From the Bookshelf of 2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge…

Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)

Diana Wynne Jones

Start date: September 1, 2024

Finish date: September 30, 2024

Discussion: November 2025 Group Read

Why we're reading this: September 2024 Group Read
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November 2025 Group Read

The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Reviews by 2025 Reading Challengers
By Winter , Group Reads · 4 posts · 27 views

last updated 22 hours, 21 min ago

The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Mid-Reading Discussion
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last updated Nov 06, 2025 04:59AM

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What Members Thought

Jan 29, 2014 Emily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookclubbooks, fantasy-sci-fi, young-adult-lit, read-in-2014

Oh how I love this book! It ticked off all of my favorite things about fantasy novels. A fun, headstrong female protagonist, interesting but not overwhelming to the plot romance, fantastic side characters; and a fully realized world.

In this novel, Sophie is the oldest of three sisters. This means, of course, that she is doomed to failure if she ever leaves to seek her fortune. Knowing this, upon the death of her father, she is selected to take over the hat shop that her family has run. Her other ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 29, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy-and-sci-fi, children-s, interesting-women, tween, saw-the-movie-b4-i-read-the-book

from the NPR poll of best young adult fiction

I love the movie (Christian Bale!!!) so I read the book. And now I want to watch the movie again!! The beginning is exactly the same, but the ending is all different. The book has an entire storyline about Sophie's two sisters and stepmother - I don't remember them at all in the movie. And the movie has some really nefarious looking characters (the Witch of the Waste's servants) who are much less scary in the book. The movie has Howl turning into a b ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 31, 2022 Kristi rated it really liked it

Shelves: reading-challenge-2022

When Sophie is turned into an old woman by a treacherous witch, she finds herself on an unlikely adventure that takes her to the castle of the mysterious Howl, a wizard who eats the hearts of young women.

** spoilers ahead **

Having seen the Miyazaki anime before reading this, I have to say that this book was not necessarily what I was expecting. In some ways, it makes a lot more sense than the anime, and it has a lot more plot. In other ways, it is just as whimsical in spirit. Sophie’s sisters fe ...more

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Dec 13, 2019 Kassie rated it it was amazing

Loved it! So delightful and laugh out loud funny.

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Jun 03, 2012 Kara rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminism, fantasy, young-adult, adventure, wwe-2013-wogf

Fun, fast, well written. I think I might be a Diana Wynne Jones fan.

This started out very much like the movie but diverged after the first few chapters. I love the parts of the book that aren't in the movie. They added a whole new dimension to the story (quite literally) and made me appreciate DWJ's world building skills all the more. ...more

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