Book Nook

Dream Children and other Essays by Charles Lamb

Published 1916-1924? Not sure when mine was published but it is from the Little Leather Library Corporation

I don’t remember why I got this sweet little book, but it is a treasure. The story Dream Children in particular, a short story, is filled with incredible imagery and quickly immersed me into another world. I have re-read it a dozen times. It is intriguing and mystifying.

Phantastes by George MacDonald

Published 1884 by Alexander Strahan 25 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden

A delicious dive into a fantastical world that delivered me to another place almost instantly. It is rich in language and description that leaves you feeling like anything is possible. This book was the one that C.S.Lewis attributes to leading him to Christ. The Title Page reads: 

                                     Phantastes: A Faerie Romance–

”Phantastes from ‘their fount’ all shapes deriving, In new habiliments can quickly dight.”  

                                      Fletcher’s Purple Island. 

This book is rich with Old English and other old languages which make sometimes a sentence or two enough to ponder on for a whole day. This is my favorite kind of book, one that makes me look further, research word origins and try to understand the time it was written and how people looked at the world around them.

Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff

Published 1955 by Oxford Press

An incredible fiction of a boy rescued from a ship that runs aground off the southern coast of England when the world was ruled by the conquering Romans and Chieftains, pastoral and tribal peoples. He endures much including a time of slavery on a Roman warship .It is peppered with wonderful charcoal drawings by Richard Kennedy and has a map (I love maps). Rosemary Sutcliff is one of my favorite authors because she writes about a time that has almost been forgotten and creates believable stories and characters. She grew up in the South Downs and has an interesting story of her own (I did read her biography).

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Published 2002 by Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt

Written for young adults (which is some of my favorite reading), it is a quick and easy read. I was quickly absorbed into the main character’s story during the late 18th century. It is a coming of age, survival, adventure, romance along the cold streets of London and on the high seas aboard the HMS Dolphin. 

Scotland’s Forgotten Past, A History of the Mislaid, Misplaced and Misunderstood by Allistair Moffat

Published 2023 by Thames & Hudson

I have not read too much yet, it is a lot of information, history and geography, with delightful block prints and a map. I am enjoying it, but I know I need time to digest it slowly, so I am taking small bites.

The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881-1897

Published 1966 by Frederick Warne & Co.

This is a book that is extra special to me because 1) My son Isaac saw the book in a used book shop and with not a penny to his name, 2) Showed my daughter, who always has money for a good book, and bought it for me for my birthday two years ago 3) It has a folded family tree inserted in the first few pages and many photos of Beatrix and her family, plus her art!  I have been slowly savoring it because it is her original diaries, which were written by Beatrix IN CODE, and finally someone de-coded it and put it into this book. While reading this book I have felt like I shouldn’t be–these were her private thoughts that she wrote in code, obviously for a reason–she didn’t want anyone knowing these thoughts that she penned. I can’t help myself though! They are the sweetest writings with no sense of any ill will or ‘naughty’ thought. She was kind hearted through and through, writing of deaths, births, animals she collected (and their births and deaths as well), relatives, lots of art critiques as her father was a collector, travels, schooling, teachers and bits of news of England and the world. She would have been between the ages of 15-31, pre-Peter Rabbit. It is a fascinating peek into the world of one of my favorite artists. I got to visit her home in 2023 and did a Beatrix Potter tour around the Lake District. She was an amazing, quiet, humble woman with a vision to create space for others to enjoy the beauty she had at her doorstep. She gave the National Trust 4000 acres  to create walking paths for people to enjoy all of this and I got to walk on many of them including the Coffin Trail (more about this in a future post!). She has been the inspiration for a lot of how I see the world–wanting others to share in all the beauty (I wish I had 4000 acres to share!)

Highways and Byways in Oxford & The Cotswolds with Illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs

Published by Macmillan and Co. Ltd. 1905 (A first edition!)

I bought this book because I am taking an extended ‘Grand Tour’ with my parents this coming summer of 2025. We are taking the Queen Mary II on the transatlantic crossing from Brooklyn Pier to SouthHampton (7 nights at sea! Tea in the afternoon! Themed evening galas! Speakers! Ballroom dancing!) and then we are going to spend 10 nights in the Cotswolds. This book is from a series done by Macmillan and Co. at the turn of the century and this particular book was a biking trip. It is a 391 page tomb loaded with lots of very tiny words (which makes me think people used to have much better eyes than I do!) and this particular copy that I bought has some leaves that have not been opened at the fore edge, which may prove to be a benefit (these pages likely have NEVER been read before since you can’t read them without cutting them apart) and a detriment (as I now have to cut these pages open very carefully so as to not tear the beautiful, fragile paper). It has maps and drawings which always draw me in, so I will savor this slowly and take lots of notes before I set sail!

C.S. Lewis At The Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences

Edited by James T. Como

Published by Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc. 1979

This book is composed of short essays from those who had the privilege to walk, live, teach, travel, and  be contemporaries with C.S. Lewis. Written by people who truly loved this man and just wanted to share a space with him within the theological and academic world. He truly was a man unlike any other and I have never read so many essays by mostly men (there is one entry from a woman) who were sometimes confounded, awed, amazed and enamored by him.He was truly loved by a great many and this book is evidence of that.  Each one tells from a different vantage point; some students, some colleagues, caretakers and friends. Each story shines a light on a different facet of who he was and I enjoyed each essay, feeling like a bug on the wall, learning about a man who was such a prolific writer and has left so much for us to enjoy. I can’t wait to meet him in Heaven. His book On Grief has been helpful to me. 

The Sugar King of California the life of Claus Spreckles by Sandra E. Bonura

Published by University of Nebraska Press, 2024

I have not completed this book yet. I have to take this one slow. I want to have only the best thoughts for this man who seemed to do so much good, however, I once did research for a book on the sugar plantations and had to abandon the project because it made me physically sick to hear and witness what these plantations ultimately did was the ruination of the Hawaiian way of life. I could go on and on about this and probably will in other posts. Sorry, but not really. I grew up in an old plantation town, so I have a view that many don’t. This is a very well researched book and I have enjoyed the writing. A snapshot into a time when the American Dream was so alive and available to anyone who had a good work ethic and Claus Spreckles wasted no time once he hit the shores of America. Plus, a family tree and photos! Delightful! I am always willing to be proven wrong about people and I hope I am in this case.

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos

Published by William Morrow 2023

The ongoing story of Cornelia and her family. I have been reading about Cornelia and her cornucopia of family members for more than a decade. I have followed the fun, tragic, mysterious lives played out in great detail and description. She writes of her brothers as places, actual destinations and her characters feel like offerings from the author’s heart for all of us to enjoy. There is a realness in the writing that keeps me coming back. A cozy,fun read for a lazy day, a plane or train ride, or for those times when you just can’t sleep!

Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson

Published by Hyperion 2001

This is book is so well worn and read that it now separates into sheaves that I can remove in sections so that I didn’t have to heft the whole book while reading (which was kind of nice, more like reading a small magazine or pamphlet at a time). It is like this because it has been a beloved book and an inspiration to some of my children who are prolific writers (see Elliot’s books here!). I was warned, the first book in this series is difficult to get through, but hold onto your hats for the second (which is where this book falls in the trilogy). It is smart, unyieldingly terrifying, beautiful, encouraging, tragic and wonderful all rolled into one. I dove in not knowing the plot and have been delightfully surprised and have had to walk away at times to ponder what I read. With the first in the series (The Wind Singer), I had to speed read (and I actually just skimmed some pages). Emma said that it was written for a young audience but that the second book is more mature, and I agree. With this one I had to slow way down and I love it when an author can capture you like that and make you really think about their world within the book and reflect upon the world you are living in now. I’m not going to say anything else but hope some of you give this a read. I just started the third book Firesong, last night and the opening scene had me weeping twice before it was done.