Happy January, all! To kick off the New Year, I’ve been reading:
— Snowdrift and Other Stories
, a Georgette Heyer short story collection, featuring three rediscovered stories. (For those of you who have read Pistols for Two
, it’s Pistols for Two plus three.) Of course, I loved them. You can’t beat Georgette Heyer for historical hilarity. But I did find they were best taken with breaks in between, lest you forget just which Regency miss was eloping (or not eloping) with whom.
— High Rising
, Angela Thirkell’s first novel, set partly over the Christmas holidays and New Year, which may be what made me think of it. A novelist juggling a child, manuscripts, and various obligations over the holidays? Hmmm…. Mostly, I love Thirkell’s breezy writing style and light-hearted social satire.
— Summer Half
, also Thirkell. A much later Thirkell, but still filled with her signature mismatches that come undone and matches that come right. Or something like that. This one is set at a public school and features masters entangled with the headmaster’s vain daughter and Tony Morland, the annoying small boy in High Rising, as a worldly wise sixth former.
There’s a character reading law in Summer Half, which, naturally, made me think of Kate Ross’s third Julian Kestrel mystery, Whom the Gods Love
, set partly around the Inns of Court (albeit a good hundred years earlier than Summer Half). But that’s how free association works, so that’s what I’ll be reading next.
What have you been reading as 2017 unfolds?
I also started the year with a Heyer, No Wind of Blame, one of her mysteries that had quite an absurd outcome. I’m currently reading The Eyre Affair for book club, a classic in my mind, and easily the best Thursday Next book.
I started the New Year with a couple of contemporaries.
Finished an ARC of Donna Alwards Somebody Like You and Plan to start Debbie Mason’s new book Starlight Bridge this weekend.
I have a stash of Heyer books tucked away for a rainy or snowy day.
Just finished Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Place by Colin Dickey.
Currently reading: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab in preparation for the third installment next month.
On order: Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser.
Started the week by finishing A Family Affair by Caro Peacock (3rd in the Liberty Lane series) and in the middle of reading As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber. All around good reading!
I recently finished the Tea Rose trilogy by Jennifer Donnelly, which was fantastic! I’ve just started reading Poldark, and so far, so good.
I loved the Tea Rose Trilogy – three fantastic books!
Thanks, Mercy! I’d never heard of the Tea Rose trilogy, but I just ordered the first one and can’t wait to read it. 🙂
Almost finished with The Fellowship of the Ring. Next, I’m going to read the sequel to A Court of Roses and Thorns by Sarah Maas which is called A Court of Mist and Fury. Both amazing examples of fantasy fiction!
Just discovered Rosie Thomas, loving her books!
Just finished an arc for Beatriz Williams, Cocoa Beach. I’m very confused about the ending, has anyone else read it yet? Am hoping to discuss with someone!
I just finished Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, and I’ve been working on A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley and Deborah Harkness’ Discovery of Witches.
My reading resolution this year is to read more of the books I already own to get through my backlog, and so far I’m off to a good start!
Hi Lauren,
Thanks for turning me on to Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley. I’m not quite finished with it yet, but I’m enjoying it very much. I hadn’t read any of her work before, but I just got another of her books on Audible. Fun!