Welcome to Litsy!

I think I've read this series, the next #LizsLibraryLoves, over a dozen times since my brother gave me the first book at age 18.This is a high fantasy series with realism elements,with a lead character that's pretty awful.Thomas Covenant was a writer until a diagnosis of leprosy leaves him alone & rage filled.An encounter with an old man ends with him waking in a different reality called The Land where he's tempted by health & goes a little crazy.

Continuing my fantasy kick in my late teens,this series in #LizsLibraryLoves The Earths Children by Jean.M.Auel.Ayla is a 5yrold Cro-Magnon girl whose nomadic parents are killed in an earthquake.Alone,hungry & frightened,she struggles to survive until weak & malnourished,she's attacked by a cave Lion & barely escapes.Collapsing from infection,she is found by a wandering band of Neanderthals & their medicine woman adopts her to keep her safe.

#LizsLibraryLoves I totally fell for the Wheel Of Time series when I was 16. The world building & the characters in this series are written so well it sucks you right in and keeps you there. Unfortunately the last books were ghost written by another author after Jordans death & just didn't end it in the way it deserved to be ended. It wasn't that Sanderson is a bad writer, he just didn't have the same gravitas as Jordan. Great series, badly ended.

In my series of #LizsLibraryLoves we're up to age 15 when I went on a 3yr fantasy/paranormal binge.This is my original copy of Magician, which is also personally signed by the author (thanks to my boy who stood in line for 3hrs!).Pug is a kitchen boy, recently apprenticed to the palace Magician when a rift is torn between two worlds & he is taken to Kelewan as a slave. With the rift closed, he learns how to survive while trying to find a way home.

Another young sleuth I loved as a young teenager was Nancy Drew, the next in my #LizsLibraryLoves series. She seemed to me to be what Miss Marple would've been like as a young girl, if she lived in a different era. I was soon to dive right into fantasy & leave crime behind for a few years, but my love of Nancy Drew still continues to this day.

I was a bit obsessed with the next #LizsLibraryLoves selection.Trixie Belden was my hero at 12yrs old.I soaked up her adventures like a sponge, borrowing every copy in both the school library(pathetic) & local library,then begging friends to borrow their copies. I thought Honey was gorgeous,but a bit dim, Diana was like Elizabeth Taylor & the rest of the Bob-Whites were everything I wanted in friends. Trixie though was amazing, I wanted to be her!

Now we're getting into the #LizsLibraryLoves books that shaped my adult reading tastes. You may have noticed that most of the previous books were about escaping into a fantasy world, at this age I wanted to run away so bad, my imagination was the only thing keeping me going. Then Auntie Lilla gave me my first Dame Agatha, Sparkling Cyanide, and I fell in love with not just the author but the entire genre, a love affair that continues to this day.

#LizsLibraryLoves Next in the books that shaped my life is this Australian classic by Ruth Park. Abigail is a 13yrold who moved to Sydney because of her parents breakup. While dealing with the emotional fallout from this, she becomes caught up in a children's game & is transported back to 1873 Sydney. Taken in by a confectioner & his family, she has to learn to live in a different era, while trying to find a way back to her own. Loved this book!

Next in #LizsLibraryLoves is Toms Midnight Garden, a book about a boy who is sent to his aunts city flat when his brother gets measles. Because he may be infectious he's under quarantine & unable to play with other children. Until one night when the clock downstairs strikes 13 & he finds a huge sunlit garden where before there was only a parking lot. Befriended by a young girl, he spends his nights exploring the garden & a different time. ❤️🌳🌷🌻

Another of #LizsLibraryLoves is not only this Oz book, but the whole series. I used to haunt my local library, waiting for them to be returned so I could finally read each one. My favourites were TikTok Of Oz, Ozma Of Oz & The TinMan Of Oz. Every single one was a fabulous read, I highly recommend them for any middle grade reader.🌪