It’s Monday! What are you reading? books in a series

A while ago some one asked me it I liked books that were in a series and my response was not really. I told them I like reading new and different books, exploring new writing and ways of thinking. After I thought about it I realized I had lied. I had not really paid attention to my own reading habits.

download.jpgI had forgotten the thrill we had as a family long ago when our daughter was waiting anxiously for the next Boxcar Children book to come out or the Babysitter’s Little sister books. I thought that was her reading – she love the predicable writing, the familiar characters the sense of home as you settle into a story where you know the personalities.

There was the Magic Tree House books and then as our son grew older we found Harry Potter like the rest of the world. We were left hanging on trip to Chicago when one of the series came out and you would have thought the world had ended because we did not have the book in hand the day of it’s release.  Yes, I had the book on hold back in Minnesota but it was not now. So walking the street of downtown Chicago I was able to score a copy in an old record store.  Who knew that there would be an unclaimed copy in a record/music store. We began reading it out loud in a late night wait for the train out of town. Our kids and everyone else in the station was listening.

Then came the Dark Materials series from Pullman. We were all waiting for each download-1.jpgone to be released. It was great excitement one Christmas when the newest release was under the tree.

So yes, we likes books in a series  or should I say I like books in a series. I even realize I have continued to carried this craziness of waiting for a book to be released in my own life even though my children are grown and moved away from home.

I have been reading the Corner’s Lunch – series (adult read), I have been reading the The Shakespeare Mysteries by Hicks (middle grade fiction). I have been reading the Flavia de Luce series (young adult to adult).

The realization that I indeed read books in a series happened this week when I realized I have three books pre brought because they are next in the series – I just needed to be sure I would not miss them. I also want to I go back to reread the first books in each series just to reconnect with these of friends.

Books in a series often get re read, they bring old friends (and enemies) back into your life and give you a chance to relax into a predictable writing pattern, especially when the world around you in real life can be very unpredictable.

So here they are! The books I am waiting for:

Childrens – The Shakespeare Mysteries by by Deron R. Hicks

  • Books one and two:
    • Secret of Shakespeare’s Gravedownload-2.jpg
    • Tower of the Five orders
  • Next book to be released in  August 2017 (a mystery but not part of the Shakespeare series but it appears to follow a similar formate
    • The Van Gogh Deception

Young Adult/ Adult – Flavia de Luce series

  • There are at least are at least 8 of these – no I am not going to re read all of them or list them here but …
  • 51wlWHdhRfL.jpgThe new release will be January 31, 2018 –
    • The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place: A Flavia de Luce Novel

 

 

 

 

Young Adult/ Adult

  • The Dark Materials series (3 books) by Philip Pullman – yes I will re read these this summer
  • The new release of what Pullman is calling an “equel” to the first trilogy, distinguishing it from a prequel or a sequel, and noting that the book “doesn’t stand before or after ‘His Dark Materials,’ but beside it.”  (see article from the New York times – https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/books/philip-pullman-trilogy.html
    • The Book of Dust (volume 1)-  to be released October 19, 2017

 

Do you or your students like reading books in a series?  What series are you reading?

 

About Joanne Toft

I am a retired Minneapolis Public School teacher. I walk, garden, help in schools and write. Life is good!
This entry was posted in Book Review, Reflection. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to It’s Monday! What are you reading? books in a series

  1. Tara Smith says:

    The Dark Materials series was one my own children and I really treasured. It’s a harder sell for my sixth graders, unfortunately, which really makes me sad.

  2. lindabaie says:

    I’ve been in love with some series, and have chosen not to start others, although I know they are good. I’ve enjoyed Jennifer Nielsen’s books, and was an avid orderer and reader of Stefvater’s Raven Cycle. I hear you, and have noted a few here, Joanne. I loved hearing your stories, especially that Harry Potter one.

  3. cweichel says:

    I had tried to read the Harry Potter books, and then a friends gave me the first in the Dark Materials series. I adored it and read all of them. I never went back to Harry Potter after that.
    I am a hard core Flavia de Luce fan and am waiting anxiously for The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place.
    Have you read any Terry Pratchett? I fell in love with one of his witches, Tiffany Aching, and read the books about her. I thought that they were all done and then a final book came out posthumously. Reading Tiffany introduced me to the rest of Pratchett’s witches who are a delightfully wild bunch all on their own.

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