Mildred D. Taylor

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday July 8: Books I’d Like to I Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

I don’t reread books a lot but there a few I would read again, and I guess for this post, I need to come up with ten that I have reread or would reread. I think I can do that.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

It took me until last year to read this book and I ended up loving it. I would love to reread it again this year and I probably will.

2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I know! So cliché! But here is another one that I read late in life and now I want to read it again because it was so lovely and cozy and interesting. I never imagined I’d get so wrapped up in these characters. I used to roll my eyes at people who would gush about this book and the movies based on it and then I read it. Oh, my! I understand the gushing now.

3. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

This book is just as sweet and touching as the Hallmark movie from the 1990s was, which is how I first knew about the story. Of course, the book came first. I didn’t read the book until I read it to my daughter a couple of years ago and I just loved it. I also loved the sequels, especially Skylark.

4. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

I have read this one more than once and I could read it again and again. There is always something new that I pick up on in it. I have also read Shepherd’s Abiding, the Christmas book more than once but now I read certain sections that are my favorite instead of the whole book.

5 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read this one several years ago with my son and I would like to reread it but I have to finish The Lord of the Rings trilogy first. I have The Return of the King to read next.

6. The Cat Who Saw Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

This is my favorite book of this series. It’s a lot different than the others in the series and sometimes I wonder if Lilian wrote it. The main character, Qwill, shows even more of his personality in this one and even shows his tenderness toward a young child in the book. The story/mystery is also a solid one. As with any long running series, there are aways going to be duds along the way, but this was not one of them.

7. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I first read this book in sixth grade by myself and again in eighth grade, though I don’t remember reading it in eighth grade. I know it was part of our curriculum but I guess my teacher wasn’t very memorable in her teaching. I remember she said, “What do you mean you’ve already read it?” She was surprised a sixth grader had taken it upon herself to read something so deep and advanced, I suppose, and I didn’t do that very often but in this case, I did read it because my mom suggested it and then started to read it to me in her southern accent. After I heard her Southern accent reading it, that’s how I heard the narrator (Scout) for the rest of the book.

I know I didn’t understand the intricacies of the message of this book when I was a child so reading it again as an adult about three years ago with my son for his English was a much different experience. I sobbed through the second half of the book as an adult because I understood so much more about the story, about Atticus, about the world and the ugliness and also goodness, the third time around. It is a book I think needs to be read several times for the message to really hit home.

8. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This is another book that I read at an age that other kids these days probably wouldn’t have read it. I did not do that a lot so don’t let me mislead you into thinking I read a ton of classics or harder books as a child. I did this occasionally and this one was one of those. The language is a challenge since it is written in the 1800s, but I really had fun with the story. It was a lot of fun, much more so than Huckleberry Finn, which had a lot of serious moments mixed in with the adventure. I liked Huck Finn too, though. I hope to read this one again at some point soon.

9. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This is a book I read for the first time with my daughter last year. I would read it again because I truly enjoyed the story, even the harder parts I didn’t like in the movie version I saw as a child. I wanted a bit more from the ending but I really enjoyed the other parts of the book and could see myself reading it again.

10. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

This is a book with a lot of tough subjects, but one I haven’t read since I was about 11. I would like to read it again because I have a feeling it will hit me in a different way, similar to the way To Kill A Mockingbird did. I actually have this as one book I want to read this summer.

Are there books that you have reread or want to reread? Or are you more of a one and done person like I usually am?

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Today’s prompt was: Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read.

So I have a lot of books I could probably put on this list but today I am going to share three books I grabbed up at used book sales but still haven’t started. I know – I am supposed to share ten but I didn’t have ten! I am so bad at the whole “top ten” theme but hopefully I’ll get better at it.

These books won’t be on the “popular” lists of today because this week I realized I don’t read popular books. I read books not many people have heard of, I think. I’m like a little old book lady stuck in a middle-aged lady’s body.

Anyhow, here are my three books:

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie.

This is the first book in the Grantchester Mysteries, which is the book series that the British TV show is based on. The series follows the vicar turned amateur sleuth, Sidney Chambers.

Originally, I wanted to read these books because I thought they were older mysteries but when I picked up this book I realized it had been written in 2012, making it much more modern than I expected. I also learned (well just today, if I am honest) that the books are a collection of short stories, somewhat like G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown Mysteries.

I still want to read the book(s), however. I will have to compare it with what I have already seen of the show, which isn’t much.

There are six books in this series with the fifth, the prequel having been written in 2019.

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (2012)
Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night (2013)
Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil (2014)
Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins (2015)
Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation (2016)
Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love (2017)
The Road to Grantchester (2019)

The next book I snatched up at a library sale that I wanted to read was Let The Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor.

This is the sequel to Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, which I read as a kid. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is a sequel to Song of the Trees and all are part of the Logan family saga.

I want to eventually read this entire series but before I start this particular book, I want to go back and reread Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry since it has been *mumble mumble* years since I first read it.

If you are not familiar with this series, here is a quick description of the first book:

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie’s story – Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

And this one:

It is a frightening and turbulent time for the Logan family. First, their friend T. J. must go on trial for murder – and confront an all-white jury. Then, Cousin Suzella tries to pass for white, with humiliating consequences. And when Cassie’s neighbor Mrs. Lee Annie stands up for her right to vote, she and her family are driven from their home. Other neighbors are destroyed and shattered by the greed of landowners. But through it all, Cassie and the Logans stand together and stand proud – proving that courage, love, and understanding can defy even the deepest prejudice.

The third book I grabbed and wanted is Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour.

I grabbed this one because my mom and brother used to read Louis L’Amour when I was a kid and a blogger I follow reads him and was talking about his books. I thought this would be something different to try – out of my normal realm of genre reading.

L’Amour writes westerns and the only other books I’ve read that I would consider westerns are The Walt Longmire Mysteries by Craig Johnson.

So have you read any of these books or even heard of them? Let me know in the comments!