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 April, 2019…

Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively – I’ve been wanting to read more Lively and I thought I’d begin with her classic Booker prize-winning novel.  Claudia Hampton, a famous and bestselling popular history author, is on her deathbed, but her mind is still churning away.  Claudia thinks she is going to write a kaleidoscopic history of the world, but instead her memory turns through the significant events and people in her life, when she was much younger, all sharp edges and flaming hair.  The fixed, central point of Claudia’s life is her love affair with a tank commander in Egypt during World War II.  Moon Tiger was beautiful, heartbreaking, frustrating at times (Claudia could be maddening) and unlike anything else.

A City of Bells (Torminster #1), by Elizabeth Goudge – Captain Jocelyn Irvin is looking for a place to heal his body and soul and decide on his next step in life, and he settles upon Torminster, a cathedral city where his grandfather is a canon.  The city of Torminster adopts Jocelyn and immediately starts dictating his life and before he knows it, he finds himself set up as a bookseller, enjoying the company of two of his precocious little cousins and falling in love.  But there is a dark mystery that preoccupies Jocelyn, his love, his grandfather and his cousin Henrietta and Jocelyn soon finds that he can’t rest until he has solved it.  I really enjoyed this story, but as with Goudge’s other work, the best parts are her gorgeous descriptive passages on houses, gardens, and the beauties of nature.

The American Agent (Maisie Dobbs #15), by Jacqueline Winspear – I love every visit with Maisie and this one was a good installment in the series.  Maisie has been tapped to investigate the murder of an American journalist with a complicated past.  Was Catherine Saxon killed because she asked the wrong questions in her reporting, or was her murder something personal?  While Maisie tries to untangle the knots, she is – as always – dealing with a host of personal issues, including the pending adoption of her evacuee, Anna; her worries about a dear friend; and the possibility that she might be ready to open her heart to a new relationship.  I always enjoy a visit with Maisie, and this was a good one.

The Familiars, by Stacey Halls – You know how you pick up a book that looks like it is going to be right in the middle of your wheelhouse, and you’re SO worried that it will disappoint?  The Familiars occupied a heavily overlapped space in my personal Venn diagram, and it did NOT disappoint.  The Middle Ages, a women-centered story, pregnancy, witchcraft – check, check, check, check.  I loved it.  Bonus: while the book itself is fictional, all of the main characters – Fleetwood, Alice, Richard – and many peripheral characters were all real people, sending me down a fascinating rabbit hole of actual historical documents online.

Another Self, by James Lees-Milne – I knew that I should have stayed focused on my library stack, which constantly grows more and more out-of-control, but my recently acquired copy of James Lees-Milne’s memoir of his childhood years and of being a young man proved impossible to resist.  Lees-Milne, for those who don’t know him, is largely responsible for making the National Trust what it is today, for preserving lots of English national treasures, and for being one of the snarkiest diarists of the twentieth century.  His memoir was excellent fun, and I can’t wait to read the diaries now.

The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Cafe (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency #15), by Alexander McCall Smith – I’ve fallen behind on the adventures of Mma Ramotswe, but I always enjoy a visit and a cup of red bush tea with her.  As with many of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, the actual mystery took a backseat to stories about the agency and the characters associated with it.  Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has had to lay off one of his employees, and Mma Ramotswe comes up with an idea to soften the blow, but it might (probably will) backfire spectacularly.  Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is trying to start a new business, and it turns out that 97% at the Botswana Secretarial College might not give her everything she needs to run a successful restaurant.  It’s a good thing Mma Ramotswe always has everyone’s backs.  This wasn’t my favorite installment in the series, but it was still delightful.

Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue, by Kathryn J. Atwood – I’ve been reading a lot about World War II lately, it seems.  I stumbled upon this book while looking for more information about one of the women profiled in Last Hope Island, and it was fascinating – and distressing.  I’d love to read more about so many of these brave women.

The Glimpses of the Moon, by Edith Wharton – I really enjoyed this lesser known work of Wharton’s – it didn’t eclipse (<–pun, not sorry) my love for The Age of Innocence, but it was a solid second.  The story of the mercenary marriage between Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, and the unexpected turns their relationship takes, was such fun to read.  I love Wharton’s writing, and this one was particularly atmospheric as the characters drifted between Lake Como, Venice, Paris, and London.  I can see myself re-reading it before long.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club (Mother-Daughter Book Club #1), by Heather Vogel Frederick – A re-read for me, I was craving something light and wholesome during a stressful month at work, and a visit with Emma, Jess, Megan, Cassidy and their moms was just what the doctor ordered.  I’ve read the entire series before, and each book is better than the last.  I think I’m going to work my way through the whole series again – I need it – and I am already looking forward to Much Ado About Anne.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten – I was a bit skeptical, but decided to give this short collection of inter-related short stories a try, and MAN am I glad I did.  Maud is a crotchety octogenarian who just wants her peace and quiet, a cheese plate, and to surf the web and travel the world.  Unfortunately, circumstances are always conspiring to steal away her peace – whether by noisy or interfering neighbors, ex-lovers’ engagement announcements, or shady antique dealers.  But Maud is up to any challenge and she’s not above committing a little murder.  I loved this!

Our Only World: Ten Essays, by Wendell Berry – I’ve been meaning to read Berry’s essays for some time now, and thought I’d give them a try via the library before committing to the new Library of America collection.  I’m glad I went the library route, because… I didn’t love them.  Some of the points about land use and conservation were incredibly wise, but Berry lost me with his essay “Caught in the Middle,” in which he rambles about abortion and gay marriage.  I forced myself to continue, because I think it’s valuable to read other perspectives.  But his rantings about abortion, in particular, struck me as ill-informed and poorly constructed, with the added insult of being totally sanctimonious.  The only reason I didn’t throw the book at the wall was that I was reading it on the metro.  I may try Berry’s fiction at some point, but I’m not in a rush, and I’ll be taking a pass on any more essay collections.

In general, a really good April!  I read a lot of good stuff, and there were some contenders for the annual top-ten list – especially the Lees-Milne memoir, the adventures of a bloodthirsty elderly lady, The Glimpses of the Moon, and The Familiars.  I also spent a chunk of April reading Hermione Lee’s doorstopping biography of Wharton, which I am hoping to finish up in the next week – so you’ll be seeing more references to Edith soon.  I’m looking forward to May reading – I have some excellent library checkouts to read through, and I think I have the library stack under control enough that I might actually get to read something from my own shelves.  Wouldn’t that be a treat?