The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and The Horse and His Boy

These, of course, are two of C.S. Lewis' famous Chronicles of Narnia. I picked them up after recently watching the first movie, which was decent enough. My father read me these books when I was a child, and I never read them myself, so decided it was time. I think they're lovely, dashing adventure books, although I wonder a little how I'll feel about the violence and death when my own child reads them.

And of course, as others have pointed out, the second book has some very racist themes in it--all about how the North is so much better than the South, which, in description, sounds suspiciously like the Middle East, and I've heard it was meant to represent Turkey. But the girls in the books tend to be somewhat smarter than the boys, and especially Aravis from the second book is a great lead character.

Generally quite good. Great fantasy and adventure.