4 fictional characters that may have like 2 things in common with me.

First, here are three random facts I want to share with you: 1. I discovered Jack Johnson yesterday on Spotify and I just love his songs. Better Together is my favourite and I want to dance to it on my potential future wedding because I love it that much right now. 2. My grandma is friends with the film producer of Sherlock. (No seriously.) So my grandma practically hangs out with Benedict Cumberbatch. Guys, beat me. My grandma is the coolest. 3. I was in Scotland for a grand 15 minutes on Saturday. I walked in Glasgow and spotted four men in kilts. I have no pictures to prove it, so you'll have to rely on my word.

(Two sisters. Two very different personalities. I seem to be an odd mixture of both. Although I think more Elinor.)

My dear friend Eva tagged me with the four fictional characters tag (thank you!) and I've been wanting to do this thing for a while now, so here I am. Here I am, I hasten to add, before I start another busy week - this time less merrily occupied; replace spending time with fun-loving Christians with cleaning tables and emptying plates of breakfast in an old people's home - life is life, I shall refuse to complain! - I don't even know what this sentence is; let's just do the merry old tag, shall we. (I don't know why I say 'we' when I am writing this alone. You should not get any of the credit! :-P)

Okay, I thought this would be an easy job, but finding four characters that 'are very much like myself' is no easy feat for me. I told you in this blog post, I am a confusing human being. Extroverted one week; relishing in silence and just-me-and-wifi-and-notebooks-and-my-Bible-in-bed the other. Fond of poetical metaphors and nostalgic whimsies one week, mocking them in a Marilla-Cuthbert-no-nonsense-fiddlesticks way the other. However, of course, some things are generally and all-around Naomi traits (even though even those can differ and disappear for an odd hour or two), so okay. I'll try. But bear with me. I'll probably read this again next week and be like meh NO. :-P

Number Uno! The first that came to mind, in fact...

Jerusha Abbott in Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

I remember when I read this first I was 100% sure I had found my fictional twin. Of course, Judy is way cooler than I'll ever be and her letters are way more entertaining than mine will ever be, but yah, we doodle odd stuff and we pop random thoughts in random places and we like reading and stuff. Just yeah, she reminds me of me. She's quirky and I want to be quirky. (She probably reminds me of the me I wish I was.)

Secondly, the gal I see myself in muchly is, and has to be, the main character from Lynn Austin's Wonderland Creek. There's reasons my blog is named so, after all.

Alice Grace Ripley from Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

We're both book lovers. (Although, I have to be honest! I haven't been reading much lately. Eh. I still love it though, okay.) We're both not exactly animal people. We both love the idea of adventure but when it comes to sitting on a horse eh nope that's disgusting no. We both like a bath. We both love seeing people happy. Just... Alice and I are two of the same kind of peas in the same kind of pods. (Only, I'm not blonde. Although I was as a 3-year-old. There's a little tidbit about me.)

Thirdly, my friends, I must slight Celia Garth by suggesting that we have some common traits.

Celia Garth in Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow

I MUST REREAD THIS; it's been way too long, but one thing I can remember is that I wished I was like Celia Garth. Well, I'll never be like Celia Garth. But maybe we have some things in common - maybe the sense of humour, the love of being teased. Also, the things she thinks and says I really, really relate to. Maybe in a wishful way. I don't know. I'm adding her to this list anyways. I flatter myself.

And fourthly, and this is the one I had to brainstorm for for ages - I thought of Elizabeth Bennet (but I'd never go for a quiet guy and oh, I wish I was as well-spoken as Lizzy!) - I thought of Anne Shirley (but I don't talk that much and I'm not that poetical sorry) - I thought of every Montgomery heroine because I feel like I relate to ALL of them - and then I thought, well let's just be boring and go with Jo March because I like writing and... yeah, I like reading. (Lame.)

No. That will not do. I must be original.

Valancy Snaith/Stirling in The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I alllmost did Rilla of Ingleside but I think I just did that because that book just wrenches the life outta me (I don't relate to Rilla that much actually), but you know what Valancy and I like the same guy. Barney. Kay, enough. (Also, we appreciate nice clothes and quirky outings and views and cosy houses. And we both enjoy a good joke and a tease. I think this gives us enough in common.) (Of course, our situations are very different, so it's hard to weigh.)

Done.

*phew*

This'll have to do. (Maybe I should have said Elizabeth Bennet. We do have the same personality type, according to the Meyes-Briggs Personality test.) (Never mind.)

For those of you who know me better, do you think I chose a good sample of characters to represent me? Who would you have picked? Also. How are you doing, my friends? Tell me something about life. It's so funny, when you grow up, life seems to get harder and harder and better and better. That's because life is super super complex and every day we learn something more about its complex-ness. There, was was your philosophy session.

(Should I tag people? Okay, I tag any of my readers that I've met in real life and that have a blog. Emma, Sadie, Hannah... that's bout it, I think. (And you, Sarah, if you've got your blog yet!))

PS!! Oh, I just thought of a character that I relate to so much! Barbara in Call the Midwife. (Too late. Let's just click publish.)

Lynn Austin and her novels.

All the Lynn Austin books in our house. (Minus a Dutch version of Hidden Places and another copy of Candlelight in the Darkness, which I've currently lent to twin friends at Church. Woe if they don't love it.)

I... I... I just* finished reading Hidden Places. (For the fifth time or something.) It was even more amazing than I had recalled. I cried and cried over Betty and Lydia, and my heart broke for Luke and Gabriel-when-he-was-a-boy. I turned over the pages just like it was the first time I was reading it; I was riveted and just in awe. I spent the whole morning curled in my bed trying to hide my face in the folds of the cushions and my pullover, so no one entering in my room would see all the melodrama I was experiencing, and when I finished it, I felt like a terrible writer, (which admittedly is the only downside about this book.)

*I wrote the first sentence of this post in the morning, but the rest in the evening. I felt a tad overwhelmed after finishing Hidden Places, to be honest, and wasn't capable of much good-post-writing. :-) It took me ages to write my Goodreads review, but I just about managed that.

Basically, Hidden Places is an amazing book, and Lynn Austin is an AMAZING writer. Message of April 30th, 2016. Lynn Austin's writing never ceases to surprise and amaze me. Almost every one of her books make me read and read for hours in one go, and almost all her books have a big personal value to me.

I suppose we could go way back to when I was about nine or ten or eleven, when my mum read them. She got most of them from her sister, my aunt, who gave them to her for her birthdays or she borrowed them from friends. Now and then a thick, beautiful-covered book would sit on her bedside table, next to her blue pot of Nivea cream and her lamp, and she would tell me it was 'really good' and that 'one day I could read them.' Well, really, I loved them already before I read them. It's like me with Pride and Prejudice 1995 - I loved that before I watched it; I loved it just by looking at the covers and rereading the blurb at the back. Especially the cover of Until we Reach Home, with the three girls looking at the Statue of Liberty in New York really captured my imagination. I looked at the pretty dresses of the four ladies on the cover of A Woman's Place and chose which one was the prettiest. I remember my mum 'fangirling' over them with some of her friends who read them as well, and how the Lynn Austin books kind of travelled around the circle of friends. Oh, and I remember asking several times if I could read them, and Mum said, 'Not quite yet.' (Which, now, I do understand, because it's not really a book for kids of pre-teens, but I did have to wait for these.)

And then I read my first Lynn Austin book, when I was twelve. It was While We're Far Apart, and I loved it. I remember telling Mama, "Lynn Austin's my favourite author too." And she was like, "You've only read one!" Turns out that I didn't really change my mind, ever, because she still is one of my favourite authors ever. I have only ever read one book of hers that I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about.

You know, a lot of contemporary books nowadays are kind of fluffy and... shallow. This includes about 90% of Christian Fiction, sadly enough. But Lynn Austin doesn't do fluffy - she goes to the deep, important, sometimes-gritty, sad, interestingly passionate stuff. Her characters are alive with colours, and her books all create this inner world in my brain which I always want to return to. Her books really are WORLDS. That's how I think about them, and I don't think that about a lot of books, really. There are many books I love as books, but I don't love Lynn Austin's books as books - I love them as... I don't know... whole scopes, whole scents, whole worlds.

Hidden Places and Eve's Daughters are my two favourite of her novels. Both of them kind of tear my heart to pieces - it's ridiculous and terribly wicked of Lynn Austin to do this to me, but oh well, I shouldn't have reread them in the first place, should I? The story of Aunt Batty, with her beautiful and flighty sister Lydia, and her lover, the darling Walter who is dying but who she loves so much she doesn't care. And then the story of Emma and Grace, and the kind-hearted pastor, Patrick O'Duggan. And then we have the stories of Alice Grace Ripley and Violet Rose Hayes, mysterious and romantic mixed with excellent pinches humour. I won't even START talking about The Refiner's Fire Series, because it'll take hours - I love that trilogy a ridiculous amount.

And do you know what else is good about her novels? They are always better when rereading them. I remember loving them on my first re-reads, like a world was opening, and like I just met a good friend. But now when I reread them it's like reuniting with a good friend - and reuniting is better than meeting.

This following month, I'm going to reread a lot of Lynn Austin books. Go through the old favourites, and all that jazz. Feel free to join me on my Lynn Austin marathon, and converse about her books in the comment section anytime! Because they're fun to talk about ammirite?

If Lynn Austin ever ends up reading this (firstly, I'm HONOURED, thank you for reading!) - I would like to thank her for her marvellous stories. I'm not like Matthew Wyatt, who had a terribly depressive life and needed an 'escape' through books - I have a happy family, and good siblings and parents who strongly approve of fictional books (ha!) - but your books have simply given me such inspiration for my own writing, such joy, and such a good view of things. Also, they have given me a nickname - Alice Grace Ripley - and the title for my blog! So thank you. :-)

PS. I hope you don't mind that I stole the name Wonderland Creek for my blog name, by the way. If you do I will change it, as a token of gratitude.

Eve's Daughters // Review

Yearning for love and dignity, four generations of women must come to grips with the choices they've made--and those their mothers made before them. But breaking the cycle that has ensnared them over the decades will prove more difficult than they had ever imagined....

Eighty-year-old Emma Bauer has carefully guarded a dark secret for more than fifty years. But when she sees her granddaughter's marriage beginning to unravel, Emma realizes that her lies about her own marriage have poisoned those she loves most. Can she help her granddaughter break free of a legacy of wrong choices? Or will she take her secret--and her broken heart--to the grave?

With honesty and compassion, author Lynn Austin weaves a compelling story of four unforgettable women--their struggles, their crises of faith, their triumphs.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sometimes I read a book that just gets so inside me that I just... I just... CAN'T. Those books touch me in a very personal way; and they generally make my cry some place. Rilla of Ingleside is one of those, and so is Eve's Daughters. This book is the kind of book I just cannot describe. It is that good. But I'll try.

So. It's AMAZING and it's compelling and you get sucked in and you can't stop reading it and your life isn't the same if you haven't read it; so there. :-P Seriously, this is one of my favouritest books ever, and I wish everyone knew of it. Also, there MUST BE A MOVIE. Lynn Austin's novels all deserve their own good movies - and not cheap-ly made ones that have actors that don't look at all like the heros in the book (I'm looking at you, Hidden Places movie.) I mean real, book-accurate, amazing scenery, sweeping music kind-of-movies.

I read this book first when I was fourteen (or was it thirteen?) I found it amazing even then, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I am now. I probably was slightly to young for the book, anyway (I'll talk about Content later on.) and I was more charmed with Lynn Austin's less complex novels, like A Proper Persuit etc. Then I re-read it again the next years, and now I've re-read it again. And now I just can't stop talking about it IT'S SO GOOD.

(Yes, I realise I've only talked about 'how it's so good' so far. Hush. I promise this review will talk about other things rather than just gushing and swooning. Hush. I'm just filled-to-the-brim with feeeeels and jealously towards Lynn Austin for being able to create such an outstanding, each-time-I-end-it-bewilders-me book. This book is amazing, and don't you DARE tell me otherwise. Don't. You. Dare.)

The book follows four generations of women. I'll talk about each of the four stories (and yes, I'll warn you when the spoilery comments arrive.) I've made a collage for each generation, just because I'm obsessed with making collages (and also because I want people to see it and make the right kind of movie. Haha.)

Louise's Story

I loooove Louise's story.

It's my second-favourite of the four, and although some people might say that 'Louise's story is pointless to the story line', I disagree. I find her story fascinating - how a young German couple go to America to start a new life. I love that it's an unusual love story - they are already married in the beginning of the story, but it was an arranged marriage, so the love story is just starting. 

Frederick is such a sweet-heart - I just love love love him to bits. And I allllmost cry when Louise finally realises she loves her husband and then they hug, dripping wet, crying with happiness. (Read it, and you'll understand why they were dripping wet. It's pretty epic.)

Louise's story is one tucked deepest into history, and, as I said, it fascinates me. I think it's absolutely adorable and I LOVE IT. (Wow, we are all very much surprised.)

Emma's Story

Oh my word, Emma's story. :-)

Emma is the second of four girls - the story starts with her as a girl; and we see her discover a secret talent of playing the piano. Emma's story is different that what we first see. Her story unfolds - Emma doesn't tell us everything when she tells the story for the first time. I can't speak in more clearer terms than that, because hey, spoilers, but Emma's story is what makes the plot so thick.

I loved Emma, although she made some very big mistakes; and I felt so sorry for her when her sister Eva died because of her. Oh my goodness, when Eva dies - it's so sad and terrible. I can feel Emma's heart tearing to pieces - goodness, it's so vivid. And then she marries Karl. I don't like Karl or Markus - they're both creeps.

Anyhow. Emma's story is not one you want to miss. It's amazingly written.

SPOILER TALK I thought Patrick and Emma's romance - y'know the one which is explained by Emma later on, and where all secrets are unfolded - was also amazing. Of course, they made a very big mistake by spending the night together on the island, but they - especially Patrick (goodness, his reaction to his realisation of his mistake is so amazingly written; it makes me so sad) - feel sorry about it, and before that business, I thought their romance was absolutely adorable and I shipped them soooo hard. I do wish Emma was more 'sorry' about it all. I thought it was very sad that she lost her faith. SPOILER TALK ENDED

Grace's Story

GRACE'S STORY. Oh my goodness. This is my favourite; definitely.

Grace's Story is amazing. Especially when you re-read it, because you KNOW. You know who people really are and then the things they say and do just cut into your heart and make you cry. So I highly recommend you guys to re-read this book. It's the kind of book where re-reads are ten times better than first reads. When I read it this time, I cried and cried over Grace's story. It made me so emotional; gahhhh.

I LOVE Pastor O'Duggan. Can we just stand still a minute and appreciate him? Because he's totally the best guy EVER. I love so much about him - I wish he was real so badly. I love how he helped Grace and supported her and told her classmates not to tease her.

And then Stephen. He has his faults, but I love that he and Grace still love each other so much at the end of the book, when they are like, 50-something years old. Their love story was adorable, although I could have done we slightly few kisses, thanks.

SPOILER TALK Ohhh. When Grace asks him, 'Will you be my father?' and then he starts to cry and ohhh it's so sad. Oh, and when Grace asks him he he will walk her down the aisle without realising that he's actually really truly her father. Oh, I cried and cried and cried, folks. I was sitting there with tears in my eyes for about ten minutes after I finished the book. SPOILER TALK ENDED.

Suzanne's Story

Ahem.

I don't like Suzanne's story that much. (Therefore the unenthusiastic collage of three squares rather than six.) So many things bother me about Suzanne's story. Number one: Suzanne annoys me Quite a Lot. She's so rebellious and she could have done things in a much more... calmer way. Maybe it's just because she and I are so different that I can't enjoy her character that much. Number two: Jeff. Ugh, sorry, guys-who-love-Jeff, but he drives me CRAZY. He's a hippie with long hair and a beard and he wears necklaces and baggy trousers. Ughhh. It just makes me squirm. Also, he's a creep. Number three: Wayyyy. Too many kisses.

No, I don't really like Suzanne's Story. But it's not very long, and it's not an excuse not to buy this book. ;-P

SPOILER TALK I love that she was Irish all the way, though. Haha. SPOILER TALK ENDED.


Content Talk:
I would recommend this for mature readers - but I think that people who aren't mature enough also won't really appreciate or enjoy the book anyway, so. There are quite a few kisses - especially in Suzanne's story (seriously, you will roll your eyes, haha) - and a big part of the plot is envolved around a baby born out of the wedlock. (There are no graphic descriptions, however, and everything is so well written from a Christian point of view.) Emma divorces her husband because he wants to abort her baby.

But anyway.

This book is amazing and you must read it. PLEASE. And if you've read it, I'm ready to have a long conversation with you in the comment box. :-) Lynn Austin's books are all amazing, but I think this one is my favourite. I have so many feelings about this book - it's brilliant and yeah. I LOOOVE IT.

Gripping story opening!

Here I am once again (this time slightly more on time than I was in May) for Heidi's monthly Inkling Explorations. For June, us bookish folks are required to paste a 'gripping story opening' from Literature. Heidi also added that by 'gripping' she just meant something that kept me reading.

I still had to think rather hardly about this one. But then I remembered it, as a flash. ZOOM. Candle in the Darkness, one of my favourite books ever (by Lynn Austin) has an amazing - rather sad - but very gripping start:

The first scream jolted me awake. The second one chilled my soul. 

I sat up in bed, searching for Tessie in the darkened room, but the pallet where my Negro mammy usually slept was empty. 

"Tessie?" My voice trembled with fear. "Tessie, where are you?" 

Rain drummed against the windowpane, keeping time with my heart. Beyond the shuttered windows, the day had dawned dark and dismal. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Then the heartrending cries broke the silence once again. 

"No... please!' 

The tumult came from outside, just below my room. 

"Please don't take him, please don't take my boy from me, please!' 

The voice, barely recognizable in its anguish, was Tessie's.

I KNOW right? How can you not want to buy this book now?!! It's an amazing, amazing book - I highly, hugely and everlastingly recommend it. :-D

Do join in with Heidi's fun here!

And you're welcome about the tea gif.

Wonderland Creek ~ Review

Before I go on with my Period Drama Dress colour series, I am going to review 'Wonderland Creek' by Lynn Austin. Of course I SHOULD review this book since the title is the name of my blog! Actually, that's why I named my blog 'Wonderland Creek,' because I like the book so much. Emma Jane also loves this book and she suggested me to name my blog 'Wonderland Creek' (as you know, I agreed whole-heartedly!)

 

"Lynn Austin Will Delight Readers with Her Winsome Heroine Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But happily-ever-after life she's planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend, Gordon, breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real world. Then to top it off, Alice loses her beloved job at the library because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression. Fleeing small-town gossip, Alice heads to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the library in the tiny coal-mining village of Acorn. Dropped off by her relatives, Alice volunteers to stay for two weeks to help the librarian, Leslie McDougal. But the librarian turns out to be far different than she anticipated-not to mention the four lady librarians who travel to the remote homes to deliver the much-desired books. While Alice is trapped in Acorn against her will, she soon finds that real-life adventure and mystery-and especially romance-are far better than her humble dreams could have imagined."

 

Don't you just love the cover, readers? Don't you just feel like diving into this scrumptious bundle of amazing papers?

The Story:

Alice Grace Ripley (a lady who reminds me a lot of myself, I might add) is very happy with her life. She works as a librarian, she has enough books to live happily (she reads the WHOLE time), she has a handsome, tall boyfriend (Gordon) and nice parents.

This story is set during the Depression, and Alice eventually loses the job she loves. To make everything worse, her boyfriend makes an end to their relationship.

Alice decides to take some old books to a small library in... I forgot the name of the place. Sorry readers (Emma tell me in the comments, please :-) Anyways, she gets stuck there and ends up being forced to stay there for a few weeks. Often in tears, the poor girl has to get used to the primitive circumstances there- no inside toilet, no electricity, no oven, no bath, no hot water taps... Alice is beginning to feel like she's living inside a book (which she is, by the way :P)

All sorts of things happen. The librarian, a man named Mack, gets shot by someone. Mack is not dead, but he pretends to be, because there's someone who wants to murder him. A hundred-year-old negro woman called Lilly, who lives at the house, helps Alice make a fake funeral and hide Mack in the woods.

Alice is also involved in many other people's problems and other things, including an old family problem, a hidden treasure, a panther walking around in the forest during night time, a pregnancy (

her friend- June Ann Larkin) and she even dates with a handsome young fiddler called Ike Arnett.

There are many unexpected twists and turns and the ending is very surprising.

 

I know, the story sounds very weird. In fact, you're probably thinking, 'This book is not for me.' But it is! It's amazing! It's absolutely pulchritudinous!

 

My favourite character is  definitely the main one- Alice Grace Ripley. I'm so much like her: scared of animals, scared of the dark, a book worm, and I'm slightly whiny sometimes, like her :P

 

Lillie is my second favourite character. She's so funny and makes me almost laugh out loud. And I don't laugh out loud a lot when I read, so this means she really IS funny. She is- as I said- 100 years old and a negro. So when she talks about her past, Lynn Austin takes us to the Civil War. At the end of the book she dies, but it isn't that sad, because she's died happily and at such a good age. I could go on and on about all the many, many different characters, but I won't because I don't want to spoil it for you.

 

And you ARE going to read it. (For the seven-millionth time, I am not bossy!)

 

Would I want a movie adaption of this book?

Yes and No. Yes, because it's an absolutely lovely book (definitely one in my top-ten list of books) and it needs, like all the good books, a good movie adaption, so that I can see it as well as read it. No, because it might be badly done, and different than I had imagined. Plus it might be scary (it's okay when reading, but it would be scary when watching!) and I'm not one for scary movies!!  *Hides face in mother's lap*

 

Now for fun, I'm going to make my own dream cast.

Alice:

 Sophie Mc Shera.

Sophie Mc Shera acted as Daisy in Downton Abbey and I think she'd suit Alice. With a yellow wig of course. Alice has to be blonde. Sophie is small and so is Alice, and Sophie just looks "Alice".

(I first thought of Romola Garai, but she's too old for the role now. SOB.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mack:

Brendan Coyle.

I wanted someone not too old (Michael Gambon, for example is too old) but not too young (so not Johnny Lee Miller or J J Field I'm afraid. SOB.) But he must be just not too old to be able to marry Alice.

Oh dear! Now I have told you that Alice ends up with Mack!!!

 

 

 

Lilly:

I don't know. A black actor with a good sense of humour. Oh yes she must be thin and frail and old.

 

Ike Arnett:

JJ Field

Gordon is tall, handsome and has light hair. If J J Field had slightly lighter hair, I think he'd be perfect.

 

 

 

 

June Ann Larkin:

Rose Lesley

Another Downton Abbey star.... Gwen!!!!!

June Anne is a red-head, she's young and she's lonely. I think Rose Lesley would captivate her completely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have read this book, you can tell me what you think of the cast!

If you haven't read this book you should.

 

I mean it. This book is absolutely engaging and I rate it 10 out of 10!!!