Reading List [so far this summer]

Summer Reading (thus far):

By Robin McKinley (one of Amberle's favorite authors; a fairytale/fantasy writer):
The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword -- prequel/sequel; I can't decide which one I like better, but both are good; the world, in The Blue Sword, is a bit Bedouin; The Hero and the Crown is closer to mythical Britain.
The Outlaws of Sherwood -- too broad in scope, but Cecil[y] and Little John make me smile.
Deerskin -- very good; the magic frustrates me at times (it seems a bit of an easy out), but I like the themes; it's tied up in my memories of PNG, since I was reading it in Lae, and as we were driving over the mountain pass into the highlands.
The Door in the Hedge -- decent short stories, though I'm not a huge short story lover.
Rose Daughter -- quite good; her original Beauty and the Beast (Beauty) I read as a kid, but I don't remember it well; she wrote this one twenty years later.

Susan Fletcher's Flight of the Dragon Kyn -- it's set in Kragland, a type of mythical Scandinavia, so it's the right setting for dragons; but not my favorite.

Mary Stewart's The Gabriel Hounds -- her Merlin books (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment) are some of my favorite books ever; I've never read anything else by her, so I was shocked to discover she's also a romance-mystery writer; this book was set in Lebanon, and a fun read.

Elie Wiesel's Night -- powerful, anguishing.

Essays Presented to Charles Williams [Preface by C.S. Lewis; On Fairy Stories by J.R.R. Tolkien; A Note on the Divine Comedy by Dorothy L. Sayers] -- marvelous.

Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn -- awful, but I needed to finish the series; makes me wonder if the rest were this bad and I just didn't notice?

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca -- have wanted to read FOREVER, since so many people love it; I enjoyed it; a Jane Eyre of sorts, with beautiful understatement, and the compelling ache of fairytales lost.

C.S. Lewis's Of This and Other Worlds -- still working on this one, but loving it so far.

Elizabeth Peters (as read by Barbara Rosenblatt, and listened to as we travel in the van):
The Last Camel Died at Noon -- I enjoyed this; young Ramses is definitely something, and his first sight of Nephret . . . [chuckles].
Guardian of the Horizon -- not one of my favorites [Nephret's a non-entity, Ramses decides he's "in love" with a random female, and the book is written out of sequence (but Daoud is awesome)], and this is our second time through; so I'm half listening.

Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth -- not quite finished yet, but, as USA Today states, "stunning"; she's an incredible short story writer; also author of The Namesake (which I read for my modern novel class) and Interpreter of Maladies (her first book, which won her the Pulitzer Prize).