Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for March, 2014…

Snobs, by Julian Fellowes – Edith Lavery is the daughter of an accountant, working at answering phones in a London office in the late 1990s, when she meets the Earl Broughton, heir to the Marquess of Uckfield, while touring his ancestral home.  Edith might have first encountered the Earl on the wrong side of the silk cord, but she soon hops across and becomes his Countess.  But Edith is honest enough with herself to admit that while she likes her new husband, Charles, she doesn’t feel passionately about anything except her new title and social position.  And it doesn’t help that her mother-in-law dislikes her, her brother-in-law is actively sabotaging her, and her husband’s friends are snobs who exclude her at every opportunity.  So it’s easy for her to be swept off her feet by a handsome actor filming a period drama at Broughton.  Will Edith’s marriage survive, or has she lost her position in the social order forever?  I found this book while browsing in the library as I waited for my literacy student to arrive for a tutoring session, and checked it out immediately.  I had no idea that Fellowes (writer of Gosford Park, and creator of Downton Abbey) had written a novel, but I figured it had to be good.  Oh, and it was.  Scathingly witty, perfectly detailed, and a nail-biter almost to the last page, Snobs is a perfect read for Downton fans.  Fellowes clearly knows both the worlds he portrays here – the world of theatre folk, and the upper-crust world of the British aristocracy – and his novel is just as good as his scripts.  Highly recommended.

Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity, by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea – I read SBS and Dimity’s first book, Run Like a Mother, when it first came out – before I was even thinking about becoming a mother.  (I’d heard that even if you didn’t have kids, the Another Mother Runner girls were great at helping you find ways to work exercise into a busy schedule and, well, I’ve always had one of those.)  Now I am a mother, and a mother who happens to be looking down the barrel of a marathon in October, so I turned to SBS and Dimity again for motivation and help putting together a training plan.  (I’m not sure I’m going to use their plan, since I’ve always used Hal Higdon in the past and found he works for me, but it was still helpful to see how they recommend training for marathons, since they’re both veteran runners, and Dimity is actually an Ironman!)  I love the “practical motherly advice” they dole out, the hilarious quotes from other “mother runners,” and the down-to-earth wisdom they apply to training, nutrition, tapering, and race day.  If you’re a runner with a busy schedule (whether you’re a mom or dad, or not) let Sarah and Dimity help you get your racing act together!

Out to Canaan (Mitford Years #4), by Jan Karon – I checked this out from the library along with These High, Green Hills and was planning to return it unread, to wait for the next time I really needed some gentle fiction-style comfort reading, but it was there and I have a compulsion, so obviously I ended up reading it.  Father Tim has officially announced his retirement to his congregation, and as expected, they take it poorly.  (Ungrateful!)  Although his time leading a church is drawing to a close, he has plenty to occupy him: worrying over Dooley, who has a girlfriend; finding a buyer who will treat Fernbank (Miss Sadie’s home, which she left to Lord’s Chapel) kindly; helping baker Winnie Ivey figure out her future; searching out Pauline Barlowe’s remaining kids; and (unwisely, if you ask me) meddling in the local mayoral election keep him plenty busy.  A good read for stressful days, of which I did have a few this month.

I am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4), by Alan Bradley – Buckshaw continues to face financial difficulties, and to help them out, Flavia’s father has agreed to allow a London film company to use the premises as a movie set.  Soon hordes of actors and other film personnel descend upon the estate – including the famous Phyllis Wyvern, set to star in the movie.  When the vicar proposes that Phyllis and Desmond Duncan, her leading man, perform a scene for the benefit of the church funds, the actress surprisingly agrees.  The entire village turns up for the performance, which means there are no shortage of suspects for Flavia to question when one of the visitors is found strangled with a length of film.  These mysteries get more and more enthralling, and Flavia herself continues to charm.

Speaking From Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce #5), by Alan Bradley – Possibly the most exciting thing is about to happen to the village of Bishop’s Lacey since… well… ever – at least if you ask Flavia.  St. Tancred’s Church is about to dig up the body of its patron saint!  Of course, Flavia plans to be in the front row when the saint’s remains are exhumed, because how could she resist?  Despite the vicar’s attempts to keep her away, Flavia is the first one to see into the tomb – but it’s not St. Tancred she finds there; it’s the body of the church organist, wearing a gas mask but very much dead.  Flavia is determined to unmask the killer and finally get some recognition from Inspector Hewitt and his magnificent wife Antigone.  This was my favorite mystery yet, because I love the character of the vicar, and I just found the premise so intriguing.  The story ends with a bang (spoiler alert!): Flavia’s mother, Harriet, lost in a mountaineering accident ten years before, has been found.

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce #6), by Alan Bradley – (caution, spoilers abound although I will try not to ruin everything) – A week has passed since the events of Speaking from Among the Bones, and Flavia is gathered with her father, sisters, Dogger, Mrs. Mullet and the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey to meet the train that is bringing her mother home.  As Flavia stands on the platform, Winston Churchill appears and asks her a cryptic question.  Then a strange man appears and requests that Flavia pass a cryptic message on to her father – and is immediately pushed under the oncoming train.  Flavia can’t really focus on these events, though, because she is dealing with some very intense emotions surrounding her mother’s return (gahhhhh, I’m trying SO hard not to give anything away) and so she doesn’t do much sleuthing.  She will learn a great deal, however, about Harriet’s history, including what exactly she was doing on that Tibetan mountain, and this information is going to change Flavia’s life forever.  I read this book in a day and was completely absorbed in it from start to finish.  Now I’m simultaneously excited to see where Bradley takes the series from here, and bummed that I have to wait – like everyone else – for the next book.  This series just keeps getting better and better.

Updated, because I’m a spazz and I forgot:

The Penelopiad, by Margaret Atwood – Back in October, when I was on a major Margaret Atwood kick (I read all three novels in the MaddAddam Trilogy, plus a collection of short stories, in short order), my mother-in-law suggested I check out Atwood’s retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope, Odysseus’s faithful wife who waits in Ithaca for his delayed return.  Penelope, in Atwood’s hands, is far more than simply the patient wife of the myth.  She is a strong-willed, independent woman who is intensely troubled by events outside her control.  Helen of Troy, naturally, makes an appearance and is a fun character (when is Helen ever not a fun character?).  I enjoyed The Penelopiad immensely, although I know that it will color my impressions of The Odyssey when I finally get around to reading it.  (Team Penelope!)

Sorry to those of you who saw this post go up yesterday in incomplete form and were confused.  I started a new job last week and am still trying to figure out new routines, and a draft slipped through the cracks.  (I know, I know, this shouldn’t be challenging, since I’ve done the working mom thing before – but it’s been seven months and I have to adjust to having much less time on my hands than I did.)  Anyway, March was a slow, but good, month of reading.  As a big “Downton Abbey” fan (indeed, who isn’t) I loved Snobs, and I hope Julian Fellowes has more novels up his sleeves.  The other highlight of the month, of course, was Flavia.  I love a good mystery series, and the Flavia de Luce mysteries are destined for my “favorites” shelf.  That kid is just so endearing, the mysteries are absorbing, and the series is primed for a really fun new direction.  And now, on to April.  I have some library books out and I’m hoping to start a new (to me, although historically popular) mystery series, so stay tuned for more book thoughts to come next month.