Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 20

"Night of Wonders" by Charity Bishop

What a unique book!  Night of Wonders is a fantasy-adventure-romance set in ancient India with a librarian for the main character.  A librarian who serves and curates magical books, but is not allowed to use magic himself. 
Anik unexpectedly steps into the role of head Librarian when the man he serves under is found guilty of a crime and has his magical abilities removed as punishment.  Anik loves knowledge and wants to remain in the library always, but he must hide the fact that he can do magic ...

The Spring Cleaning Book Tag

I've snagged this tag from Sally Silverscreen at 18 Cinema Lane because it looks like lots of fun!
1. The Struggle of Getting Started – A book or book series you struggle to begin because of its size
I would like to read the Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope, in theory, but there are six books, and I don't know if I'm going to like them, and they sound very cool except what if they disappoint me... and yeah, I have embarked upon twenty-book series with much less trepidation than this one c...

"Jubal Sackett" by Louis L'Amour

Well, this is by far my favorite Sackett book so far!!!  The entire thing was about surviving in the wilderness, living off the land, and defending yourself with a few weapons and your wits.  
Jubal Sackett, wandering son of Barnabas Sackett, explores the land between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.  He's tasked with finding a Natchez princess named Itchakomi and telling her that her people need her to return home, and he races to find her before the Natchez warrior who intends to force Itch...

"The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim (again)

This is the third time I have read this book.  I simply adore it.  I'm beginning to think that no actual holiday in Italy could compare to the pure delight of reading about these remarkable ladies spending April there!
Four British ladies who do not know each other pool their resources and rent a villa in Italy for the whole month of April.  Lotty wants to escape her weary life for a bit and breathe some new and different air.  Rose wants to get away from the fact that she is sure her husband no ...

"The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald

What a whimsical, meandering, endearing story!  I read this because I had learned that it was a big influence on both J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, so I wanted to see what it was like.  I can definitely see some ways it influenced The Hobbit, especially the sort of "adult telling children a little story because they are cute" tone.  Which is not a tone I am fond of, so it took me quite a while to get into this book.  But I did eventually enjoy it, especially when it surprised me in one specifi...

"My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place" by Meik Wiking

I picked this up at the library on a whim and really enjoyed browsing through it!  I have been interested in the Danish concept of "hygge," or "a safe, happy, cozy atmosphere," for a while now, but I really hadn't read much about it.  I just know I like hygge-ful pictures of books and reading on Instagram, and a friend who has a homemaking blog writes about the concept sometimes.  I wouldn't say I read this book, exactly, as there were some pages/chapters I just skimmed, but there were others I ...

"Emily of New Moon" by L. M. Montgomery

One of the things I love about L. M. Montgomery's writing is how vividly she remembers what things feel and seem when you are a child.  I also have very clear recollections of my childhood, particularly of my inner self as a child, and so much of what she writes rings so true.  When Emily cries, "I am important to myself" (p. 25), I wanted to cheer because that is how I felt too when I was in single digits and being dismissed by adults.  And, when "Elizabeth Murray had learned an important lesso...

"Imagination Redeemed" by Gene Edward Veith Jr. and Matthew P. Ristuccia

Wow.  SO many nuggets of wisdom in this book.  
The subtitle is "Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind," and that pretty succinctly explains what this book is about.  Veith and Ristuccia point out that Christians are often told not to use their imaginations.  The imagination is often reviled as being untrustworthy, frivolous, unnecessary, or even an instrument of Satan.  But, God gave every person an imagination, just like He gave them reason and taste buds and an appreciation for mus...

"Moonfleet" by J. Meade Falkner

Well, that was... interesting.  The cover makes it look like it might involve tall ships more than it does.  Or pirates, maybe.  There's stuff with ships, but not loads, and there are no pirates, just smugglers.  Sigh.  Also, I watched the 1955 movie version starring Stewart Granger last year, which turns out to be very, very, very loosely based on this.  More like vaguely inspired by the book, really.
The book is about a British orphan in his mid-teens who has a crush on a local girl, accidental...

Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Crackers

Our Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl for this week is "Covers with Animals On Them," and I have chosen to narrow that to junior fiction/middle grade books that feature animals on their covers.  Instead of writing up a description of them this week, I've just copied over a line from my review of that particular book that I think you might find interesting.

(All titles linked to my full reviews.)
All the Mowgli Stories  by Rudyard Kipling -- "Why do I love these stories so much? Be...