Reading List

Between taking care of the husband, doing a bit of yardwork and housework, satisfying the we-never-see-you of the various family bits, and my job, I've managed to get a bit of reading in since my birthday (July 28):

July 28-:
Raisins and Almonds. Kerry Greenwood.
The Care and Feeding of Books Old and New. Margot Rosenberg and Ben Marcowitz.
Death Before Wicket. Kerry Greenwood.
A Hole in the Wall. Louisa May Alcott.
(Yes, it's a short story, but I bound it in a book all by itself, so it counts as a book!)

August:
Busman's Honeymoon. Dorothy Sayers.
Three For a Letter. Mary Reed and Eric Mayer.
Killer Stitch. Maggie Sefton. (These are fun mysteries hashed out by a knitting group -- I really enjoy them!)
Murder Must Advertise. Dorothy Sayers.
Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood.
Clouds of Witness. Dorothy Sayers.
Thrones, Dominations. Dorothy Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh.
A Case of Nosy Neighbors. Lori Copeland.
The Last Hero. Terry Pratchett.
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through. P. G. Wodehouse.
Our Lady of Pain. Marion Chesney.
Murder in Montparnasse. Kerry Greenwood.
At Bertram's Hotel. Agatha Christie.
The Truth. Terry Pratchett.
Meg's Story. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephen. Emily Brightwell.

September:
Further Chronicles of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Little Women. Louisa May Alcott.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Silent Knight. Emily Brightwell.
Unnatural Death. Dorothy Sayers.
The Documents in the Case. Dorothy Sayers.
A Gift for Meg. Susan Beth Pfeffer.
Along the Shore. L. M. Montgomery.
Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll.
The Road to Yesterday. L. M. Montgomery.
The Gold Bug. Edgar Allen Poe.
Dragons in the Waters. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Arm of the Starfish. Madeleine L'Engle.
Meet the Austins. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Young Unicorns. Madeleine L'Engle.
The Moon by Night. Madeleine L'Engle.
Troubling a Star. Madeleine L'Engle.
(Yes, I go on kicks!)

October:
A Ring of Endless Light. Madeleine L'Engle.
A House Like a Lotus. Madeleine L'Engle.
William Morris: Decor and Design. Elizabeth Wihilde.
An Acceptable Time. Madeleine L'Engle.
Us. Mrs. Molesworth.
Romance of a Christmas Card. Kate Douglas Wiggin.

November:
The Little Christmas Shoe. Jane Scott Woodruff.
Beasley's Christmas Party. Booth Tarkington.
Why the Chimes Rang. Raymond McDonald Alden.
A Captured Santa Claus. Thomas Nelson Page.
The Light Princess. George MacDonald.
Fin-de-siecle Vienna. Carl E. Schorshe.
My Book House: Over the Hills. Olive Beaupre Miller (Ed.)
Emily of New Moon. L. M. Montgomery.
The Matters at Mansfield (or: The Crawford Affair). Carrie Bebris. (These are the only knock-off Jane Austen books I've ever liked, and I've tried several ... if you're writing about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, don't have them swear, sleep around (especially not her, with anyone, or the pair between meeting and marriage), or do other massively anachronistic or out-of-character things, please!)
Emily Climbs. L. M. Montgomery.
Emily's Quest. L. M. Montgomery.
Fleece Navidad. Maggie Sefton.
Anne of Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne of the Island. L. M. Montgomery.
The Lamnas Feast. Kate Sedley.
Equal Rites. Terry Pratchett.
Anne of Windy Poplars. L. M. Montgomery.
Anne's House of Dreams. L. M. Montgomery.

December:
Anne of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
Mort. Terry Pratchett.
Sourcery. Terry Pratchett.
Rainbow Valley. L. M. Montgomery.
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Home. Pamela Todd. (I love William Morris designs!)
Rilla of Ingleside. L. M. Montgomery.
The Story Girl. L. M. Montgomery.
An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews. Henry Fielding.
The Mysteries of Udolpho. Ann Radcliffe. (Long, but really just as good as all the reviews at the time said it would be!)
The Golden Road. L. M. Montgomery.
Kilmeny of the Orchard. L. M. Montgomery.
Relighting the Lamp of Excellence. Michael and Lois DeBakey.
America, 1908. Jim Rasenberger. (I've learned, if I give a book to someone in the hopes they'll lend it to me, I'll usually be wrong, so I should read it first -- this was a present for my grandfather.)
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Samuel Richardson. (Ok, really? Servant girl resists master's advances, so he abducts her, locks her up, and attempts rape several times, and we're supposed to find it wonderful that he finally marries her? It's a good thing that the girl succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome? For ancient novels, I'll take Ann Radcliffe over Mr. Richardson any day!)
The Shuttle. Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Masterpieces in Miniature. Agatha Christie.

A lot of the Christmas ones were actually for work -- I was doing a display on Children's Christmas books, and read those on my lunch break so that I could review them.

Can you tell what I like? Sayers and Montgomery get read every year, sometimes multiple times (I can read Gaudy Night several times in a row), and Alcott and L'Engle get worked through on a two-year rotation, normally. And I do like "cosy" mysteries.

How do I read so much? Himself has to go to sleep very early sometimes, and I like to sleep early but not at 7:30, but I can't make noise, so reading gets done then; and, due to various regulations, I'm required to have a nine-hour workday and take a one-hour lunch, which is fine when I want to go out to a restaurant or something, but is a bit lengthy when I've brought a sandwich, so I get an hour of reading in around noon most days. And I'm a fast reader. Not a reader for retention, which sometimes threw me for a loop in class (but I really did read the book! I just forgot it after I read it!), but is great for novels -- I can read an Agatha Christie a year or two later and have no idea who did it, and I get as much enjoyment out of the books I read several times a year each time I read them, because it's always fresh to me!

Read anything good lately?