book blogs.  I also have a huge tendency to just pick up whatever looks interesting at a bookstore, at a library sale, or on Amazon.  I have also done quite a bit of requesting books that look interesting from authors and publishers of late, leading us into the final category.
• What I receive: Nearly everything that is sent to me for review is something I either requested or agreed to take, which means it is something I at least thought I would be interested in.  I feel an obligation to read these books in as timely a manner as possible and get them reviewed, although lately I’ve also felt an obligation to myself to make every second or third book something that I am reading simply because it struck my fancy and not because I ‘have to’.

What inspires your reading?

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given

“Reading those passages was my first experience with that refined literary device, the unreliable narrator, and with irony.  Iron was a specialty of Lewis’.”
- The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller, p. 242