Category Archives: Books

This week over at the Broke and Bookish the theme for Top Ten Tuesday is:

‘Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit’

Since I am constitutionally unable to pass an opportunity to talk about the books/series I love, I’m going to take up this meme. 🙂

1. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll — This one is still one of my favorites, as anyone who’s seen my Alice collection can attest. I have more than a hundred different copies of it with different illustrations or translations.

2. The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper — My fourth grade teacher recommended I read The Grey King. I was hooked and I read the series multiple times over my childhood and even as an adult.

3. The Black Cauldron series by Lloyd Alexander — My mother read this series to me as a kid. I loved it.

4. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers — My favorite Peter Wimsey book. Peter’s under-cover in an ad agency. It’s brilliant and holds up to several re-reads.

5. Rum Pum Pum by Maggie Duff — This is an Indian fairy tale about a crow who is seeking vengeance against the corrupt king and allies he picks up along the way.

6. My Mother Sends Her Wisdom by Louise McClenathan and Rosekrans Hoffman — This is a Russian folk tale, I believe. And it has a great message about planning and listening.

7. Albert Campion series by Margery Allingham — Allingham is actually my favorite of the big three female mystery authors of the time (Sayers, Christie, & Allingham). You don’t hear much about her though, which is a shame. (And the tv series is pretty good too.)

8. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis — Aslan was very important to my childhood. I loved the first book much more than the others. (The Last Battle didn’t happen in my world. Though, I’ll still read it.) And you *must* read the series in the original published order. The chronological order doesn’t work because if you don’t know the information from the first book, you don’t *care* about the rest of them.

9. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien — My mother first read this to me when I was a toddler. Then, about once every two years between other series. I’ve read it a good four or five times myself. (I’ve even read and annotated the appendices.)

10. The Nero Wolf series by Rex Stout — Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are my go-to detectives. I enjoy their interactions. I love Archie’s voice. And the mysteries themselves are always nice and twisty, but Stout always gives you all the clues you need to get to the right answer.