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Have you read The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship by Arthur Ransome and Uri Shulevitz (1968)?

yes

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onMar 21

#the fool of the world and the flying ship #arthur ransome #uri shulevitz #picture book #book poll #have you read this book poll #polls #requested

Books of the summer part 2: July - August 2025

There are more stand-out books for the second half of the summer, not just cause I read slightly more overall, but because in August I got less busy again and had the mental capacity to pick up some genres and options outside of my usual comfort mysteries (though I kept reading some of those too). You can tell it was a long summer because I was scrolling through the books I read in July and came across one that I already had absolutely no memory of! (Went and looked it up on Libby and some faint memories came back. Obviously this was not one of the Books of the Summer.)

The Riddle-Master of Hed (Patricia McKillip): I've owned this one for a while but hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. However, I found myself in the mood for some real classic fantasy, and this fit the bill perfectly. I like that it isn't too long but is still rich in the world it drops you into; I like Morgon, prince of Hed, land of farmers and peace, who has to wrestle with his abilities and apparent fate. I like how he starts out literally wrestling with his brother while his sister yells at him. I would like to read the next book, but it isn't urgent; I wasn't drawn in so as to want to know urgently what happens next and next and next and... Instead, I enjoyed savoring the setting.

Murder in the Trembling Lands (Barbara Hambly): This was an anticipated, pre-ordered release that arrived in July. I love every book in the Benjamin January series, so obviously I enjoyed this one too! Sadly less of my particular blorbo side-character than I would have liked, but overall it was nice and involved (longer and maybe a little more complex plot-wise than her last book in this series, though they're never simple) and had lots of fan favorite characters from the long series; also, it ended in a way that wrapped up the mystery but hinted at future possible adventures! Which I look forward to reading :)

Great Northern? (Arthur Ransome): A reread of one of the Swallows and Amazons books; I always seek these out when I need to get in a sailing mood. I read this while on a boat for the week with some high schoolers, which really added to the experience. It was a good week and I enjoyed the shenanigans of the Swallows and Amazons (and friends).

A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness): A quick read that I picked up one weekend afternoon when I was ready to feel the emotions of it (I've read it once before). Made me cry, which I knew it would. About childhood grief mostly, and a monster and stories.

A Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan): I have started the Lady Trent memoir series, and I like them very much! (I've read two as of this post.) I really appreciate how (so far) it's about dragons, but actually about the politics and anthropology and learning about and respecting other cultures that is required for the main characters to go study dragons. And the voice is great.

The Pale Horse (Agatha Christie): A standalone mystery I hadn't read yet - I liked the mystery of it fine, but it's going on here mainly for a solid twist at the end that I didn't anticipate at all! The queen of mystery can still get me sometimes.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (S. A. Chakraborty): This was super fun! I think it did a good job of threading the needle between "these characters are actually scary veteran pirates who have been through a lot and will kill you if they have to" and "they're all best friends who love each other." I did figure out who the scribe character was as soon as all the in-text hints had been dropped (or maybe slightly before), but that felt purposeful, like the reader was supposed to have a pretty good idea by then. Could say more, but this is definitely a tumblr book, so not sure I have much to add that hasn't been said!

Black Beadle (E. C. R. Lorac): I have been reading quite of a few of these Robert Macdonald mystery books, which basically slot in as lesser-known Golden Age-era mysteries (with Chief Inspector Macdonald as the consistent detective character). I think they were published from the 30s up through maybe the 60s? And I haven't read the whole gamut yet, but Macdonald does seem to age without his essential character changing much - unlike, say, Alleyn, he doesn't have any relatives or romantic entanglements, but he has tiny moments of humanity that shine through each story. And the settings are great - currently in the middle of one set in WWII London, mid-blackouts and Blitz. Chose this book specifically because I will probably write another post solely about it - not the best of the set but a thought-provoking one for a modern reader.

trying to explain why I have four thousand words and fifteen tabs of research:

look imagine if Arthur Ransome wrote gay werewolf fanfic

#AO3 #fanfiction #fanfic #arthur ransome #werewolves

“P...U...D...D...I...N...G"

"Pudding," said Roger. "They've kept some for us."

"She hasn't finished the word," said Dick.

Titty was reading steadily on. "H...E...A...D...S...End of word”

#just finished #reading #books #pigeon post #Arthur ransome #swallows and amazons #lake district #ghiblicore

#swallows and amazons #arthur ransome

Fortnight of Books, Day 1

Overall - best book read in 2024?

This is always such an impossible question to answer. I think I might just have to go with One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp, purely because of the way it's changed and improved the way I look at the world. It's a book about gratitude - not just for the nice, happy things, but also for the hard things. Since reading this book and beginning a list of one thousand gifts of my own (as of this writing, I'm at 377), I find myself much more often focusing on joy and gratitude, actively looking for things to thank God for, rather than either complaining about things or ignoring them. I've even begun thanking God for things like back pain or aspects of my physical appearance I don't like, and even though that doesn't change anything in me physically, it does wonders for my perspective. So for that reason, even though sometimes I took issue with the way she wrote, I'd call this the best book I read this year.

Best series you discovered in 2024?

.....did I discover any series this year? I don't feel like I did. I mean, maybe Swallows and Amazons, but I've only read the first one, and I actually don't feel any inclination to read the rest, if I'm being honest ^^' So I'm not sure if that counts....

Best reread of the year?

That would have to be Dracula! I participated in Dracula Daily this year, which was lots of fun. It really enhanced the tension of the story, getting chunks of story and then waiting in suspense for weeks sometimes, only getting dribbles here and there while waiting to see if the characters we like will escape the clutches of an evil monster. I've read Dracula before, and so I remembered at least the broad strokes of the story, but it was a really fun way to revisit the story. I don't think it's something I'd do every year or anything like that, but I'm glad I did it this year.

#fortnight of books 2024 #one thousand gifts #ann voskamp #swallows and amazons #arthur ransome #dracula #bram stoker

Somebody about ten years back wrote a novel’s worth of fanfic for Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, and I’ve spent much of the day reading it

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

#fanfiction #arthur ransome #swallows and amazons