today's view

A sore throat landed me on the couch today, and medicating with ginger tea and chicken broth has me feeling much better this evening. However, for the better part of the day I continued previewing a book series for my children. The series is called The Dark is Rising Sequence and is five books written by British author Susan Cooper. The books came up in conversation with my husband who happened to remember reading them when he was in upper elementary school. I had never heard of this series, and have been surprisingly impressed by the quality of the writing. The books are fantasy dealing with good versus evil set mostly in Cornwall and Wales with traces of the Arthurian legend sprinkled throughout. I've only been drawn to fantasy in my adulthood because of the quality of authors I've found for my children. This series (as many of the other books I've found) is told from the perspective of four children. Using a more innocent perspective to tell fantastical tales almost gives the other worldly events validity. My daughter and I are already on book two of the sequence, although today we've taken a break because of said sore throat. Book two is honestly a bit mysterious and creepy, so we might have to be careful about reading it too close to bed time (for her sake!).

While I'm sharing about books, I should also mention some others we've been enjoying from the library. This is the season for more time spent indoors, cozied up, reading and sipping a hot drink!

• Tom Swift series by Victor Appleton
• Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond
• Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books
• Tender by Nigel Slater (a gardening and recipe book for yours truly)
• The Bobbsey Twins series by Laura Lee Hope (downloaded free for the Kindle)
• Various Animal books by Arthur Scott Bailey (downloaded free for the Kindle)