Book Talk

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2019 in Books, Part II: Top Ten

In a year that saw travel, adventure, some drama, and months on end of work craziness, I’m kind of amazed that I managed to read anything at all, let alone that I read so many wonderful books.  In times of stress and overwhelm, I turn to classics and old friends – nothing new there.  And the result is that I do find myself turning the pages of many, many fantastic books.  2019 was no exception.  And while this is always a hard post to write (I! Hate! Decisions!) here’s my very best of the best.

Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire #3), by Anthony Trollope – I have been slowly making my way through Trollope’s Barsetshire and liking each installment in the series better than the last.  I adored Doctor Thorne – laughed a LOT, cried a little, and enjoyed every single page.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4), by Agatha Christie – For some reason, I’d been thinking I had not read Roger Ackroyd before, but after figuring out the identity of the murderer, I now think maybe I did?  Either way, it was riveting and absolutely great.

Edith Wharton, by Hermione Lee – It took me a long time to get through this doorstopper of a biography of the enigmatic queen of American letters.  Lee’s exhaustive research was beyond impressive.  And fascinating.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski – This might be the most important book I read this year.  Life seems to get harder and harder, and I am feeling the effects of all that stress piling up on my shoulders.  The Nagoski sisters are full of tea and sympathy and tried and true scientific strategies for coping.  I’m already thinking of a reread.

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf – For the longest time I have been someone who wanted to like Virginia Woolf.  I tried.  A LOT.  Mrs. Dalloway finally broke the barrier for me.  I was enthralled.

The Eagle of the Ninth (Roman Britain #1), by Rosemary Sutcliff – Ostensibly a book for younger readers, Sutcliff’s first installment in her Roman Britain series was exciting, heart-wrenching, and completely page-turning.  My reading experience was enhanced by the gorgeous Slightly Foxed Cubs edition I had, but really – there’s everything to love about this book.

 

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, by Edith Holden – I can’t resist a nature diary, especially a richly illustrated one, and Holden had been on my list for so long.  It was gorgeous and luminous and everything I was looking for.

Anne of the Island (Anne of Green Gables #3), by L. M. Montgomery – It seems like cheating to include Anne on here, but anytime the fabulous Miss Shirley puts in an appearance, she’s a highlight.  Anne of the Island is my favorite, and probably most frequently reread, of the series.

I Was A Stranger, by General Sir John Hackett – One of the last books I read in 2019 was also one of the best.  Hackett, then a Brigadier General with the British Forces in World War II, was parachuted into the Netherlands shortly before the disastrous Battle of Arnhem.  I Was A Stranger is his memoir of several months he spent recuperating from his wounds and being hidden behind enemy lines by a family of mild-mannered ladies.  It’s a beautifully written, contemplative, tense and exciting book and a testament to Hackett’s gratitude to Aunt Ann, Aunt Cor, and Aunt Mien, who took unimaginable personal risks to shelter a stranger who became one of the family.

Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell – It’s hard, but I think this is my book of the year.  I loved everything about Wives and Daughters and already am thinking of rereading it.  For years I had an unfair prejudice against Gaskell and I’m so glad I’ve rid myself of that nonsense.

2019 was many things, not all of them great, but it was a WONDERFUL year in reading.  Old friends, new-to-me classics, rediscovered favorites, and lots of happy, cozy moments spent turning pages.  What more can you ask for?

Next week, my book superlatives – one of my favorite posts of the year!

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2019 in Books, Part I: Vital Stats

Here we go!  One of my longest, most painstakingly put together, complicated – and favorite – posts of the year.  I’m sure there are avid readers out there who don’t track their reading, and don’t enjoy looking back over past years’ book lists.  I’m sure they exist.  I just don’t know any of them, and am definitely not one myself.  In fact, there’s very little I like more than a good saunter through the previous year’s reading.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

Facts and Figures

First, the basics: according to Goodreads, I read 127 books in 2019, for a total of 37,780 pages.  Wowsers!  The page total might be a little off – Goodreads page totals vary by edition and I’m not always diligent about making sure I have marked the same edition that I’m reading.  But it’s about there.  That’s more than my stated Goodreads Challenge goal of reading 104 books – a pace of two per week – but less than my secretly cherished goal of 156 books – a pace of three per week.  Three per week would have been a lot; I may have managed it had work been less busy, but it wasn’t, and 127 is still darn respectable, so I’ll take it.

Again according to Goodreads, the shortest book I read was the bite-sized novella The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While, by Catherynne M. Valente.  And the longest book was the dense doorstopping biography Edith Wharton, by Hermione Lee.  Edith Wharton was wonderful, but it did take me a loooooooooong time to get through it.

Lots of other people read Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, this year.  It was a re-read for me – I read it for my book club, and also to prepare for watching the fabulous adaptation on Amazon Prime.  And it seems I was the only Goodreads user who read Summer Places this year.  What a shame!  Simon Parkes paintings, interspersed with essays about plein air painting and the Hudson River School.  Why don’t more people pick that up?  The mind boggles.  I’m not being sarcastic.  It’s a beautiful book.

Pass the Pie

Oh, how I love pie charts.  Let me count the ways.

What I Read…

First, the basics.  As expected, I read more fiction than non-fiction this year – that’s normal for me.  The proportions are about the usual, too.  In the past few years, I’ve gotten more into poetry and I am always looking to increase the number of books of poetry I read – but fiction is going to be the top every year, and that’s just how it is.

Let’s break that down a bit more.  Starting with fiction, I read fairly widely across genres.  Classics were the largest component, which is – again – as expected.  The older I get, the more I know what I like and what I don’t like – and I find that I enjoy most classics more than anything else.  There are exceptions – for instance, I really didn’t get along with Flannery O’Connor this year – but usually, a classic novel or story collection is likely to be a winner for me.  I love a good mystery novel, too, and that shows in the high number I read this year.  What was more unusual?  Ten science fiction or fantasy novels, and sixteen historical fiction – neither a genre that I usually read much during the year; I always feel surprised that I didn’t read more historical fiction, but this year I’m not.  Sixteen titles made up a full 20% of my total fiction list this year, which is huge for me.  On the other hand, only one literary fiction title – that’s also unusual, and reflects a little less effort on my part to keep up with the big lit-fic titles of the year (and shelving some in historical fiction or science fiction and fantasy when they could, perhaps, do double duty).

As for non-fiction genres, again, I read fairly widely.  The largest category is culture, which was a bit of a catch-all for me this year – encompassing books about books, self-help (such as Burnout or Digital Minimalism) and books about cultural phenomena (like Lagom).  Biography and memoir combined for eleven titles, all of which I heartily enjoyed.  I read a little less than usual in the politics and history category, but more in science and nature writing.  And I’d like to read more travel books in 2020.

Who I Read…

Wow – I read a lot more women than men this year.  I usually read more female authors, but it’s a little closer to even most years; in 2019 I was heavily into female authors.  Only one “both” – not because I didn’t read other books with both male and female contributors, but this year I categorized those either male or female depending on the editor.  But I still had to have the “both” category because I read To Kill a Mockingbird: The Graphic Novel, an adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic by graphic novelist and artist Fred Fordham.  They don’t get equal billing, because: Harper Lee.  But Fordham needed some credit for his wonderful adaptation work.  And – this is very exciting – I read one book by a gender non-binary author this year!  That would be Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston.  (I’d love to read more gender non-binary authors in 2020, if anyone has recommendations.)

Where I Read…

It’s always a back-and-forth between the U.S. and England for the highly sought-after title of “most heavily read setting on Jaclyn’s booklist” – that’s a heavily sought-after title, right?  Don’t tell me if it isn’t.  It was a decisive win for England in 2019, with 32.3% to only 26% for the old U.S. and A.  Canada only had four titles this year, and the rest of the world (continental Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East) patched together sixteen.  (Countries covered, which I do track but don’t graph, were Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Iran, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.  Apologies to the rest of the world.)  As usual, there were a smattering of books set in fictional worlds, books set in multiple locations (where the characters moved around so much it was impossible to pin them down to a primary setting) and books with no setting (all non-fiction).

How I Read…

Very heavily weighted in favor of physical books.  Only one audiobook and two kindle books in 2019.  I read five journals – all issues of Slightly Foxed – and six comics or graphic novels.  Hoping for a bit more variety in 2020, but I’ll always be mostly a physical book person.

And finally, the source of the books.  Again, one sourced from Audible and two from Kindle, and the rest divided between the library and my own bookshelves.  I surprised myself by reading more heavily than usual off my own shelves this year – the library to own-shelves ratio was only two to one; it’s usually more heavily weighted to the library.  Although I poke fun at myself for my library addiction, I’m really happy either way.  I have a wonderful home library that I’ve collected carefully and thoughtfully, and I’m usually guaranteed to enjoy what comes off my own shelves.  But I just can’t quit my weekly walks to the neighborhood branch of my city library.  And I have no self control once I get there, but I’m also fine with that.

And there it is!  Another excellent year of reading in the books.  (<–see what I did there?)  2019 was a lot of classics and a lot of female authors, so it’s no wonder I’m looking back so fondly on my reads from last year.  My list could be a bit diverse, it’s true – unless I’m paying very close attention and making it a specific goal to read more widely, my list does tend to be very white and very English-speaking.  It’s gotten better since I started seeking out books by authors of color, LGBTQ+ and genderqueer authors, and works in translation, but there’s always room for improvement.  I don’t have a specific diversity goal for my reading in 2020, but I will continue to pay attention.

What did your 2019 in books look like?

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Christmas Book Haul, 2019 Edition

Yes, I know, Christmas was – what, three weeks ago? – and it’s well past time to let it go.  But I can’t quite move on, because I haven’t shown you my Christmas book haul yet, and there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned navel-gazing book haul post, amirite?  My family knows just what I like – BOOKS, BOOKS, AND MORE BOOKS.  So that’s mostly what I unwrapped on Christmas morning and when we celebrated our family Christmas with my parents a few days later.  Here’s the haul, in all its glory.

From Steve (a.k.a. Santa)

  • The Secret Commonwealth, by Robert Kirk (NYRB Classics)
  • Balcony in the Forest, by Julien Gracq (NYRB Classics)
  • More Was Lost, by Eleanor Perenyi (NYRB Classics)
  • Great Goddesses, by Nikita Gill
  • Hangman’s Holiday, by Dorothy L. Sayers (Folio Society)
  • The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey (Folio Society)
  • Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (Folio Society)
  • Emma, by Jane Austen (Folio Society)
  • Wonder Woman: The Just War, by G. Willow Wilson
  • Wonder Woman: The Golden Age Omnibus, Volume II, by William Moulton Marston

From my parents

  • Gin Austen, by Colleen Mullaney
  • Woodswoman, by Ann La Bastille
  • Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice, by Michelle Obama
  • Eliza Hamilton, by Tilar J. Mazzeo

From my brother and sister-in-law

  • Saving Tarboo Creek, by Scott Freeman

So much great reading material here!  Steve added to my collections of NYRB classics, poetry, Wonder Woman, and Folio Society – and completed my set of the Folio editions of Jane Austen.  Hurray, thank you Steve!  My mom somehow found the one book I asked her for – Woodswoman – which I worried would be unavailable everywhere (it’s not exactly a buzzed-about title!) and added a few others that I wouldn’t have thought to buy for myself but that look delightful.  And my brother’s gift looks like a fascinating read.  Clearly, I have my winter’s reading planned out.

Did you open any book-shaped packages this holiday season?

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Happy 2020! Here’s a Poem for Adventures to Come

Ithaka, by Constantine P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’l never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas
mean.

Happy New Year!  May it bring you many adventures.

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The Books of the Decade

So the sun is setting on this decade and rising on a new one, with all the mixed feelings that brings – optimism, hope, maybe some trepidation, and the expected amounts of nostalgia for the past ten years.  A lot happened in my life in the 2010-2019 decade.  I had two babies, traveled to Europe twice, moved five times, changed jobs three times – and read consistently throughout it all.  And read a lot of really good books – books that engaged me, that made me laugh and cry (sometimes on the same page), books with characters that became friends, books I’d read a dozen times or more and books I read for the first time.  And while this seems like an impossible undertaking, I’m going to do my best to give you the best of the best here: one for each year.

2010: A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle.  This was a light year of reading for me.  With two years under my belt at my first law firm, I was starting to do more complicated work and was focused on climbing the career ladder.  But I did read a bit, and the highlight has to have been reading Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence as Steve and I actually traveled through Provence.

2011: As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis de Voto, by Julia Child and Avis de Voto. I read a lot of good books in 2011, but the one that stands out as my book of the year has to be As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis de Voto, because it was reading that book at around the same time that led Katie and me to begin a snail mail correspondence that lasted for several years (and continues as an online-and-in-person-when-we-can friendship to this day).

2012: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. My reading numbers took a big jump in 2012, which is surprising because that was the year I became a mother.  In many ways, it was a hard year – between pregnancy complications and an early delivery, I really needed a lot of comfort reading, but when I look back on my book choices, I read mostly contemporary literary fiction (which I like, but which isn’t all that comforting).  One book that stayed with me was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (I also read Bring Up the Bodies in 2012, and rated both five stars on Goodreads).  Wolf Hall was a wonderful reading experience, but brings back additional associations for me, because that was the book I was in the midst of reading when we finally got the coveted NICU discharge.  I remember returning from the mothers’ lounge, Wolf Hall in one hand and a container of pumped milk in the other, to see Steve smilingly announce that the doctor had just signed Peanut’s discharge papers.

2013: Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple. This was a year of upheaval – our first full year of parenthood, and we pulled up stakes and moved from northern Virginia to Buffalo, New York.  The move was a huge adjustment for the whole family, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t really struggle with it.  (You could probably have guessed that if you didn’t already know, because we moved back to Virginia just three years later.)  I took refuge in my beloved classics, re-reading old favorites like the entire Anne of Green Gables series and Jane Eyre and delving into Middlemarch for the first time (which I have since re-read).  But the book that has stayed with me was one that was everywhere in 2013 – Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.  I’ve read it multiple times since that first reading and it both makes me laugh and wrings out my heart.

2014: Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters. I had a lot going on in 2014 (seems to be the theme of the decade – more each year).  I started a new job, got pregnant with Nugget, and we moved to what we thought was our forever house.  With all of these changes, it’s no wonder I struggled through a reading slump for much of the fall.  But one very good thing came out of my 2014 reading: I met Amelia Peabody for the first time, in Elizabeth Peters’ The Crocodile on the Sandbank.  In addition to being a wonderful character, Amelia gave me another connection with my bookworm grandmama – I fell in love with Peters’ books independently, only to learn afterwards, from my mother, that Grandmama was a devoted Amelia Peabody fan.

2015: Dead Wake, by Erik Larson. It was hard to pick a book of the year for 2015; there were several candidates vying for the top spot.  All the Light We Cannot See, which was lyrical and gorgeous?  Station Eleven, which kept me company in several doctor’s office waiting rooms as my second pregnancy wound to a close?  Lumberjanes, Vol. I, which taught me that I could enjoy comics?  All solid candidates, but there was one book that held my attention and actually kept me riveted even through the fog of days with a newborn and a toddler: Erik Larson’s Dead Wake.

2016: To the Bright Edge of the World, by Eowyn Ivey. More upheaval!  After three years of trying to carve out a life and a place for ourselves in Buffalo, Steve and I decided it was time to go home, so we pulled up stakes again – moving first into temporary housing in January, and then back to Alexandria in July.  The move was a relief, but spending almost a full year without my books (they went into storage while we sorted out the final move, and then it took me awhile to get through my unpacking) was a total bummer.  I read some fabulous books, including my first Trollope (The Warden) and my first Persephone (Greenbanks) but nothing kept me riveted quite like Eowyn Ivey’s sophomore novel, To the Bright Edge of the World.

2017: Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope. Finally, after what felt like years of a nomadic existence, we stayed in one place all year long.  Work was hard and stressful in many ways, and I turned to books – as always – to keep me sane.  I read some great ones this year, but the best by far – not even a question – was Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope.  It was funny and entertaining, and the pages flew by; not something you expect from a Victorian doorstopper.  The best part, though, was reading it at the same time as my friend Susan, and discussing it.  There’s nothing like a like-minded friend to give even more spice to your reading life.

2018: Period Piece, by Gwen Raverat. I had a wonderful 2018 in books – revising old friends like Bernadette Fox, Catherine Morland and Anne Shirley, and exploring genre novels outside my comfort zone.  This is another one where it’s just hard to pick a “winner” – there were so many winners, which means the real winner is me.  North and South helped me through the loss of a beloved family member.  And 84, Charing Cross Road was a serious contender for my top spot, because books about books always hold a special place in my heart.  But ultimately I think the best reading experience of the year was also one of the first – a January book – Period Piece, by Gwen Raverat.

2019: Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell.  Bringing us to the year just ended!  I’ve churned through 124 books so far in 2019, which was high even for me – and there are still five days left in the year, so plenty of time for more.  Read through a lot of life ups and downs again, and turned to books for comfort whenever things just seemed to be getting really complicated – which did happen.  I read more classics than usual in the past year, which is how you can tell that I’ve been overwhelmed; that’s my comfort reading.  And it’s between two classics that I’ve had to struggle to name a book of the year.  I loved everything about the experience of reading The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff, and I see myself revisiting her Roman Britain again and again.  But ultimately I think my book of the year has been Wives and Daughters, which cemented Elizabeth Gaskell as my favorite Victorian writer.

It was HARD to name just one top book to represent each year of the past decade!  But that’s a good problem to have.  I loved looking back on a decade’s worth of reading.  There were a few duds in there, but there were many, many more wonderful books.  Reading is a comfort to me in the hard times, and a joy always.

What were your books of the decade?

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The 2019 Christmas TBR

As we inch closer and closer to Christmas, I am diving into my festive reading with glee.  I love to read for the season all year ’round, but seasonal bookish goodness always feels especially appropriate at Christmas.  Here’s what’s on my TBR pile for 2019 holiday reading…

The Santa Klaus Murder, by Mavis Doriel Hay – I bought this BL Crime Classics re-issue a couple of years ago.  This is the season I will finally get to it!

Noel Streatfield’s Christmas Stories, by Noel Streatfield – A post-Christmas 2018 pickup; I’ve been saving this.  The cover is so shiny and pretty – I couldn’t resist it.

A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny – My aunt, who insisted that I give Three Pines a try, was aghast that I was able to wait two months between reading the first and second books, but A Fatal Grace takes place around the winter holidays; it didn’t seem right to read it in early October.  I am expecting the characters to drink lots of mulled wine.

A Christmas Book, by Elizabeth Goudge – I love Goudge’s descriptive writing, and I think this collection of Christmas chapters and stories from her other books will be just the thing to get me into the spirit!

Home for the Holidays, by Heather Vogel Frederick – I paused my re-read of the Mother-Daughter Book Club series after book four, so as to save this one for December.

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, by Philip Rhys Evans – Found under my Christmas tree last year and devoured in one big gulp, I think I am going to make a re-read of this delightful little volume an annual tradition.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, by John Julius Norwich – This slim book isn’t going to take me long, but it might be my most anticipated read of the month.  I’d really like it to be snowing when I finally open the covers, but as long as there are twinkle lights I’ll be good to go.

Christmas Crackers, by John Julius Norwich – Can’t wait to see how Norwich’s famous annual commonplace book tradition got started!  I’ll bet there are some real gems in here.

Christmas Crime Stories, a Folio Anthology – To be honest, I wouldn’t have sought this out, but I stumbled upon it on Ardis Books this summer and the price was too good to pass up, so I snatched it up.  I may or may not get to this – there are so many books on top of this one (quite literally) but gosh, it’s pretty.

I’ve already made my way through a couple of these, and am looking forward to a relaxing week between Christmas and New Year’s to read the rest!  Ideally with a big cup of tea and a small plate of of husarenkrapferl, because then I will really be living my best life.  Happy (holiday) reading!

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Elizabeth von Arnim on Christmas Preparations

A few weeks ago, working from home, I wandered over to my bookshelf and absentmindedly picked up Elizabeth and Her German Garden.  (This is why I don’t work from home very frequently.)  The book immediately fell open to this passage:

I am very busy preparing for Christmas, but have often locked myself up in a room alone, shutting out my unfinished duties, to study the flower catalogues and make my lists of seeds and shrubs and trees for the spring.  It is a fascinating occupation, and acquires an additional charm when you know you ought to be doing something else, that Christmas is at the door, that children and servants and farm hands depend on you for their pleasure, and that, if you don’t see to the decoration of trees and house and the buying of the presents, nobody else will.  The hours fly by shut up with those catalogues and with Duty snarling on the other side of the door.  I don’t like Duty – everything in the least disagreeable is always sure to be one’s duty.  Why cannot it be my duty to make lists and plans for the dear garden?  “And so it is,” I insisted to the Man of Wrath, when he protested against what he called wasting my time upstairs.  “No,” he replied sagely; “your garden is not your Duty, because it is your Pleasure.”

Oh, Elizabeth – how well I recognize the lament that “if you don’t do it, nobody else will.”  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  (Subtract the servants and farm hands, at least for me.)  I actually love the sparkly season and making it magical for my little pod (although I will confess that addressing holiday cards is not my favorite task) but it does seem like this time of year gets busier and busier, and the call to hide away and attend to pure enjoyment is undeniably alluring.  Between buying and wrapping gifts (and keeping track of it all), mailing cards, unpacking ornaments, and planning all the seasonal fun I like to arrange for my family – not to mention the rush to wrap up matters and finish projects at work before the end of the year – the whirl seems endless, and it’s exhausting.  Maybe I should take a leaf out of Elizabeth’s book and hide away with a seed catalog.

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Pied Beauty, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pierced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, adim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change;
Praise him.

If you’re celebrating this weekend, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, filled with all the blessings that family and mashed potatoes can bestow.  I’m grateful for you!

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Recent Aquisitions of a Bookish Variety

I’m really not much of a shopper – you won’t find me spending hours at the mall (unless it’s a mall made up entirely of bookstores and REI; if you know of one of those, please do tell) and aside from fun sneakers, I don’t have any accessory vices.  But I have had a fair number of books trickle in over the last six months or so, and it struck me that it’s been awhile since I rounded up the new arrivals and showed them to you.  I’ve definitely missed some, but here’s the latest.

Poems of Gratitude, ed. John Hollander – Slowly building up my Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets collection; I’ve had my eye on this little volume for years and Thanksgiving seems like a good time to finally dive in, so I just picked it up.

New Year’s Day, by Edith Wharton – My favorite of the four novellas that make up Old New York, by Edith Wharton, I couldn’t resist a first edition at a surprisingly good price.  I’d have loved if this came with the pretty sprigged floral dust jacket, but that would have taken the price from affordable to prohibitive.

The Week-End Book: A Sociable Anthology, by Frances Meynell – Read a blurb about this 1930s book of odds and ends in a back issue of Slightly Foxed and knew I wanted to read it.  Obviously, the library didn’t have a copy – but it’s not exactly a sought-after title, so I got a good deal on a used copy.

Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther, by Elizabeth von Arnim – When comfort reading is in order, von Arnim delivers, and I know I will be turning to this soon.

The Secrets of the Bastide Blanche, by M. L. Longworth – A mystery set in Provence?  I’m sold – I don’t need any more information than that.  Also, this was on the dollar table at the library sale, so the price was definitely right.

The Corner that Held Them, by Sylvia Townsend Warner – Whenever I stop into Old Town Books, my local indie, I try to show my support and buy something.  I’ve had Townsend Warner’s novel about nuns in a medieval abbey on my wish list for years, and I was delighted to happen upon it on the shelves in the new “classics corner” at OTB.

Anything Considered, by Peter Mayle – I am always down for Mayle, and this was another dollar table find at the library sale.  I also picked up Chasing Cezanne.

Christmas Crackers, by John Julius Norwich – Having discovered my love of the commonplace book last Christmas, I have been wanting to dive into Norwich’s – he may not have invented the genre, but my understanding is: he perfected it.  I had to scout a bit to find a used copy of the first decade of his “Christmas Crackers” in good shape and at a decent price, but I found it!

The Twelve Days of Christmas, by John Julius Norwich – I heard about this on the “Tea and Tattle” podcast and knew I had to pick up a copy.  Saving it to read by the light of the Christmas tree.

The Vegetable Gardeners Handbook (The Old Farmers Almanac) – To be honest, I was surprised when this turned up on my doorstep.  I pre-ordered it months ago and forgot all about it.  I’m excited to dig in (pun, appreciate) to this and an organic gardening book I recently received through my Buy Nothing book this winter, to get ready for the gardening season ahead.

Ancestral Voices and Prophesying Peace: Diaries 1942-1945, by James Lees-Milne – I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been trying to track down a copy of the first two volumes of Lees-Milne’s diaries, but they’re so expensive.  It took awhile to find a copy in good condition at a price I could swallow.  I can’t wait to read this!

A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny – My aunt insisted that I read Louise Penny’s Three Pines mysteries, and after the first one I was hooked.  When I found a pristine hardcover for $2 at the library sale (are you sensing a theme here?) I instantly grabbed it.  Every time I go to the library to check out or return books, I now scout the sale tables for more Louise Penny.  So far, I haven’t found any more, but luck favors the persistent.

A Better Man, by Louise Penny – The latest Three Pines, picked up at our other local indie, Hooray for Books! – it will be awhile before I get to this, since I’m still in the early part of the series.  But I love supporting my neighborhood bookstores.

What have you picked up recently?

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Top Ten Books of 2019 (So Far!)

How is it already July, and the first half of 2019 is over?  Seriously, where does the time go?  I didn’t even realize how far we were into this year until I read Katie‘s blog post on her top ten favorite books of the year (so far), and it occurred to me – whoops, I’m overdue to share my list!  So, in no particular order, here they are:

Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope – I continue to love and savor Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire.  Doctor Thorne, the third in the series, has everything – love, social comedy, and (spoiler, but this is Trollope, so…) a happy ending.  I’m working my way through Trollope slowly so as to ration, but they’re all so good.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie – Somehow, I am still not sure if I’d ever read Roger Ackroyd before or not.  But either way, I’ve read it now – and WOW.  While I guessed who the murderer was, that never takes away from my enjoyment of a mystery (on the contrary, I like patting myself on the back) and it was such fun.

Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days that Changed Her Life, by Lucy Worsley – I hadn’t read anything by Worsley before (although I am being a terrible book friend and sitting on a copy of Jane Austen at Home that belongs to my friend Susan) but clearly I was missing out.  I loved this creative take on biography and will definitely be seeking out more of Worsley’s work.

The Familiars, by Stacey Halls – This book has it all!  Women!  Pregnancy!  Witchcraft!  Medieval towers!  No, seriously, this book has it all.  I was completely captivated – and especially after I learned that it was based on a real witch trial and that all of the main characters in the book – Richard and Fleetwood Shuttleworth and Alice Grey – were actual people.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten – I had it in my head that this was going to be unpleasantly violent and gory, but it wasn’t.  Although I enjoyed every story, my favorite was the story of the elderly lady disrupting her former flame’s late-in-life wedding plans, via a little murder, of course.

The Glimpses of the Moon, by Edith Wharton – I’ve been on a Wharton jag for months, which probably hasn’t gone unnoticed.  It was hard to choose just one, but I did really love Nick and Suzy Lansing’s comedy of errors love story.

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – A re-read, read for book club and in preparation for the (awesome!) adaptation, I enjoyed Good Omens just as much as when I read it years ago.  It’s just as funny, just as touching, and just as delightful a read as ever.

The Bird King, by G. Willow Wilson – I first encountered Wilson’s work through the delightful Ms. Marvel, and loved Alif the Unseen when I read it last year.  The Bird King confirms: everything Wilson touches turns to gold.  I’ve got to seek out her memoir, The Butterfly Mosque, next, and I can’t wait to see what she does with Wonder Woman.

Another Self, by James Lees-Milne – Having never read anything by Lees-Milne, but knowing he was a prolific and witty diarist during World War II and in the years after, I wanted to read his memoir of early life first – and I was lucky enough to score an out of print Slightly Foxed Edition.  It was such a good time, and I especially loved his description of a mistaken communication he received while manning the radio while serving in His Majesty’s Forces during the war.

1939: The Last Season, by Anne de Courcy – Sticking with British history (because obviously) I devoured 1939 and loved every page.  The denial, forced gaiety, and desperation to cling to tradition comes through so clearly, and is especially jarring as de Courcy juxtaposes chapters about society functions and cricket matches against chapters describing the increasingly frantic machinations at 10 Downing Street.  I love non-fiction about England in the first half of the twentieth century, and this was just my sort of read.

Not a bad first half of the year, indeed!  I can’t wait to see what the second half holds – hopefully more great reads.