One upside of sheltering in place is lots of time to read. I may have mentioned in the past that I totally lack discipline when it comes to a good book. Who needs sleep? Housework? What’s that? I try to pace myself so I can get SOMETHING done, but it’s not always successful. Downloading books is (one) addiction of choice. Way. Too. Easy. And while my Aunt Dee was alive I spent most afternoons reading to her at her bedside. She was so happy for me to do it she pretty much threw people out if I showed up and she already had company. Or she told them they could stay only if they wanted to listen. Her favorites?

            The Gown, by Jennifer Robson – a novel about Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown, and the design house and seamstresses who made it. Beautifully written in the present with flashbacks to the past.

            The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher – an oldie but a goodie. Published in 1987 the main character is an ‘elderly’ woman with a heart condition – she’s 64. I’d read it back then (I was 30), but rereading it now made me chuckle at her age. I guess 60 IS the new 30 (and as my Aunt Jeannette would say, ‘And I’m the Queen of England’). But I did enjoy rereading it, and my Aunt Dee loved it. 

            She also enjoyed ‘My Life in France’, Julia Child’s autobiography, as well as Jacques Pepin’s ‘The Apprentice, My Life in the Kitchen’. And I enjoyed every minute of reading them to her; they are memories I will cherish. 

            My favorites? There are many, but one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time is ‘The Murmur of Bees’, by Sofia Segovia. A fairy tale of a book, originally written in Spanish. Hats off to the translator, whose work is stellar. Yes, suspension of disbelief is required, but well worth it. It DOES make reference to the Spanish Flu pandemic, FYI…

            In the police procedural/whodunit realm I have some favorites. Louise Penny’s books are preordered long before they’re available. A Better Man, her last, lived up to the hype. I want to live in Three Pines, well, except for the fact that a lot of people get murdered there. Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs novels don’t disappoint, other than the fact that I’m disappointed I’ve read them all. And I’ve found a new (to me) author – Elly Griffiths, whose Ruth Galloway mysteries (starting with The Crossing Places) I am eating up. She’s a forensic archeologist and a bit of a mess, which I think makes her all the more endearing. The setting is a character in itself, the English seaside and marshes of Norfolk. And since we’re not traveling right now I’ll borrow anything by Donna Leon. Her Commissario Brunetti mysteries are set in Venice, and I go right back there through her descriptions. I can almost taste the cicchetti. Andrea Bartz’s book The Herd is a mystery, though her technology references and fast paced and glamorous world of the chosen ones in contemporary NYC make it more of a younger person’s book. Good story, nonetheless. 

            Others I’ve enjoyed in straight fiction are Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman, Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt, The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz (who has continued Stieg Larson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series), The Bookshop on the Shore, by Jenny Colgan, The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy and most recently The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Am I sensing a pattern? I loved that last one when I’d originally thought I would not. Either I’m a total sap or just love libraries and books so much that a book about a library could make me cry. Several times. 

            There were many, many more, too many to mention them all here, but hopefully, if you’re a reader, I’ve given you something new to look out for. Let me know your favorites, as I’m always looking.

Excuse me but I must go read now and get nothing else done for many days…

Deborah