8. The Once and Future King

By T.H. White (654 pp, ebook)

When I picked this up, I didn't realize how long it was (4 books in 1) and it's mostly really good but there are some sloggy bits in the middle. This is a re-telling of the story of King Arthur. The first book, The Sword in the Stone is set when Arthur was a boy and growing up with Merlin the magician. This book is so playful and adorable -- I wondered why no one put it in my hands when I was a middle school reader and looking for just this kind of book. (Probably someone did and I didn't read it.) The middle 2 books are about Arthur's enemies, and Lancelot and Guinevere's affair. The last book is about Arthur at the end of his life with everything he built unraveling and trying to make sense of it. There is a lot of food for thought in here -- great turns of phrase. Makes me want to read The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) again.