Book Recommendations For Winter

 Some wonderful works of fiction that will assist in properly getting into the Christmas season :)

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

2. What Comes of Attending the Commoners’ Ball  by Elisabeth Aimee Brown

3. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

4. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

7. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

8. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

9. The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare

10. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

Merry Christmas!

Oddly Specific Things I Love In Books Tag

    Why hello there :)

    An embarrassingly long time ago in a galaxy rather close by, I was tagged for the Oddly Specific Things I Love In Books Tag by my dear friend Miss Lizzie Hexam. Since there in fact are many I things I love in books, Let Us Begin. 

    (Because you know, we could be here all day.)

    First, allow me to present The Guidelines. 

1. Link back to who tagged you.
2. Share the Graphic on your blog
3. Share the Outline on your post.
4. Share a detail you love about the season of summer into fall.
5. List at least 7 random/ specific things YOU love to read about in books, big or small.
6. Tag 7 people who would enjoy taking part/whose answers you are curious to read!

    As you (hopefully) know, unless you have buried your head under a rock for the last few months (and as Lizzie pointed out as well) it is no longer summer into fall, but rather fall into winter. Autumn is of course my favourite season, but the feeling in the air when it’s slightly crisper (despite living in a Rather Warm Place), the rain, pumpkins everywhere and hot chocolate and tea (of which I have been known to drink an Uncivilised Amount) - it’s all just wonderful.

    Anywho, after having ado-ed for longer than necessary, shall we proceed?

    

    1. Faith content

Let me clarify on this one. I absolutely love it when authors include faith content that is not preachy, heavy-handed, or inaccurate. Well-done, like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien; or like some more modern authors such as Elisabeth Aimee Brown or Nadine Brandes, it is brilliant. I am all for good stories; and faith-filled fiction is even better :)

2. Cozy descriptions

I have a weakness for cozy things and for beautiful things. I tend to be attracted by anything warm, fuzzy, pretty—you name it. The beginning of The Hobbit is a wonderful example of this.

3. Loveable side characters

The main characters are great and all (or sometimes they aren’t), but everyone has their own story and I love seeing well-developed, relatable side characters who are actually people too. (Lewis does this really excellently. For example, Tumnus. And Puddleglum. You can’t go wrong with Puddleglum.)

4. Music… described correctly

One of my biggest pet peeves, as a classical musician, in any form of media (movies and books) is music represented or described incorrectly. So naturally I love it when it is done correctly all the more :D

(I still haven’t found a book that does this. Let me know when you do.)

EDIT: I  found one!  The Echoes of a Silent Song by Amanda Wen (an actual musician and also a Christian!) is a split-time romance and murder mystery and it’s actually really good ;D

5. Flawed and virtuous characters

One of the biggest problems in today’s modern literature is stereotypes. There’s the strong female character who’s better than the boys at everything; there’s the suave, dark male love interest who’s always got a suspicious past; and I’m tired of it. I love it when people do new and interesting things. Give me torn characters, flawed and indecisive characters, human characters. You know it’s a good book when you actually care about what happens to the characters, even if you don’t necessarily like them all the time. 

6. When characters repeat a phrase to each other

This one’s oddly specific and the title doesn’t make that much sense, but it just Does Something to me when one character says something that’s meant as a reproof or slight, and then the other character says it back to them at a later point. Example: in Enola Holmes, Sherlock tells Enola “you’re being emotional. It’s understandable, but unnecessary.” She later repeats it back to him and it’s just So Satisfying. (And yes I know that’s a movie but it’s a very good one and please don’t kill me because that’s the only example I could think of.)

7. After-marriage romance

I’m kinda stealing one of Lizzie’s points here, but… I love it when the author lets you see beyond the initial romance into the marriage relationship as well. In so many stories it’s like okay they fall in love and kiss and that’s the end… but really, in real life, it’s not. So I love seeing the characters fall in love with each other again continuously. (Love is a choice, after all.) L.M. Montgomery does this really well in the Anne series, and so does Alcott in Little Women. 

And there you have it - seven of the Oddly Specific Things I Love In Books ;P

I shall tag…

Hannah Ruth at Faith, Fiction, and Fairytales

Iona at Story Blossoms

Olivia at Meanwhile, in Rivendell…

And because everyone else I know has already been tagged, consider yourself tagged if you’d like to be! 

What do you think of tropes in books? What’s your favourite Oddly Specific Thing?

Sibling Stories Week | The Pevensies

    Salvete! As I’ve been getting more involved in the blogging world, I’ve tried to look for other Christians who love literature as much as I do. I came across Hamlette’s Soliloquy not too long ago, and when I saw her Sibling Stories Week challenge, I decided to try it out. Of course, being a lover of all things C.S. Lewis, the Pevensies immediately sprang to mind. 

The Chronicles of Narnia was the first thing of Lewis’ that I’d ever read, and thinking of it now brings back lovely memories of sitting by the fireplace as a wee lass discovering the wonder of the world and the beauty of the allegory Lewis wove throughout his story. 

    We are all Peter, trying his best to protect his family and yet struggling to truly understand. We’re all Susan, doubting that the truth could really be so wonderful. We’re all Edmund, tempted by sin and material pleasure but eventually led to understand the tremendous sacrifice our LORD made for us. We’re all Lucy, trying to believe with childlike innocence and feeling for the first time the weight that grief holds upon us. And every one of us needs a Saviour, the Lion of Judah, who died so that we could live. If you don’t think that’s an amazing story… well then, we’ve got to talk. 

    But until then, here’s a little more about each character and their wonderful sibling dynamic. 

§ Peter

    The Magnificent

“Shadow or spirit, whatever you are, if you are from Narnia, I charge you in the name of Aslan. Speak to me! I am Peter the High King."

        The fierce protector who would die for his siblings a thousand times over. That’s Peter. He’s loyal to a fault—that fault being endangering himself for love of his family. He wants to be the shepherd who guides his flock, but he also knows that he can’t succeed alone.

§ Susan

    The Gentle

“And I really believed it was Him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I’d let myself."

    Susan is quiet but nurturing. The peacemaker, the mediator, but fierce when she has to be. She would rather tend to things that grow than fight in a war, but if fighting is the only way to save her family, then she’ll go down resolute. 

§ Edmund

    The Just

“But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.”

    Edmund made a mistake once, and he won’t let himself be tempted ever again. After he betrayed his family, he became more loyal to them than ever. Though he’s more often snarky than serious, he won’t let anything get between him and someone he loves. 

§ Lucy

    The Valiant

“I think—I don’t know—but I think I could be brave enough.”

    Lucy is hope. She’s sunlight on golden flowers and everything that is pure. Without her, her siblings wouldn’t know Narnia. Yet despite that, she’s still humble. Her trust in them is unfailing, and her trust in Aslan is even greater. She is bold and courageous and ready to fight anything that dares oppose her. 

____

    And yet, without each other none of them would be the same. Theirs is the pure friendship of trust and love, the kind that flourishes most with hard times and rejoices with peace. 

———

What are your thoughts on the Chronicles of Narnia? Do you have any favourite literary siblings?

Namarië,

Astrya

Quote of the Month! | January Edition

 Greetings, all, and welcome to a new tradition at Inkling Corner! I’m excited to introduce the Quote of the Month, where every month I’ll be posting a new quote that inspired, touched, or influenced me in any way. 

I’ll be doing a quote from a different genre each month, usually going between fiction, theology, and history. 

I’d love it if you could share your opinions in the comments, and also offer suggestions for next month! 

This month’s is from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, which is a “Christian apologetic novel” (description from online, not me) which was dedicated to Lewis’ great friend J.R.R. Tolkien and written in a satirical style.

The plot and characters are very fictional, but Lewis expertly uses them to address Christian theological issues. Lewis and Tolkien are, incidentally, two of my favourite authors and you’ll be seeing a lot of them in the near future. (The stories I posted last week are based on Tolkien’s work, actually).

 

But that is the cursed thing; the gods are strange to mortal eyes, and yet they are not strange. He had no faintest conception till that very hour of how they would look, and even doubted their existence. But when he saw them he knew that he had always known them and realised what part each one of them had played at many an hour in his life when he had supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not ‘Who are you?’, but ‘So it was you all the time.’ All that they were and said at this meeting woke memories. The dim consciousness of friends about him which had haunted his solitudes from infancy was now at last explained; that central music in every pure experience which had always just evaded memory was now recovered.

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Chapter 31

This quote, while spoken in the book by the demon Screwtape, is in fact quite poignant and very true (at least in my humble estimation). We have always known, somehow, that God is there, but when we finally “see Him face to face” we realise that it was Him in our lives all along. We might not choose to recognise Him, or if we do we might not see Him there, but He is. “And that is an encouraging thought”.  

Thanks for joining me for this month’s edition of Quote of the Month! I hope you enjoyed my mini-essay, and if you did, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The LORD be with you!

_______

Quotation #1–C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

Quotation #2–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

(Didn’t I tell you you’d hear more from these astounding writers?)

Thanks for reading!