Our current audiobook is Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet. We’ve already heard the first two books in the trilogy, the well known novel A Wrinkle in Time and its sequel A Wind in the Door. We’re listening to the unabridged version, as we almost always do with audiobooks, and we were so surprised by the plot at the beginning of the book, as well as the portrayal of the Murry family growing and grown up. Meg is married to Calvin and expecting a baby; the twins are a doctor and a lawyer. Charles Wallace is 15, and we can tell he’s about to embark on a grand mission as the world hovers on the brink of nuclear war.
Nick and I love L’Engle’s story telling, her blend of family, fantasy, and fiction. I’m thrilled to have been able to hear these books for the first time with my youngest son. One of the best things about homeschooling is catching up on the reading and learning I somehow missed, even with the rich childhood of reading I did enjoy. And so many books somehow slipped by even as we were homeschooling with our older sons, despite so many hours of reading other wonderful books together.
A Wrinkle in Time was way too late in my life’s reading, and I can’t really figure out how that happened, but I’m pleased that once I read it, I have followed quickly with L’Engle’s other novels. And I couldn’t be more pleased for Nick to know Meg, L’Engle’s young female protagonist–smart and bold and strong.
Madeleine L’Engle has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teen. I still have most of her books, most of which I collected way back then. Maybe after we finish re-reading the Harry Potter series, we’ll start the Wrinkle in Time. Rhiannon is actually familiar with the plot already from having seen the movie a couple of years ago. Of course the book is much much better!
The book is almost ALWAYS better than the movie!