#Madeline L’Engle

[bookfirstlinetourney]

Round 1

Sophie had waited all her life to be kidnapped.

-The School for Good and Evil, Soman Chainani

My mother used to threaten to tear me into eight pieces if I knocked over the water bucket, or pretended not to hear her calling me to come home as the dusk thickened and the cicadas' shrilling increased.

-Across the Nightingale Floor, Lian Hearn

It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom, Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind.

-A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Literary NYC: A Literary Landmark Honoring Madeleine L’Engle!

[rrreadrrreviews]

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeline L’Engle

Children’s fantasy // 200 pages

—————

Premise: Meg sets out with peer Calvin and little brother Charles Wallace on a surreal outer-space coming of age adventure to rescue her missing father.

Stand-out elements: Fun fantastical settings (they visit multiple worlds) and characters; an existentially upsetting villain

Downsides: A lot of details glossed over because it’s written for a younger audience

—————

3.75 stars

Recommended to children, or to adults who have a sense of whimsy and want to see what a high-quality example of children’s fantasy looks like. It has Christian religious undertones in a few sections, if that hurts or helps its chances

[dykesynthezoid]

94!

Ooh ok!!

94. do you prefer dialogue or description?

Ooh that’s a good question. When I first started writing (which would’ve been, what, at 12 I think? I’d always liked storytelling before then but I think that’s when I really started to feel like a writer) dialogue was definitely where I felt comfortable and where I felt a fair amount of confidence exploring.

And I think I continued to assume that was my strong point, but just in a retrospective can see that starting around 15/16 my use of description really started to expand, and now I genuinely have trouble writing more than one line of dialogue without any attached description. Like it just. Feels wrong. I’m a details person, and that can lend itself pretty well to description as long as I’m not getting hung up on any one thing or overthinking it. Also a lot of the time I can’t make myself stop thinking about the possible sensory information in a scene, which is cool but also frequently overwhelming.

Ty for asking! Have a cupcake 🧁

[momentsbeforemass]

Go away

Have you ever wanted to push someone away?

To spend as little time interacting with them as possible? To make sure that they don’t want to be around you? And to make sure that it’s their idea – so you can blame them for it?

Here’s how.

Constantly second guess their decisions. All of their decisions, from their most important life choices to what to have for lunch. No matter what it is, make sure that they know that they could have done better.

Let them know that their ideas and beliefs are wrong. Both in general and specifically, especially about anything that is truly meaningful or important to them.

Make sure they feel stupid for even thinking that. Don’t bother explaining why they’re wrong. Unless you can make them feel bad by doing it.

And – every step of the way – make sure they know that (unlike them) you’ve got it all figured out. That you’re right.

Start doing this, and you’ll see results almost immediately. If done consistently, the effects will be permanent.

Can you tell I’ve been spending too much time online lately?

I can’t tell you how many supposedly Christian sites and commenters are doing exactly this. Using this approach to interact with other people.

Saying all manner of angry, hateful, and/or fearful things. And then trying to dress it up with some “Jesus talk.” Maybe a slogan or a Bible verse out of context. Following this approach every step of the way.

If this is our approach, it kind of doesn’t matter what we’re talking about. What great and good cause we think we’re defending.

Because if this is how we’re doing it, if this is the “Jesus” that we’re showing people? Then we’re not showing people Jesus at all.

We’re showing people us. We’re showing them how small and weak and fearful we are.

And we become the reason they turn away from Jesus.

If we want people to go away, this works. Every time.

If not, here’s something else we could try.

“We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” - Madeline L’Engle

Today’s Readings

[itsallwearecalledtodo]

For the book asks, 3, 4, 5?

3. What were your top five books of the year?

In no particular order:

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Dungeon Meshi vol 11 by Ryuko Kui

Witch King by Martha Wells

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

June Hur!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Probably fantasy?

[rose-of-oz]

🌟 + Mara Yang, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs ✨💛✨

Ooooh, Mara ask, yay!! Thanks so much, Alexandra!! (And I shall also tag the other Glee babes @luucypevensie, @ginger-grimm, @ginevrastilinski-ocs, and @manyfandomocs.<3 )

My girl Mara is a huge Swiftie - her favorite album is Fearless, and she and Quinn definitely make a date out of going to the Eras Tour in the future.

She has a nervous habit of fiddling with whatever bracelets she might be wearing, and there always is something there to fiddle with, because she’s always wearing bracelets.

She absolutely adores the old Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella movie from the fifties, with Julie Andrews, but of course she also really loves the newer one with Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother - during the club’s tribute to Whitney, she actually does a performance of the version of “Impossible” from that movie.

Her favorite books growing up where the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L’Engle, and she still has her old copies on the bookshelf in her room, their spines all creased and some of the pages stained from the times she tried to read while eating.

Her first pet was a sweet little grey hamster that she named Hermione, after Hermione Granger.

She has a certain yellow hoodie that she always wears on lazy days - it’s a bit stained and worn thin, but it’s also incredibly soft after so many washes and it’s perfect to wear just laying around or working on her latest jewelry-making project.

She loved The Powerpuff Girls when she was younger, and always wanted Bubbles’ powers.

A few times during Pride Month and every day during Lesbian Visibility Week, Mara will style her makeup after the lesbian flag. It’s her own way of showing pride, and the colors compliment her really well too.

She had a brief crush on Santana in fifth grade, but it didn’t last long, as she moved on to crushing on Quinn almost as soon as they started middle school. (She is kind of proud of herself for picking up on Santana’s queer vibe so early, though.)

Mara is very afraid of large dogs, having been attacked by her neighbour’s Rottweiler when she was four years old.

send me an oc and i’ll give you ten facts about them!!

[sheiskindasweet]

What’s your favourite book/ any book Recommendations?

Many of the foundational books on the topic of international feminism such as Women Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis , Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall or Ornamentalism by Anne Anlin Cheng.

If you’re into dystopian movies id try some of the classics from Orwell, Atwood or Mandel, as many of them have been adapted to film and are quite interesting reads.

After a few heavier reads I’ve started to reread a childhood fictional series I loved A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. I do love rediscovering series or books I read years ago.

Kind of all over the place here sorry!

[sometimesanalice]

for the ask game: 🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

Oh I love this! 🫶🏻

Authors: Madeline L’Engle, Marie Rutkoski (the winners trilogy is my everything), Emily Henry, Carly Fortune, Danielle L Jensen.

For fanfic, I love anything that @gretagerwigsmuse , @laracrofted, @callsignspark, and @theharddeck have to share! I live for their updates! (That’s for the TGM fam, but I have others for some of my earlier fandoms like The 100 and THG)

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

[kbkirtley]

A Light So Lovely - Sarah Arthur

Madeline L’Engle is one of my favorite authors and this is one of my favorite biographies. Sarah Arthur does a brilliant job of explaining L’Engle as someone who thrived within paradoxes, holding competing ideas in tension and saying that it’s okay to do so. L’Engle’s most known work is A Wrinkle in Time (which I posted about earlier this week!), but Arthur goes much deeper than that I’m exploring the world through L’Engle’s unique perspective. A singular biography about a singular author that I can’t recommend enough to fans of her work!

[tothelighthouse1]

books and authors that shaped my childhood (before the age of percy jackson/harry potter/etc):

literally everything by erin hunter

everything by kathryn lasky

the perpetual search for the next 59 clues book since there were so many with different authors that they were shelved EVERYWHERE

the inheritance cycle

septimus heap

wings of fire

secrets of the immortal nicolas flamel

everything by jessica day george

scarlet by a. c. gaughen

spirit animals

everything cornelia funke

everything madeline l’engle

avalon web of magic

goddess girls

sisters grimm

frindle

the fairy chronicles

and so many others

y’all the impact these books had on me cannot be overstated. i would be a different person now without these.

[wordspinning]

The language of logical argument, of proofs, is the language of the limited self we know and can manipulate. But the language of parable and poetry, of storytelling, moves form the imprisoned language of the provable into the freed language of what I must, for lack of another word, continue to call faith.

Madeline L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet

[clevermird]

tagged by @dandelionsandderivatives to list 5 comfort characters. Like her, I needed to think about it for a while, lol.

1. Meg and Charles Wallace Murry from Madeline L’engle’s Time Quintet: While I will not in any way claim to have Meg’s level of genius, reading A Wrinkle in Time as a 10-year-old undiagnosed autistic girl who excelled in some school subjects and struggled in others, I felt very heard and seen. While I might have related more to Meg, I wanted to be friends with Charles Wallace and A Swiftly Tilting Planet in particular had a massive effect on my taste in fiction as an adult. Both characters are very special to me.

2. Honor “Beauty” Huston from Beauty by Robin McKinley: As I said in the review I posted of this book, Beauty is basically hot cocoa in book form, and that extends to the protagonist. A horse-loving, bookish young woman who hasn’t quite realized that she’s no longer an awkward-looking teenager. She has such a relatable thought process and approach to being trapped in the Beast’s kingdom that you can’t help but liking her.

3. the wizard Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle (movie only, haven’t read the book): I just love him. He’s cute and funny and despite his tantrums, seems like a fun and exciting person to be around - not particularly safe, but fun and wondrous.

4. Jacqueline de Ghent from Ever After: I could have picked several characters from this modern-styled, pseudo-historical, non-supernatural take on the Cinderella story, but Jacqueline’s character arc is my favorite, going from a quiet, awkward girl to the fiance of the crown prince’s best friend and slowly realizing that she doesn’t need to just go along with her mother’s schemes and insults and can in fact side with her stepsister and her other friends. Her last line - “of course not, Mother, I’m only here for the food” is just *perfect*

5. Selene from Underworld: This is kind of a silly/strange one, but Underworld is just my perfect “I’m sad or sick or tired and don’t want to think, I just want fun action with hot people” movie. That’s really all there is to it. Also, I like vampires.

[thesconesyard]

15 for writer ask?

A writer who inspired me to get into fic writing.

Yes. When I decided to come back to tumblr, when I decided to finish watching Star Trek tos, when I started reading Trek fic on ao3, one particular writing genius stood out and inspired me to be the Scones writer I am today.

@vulcanhugsclub wrote the Scones stories that made me begin to ship them. Their stories made me want more. Made my brain start coming up with ideas and look where I am now ☺️☺️☺️

And to put Bee in the same ranks as the professional writers, Madeline L’Engle and Patrick O’Brian inspired me to want to write as well, but the ask was about writing fic 😁

[declanscunt]

top five novels?

forgot how difficult it is for me to decide anything ever lol but....... currently my top 5 novels are:

the lonely city — olivia laing

nona the ninth — tamsyn muir

beloved — toni morrison

the time machine — h.g. wells

the things they carried — tim o'brien

nope sorry i must add more:

the cardturner — louis sachar

mister impossible — maggie stiefvater

a wrinkle in time — madeleine l’engle

a man called ove — fredrik backman

the dream thieves — maggie stiefvater

circe — madeline miller

[juniperusashei]

2022 Top Books

10. Passing by Nella Larsen This is a capital B Book. They don’t publish novels like this anymore.

9. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Helped me work through my own grief a lot, learning how to navigate and process it alongside Joan.

8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Embarrassed to say that this was my first time reading this, but it is a classic for a reason.

7. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen This was a reread, but I’m including it in this list because it feels like the first time I fully appreciated this book. May be my new favorite Austen.

6. Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono Recommended for all who are struggling with creative depression. Though it is a children’s book, I feel that I read it at the exact right time of my life.

5. Awakening Osiris translated by Normandi Ellis A rather liberal translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, but instead of taking shortcuts the liberties make it a poetic work that stands on its own.

4. A Circle of Quiet by Madeline L’Engle The first volume in L’Engle’s autobiography, it helped me understand her more as a person and understand myself more as an artist.

3. Saint Joan of Arc by Vita Sackville West This was actually the first book I finished last year, and spending so much time with Joan kind of gave me a parasocial obsession with her life.

2. The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig This was Zweig’s autobiography (notice a theme for this year yet?) but also the story of the two world wars, told from a personal perspective. The parallels to the political climate of today are haunting.

1. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano I’ve been waiting for this series to be published in English (though I had read some unofficial scanlations) because nothing beats reading a hard copy, especially for a work that’s so meditative and grounded in nature.