Books We Want to Read This Fall

Hello everyone!

With the arrival of fall, we wanted to share some of the books we hope to read in the coming months. We haven’t read all of these books yet, so these aren’t necessarily recommendations, just the books we will be reading soon.

Mattie’s Books

Letters to a Diminished Church by Dorothy Sayers

This book is a collection of essays by Dorothy Sayers. I read two of the essays for my English class last year, and I enjoyed them immensely. I can’t quite figure out how to summarize this book, so this is the quote on the back of the book: “Somehow or other, and with the best intentions, we have shown the world the typical Christian in the likeness of a crashing and rather ill-natured bore–and this in the Name of One who assuredly never bored a soul in those thirty-three years during which He passed through this world like a flame.”

From what I’ve read of it, this book is very thought-provoking and sometimes hard to swallow, but Dorothy Sayers writes about important ideas and, I believe, has the right idea about them. She was also friends with C. S. Lewis, and her writing is a lot like his, so I am looking forward to reading the rest of it!

Vango: Between Sky and Earth by Timothee de Fombelle

This book takes place in 1930s Paris, where Vango has been wrongfully accused of murder. Even though it is set before WWII, it deals with the beginnings of the hardships during that time. I read this two years ago, and honestly, I can’t remember much about it, which is one reason I am re-reading it. Even though I can’t remember much about it, I do know that I really liked it, and I really liked the style of writing. I really like interesting and quirky writing, so I’m looking forward to reading this again!

The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern (aka William Goldman)

Since everyone knows the plot of this book (or at least the plot of the movie), I won’t summarize it here. This is one of my favorite books, and ever since I first read it in 2016 I have inadvertently read it every year since then, except last year. Because I forgot to read it last year, it has been over a year since I have read The Princess Bride, and I find that quite appalling. I am really excited to read it again, and if you haven’t read it, you should definitely go read it (and if you have read it, you should read it again!). If you couldn’t already tell, I like re-reading books😊

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Persuasion is about Anne Elliot, a girl who was once engaged to Frederick Wentworth, but Anne’s friend persuaded her that Frederick was “unworthy” and she called off the engagement. This is a terrible summary, I know, but I have never been able to summarize books very well 🙃

I have been saying this is my favorite Jane Austen book for a while now, but I can’t actually remember all that much from this book (are you seeing a pattern yet?). I want to re-read this book because I want to be 100% sure that this is my favorite Jane Austen book (and I just want to read it again), but I am pretty sure it will still be my favorite. I also just bought a beautiful copy of it, and I’m persuaded to read it! 😄

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I recently read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and for some reason, I was a bit unsure if I would like it. I mean, everyone is supposed to like Sherlock Holmes, but I am always a bit wary of things everyone is supposed to like, so I kept my hopes low when I was reading it. I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, each story was clever and interesting, and since I haven’t read many mystery books, it was something I wasn’t used to. So now I am ready to read The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I’m hoping it will be just as good as the one before, but we will see!

Amelia’s Books

Romanov by Nadine Brandes

I am not sure if I will like this book or not, but I decided to give it a try this fall because I already had it from the library and I really enjoyed the other series I read by this author. It is an Anastasia retelling that follows the story of Nastya who has to hide an ancient spell on her way to Siberia. That’s basically all I know about this book, but I decided that it’s worth a try! Also, the cover is really pretty, which might have been the main reason I decided to get it from the library. 🙂 I don’t necessarily have high or low expectations for this book, but it’ll be the first re-telling book I’ve read, so I’m hoping for the best!

The Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Another book I’ve been wanting to (re-)read is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It’s been forever since I have read the Harry Potter series, and I started re-reading them earlier this year. The fourth one is the next one I need to read, and I don’t even remember reading it for the first time. Since I’ve been putting it off for a while now (mainly because of the length), I thought it would be a good one to read this fall! Because it had been so long since I’d read Harry Potter before I started re-reading them, I wasn’t even sure if I liked them anymore. But after reading the third one, I decided I still liked them, even if I didn’t like them quite as much as I used to.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Besides reading a “Sherlock Holmes book for kids” when I was younger, I don’t know much about any of his short stories. I’m hoping I will enjoy this book because I remember really liking the abridged one I read a really long time ago, and I have always enjoyed the mysteries I’ve read before. I’ve been meaning to read this collection of stories for awhile, so I thought that fall would be the perfect time to start reading more mystery books! I’m horrible at solving mysteries in novels, but I like getting surprised by the endings, so I’m hoping that some of these short stories will be just what I’m looking for!

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

I just recently bought the newest Mysterious Benedict Society book that came out in 2019, so I thought it would be the perfect time to start re-reading the series! The one I’m going to start reading is the second book in the series. I decided to skip the first one because I read it last year, though the first one has always been my favorite! I’m very excited to start reading these books because they have always been one of my favorites series from when I was younger. Though it’ll be a little scary to read the new one after all these years, I can’t wait to read this series again as well as try the sequel, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict. 

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

I read this book for an online class two years ago, and I’ve been thinking it’s about time for a re-read! This book is set during The French Revolution and follows the storyline of Percy and Marguerite Blakeney. Despite having to write multiple papers on this book and procrastinating some of the reading, I remember really enjoying it. I remember it being very fast-paced as well as a very mysterious and well-written book. This book was written in 1905, and it’s one of the more suspenseful and exciting classic books I’ve read in awhile!

Thank you for reading!

– Mattie and Amelia