This page is mostly for housekeeping reasons, for me to track my reading and to aid in formulating those fun year-end lists. I used to do this sort of thing in a paper notebook, but this is so much more flexible, especially with the ability to use links and tweak comments. My goal is to say a little something about everything, especially the books I didn’t get around to discussing on the blog.

Please scroll down for the 2013, 2014, and rather sketchy 2015, 2016 and 2017 lists.

The Reading List ~ 2018

JANUARY 2018

**********

The Reading List ~ 2017

JANUARY 2017

*****

The Reading List ~ 2016

In roughly chronological order 2016

JANUARY 2015

• Trilby by George du Maurier
• The Godstone and the Blackymor by T.H. White ~ 1959. My rating: 10/10. T.H. White lives and travels in Ireland in the 1940s, and thoughtfully documents the people and places which catch his vivid imagination and give him welcome. Gamebird hunting, falconry, folklore, local customs, religion are all touched on. Illustrations by Edward Ardizzone enrich the text.
• Silk Hats and No Breakfast by Honor Tracy ~ 1957. My rating: 6/10. A three-month long journey through the remoter regions of Spain, documented by a consistently wry British travel writer.
• Rough Husbandry by Patrick Campbell ~ 1965. My rating: 9.9/10.
• The Secrets of Grown-Ups by Vera Caspary
• The Darkening Green by Elizabeth Clarke
• The Good Companions  by J.B. Priestley ~ 1965. My rating: 10/10
• The Sea was Our Village by Miles Smeeton
• The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp
• The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp
• Harlequin House  by Margery Sharp ~ 1939.
• Being George Devine’s Daughter by Harriet Devine ~ 2006.
• New Song in a Strange Land by Esther Warner

FEBRUARY 2015

• Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley ~ 1965. My rating: 9/10.
• The Book of Stillmeadow by Gladys Taber
• A Pattern of Roses by K.M. Peyton
• The Lens of the World by R.A. Macavoy
• The King of the Dead by R.A. Macavoy
• In the Belly of the Wolf by R.A. Macavoy
• Without Knowing Mr. Walkley: Personal Memories Edith Olivier ~ 1938. My rating: 9.5/10.
• The Glorious Adventure by Richard Halliburton
•  Adam in Moonshine by J.B. Priestley ~ 1927. My rating: 6/10.
• Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley ~ 1939. My rating: 7/10
• Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark ~ 2000. My rating: 4.75/10
• The Girl with the Botticelli Face by W.D. Valgardson ~ 1992.
• Saddlebags for Suitcases  by Mary Bosanquet ~ 1942. My rating: 9/10. A young Englishwoman rides across Canada in the early years of World War II.

MARCH 2015

• Incline Our Hearts by A.N. Wilson ~ 1988. My rating:
• As Cooks Go by Elizabeth Jordan ~
• The Runaways by Victor Canning ~ 1971. My rating: 6/10.
• Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl ~ 1998.
• My Invincible Aunt by Dorothea Brande ~ 1938.
• The Proper Place by O Douglas ~ 1926. My rating 9.5/10.
• Party Line/Out on a Limb by Louise Baker ~ 1945/46. My rating: 8.5. A pair of perky memoirs regarding life in rural California in the 1920s-30s-40s. The first is centered around a character portrait of a small town telephone switchboard operator; the second details the author’s life as a one-legged amputee after a bicycle accident at the tender age of eight.
• The Family at Kilmory by Elizabeth Leitch ~1955.

APRIL 2015

• Amberwell by D.E. Stevenson
• Summerhills by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1956.
• Chasing the Story God by Mike McCardell ~ 2001.
• Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers by Valerie Lawson ~ 1999.
• Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey ~ 1946.
• Without Mercy: The Story of a Mother’s Vengeance by John Goodwin ~ 1920.
• Stickfuls: Compositions of a Newspaper Minion by Irvin S. Cobb ~ 1923.
• Those Other People by Mary King O’Donnell ~ 1946.

MAY 2015

• Family Secrets by Jean-Yves Soucy, with Annette, Cecile and Yvonne Dionne ~ 1995.
• Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim ~
• The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim ~
• The Diary of a Provincial Lady ~ E.M. Delafield ~ 1947. (Omnibus)
• Blue Days at Sea by H.V. Morton ~ 1932.
• Much Ado About Me by Fred Allen ~ 1956.
• Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott ~
• Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed ~ 2012. My rating: 4.5/10.

JUNE 2015

• High Bright Buggy Wheels by Luella Creighton ~ 1951. My rating: 6.5/10. A well-written but sometimes uneven romance centered on an Ontario Mennonite girl’s search for self-determination. The period setting (first decade of the 20th Century) and the religious details decorate what is essentially a stock bildungsroman. 
• The Last Canadian by William C. Heine ~ 1974. My rating: Either 2/10 or 5/10, if going by literary merit (2/10) or strange enjoyability of reading experience (5/10). This one will likely get worst book of 2015 rating, but hey! – eclectic is the key to happy reading. 😉 A pseudo-sci-fi-ish, horrible-plague-wipes-out-everybody-except-for-a-few-key-survivors thing, penned in his spare time by Canadian journalist William C. Heine.
• Doukhobor Daze by Hazel O’Neail ~ 1962.
• Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
• Running a Hotel on the Roof of the World: Five Years in Tibet by Alec Le Sueur ~ 1998.
• Sitting on a Salt Spring by David Conover ~ 1978.
• The Incomparable Atuk by Mordecai Richler ~ 1963. No rating – it’s just too odd of a book to try to pin down with a defining number.
• More Than a Rose by Heather Robertson ~ 1991. My rating: 7.5/10
• I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven ~ 1967. My rating: 7.5/10
• Rowing to Alaska by Wayne McLennan ~
• With Malice Toward Some by Margaret Halsey ~ 1938.

JULY 2015

• The Innocents at Home by Lord Kinross ~1958.
• Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
• Again Calls the Owl by Margaret Craven
• The Witch’s Daughter by Nina Bawden
• Boo by Neil Smith ~ 2015. My rating: 8.5/10
• The Old Ladies by Hugh Walpole ~ 1924. My rating: 5/10
• Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Magnificent Jalopy by John Tomerlin
• The Queen of Spells by Dahlov Ipcar
• Head in Green Bronze by Hugh Walpole
• South of an Unnamed Creek by Anne Cameron ~ 1989. My rating: 4/10.
• In the Wet by Nevil Shute
• Bread Into Roses by Kathleen Norris ~ 1936
• The Brass Ring by Bill Mauldin
• Everything is Going to Be Great by Rachel Shukert ~ 2010.
• It’s an Old Country by J.B. Priestley ~ 1967. My rating: 2.5/10.
• The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne ~ 1851. My rating: 6/10.
• A Vigarage Family by Noel Streafeild
• The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher ~ 1924.
• The Healing Woods by Martha Reben ~ 1952. My rating: 7.5/10.
• Passage to Juneau by Jonathan Raban ~ 1999. My rating: 10/10.

AUGUST 2015

• The Mask of Memory by Victor Canning ~ 1974. My rating: 7.5/10.
• Run Sheep Run by
• The Venables by Kathleen Norris ~ 1941

*****

The Reading List ~ 2014

JANUARY 2014

• Unleavened Bread  by Robert Grant ~ 1900. My rating: 8/10. A self-centered, humourless and hypocritical woman claws her way to the society position she claims to be hers by right of birth. An interesting American novel which foreshadows similar works by Sinclair Lewis.
• The Treasure  by Selma Lagerlöf ~ 1904. My rating: 10/10.  An excellent short novella about love and revenge. A 16th Century Scandinavian winter setting and ghosts. Brrr.
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin ~ 1903. My rating: 7.5/10. The classic juvenile novel about an eleven-year-old girl coming to live with two strict spinster aunts.
• New Chronicles of Rebecca by Kate Douglas Wiggin ~ 1907. My rating: 6.5/10. Further details on Riverboro life, with eventual strong hints as to the ongoing evolution of the relationship between Rebecca and much-older “friend” Adam Ladd.
• The Blind Man’s House by Hugh Walpole ~ 1941. My rating: 5.5/10. A complex psychological drama concerning the effects of the blindness of  Sir Julius Cromwell on his wife, his friend, and the many characters who make up the Cromwell household and social circle.
• North Face by Mary Renault ~ 1949. My rating: 6/10. A gloomy post-World War II novel concerning the emotional traumas of Neil and Ellen, and their coming to terms with their tragic pasts and gleam-of-hope futures. A rock climbing theme prevails, all Freudian and symbolic.
• Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner ~ 1995. My rating: 6.5/10. Portrait of a marriage of two disparate people, the stoically fastidious French Maud and the perennially disappointed English Edward. Beautifully written, in a muted, slightly dreary way.
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ~ 2013. My rating: 7/10. A completely sweet romantic comedy set in Melbourne, Australia, and featuring a high-functioning autistic genetics professor and his unlikely romantic interest, Rosie.
• Crooked Adam by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1942. My rating: 6.5/10. Schoolmaster Adam Southey, refused entry into the Services due to a childhood injury, instead proves his patriotism by chasing down Nazi spies in the wilds of Scotland.
• The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams ~ 1949.  My rating: 8.5/10. A clever and dangerous escape from Stalag Luft III is described by one of the participants. Enthralling!
• Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson ~ 1904. My rating: 3.5/10. Thousands loved this when it was first published. One hundred and ten years later, I am less than impressed. An Amazonian jungle romantic tragedy between an aristocratic Venezuelan hiding out from the consequences of a failed political coup, and a mysterious “bird girl” who guards her section of the forest against all intruders.
• The Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight  by Elizabeth von Arnim ~ 1905. My rating: 7.5/10. German Princess Priscilla escapes the courtly life with her elderly friend, the palace librarian. The two set up house in rural England, but soon run into unplanned-for difficulties. A witty light farce with a mildly predictable moral.
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin ~ 1901. My rating: 8.5/10. Teenage Sybylla struggles against an unkind fate, is wooed, and rejects conventional relationships with men, all set against the blazing background of Australia’s drought-stricken bush in New South Wales.
• My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin ~ 1946. My rating: 9/10. Another version of My Brilliant Career’s Sybylla rants against the misunderstanding her teenage bestseller has attracted, as she finds her way into and out of Sydney literary society.
• The Orchid by Robert Grant ~ 1905. My rating: 6.5/10. A socialite sells her child to her first husband to finance her second marriage.
• Freckles  by Gene Stratton-Porter ~ 1904. My rating: 7.5/10. One-handed but plucky orphan Freckles wins hearts, vanquishes evildoers, and wins love while employed as a timber guard in the Limberlost Swamp.
• A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter ~ 1909. My rating: 6/10. Downtrodden but plucky half-orphan Elnora roams the Limberlost Swamp hunting leaves and bugs to finance her higher education.
• The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart ~ 1908. My rating: 5.5/10. Super-confusing and not very mysterious American country house mystery, salvaged somewhat by the amusing narrator, a middle-aged, opinionated, self-described spinster, Miss Rachel Innes. A classic of crime fiction which I’m happy to have ticked off the list, but this reading will likely do me for many years to come. Though I am still keen to read more of MRR’s mysteries; they are definitely enjoyable as well as slightly annoying.
• The Sun in Scorpio by Margery Sharp ~ 1965. My rating: 10/10. Portrait of a girl growing into womanhood and on into middle age, from the beginning of the Great War to the end of World War II. Starting off in an off-Malta Mediterranean island, and progressing quickly to mist-huddled England, Cathy never loses her desire for the warmth of the sun… An unusual book, gloriously cynical and beautifully styled.
• Brewster’s Millions by Richard Greaves, pseudonym of George Barr McCutcheon ~ 1902/3. My rating: 7.5/10. A young man inherits two fortunes, but under strange conditions. He must spend one million dollars – without divulging the existence of the second legacy, and under strict conditions – in order to inherit seven million. Needless to say, his friends think he has gone mad, and much hilarity ensues as they try to save Monty Brewster from himself.
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling ~ 1902. My rating: 7.5/10. A collection on fables explaining how things got the way they are: the Whale with his baleen throat, the Camel with his hump, and the Alphabet’s origin, among others. Some are wonderful for reading out loud to the young ones, others are best enjoyed as interesting period pieces. Good reading for the adults of the family, if you are at all a Kipling aficionado.
• The English Air by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1940. My rating: 9/10. A half-German, half-English young man visits England in the year before the start of World War II. Is his visit strictly social, or something more sinister?
• The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett ~ 1906. My rating: 8.5/10. A gorgeous gothic thriller/romance following the varied adventures of two wealthy American sisters as they travel to England ten years apart. Gentle Rosy marries a wicked nobleman; ten years later her younger sister Betty mounts a rescue mission.
• A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett ~ 1896. My rating: 4.5/10. Inspired by Burnett’s rather decent novel (though gloriously melodramatic) The Shuttle, I took a chance on this earlier romance, only to find that the unlikeliness of the tale of hoydenish-Clorinda-turned-religious-do-gooder jarred most of my readerly sensibilities.
• The Gilded Ladder by Laura Conway ~ 1945. My rating: 5/10. A formulaic historical fiction/domestic drama about a social climbing Victorian and her musically adept young niece. By the prolific author Dorothy Phoebe Ansle, who published 100 novels between the 1920s and 1980s, under various pseudonyms including Laura Conway and Hebe Elsna.
• Mamma by Diana Tutton ~ 1955. My rating: 8.5/10. A barely middle-aged widow finds herself falling in love with her 20-year-old daughter’s older husband. An interesting and delicately handled psychological novel, not nearly as sensational as the plot description makes it sound.
• Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton ~ 1953. Second time around for this one, and the re-read is proving to be a good idea. I’m not changing my rating or my previous review, but I am “liking” this story more this reading. Still finding it difficult to relate to the characters in any “kindred spirit” sort of way; still wanting to give them all a shake!
• The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W.H. Davies ~ 1908. My rating: 9/10. The famous poet’s early years as a tramp in Britain and North America.
• Harpoon Venture by Gavin Maxwell ~ 1952. My rating: 8/10. Four years hunting the placid basking shark in Scottish seas.
• Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins ~ 1918. My rating: 6.5/10. Tired of being patronized and pitied by the gossiping old girls in her residential hotel, Patricia Brent invents a fiancé, with unforeseen consequences. A fluffy romp, set against the mutterings of the Great War.

FEBRUARY 2014

• The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf ~ 1906. My rating: 10/10. An appealing vintage children’s classic. Swedish farm boy Nils is transformed for his misdeeds into elf-size, and is now able to understand the speech of animals. His quest for redemption and a way to break the curse carries him over Sweden on the back of the farm’s white gander. A marvelous read-aloud, standing up well over a hundred years after its original publication.
• Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim ~ 1919. My rating: 8/10. Twin 17-year-old English-German sisters are sent across the Atlantic to North America in the early days of the Great War; luckily they acquire a benevolent protector who gets them out of their continual scrapes.
• Humbug by E.M. Delafield ~ 1922. My rating: 8.5/10
• A Safety Match  by Ian Hay ~ 1911. My rating: 3/10. A tale of a mismatched marriage, teenage vicarage daughter Daphne to middle aged magnate Lord Carr. Started off nicely enough, but degenerated into a syrupy romance with a lot of tacked on and superfluous drama at the end.
• Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge ~ 1935. My rating: 8/10. See review in August 2014.
• Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes ~ 1941. My rating: 8.5/10. An Oxford don and his wife undertake a secret spying mission in Europe as the clouds of war gather overhead.
• The Black Opal by Dorothy Maywood Bird ~ 1949. My rating:
• The Year of the Dream by Jane Collier ~ 1962. My rating: 4.5/10. An entirely mediocre (but adequate) juvenile family drama about saving up to buy a derelict cabin cruiser.
• Repent at Leisure by Joan Walker ~ 1957. My rating: 6.5/10.
• The Little Straw Wife by Margaret Belle Houston ~ 1914. My rating: 6/10. See entry in August 2014 for comment.
• Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes ~ 1942. My rating: 9/10. An English officer is sent to Brittany on a spying mission, with the lucky coincidence of being able to masquerade as a convenient double who was evacuated to England at Dunkirk. Much drama and a fair bit of bloodshed ensues.
• Roast Beef, Medium by Edna Ferber ~ 1913. My rating: 7/10. A lively novel following petticoat saleswoman Emma McChesney as she outwits her rivals, teaches life-lessons to her teenage son, and finds love in the early decades of 20th Century middle America.
• Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey ~ 1912. My rating:
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame ~ 1908. My rating: 10/10. Rat and Mole “messing about in boats”; Toad getting up to no good in his dreadfully large motorcar; Badger coming to everyone’s rescue; absolute bookish delight for adults and children alike.
• Her Father’s Daughter by Gene Stratton Porter ~ 1921. My rating: 2/10. As poorly plotted out as it is marred by a dreadful racist/white supremacist subplot. Lovely teenager Linda has been wronged by her sister, but luckily is able to turn things around by a combination of super talents and a keen lust for revenge. Featuring the “yellow peril” (the wicked Japanese taking over bits of the USA from the innocent white people) and continual rants on why white people should “strike first” to maintain the upper hand.
•  Almost Like Sisters by Betty Cavanna ~ 1963. My rating: 5/10.  A typical Betty Cavanna teenage drama, concerning a girl who is continually outshone by her young and vivacious widowed mother.

MARCH 2014

• Gerald and Elizabeth by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1969. My rating: 4/10. Definitely on DES’s B-List. This mild suspense-romance involves stolen diamonds and a successful actress’s hysteria regarding her suspected “melancholia” – the scenario is straight out of a 1800s novel, with 1960s set dressing. Readable, but just barely.
• Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield ~1932. My rating: 8/10
• My Mother-in-Law by Celeste Andrews Seton ~ 1954. My rating: 8/10. A charming memoir of her highly unusual and ultra-rich mother-in-law by the woman who married one of the foster children of Helen Shepard Gould, “American robber baron” billionaire Jay Gould’s eldest daughter.
• The Blue Sapphire by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1963. My rating: 9/10. DES is in fine form with her tale of lovely Julia, saddled with an officious fiancé and befriended by cheerful South African mining engineer Stephen, her new landlady Miss Martineau, and her long-lost Uncle Randal.
• Main Street by Sinclair Lewis ~ 1920. My rating: 8/10. Young Carol Kennicott arrives in the small Minnesota town of Gopher Prairie with stars in her eyes and big plans to bring culture to the boondocks. The residents of Gopher Prairie have other ideas.
• The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark ~ 1965. My rating: 7.5/10. A convoluted drama involving a middle-aged diplomat’s attempts at preventing a determined half-Jewish Catholic-convert from coming to grief in the volatile Israeli-Jordanian Jerusalem of the early 1960s.
• The Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull ~ 1934. My rating: 8.5/10. Wanna-be dilettante Edward Powell decides that the short cut to financial independence and life on the Riviera is via the assisted demise of his wealthy Aunt Mildred. Aunt Mildred isn’t quite as oblivious as Edward would like her to be…
• The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett ~ 1997. My rating: 4.5/10. Californian Sabine has just lost her magician husband to AIDS, and though his open homosexuality was no surprise to her the sudden discovery of a unsuspected mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law in far-off Nebraska are. Much drama ensues, mostly to due with abusive husbands – the heterosexual kind.
• Afternoon of a Good Woman by Nina Bawden ~ 1976. My rating: 5.5/10. A complex, multi-stranded novella in which a outwardly respectable wife muses over the many years of buried reasons why she should walk away from her husband and into her lover’s arms.
• The Shapes of Sleep by J.B. Priestley ~ 1962. My rating: 5/10. Priestley tackles another suspense thriller, this one with a subliminal messaging plot all tangled up with unlikely scenarios and much too much zipping about from hotel to hotel in Cold War West Germany.
• Lady in Waiting by Rory Gallagher ~ 1943. My rating: 6.5/10. A frothy and light satire about an upper-middle-class American pregnancy, with few of the details spared. Vintage Mommy-Lit, in other words, and really rather fun in its own way, though the relentlessly chirpy voice of the narrator occasionally has me wanting to (temporarily, not fatally) smother her with one of her voluminous pregnancy smocks.
• Greenwillow by B.J. Chute ~ 1956. My rating: 9.5/10. A charming rural romance about a young man under a curse, the village maid who loves him, and the two preachers who share the church and differing views on the Devil and Eternal Damnation in the idyllic village of Greenwillow, time and country unknown.
• The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield (Fisher) ~ 1924. My rating: 8.5/10. An excellent domestic drama about role reversals, marriage, and children.
• Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr ~ 1967. My rating: 8/10. A collection of humorous essays and literary parodies by cheerfully sharp-witted Jean Kerr, mother of four (later to become six) and very funny writer.
• The Green Bay Tree by Louis Bromfield ~ 1924. My rating: 7/10. An average-ish but well laid out novel concerning a wealthy American family at the turn of the 19th Century, and the vibrant and self-willed Julia, who goes her own way cushioned by her great wealth. Much of the saga is set in France, and includes the Great War. An ambitious and nicely crafted first novel by Bromfield, who went on to great success, being compared in his time to Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
• Stardust  by Neil Gaiman ~ 1998. My rating: 10/10. A mortal man crosses the wall into the other world on a quest to find a falling star. The star has ideas of her own about accompanying him, and a murderous lot complication (or two) adds further interest. Nicely imagined, leaning heavily on the very best fairy tale tradition with some dark Gaiman twists and turns.
• Harem Scare’m by Rosemary Taylor ~ 1951. My rating: 6.5/10. Rosemary’s trip to Madrid is sidelined, and she ends up instead in Morocco under the wing of a group war correspondents covering the 1920s’ Rif War.
• The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe by Erle Stanley Gardner ~ 1938. My rating: 6/10. Perry Mason sorts out a double murder. Diamonds and amnesia play a role, as do forensics involving bullet identification. A rather average sort of mystery story, most appealing in the period detail aspect.
• Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart ~ 1958. My rating: 10/10. Mary Stewart hits all the right notes in this dramatically gothic suspense-romance novel set in a French château. Perfect.
• The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith ~ 1965. My rating: 8.5/10. Three actresses reunite every five years to reminisce over the summer they all spent together in London, the summer which changed their lives forever. A fourth member of the group has so far proved elusive in the forty years since, but perhaps she has finally surfaced…
• Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford ~ 1931. My rating: 5.5/10. Mitford’s first novel, a desperately humorous clashing of Old Guard and Bright Young Things, tossed together in a remote Scottish castle during the opening days of the grouse hunting season.

APRIL  2014

• Jeremy by Hugh Walpole ~ 1919. My rating: 9/10
• Jeremy and Hamlet by Hugh Walpole ~ 1923. My rating: 9/10
• Death on Milestone Buttress by Glyn Carr ~ 1951. My rating: 4.95/10. Who killed the man on the rope traversing the far side of Milstone Buttress? So many motives! A “locked room” mystery set on a Welsh mountainside. Luckily amateur mountaineer/famous Shakespearian actor Abercrombie Lewker is present to sort everything out. A fairly workaday sort of mystery, despite its few unique characteristics.
• Looking Up by Jane Boyle Needham & Rosemary Taylor ~ 1959. My rating: 7/10. Quietly heart-rending yet relentlessly upbeat memoir by a woman who was paralyzed from the neck down by polio and yet managed to pull of a return to “normal” life while encased in an iron lung.
• Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
• Beowulf by Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman) ~ 1948. My rating: 9.5/10. A London teashop in the Blitz is at the heart of this linked series of vignettes and character portraits.
• Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple ~ 1949. My rating: 9/10. The tale of two families and their unequal relationship, due in large part to a secret wrong perpetrated by the father of one family upon the widowed mother of the other.
• Olivia (in India) by O. Douglas ~ 1912. My rating: 7/10. A mildly diverting autobiographical novel regarding travel to and in India by a young Scottish gentlewoman (Anna Buchan) in the first decade of the 20th Century.
• Staying with Relations by Rose Macaulay ~ 1930. My rating: 7/10. A young woman novelist travels to Guatemala, where she is caught up in the jungle shenanigans of her wealthy ousins which include illicit love affairs, kidnapping plots, and a dramatic chase over land and sea to track an absconding treasure thief/con man. More satirical than farcical, and typically slightly hard to figure out as to what the author is *really* going on about.
• Pied Piper by Nevil Shute ~ 1942. My rating: 9.5/10. Shute’sfast-moving and exceedingly likeable propaganda novel, starring a stoic elderly Englishman rescuing a winsome group of children from Nazi-occupied France in the early years of World War II. Not very believable, perhaps, but a good yarn nonetheless.
• Something Wholesale by Eric Newby ~ 1962. My rating: 6.5/10. Eric Newby tells all in this uneven memoir about his years working in the family ladies’ fashions business post-WW II. Moments of brilliance and great humour, some slogging, but overall a charming character portrait of Eric Newby’s parents, and a fascinating glimpse into an arcane world.
• An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
• I’m a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

MAY 2014

• A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark ~ 1988. My rating: 8.5/10. Young widow and literary editor Mrs Hawkins can’t stomach the odious (and pisseur de copie) Hector Bartlett at any cost, and tells him so, repeatedly, with far-reaching consequences.
• Rosa by Margery Sharp ~
• Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer ~ 1969. My rating: 6/10. One of Heyer’s more forgettable Regency romances, with a somber tone which is at odds with its attempts at frothy humour. A lovely young orphan is brought to live in the household of her aunt and uncle, and is pressed to marry a questionably-sane cousin. Luckily a hero is lurking in the wings. (Or is he? A hero, that is. The lurking is quite genuine.)
• Therapy by David Lodge ~ 1995. My rating: 7/10. More-than-middle-aged sitcom writer Laurence “Tubby” Passmore is dealing with some serious existential angst, despite his successful lifestyle and his many forms of “therapy”. When his life really takes a nosedive, how will he pick himself up?
• Jeremy at Crale by Hugh Walpole ~ 1927. My rating: 9/10
• Madam Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart ~
• The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett ~
• The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding ~ 1947. My rating: 9.5/10. A cleanly written noir novel centered on a devoted mother’s protection of her teenage daughter from a blackmailer after an inconvenient man turns up very dead.
• The Wind Off the Small Isles by Mary Stewart ~ 1968. My rating: 7.5/10. A slim novella set on the volcanic Canary Island of Lanzarote. Several sets of lovers in deadly peril, but no villains. Slight but entrancing, if one can forgive the dependence on coincidence and some doubtful science regarding a Pompeiian-style scenario.
• The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells ~ 1909. My rating:
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner ~ 1996. My rating – and this goes for the next three books as they are part of a series – a unrepentant 11/10. Love these books so much! Classified as “Young Adult Fantasy” but don’t let that put you off. Beautifully crafted; MWT is meticulous in her use of language. Such clean prose, in the elegant writerly sense. Maybe some day I’ll write proper reviews, but I really do love them too much to dissect them, so this may be the only time I mention them. This is also a very s-l-o-w writer. Maybe that’s why the books are so finely tuned? But more than ready for number five, as there are a number of story strands which MUST be further followed!
• The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner ~ 2000.
• The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner ~ 2006.
• Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner ~ 2010.
• The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart ~ 1967. My rating: 9.5/10. Utterly unlikely, utterly Gothic romantic thriller set in a crumbling Lebanese castle. A drug subplot is awesomely period-piece and deeply awful – every era-appropriate “hemp” stereotype fully paraded. Despite the craziness, it works. And there’s a Porsche. Well done, Mary Stewart!

JUNE 2014

• The Water in Between  by Kevin Patterson ~ 1999. My rating: 9.5/10. Creative autobiography – a non-sailor buys a small sailboat on Vancouver Island, and with a companion crosses the Pacific to Tahiti and back. A fresh treatment of a story that we’ve all heard before.
• The Sudden Guest by Christopher La Farge ~ 1946. My rating: 7/10. A bitter, deeply egotistical elderly woman copes with a rising hurricane at her Rhode Island summer home and mulls over the differences between now and the last great storm only a few years earlier. Perhaps a metaphor for American and her stance regarding world politics of the time?
• Fanfare for Tin Trumpets by Margery Sharp ~ 1932. My rating:
• Lovers All Untrue by Norah Lofts ~ 1970. My rating: 7.5/10. A macabre little tale of Victorian repression and retribution. A stodgily repressive husband and father finds his women slipping out from under his patriarchal grip.
• Inside Daisy Clover by Gavin Lambert ~ 1963. My rating: 8/10. Fictional tale told via the diary of thirteen year old Daisy Clover as she is discovered by a manipulative film magnate and turned into a Hollywood star.
• Life is a Banquet by Rosalind Russell & Chris Chase ~ 1977. My rating: 7/10. Mild memoir by the rather awesome late Hollywood and Broadway actress Rosalind Russell. Likeable enough, though a mite ploddingly written.
• Bright Day by J.B. Priestley ~
• The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston ~ 1954. My rating: 7.5/10
• Ellison Wonderland by Harlan Ellison ~ 1962. My rating: 7/10. Sixteen speculative fiction/sci fi shorts, originally published in the pulp fiction magazines of the 1950s and early 1960s. Some are excellent; some not so much.
• Station Wagon in Spain by Frances Parkinson Keyes ~ 1959. My rating: 5/10. A twist on the Spanish Prisoner scam. Interesting premise, sadly overwritten.
• My Heart Shall Not Fear by Josephine Lawrence ~ 1949. My rating: 5/10. A complicated domestic drama following a number of characters through times of challenge in post-World War II America. Domesticity and the roles of women are key features here.

JULY 2014

• Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love by Rumer & Jon Godden ~ 1989. My rating: 8/10. A collection of short stories by the literary sisters Rumer and Jon, all set in the India they knew so well, and all giving insight into human character as well as describing something of a complex society inhabiting a beautiful and frequently brutal land. Also published in the U.K. as Indian Dust.
• Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski ~ 1949. My rating: 7.5/10. Verging just the tiniest bit on bathos is this suspenseful tale of an English officer returning to France immediately after the end of WW II to seek for the little boy he saw only once as a newborn baby, child of a tragically brief wartime marriage with a French Resistance worker.
• Neither Five Nor Three by Helen MacInnes ~ 1951. My rating: 6/10. The Communist menace threatens the post-World War II New York literary world. Luckily our two troubled lovers have the inner resources to mount a spirited defense.
• The Houses in Between by Howard Spring ~ 1951. My rating: 10/10. Fictional autobiography of a 99-year-old woman, 1848-1948. Melodramatic, funny, poignant.
• Lady Molly of Scotland Yard by The Baroness Orczy ~ 1910. My rating: 5/10. Just barely. An aristocratic detective uses her womanly intuition and the dedicated services of her former personal maid to solve dastardly crimes by intuition (and a dash of magical imagination.)
• Look Back with Love by Dodie Smith ~ 1974. My rating: 10/10. Excellent memoir; first in a series of four “Look Back with…” titles. Extremely readable. Loved it.
• The Lure of the Falcon by Gerald Summers ~ 1972. My rating:
• Life with Daktari by Susanne Hart ~ 1969. My rating: 5/10. A vet’s adventures in East Africa, and quite a lot of lecturing to the reader, by a hero-worshipping compatriot of Joy Adamson. Interesting enough, but rather annoying in tone, due to the hectoring note.
• No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym ~ 1961. My rating: 8/10. Academic researcher Dulcie becomes fascinated by the handsome Aylwin Forbes, and applies her skills to learning all about him, which leads to some complications as Aylwin in turn becomes something of a fixture in Dulcie’s circle of housemates.
• Charlotte by Norah Lofts ~ 1972. My rating: 9.5/10. Inspired by the real life murder accusation against teenage Constance Kent, this noir suspense novel is chillingly mesmerizing. Did Charlotte kill her young stepbrother? And if not, who did? Flagrantly bad parenting is the key to this mystery!

AUGUST 2014

• Woman Without a Past by Phyllis A. Whitney ~1991.  Sorry, I bailed out without finishing. Read about half, to which if pressed I would allocate about a 3/10. Twin kidnapped as baby returns to Southern mansion to sort out long-ago mystery. A psychic cat features. I just didn’t care. Flat writing as well as cardboard characters.
• The Little Straw Wife by Margaret Belle Houston ~ 1914. My rating: 6/10. I had to read this one twice to reassure myself that the good bits (most of it) were very good indeed, but that it did truly turn into something of a mess at the end. Sugary sweet romance capping a wonderfully detailed, slyly humorous, highly diverting marriage-gone-wrong domestic drama. Impulsive narrator Zoë marries Mr. Holt, but refuses to accompany him on the honeymoon, choosing instead to step down into a lower social strata and attempt to earn her living as a single lady.
• The Eyes Around Me by Gavin Black ~ 1964. My rating: 8.5/10. A superior thriller set among the mostly Scottish expatriates living in Hong Kong, just a short boat ride away from Mao’s Red China.
• The Sea-Gull Cry by Robert Nathan ~ 1962. My rating: 3/10. An über-light novella concerning a winsome pair of Anglo-Polish war refugees shoehorned into a dreadfully upbeat formula romance between the eldest sibling, 19-year-old Louisa, and a middle-aged history professor, Smith. The 7-year-old brother Jeri provides cuteness and pathos.
• Yours is the Earth by Margaret Vail ~ 1944. My rating: 10/10. A sober yet impassioned personal account of an American woman’s wartime experience in France. Married to a member of the French upper class and left alone to care for their young daughter and the family estates when he is interned by the German forces, Margaret must decide for herself how to proceed, which she does with steadfast resolve and an immense contempt for the enemy race.
• Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood ~ 1945. My rating: 10/10. A series of linked episodes gleaned from Isherwood’s own experiences in mid-wars Berlin, 1930-33. Utterly chilling from our historical perspective; utterly fascinating for the character portraits the author produces. This is the “I am a camera book”, and one of those character portraits is off the now-ubiquitous Sally Bowles. (Made famous by Liza Minnelli, and now a staple turn in every small town triple-threat dreamer’s stage-struck repertoire.)
• The Etruscan Smile by Velda Johnston ~ 1977. My rating: 6/10. A missing sister brings Samantha and her faithful German Shepherd Caesar to Italy, where she unwittingly steps in to the morass of an old family secret. Two handsome men add romantic intrigue; one is not what he seems, but which one can she truly trust?
• Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge ~ 1935. My rating: 8/10. Second time reading this earnest novel about two friends and their respective marriages. Their parallel lives meet and part and run concurrently; their friendship, never particularly intimate even in their youth, faces challenges and develops to a complex level as their personal situations change. Beautifully written though in a pervasively sober tone; rewarded my re-reading.
• West with the Night by Beryl Markham ~ 1942. My rating: 9.5/10.  A slightly uneven but overall excellent memoir telling of the author’s youth in Africa and her experiences training racehorses and later learning to fly small planes. Beryl eventually became the first person to solo-fly the Atlantic from East to West. An amazing woman; a very readable personal account of her earlier days.
• The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County by Edgar Rice Burroughs ~ 1940. My rating: 4/10. The epitome of pulp “western” fiction, by the creator of the immortal Tarzan. Wrongly accused of the murder of his romantic interest’s father, Buck Mason dons a disguise and penetrates a dude ranch as an Eastern polo player. He sorts everything out, nails the real villains, and finds true love. Did we ever doubt the outcome?!
• Spring Always Comes by Elizabeth Cambridge ~ 1938. My rating: 10/10. A low-key, thoughtful novel examining the characters of a vicar’s family – mother, father, four children – and the nature of personal fulfillment and one’s larger responsibility to the society one lives in. Started out slowly but drew me in completely. Gorgeous novel.
• Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox ~ 2001. My rating: Autobiographical account of the author’s early years. Very stream-of-consciousness in places; made up of snippets of memory. Interesting for its snapshots of the author’s experience, but very incomplete. A rather tragic childhood – Paula was rejected by her parents and left as a newborn at a foundling home; they occasionally reappear in her life mostly bringing heartache – which sheds light on Paula Fox’s later sometimes-dreary young adult novels.
• The American Flaggs by Kathleen Norris ~ 1936. My rating: 6.5/10. A melodramatic moral story. A poor but beautiful girl marries a rich young man under duress; the marriage founders but is rescued by the heroine’s determination to pursue moral right over personal gratification. The enjoyment here is mostly in the details of the early 20th century California setting and the pull-no-punches description of the heroine’s bohemian family and friends prior to her introduction to a more gracious sort of higher society.
• Look Back with Mixed Feelings by Dodie Smith ~ 1978. My rating: 10/10. Dodie Smith attempts to undertake a theatrical career, and fails dismally as an actress. She does, however, gather loads of copy which will eventually serve her in good stead in her future years as successful playwright and bestselling novelist.
• Look Back with Astonishment by Dodie Smith ~ 1979. My rating: 10/10. Dodie Smith turns to conventional work, and feeds and clothes herself on her income from her department store job, while writing madly in her spare minutes. The stunning success of her play Autumn Crocus – plus a string of 5 other successful plays – makes her long years of apprenticeship in the theatre and striving to hone her writing craft well worth while.
• Look Back with Gratitude by Dodie Smith ~ 1985. My rating: 10/10. Dodie Smith and partner Alec Beesley move to America in the opening moves of World War II, and spend the war years in self-imposed exile. I Capture the Castle is the result of a 3-year effort; a love letter to the England of Dodie’s homesick nostalgia.
• Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove ~ 1996. My rating: 7.5/10. A condensation of the life of the acclaimed (and highly unusual) playwright and author, borrowing heavily from Dodie Smith’s own substantial memoirs.
• Cottonwoods Grow Tall by Margaret Bell Houston ~ 1958. My rating:
• Tregaron’s Daughter by Madeleine Brent ~ 1971. My rating: 7/10. A Victorian-era orphan (well, it’s 1910-ish) is rescued from a poverty-stricken life in a Cornish fishing village and taken to the bright lights of London, and thence to Venice, after her secret connection to an Italian noble family is discovered. A gloriously gothic bodice-ripper, complete with literal ripped bodice. Among other things. Absolutely stereotypical, and – big surprise, though not so much when one looks back at the clues – written by a man, British mystery novelist (and creator of Modesty Blaise) Peter O’Donnell, with tongue firmly in cheek.

SEPTEMBER 2014

• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald ~ 1920. My rating: 8/10.
• The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer ~ 1962. My rating: 9/10. A strangely compelling novel concerning an unnamed narrator – the mother of an unspecified but shockingly large number of children – as her fourth marriage and her own questionable sanity start to unravel. Brilliantly written, blackly funny, and deeply disturbing.
• Every Living Thing by James Herriot ~ 1992. My rating: 6/10. Herriot Redux. The “beloved Yorkshire vet” pens another volume of memoir, this one heavily dependent upon the fan base knowing the background of the latest vignettes. Acceptable but not fabulous.
• Trumpets Over Merriford by Reginald Arkell ~ 1955. My rating: 6/10. A Quaint English village domestic drama. American airmen invade sleepy Merriford and build an air base over the ancient wildflower meadows and cow pastures. The vicar of the church has other concerns, though, namely that of the perilous state of his venerable church’s bell tower. An Anglo-American romance between vicarage housekeeper Mary and ex-Texan Johnny Fedora acts as catalyst to bring everything all right by the final page.
• Deck with Flowers by Elizabeth Cadell ~ 1972. My rating: 7/10. A pleasant discovery, this soul-mate of D.E.Stevenson’s feather light romances with a little extra something to keep things nicely engaging. A mild mystery; a solution completely dependent upon lucky coincidence; two predictable romances; creative side characters – what’s not to like? Good stuff, in small doses. 
• The Girl From the Candle-Lit Bath by Dodie Smith ~ 1978. My rating: 3/10. 82-year-old and possibly out-of-fresh-ideas Dodie Smith pens a sub-par “suspense novel”, full of recycled characters and very thin in plot. Who could ex-actress Nan’s backbench MP husband be surreptitiously meeting in Regent’s Park? Another woman? A male lover? A blackmailer? His secret drug dealer? Or perhaps a Soviet connection seeking political secrets? Nope. The reality is even more lame than these stock scenarios. A disappointing read, from a writer who was capable of rather more.
• The Basil and Josephine Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald ~ 1928. My rating: 7.5/10.
• Within This Wilderness by Feenie Ziner ~ 1978. My rating: 8.5/10. An autobiographical account of a mother’s attempt to make sense of her son’s retreat from mainstream life, and his decision to live a squatter’s life in the remote woods of northern Vancouver Island.
• Solomons Seal by Hammond Innes ~ 1980. My rating: 5.5/10. A just acceptable action-thriller, which throws its estate agent hero and his conflicted love interest together in a hodge-podge of stamp collecting, South Seas cargo cult, black magic, gun-running and violent politics, all while steaming about between Australia and the Solomon Islands in an ex-WW II transport ship.
• Make a Cow Laugh by John Holgate ~ 1977. My rating: 8/10. A likeable though lightweight memoir of an ex-suburban British family’s first year of mixed farming on a smallholding on the Welsh border.
• The Ballet Family  by Jean Estoril ~ 1963.
• Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater ~ 1986. My rating: 9.75/10. An excellent 1980s air-travel epic, retracing the 1920s-30s flight path of Imperial Airways Eastbound Empire Service from London to Brisbane, via 30+ stops along the way. Frater combines facts with personal anecdotes and a vast array of period references.
• Family Money by Nina Bawden ~ 1991. My rating: 7.5/10.
• Miss Mole by E.H. Young

OCTOBER 2014

• Pomp and Circumstance by Noel Coward ~ 1960. My rating: 9/10.
• At Home in India by Cynthia Bowles ~ 1956. My rating: 5/10. An American ambassador’s teenage daughter records in earnest detail her experiences of two years in India. The writing is plodding but the subject has its moments of interest, and Miss Bowles finds her stride in the later chapters as she stays behind for a few months after her family’s return to America to visit Indian friends and do a bit of mild personal research into social programs.
• The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett ~ 1950. My rating: 8.5/10. A charming depiction of a working class family in between-the-wars London.
• The Land, The People by Rachel Peden ~ 1966. My rating: 10/10
• In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin ~ 1977. My rating: 8.5/10. Giant sloths, Butch and Sundance, walking through an empty landscape, revolutionaries and expatriate sheep farmers. Chatwin casts his net wide and drags in for further examination a motley collection of unlikely and compelling Patagonian topics.
• Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater ~ 1990. My rating: 10/10. Alexander Frater heads off to write up the meteorological phenomenon of the Indian summer monsoon, and turns out an eloquent family memoir and a self-confessional piece of autobiography at the same time.
• The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E.L. Konigsburg ~ 1975. My rating: 4.5/10. A sadly flat young adult historical fiction concerning Meonardo da Vinci and his young apprentice Salai. (Yawn.)
• Something Light by Margery Sharp
• The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp
• Charmed Circle by Susan Ertz
• Under the Hammer by John Mortimer ~ 1994. My rating: 6/10.

NOVEMBER 2014

• Try Anything Twice by Jan Struther
• The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp
• Claudia by Rose Franken ~ 1938. My rating: pending. High marks for readability, but the content really worries me here and there. Should I *like* this sort of domestic drama popular pap? 😉
• Claudia and David by Rose Franken ~ 1939. My rating: pending. See Claudia.
• Dunster by John Mortimer ~ 1992. My rating: 9/10. Boring accountant Philip Progmire is shadowed all his life by the outspoken, highly opinionated, and completely honest Dick Dunster. Dunster is a constant thorn in Philip’s side, but finally the worm turns, with Dunster’s allegations about the war crime involvement of Philip’s admired employer. An interesting novel, equal parts “good story” and serious moral examination.
• For the Sake of the School by Angela Brazil ~ 1915. My rating: 5.5/10. An absolutely clichéd school story. Good Egg Ulyth is put on the spot by the arrival of pen-pal Rona from New Zealand. Rona is not what Ulyth expected, but she perseveres in polishing up the colonial diamond-in-the-rough, to the confounding of the school’s Mean Girl. Nice touches include the setting – in the early days of the Great War in rural Wales – and the entirely predictable plot, which includes a happy fairy tale sort of ending, with everyone nicely sorted out and returned to their rightful Place in Society.
• Dodgem by Bernard Ashley ~ 1981. My rating:
• Love by Elizabeth von Arnim ~ 1925. My rating: 9.75/10.
• Passenger to Teheran by Vita Sackville-West ~ 1926. My rating: 8/10.
• The Silk Vendetta by Victoria Holt ~ 1987. My rating: 5.5/10
• Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster ~ 1905. My rating: 6/10. Forster’s first novel. Family relations, snobbery, and a passion for Italy all feature in this uneven tale of a middle-aged widow, her second impetuous marriage, and the English fascination with Italy.
• A Kid for Two Farthings by Wolf Mankowitz ~ 1953. My rating: 9.5/10.
• Jalna by Mazo de la Roche ~ 1927. My rating: 5.5/10
• The Midnight Kittens by Dodie Smith.

DECEMBER 2014

• Never a Dull Moment by Peggy Holmes ~ 1984. My rating: 7.5/10.
• Little Britches by Ralph Moody ~ 1950. My rating: 7/10. Establishing a small ranch in Colorado in the early 1900s. Young Ralph gets into all sorts of scrapes, but with Mother’s Bible lectures, Father’s strong right hand and application of an occasional willow switch, Ralph finds his way straight ahead to becoming an upright young man. The first in a series of memoirs, “creative autobiography”.
• The Setons by O. Douglas ~ 1917. My rating: 8/10. A pleasant domestic drama following the fortunes of a Scottish minister’s daughter in Glasgow, in the years leading up to and just after the start of the Great War.
• Non-Combatants and Others by Rose Macaulay ~ 1916. My rating: 9/10. A bitter pacifist novel full of autobiographical undertones. Artist Alix Sandomir refuses to take notice of the war news; she hides her repugnance under a laughing mask. Then her young brother dies in the trenches, and the pretence of non-involvement comes to a brutal end. 
• Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves ~ 1929. My rating: 10/10. Poet and writer Robert Graves’ outspoken memoir of his school days, time in the Great War trenches, and attempt at post-war normalcy. Stellar.
• The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx ~ 1993. My rating: 7/10.
• Vittoria Cottage by D.E. Stevenson.
• Music in the Hills by D.E. Stevenson.
• Shoulder the Sky by D.E. Stevenson.
• Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford ~ 1932. My rating: 5.75/10. A romantic romp in the country, concerning an author in disguise, his amorous dalliances, and much partner-swapping by various town types out for a holiday among the rustic joys of Compton Bobbin and Mulberrie Farm. A bit uneven, and the author tries too hard to maintain the farce, but reasonably successful for this sort of ephemeral thing.
• The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp.
• The Maze in the Heart of the Castle by Dorothy Gilman ~ 1983. My rating: 3.5/10
• Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson.
• The Motive on Record by Dell Shannon ~ 1982. My rating: 7/10.
• The Visiting Moon by Celia Furse  ~1956. My rating: 10/10.
• Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw ~ 1969. My rating: 9.5/10.
• A Tale of Two Families by Dodie Smith
• Home is the Sailor by Rumer Godden
• Penny Plain by O. Douglas
• Priorsford by O. Douglas
• The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God by George Bernard Shaw ~ 1933. My rating: 10/10
• The Tall Stranger by D.E. Stevenson
• The Blue Sapphire by D.E. Stevenson
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

*****

The Reading List ~ 2013

JANUARY 2013

• The Joyful Delaneys by Hugh Walpole ~ 1938. My rating: 9.5/10. A year in the life of the ebullient Delaney family. A fabulous way to start off the 2013 reading year – I loved it!
• The Lonely Life by Bette Davis, with ghostwriter Sandford Dody ~ 1962. My rating: 7.5/10. An interesting but fairly standard issue movie star memoir. Confident, outspoken and unapologetic.
• Hans Frost by Hugh Walpole ~ 1929. My rating: 8.5/10. A passionate yet platonic love affair between an elderly author and his young niece.
• Midnight on the Desert by J.B. Priestley ~ 1937. My rating: 9.5/10. Autobiographical essays and journal entries on a myriad of subjects, written while the author was staying in Arizona. Eclectic and most excellent.
• Daylight on Saturday by J.B. Priestley ~ 1943. My rating: 7/10. Wartime England. A “propaganda novel”, commissioned to boost morale, centered around the workers in an aircraft factory.
• Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis (pseudonym of Edward Tanner) ~ 1955. My rating: 8/10. A giddy social comedy, rather silly but gorgeously readable.
• The Confidant by Hélène Grémillon ~ 2012. My rating: 6/10. Mysterious letters tell a stunning story connected to a young Parisian’s family history.  An interesting diversion, but not one I’ll read again.
• Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac – 1833. My rating: 9/10. Balzac’s tale of the virginal Eugenie and her one desperate love affair holds up marvellously well almost 2 centuries after its original publication.
• The Alpine Path  by L.M. Montgomery ~ 1917. My rating: 8/10. A slight volume of memoir, written for the author’s many fans at the peak of her popularity.
• The Strangers Next Door by Edith Iglauer ~ 1991. My rating: 7.5/10. A collection of essays on a wide variety of Canadian and American topics, from training New York City’s police horses to Inuit artists, and everything in between. Fascinating topics, well-researched, but presented with a certain flatness of style which kept this collection from being as enjoyable as I’d hoped it would be.
• Gigi  by Colette ~ 1944. My rating: 10/10. A daughter of the demimondaine in 1899 Paris tries her hand at winning true love.
• The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s by Nicola Humble ~ 2001. My rating: 8/10. A scholarly treatment of the genre; very readable and affirmative of our enjoyment of the same.
• Two-Part Inventions by Lynne Sharon Schwartz ~ 2012. My rating: 8/10. A reclusive pianist dies, but her recording engineer husband finds a way to perpetuate her gift. Or is it really hers? Based on a true incident, this novel delves into a complex fictional marriage, and addresses the nature of ambition, love, and ultimately truth.
• L.M. Montgomery – biography – by Jane Urquhart ~ 2009. My rating: 7.5/10. An iconic Canadian writer turns her gaze on a famous predecessor. A creative biography, covering old ground in a slightly new way.
• Judging a Book by Its Lover by Lauren Leto ~ 2012. My rating: 4/10. A lightweight, pleasantly snarky, ultimately forgettable ode to the joys of reading. The narrow focus and possibly the youth of the author prevents this from having any sort of interesting range.
•  A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson ~ 1985. My rating: 5/10. The 2nd time reading, but this one is not one of my Ibbotson favourites. I felt it was too contrived even for this author, who ordinarily necessitates a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief. It started well but slid away from me quite early on. An emotionally abused dancer runs away to South America and finds true romance.
• A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel ~ 2004.  My rating: 7.5/10. Jottings on a book a month from a noted intellectual, writer, and lifelong reader. He goes off an infinite tangents, from the everyday to the completely arcane.
• Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese ~ 2012. My rating: 7.5/10. Wagamese draws from his own family history and the broader shared First Nations experience of the residential schools to write both a hockey novel and a saga of survival. One of the Canada Reads finalists.
• One Native Life by Richard Wagamese ~ 2008. My rating: 6.5/10. Short mini-essays on the First Nations experience, more specifically Richard Wagamese’s memoirs. Interesting, but occasionally these felt a bit forced, as if the determinedly positive spin were hard to maintain.
• For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son by Richard Wagamese ~ 2002. My rating: 7/10. Memoirs and advice from a father to his estranged son.
• 1982 by Jian Ghomeshi ~ 2012. My rating: 4/10. My pre-reading high hopes were dashed regarding this slight memoir of one year in the teenage life of CBC radio personality Jian Ghomeshi. Even the references to Bowie couldn’t keep it moving. Too many misses.
• Lake of the Prairies by Warren Cariou ~ 2002. My rating: 9/10. A memoir and an exploration of family and place. Set in rural Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, but the experiences related here transcend a particular place. Nice.
• FEBRUARY 2013
• The Roving I by Eric Nicol ~ 1950. My rating: 7/10. A young Eric leaves Vancouver and journeys to France to study at the Sorbonne. Brief but pithy commentary on travel and on life abroad; some gems of lyrical prose, always with his trademark rather goofy humour surging to the surface.
• Shall We Join the Ladies?  by Eric Nicol ~ 1955. My rating: 5/10. The humour is very dated in this collection of witty musings on the state of current affairs and the battle of the sexes. Occasional gems, but overall a bit tiresome. In its favour, it’s a very short book.
• The Age of Hope by David Bergen ~ 2012. My rating: 7/10. A nicely written but rather bland domestic drama following the titular Hope from her birth in 1930s to the closing years of her life. A Canada Reads finalist, for what it’s worth. It was readable enough, but I doubt it’s a keeper here.
• Away  by Jane Urquhart ~ 1993. My rating: 7.5/10. A dreamily lyrical saga of an Irish family’s establishment in Ontario. Another Canada Reads finalist.
• The Innocents  by Margery Sharp ~ 1974. My rating 11/10. This might be my personal favourite of all of Margery Sharp’s excellent books. An elderly spinster is unexpectedly left in charge of a mentally handicapped toddler whose mother refuses to believe that her child is anything less than “normal”. Understated and slyly humorous and quite heart rending on occasion. Excellent.
• In Pious Memory  by Margery Sharp ~ 1967. My rating: 5/10. This couldn’t even begin to compare with The Innocents, but it was fairly readable. The plot description sounds better than the story turns out to be. Mr and Mrs Prelude are in a plane crash; Mrs Prelude walks away, but Mr Prelude perishes. Or does he? Convinced that she has possibly made a horrible mistake when viewing her husband’s body, Mrs Prelude theorizes that perhaps he is still alone, wandering in the Swiss mountains. The 16-year-old Prelude daughter decides to go and investigate for herself. A farce which doesn’t, like the ill-fated plane, quite make its destination.
• The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp ~ 1940. My rating: 6.5/10. Professor Pounce creates quite a stir in the village when he decides to inquire into the amorous habits of the female residents. A satirical farce which had its moments.
• February  by Lisa Moore ~ 2010. My rating: 9/10. A woman looks back on the loss of her husband during Newfoundland’s 1982 Ocean Ranger disaster. A well-written and believable historical fiction which deserved its place topping the 2012 Canada Reads contest.
• Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1936. My rating: 6/10. What happens after foolish-wise Miss Buncle’s tell-all book sets her home village all a-buzz. Mostly concerns the renovation of an old house, and some mild romancings in the new haunts of Barbara Abbott (nee Buncle).
• Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey ~ 1932. My rating: 7.5/10. A group of dysfunctional characters and a bride with a history posture their way through this tensely “humorous” novella.
• Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry ~ 1997. My rating: 9.5/10. Tell-all autobiography, as frenetically brilliant as Fry’s comedic acting.
• In the Suicide’s Library by Tim Bowling ~ 2010. My rating: 7/10. Poet Tim Bowling struggles with his conscience: is it ever right to steal a book? This leads to meandering thoughts on life and literature.
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery ~ 2006. My rating: 8/10. In an exclusive Paris apartment building, an elderly concierge, a precocious schoolgirl, and a wealthy Japanese businessman form a philosophically inclined triumvirate of outcasts.
• God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau ~ 2008. My rating: 7.5/10. Biographical account of the journeyings of one of the “Lost Boys” of the 1980s’ Sudanese civil war. Well put together.
• Moranthology by Caitlin Moran ~ 2012. My rating: 9/10. British writer Moran looks back at her childhood and adolescence and skewers her younger self as brutally as she does the pop stars she profiles in this outspoken and slashingly funny collection of articles.
• Safe Haven by Larry Gaudet ~ 2007. My rating: 5.5/10. Gaudet drags his unwilling wife out to the wilds of Nova Scotia and proceeds to get all introspective about his desire for “sanctuary”, and its broader implications. Beautifully written but sadly the whole thing has “vanity project” overtones, and I kept thinking “marriage in trouble!!!” the whole way through, which I don’t think was the author’s intention.
• How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran ~ 2011. Sorry, unrateable. Absolutely loved some of it; a few bits appalled me. This writer has no self-edit function! Which makes this high speed, profane, too-much-information rant on the business of being female both deeply engaging and just a bit worrisome to those of us functioning on a less high speed plane of “normal”. Very good, and I enjoyed it. But there are episodes and opinions here and there that triggered the “ick!” response! And she swears. A lot.
• Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong ~ 1981. My rating: 7.5/10. A 17-year-old from a non-religious family enters a Roman Catholic nunnery. Seven years later Karen Armstrong realized that she had lost her faith, and returned to the world. A somewhat bitter though thoughtful and frequently funny account of one woman’s finding a place of inner peace.
• The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon ~1955. My rating: 8/10. Twenty-seven original fairy tales, chosen by their author for this collection. Creative, delicately nuanced, and suitable for all ages. Edward Ardizzone’s perfect illustrations are the crowning touch.
• Sensible Kate by Doris Gates ~ 1943. My rating: 6/10. A better-than-average vintage “girl’s book”, about a young orphan who finds her forever home. Sweet but not overly so; some interesting supporting characters and a nicely normal heroine, whose desire for peaceful good order makes her a refreshing change from the volatile super-girls we often come across in this variable juvenile genre.
• People Who Knock on the Door  by Patricia Highsmith ~ 1983. My rating: 6.5/10. A tense, noir, almost-thriller concerning a family disintegrating after two of its members embrace an arcane strain of Christian fundamentalism.
• A Lamp is Heavy by Sheila MacKay Russell ~ 1950. My rating: 5/10. A pleasant, readable, but not particularly outstanding fictionalized memoir about nursing students in an unnamed Alberta teaching hospital in the pre-World War II years.
• One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens ~ 1942. My rating: 10/10. The fictionalized memoirs of young Monica as she works towards qualifying as a nurse in England during the early years of World War II. Stellar. Conversational, rather brittle, cuttingly funny, and occasionally deeply sincere. One of the author’s most popular books and almost continuously in print since its first publication.
• Starting Out in the Afternoon by Jill Frayne ~ 2003. My rating: 4/10. A self-centered memoir by an Ontario woman about finding oneself through travel and contact with the natural world. It had its moments, but was a bit navel-gazey and “me me me”.
• The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih ~ 1968. My rating: 7/10. Two short stories and a short novella set in the Sudan. A very short but interesting glimpse into a particular time and place, mid-20th century Sudan. Well written and quietly humorous.
• MARCH 2013
• Kate Hardy by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1947. My rating: 6/10. A mildly diverting tale, purely typical of the author, in which a successful authoress moves to a rural village, and finds her place in the scheme of things. And love. No review this time around, but I know I’ll be reading it again.
• Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith ~ 1967. My rating: 6/10. Suicide of a bride on her honeymoon; revenge in Rome and Venice. A dark thriller. No review this time round, because I will be reading this again. Not quite sure about Highsmith; her thought processes are disturbing!
• Delight by Mazo de la Roche ~ 1929. My rating: 6/10. Thomas Hardy-esque rural Canadiana. Interesting. I’m going to table my review until I have a chance to re-read this one. I found myself mildly out to sea as I initially was unsure of the author’s intent – it felt like satire, but I wasn’t quite sure if that was the author’s actual intention.
• Vittoria Cottage by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1949. My rating: 8.5/10. A middle-aged widow is the heroine here, as she adjusts to village life and copes with her three children, who are at various stages of adulthood and almost-adulthood. The first story in what was to become a linked series of three, with connections to other books as well.
•  Music in the Hills  by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1950. My rating: 8/10. This one follows Vittoria Cottage, and concerns itself with Caroline’s son James, newly back in England from military and police service in Malaya, and trying to settle into civilian life. There is a rather satisfying love story (or two) in this one.
• All the Little Live Things  by Wallace Stegner ~ 1967. My rating: 10/10.  Excellent.  An intense novel set in the California hills concerning love in all its forms; plus death.
• The Web of Days by Edna Lee ~ 1947. My rating: 3/10. A deeply melodramatic Gothic Southern Romance, with a stunning beautiful, virginal, hyper-organized Yankee governess conquering both her young charge, sullen heir to a foundering Georgia plantation, and two feuding brothers. It’s all very over the top, but not in a particularly good way. A rotten book, really, made worse by the heroine’s deep contempt for anyone black. As this is set in the post Civil War South, this means every second person. Yuck. But I did read it to the end, hence the generous “3”.
• Round Ireland in Low Gear by Eric Newby ~ 1988. No review, no rating. Eric and Wanda on bikes in Ireland in the winter, in the freezing rain. Why didn’t she just push him off his bike? Rambling. Another one to try again when I’m in a less cynical mood. I’m teetering on this author; when he’s good he’s grand, but I’m getting the feeling that in later years his stunts are just that, undertaken with a weather eye open to how it can be best written up versus fully experiencing the trip for itself.
• Smouldering Fire by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1935.  My rating: 9/10. Awesome! An early book by DES, and a great romance starring a Scottish hereditary chieftan. Lost a point for the ending – yikes! Murder?
• Sunrise with Seamonsters: Travels & Discoveries 1964-1984 by Paul Theroux ~ 1985. My rating: 8/10. A nicely eclectic collection of essays and articles written through the years. Some great, some merely average. A must-read for the Theroux fan. No review.
• Every Day is Mother’s Day by Hilary Mantel ~ 1985. My rating: 7/10. Mantel’s first novel, beautifully crafted but desperately bleak. Elderly medium Evelyn and her not-quite-all-there daughter Muriel do unspeakable things to each other. Social worker Isabel is drawn into their deeply unpleasant world.
• Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1964. My rating: 7.5/10. Widowed after only a few years of a very happy marriage, Katherine strives to do the best for her teenage stepson and young twins. A quiet novel, with the inevitable romance. I enjoyed it.
• Sisters Torn by Cynthia J. Faryon ~ 2001. My rating: 4/10. A tragic fictionalized  family story, told by the daughter of one of the protagonists, of two young sisters abandoned by their parents and separated by the British adoption system, despite promises that they would stay together. It was 65 years before they met again. Tighter editing would have raised this one a few points on the scale; I found the writing uneven at best, with attempts at dialogue unconvincing and disruptive of what “flow” it had. I feel rotten panning it, as it was deeply personal and sincere, but it could – should! – have been presented more professionally; it was published through Caitlin Press, and I assume that they have access to editorial staff, even though the authors they represent are often earnest amateurs.
• The House on the Cliff by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1966. My rating: 7.5/10. Not bad at all. In fact, rather enjoyable in a typically D.E. Stevenson, lightly romantic type of way. Re-read and reviewed November 2013.
• Celia’s House by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1943.  My rating: 8/10. A family saga of sorts concerning 40 years of a family’s residence on a Scottish estate.
• The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West ~ 1930. My rating: 9/10.  Reminded me of Colette’s Cheri, but in a very English way. Deserves a re-read and a review. A wealthy young Englishman searches for meaning in his life.
• The Tall Stranger by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1957. My rating: 8/10. Two London roommates have gentle adventures and find romance, after some mild setbacks. A very minor novel even in the admittedly generally lightweight D.E. Stevenson canon, but hugely enjoyable for its very fluff, I thought.
• The Chamomile Lawn by Mary Wesley ~ 1984. My rating: 4/10. A group of cousins sleeps around all over the place in the years of WW II and after. Incestuous, smutty-minded, unempathetic characters and a convoluted soap opera of a plot failed to met with much liking by this reader, though the novel has received much positive press. Some perhaps because of its author producing this as her debut novel at the age of 70, and claims that it is based on the author’s wartime experiences. A mini-series of the novel is popularly praised. Sorry, not a keeper.
• To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey ~ 1950. My rating: 8/10. An ambiguous young man and a radio broadcaster embark upon a canoe trip down a winding English river with unforeseen consequences.
• The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey ~ 1929. My rating: 7.5/10. Tey’s first novel, published under the pen name Gordon Daviot. A tightly packed queue lining up for theatre tickets dissipates when it is found that one of the crowd has been fatally stabbed while standing in line.
• Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey ~ 1949. My rating: 10/10. Excellent! A doppelganger thriller. With horses. No review this time around; I’ll be re-reading this one in the future and may attempt to do it justice then.
• Jenny Kimura by Betty Cavanna ~ 1964. My rating: 6/10. Teen fiction writer Cavanna tackles the topic of mixed race marriage when she brings half-American, half-Japanese Jenny on a visit to her American grandmother. Nicely done.
• My Heart Lies South by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino ~ 1953. My rating: 8.5/10. A warm memoir of the author’s marriage into an aristocratic Mexican family.
• Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout ~ 1939. My rating: 7/10. Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe venture into the countryside and are soon mixed up with a $10,000 bull, a rural feud, and some star-crossed lovers.
• APRIL 2013
• A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey ~ 1936. My rating: 10/10. A gorgeous Golden Age mystery. Who killed the movie star?
• Amberwell by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1955. My rating: 9.5/10. Excellent! A family saga of awful parents and quite lovely children, set at a Scottish country estate. Deserves a review, which I will get to after a future re-reading.
• Rochester’s Wife  by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1940. My rating: 5/10. Barely acceptable. This one was rather a mess. A young doctor decides to settle down in England after travelling about the world. Much romance, none of it particularly appealing to read about. An episode of insanity is handled in a rather bizarre manner by the author as well as the several doctors in the case. One of the weakest of this author’s books I’ve read to date. (Peter West was also something of a miss, as was Green Money.)
• A View of the Town by Jan Hilliard ~ 1954. My rating: 5/10. A forgettable-ish lightly farcical family saga set in Nova Scotia, by the author of the Leacock Award winning The Salt Box.
• The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry ~ 1994. My rating: 7/10. Second-rate poet and recently sacked theatre critic Ted Wallace visits a country house in which a teenage boy, Ted’s godchild, is allegedly providing services of miraculous healing to an oddly assorted group of people with problems. A hectic farce drenched in sarcasm and sex.
• The Country Cousin by Betty Cavanna ~ 1967. My rating: 5.5/10. A mild teen romance set in the retail fashion trade as a teenage girl works for her older cousin in a popular Bryn Mawr dress shop and finds her vocation (and love) during a buying trip to Paris.
• Fits Like a Rubber Dress by Roxane Ward ~ 1999. My rating: 6.5/10. Frustrated 29-year-old Indigo Blackwell, Torontonian public relations staffer, faces a personal and marital crisis as her husband explores the local gay scene, ostensibly for research on a book. 
• God Loves Laughter by William Sears ~ 1960.  No review. My rating: 4/10.  A memoir by B’nai B’rith personality William Sears. I had no idea what this one was about when I started it; the early years were interesting but once he found religion he rather lost me, sad to say. So I quit reading. Probably more interesting to those who already know who this is. Released back into the world via Bookcrossing.
• Enchanted Summer by Gabrielle Roy ~ 1972. My rating: 8/10. Lovely. Rural musings.
• Olivia Joules and the Over-Active Imagination by Helen Fielding ~ 2004. My rating: 5/10. Totally fluffy chick-lit, several notches below Bridget Jones but fleetingly amusing nonetheless. A journalist-turned-spy follows a suspected terrorist around the world and dabbles in romance as well.
• Lasso Your Heart by Betty Cavanna ~ 1952. My rating: 5/10. Prudence, teen daughter of a ranch manager, moves from Texas to Pennsylvania and goes through an adjustment period before finding her place in her new world, and, of course, a bit of romance. Interesting setting and some serious background topics as the family deals with the tragic death of Prue’s cousin’s pilot husband.
• The Joyous Season by Patrick Dennis ~ 1964. My rating: 9.5/10. From the creator of Auntie Mame comes this stellar comedy of two children attemnpting to mend their parents’ failing marriage. Nice.
• Rhododendron Pie  by Margery Sharp ~ 1930. My rating: 10/10. This, the first and perhaps the rarest Sharp of all, is exquisitely written and I love it more every time I re-read it. I finally managed a review, plus a scan of the first pages.
• Frost in May  by Antonia White ~ 1933. My rating: 8/10. Colette’s translator was an accomplished author in her own right; this autobiographical fiction of life in a convent school is very good indeed.
• Sylvester: or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer ~ 1957. My rating: 9/10. Oh my! I think I’m in love. With Heyer’s Regency world, that is. Delicious! My first ever of her romances; completely trumps the mysteries of hers I’ve read in the past. Two very independent and opinionated people go through all the phases of instant dislike, misunderstanding, dawning appreciation and passionate love. Rather sweet.
• Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson ~ 2012.  My rating: 8.5/10. On my must-read list after hearing the author interviewed by Shelagh Rogers on CBC. In the “truth is stranger than fiction” category of memoir; Jeanette and her own personal “monster,” her adoptive mother, “Mrs. Winterson.” Enlightening, courageous, more than a little horrifying, and above all personal.
• Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture edited by Irene Gammel ~ 2002. My rating: 8/10. A collection of mostly scholarly essays on the L.M. Montgomery phenomenon. Fascinating, though I admit that I speed-read through a few of the denser bits.
• The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer ~ 1950. My rating: 9/10. Sophy comes to stay with her cousins and sets the family topsy-turvy with her benignly managing ways. An irrepressible heroine and a frolicsome fiction set in post-Waterloo England.
• Secrets of the Gnomes by Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen ~ 1981. My rating: 10/10. Much more than a picture book. An intricately illustrated “travelogue” about the fantastical world of gnomes. Clever! Humorous, with a serious message about caring for our shared world. The artwork is extremely well done. I may review this one at some point as it’s very interesting in concept and execution. Decidedly of “adult” interest.
• Yonder by Margaret Bell Houston ~ 1955. My rating: 9/10. Vintage American gothic thriller. One chapter in and surprised by its more than decent quality. Hoping it holds up to its initial promise! I’ve looked on the internet for more information about the author, but found very little in the way of book reviews. (Later) Excellent example of the genre. A sound 9/10. I am very curious now about the author; she apparently wrote poetry, short stories and thirteen other novels; Yonder appears to be the only one now in common circulation. Was it her one-hit-wonder best, or are there more literary treasures out there hidden in dusty bookcases?
• Sea Jade by Phyllis A. Whitney ~ 1964. My rating: 3/10. American Gothic Romance at its clichéd worst. A disappointment.
• Coming Up For Air by George Orwell – a more than slightly bitter antidote to the lush romance and gothic suspense I’ve been caught up in this week. 8/10. This is one I’d like to review, but which I fear I might not have time to really deal with properly right now.
• Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer – an absolutely delightful over-the-top romantic romp. Pure fluff, but the long dialogue sections are very nicely done with loads of cunning, period-correct language, and much humour. 9/10.
• Marrying Off Mother and other stories  by Gerald Durrell – short stories, both fictional and anecdotal, by the venerable naturalist-zookeeper-popular writer. A pleasant collection, with a few rather chillingly macabre tales tucked among the sunny anecdotes. 8/10.
• The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden ~ 1859. My rating: 6.5/10. A deliberately* Jane Austenish comedy of manners much centered on social status among the English upper classes of the 1800s. The aristocratic Eden wrote of what she knew, apparently, and this was one of two novels she produced; she also wrote a non-fictional book of reminiscences of travelling in India. This novel is a pleasant period piece full of likeable characters. (*Jane Austen was apparently Emily Eden’s favourite author; Eden’s novels were deliberately modelled on Austen’s, which is immediately apparent upon reading.)
• Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer – this one was possibly a bit too dialogue-heavy; not much action; they mostly all just talked. And talked. And talked. The main hero got a bit heavy-handed on the last few pages, but all in all it wasn’t a chore to read. Not quite up to the other three Heyers I’ve just read this month, though. I’ll give it a 7/10, I think.
• MAY 2013
• Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle (and Other Modern Verse) – anthology – I picked this one up at the Sally Ann the other day; I remember reading it in high school English class. (I was a dedicated picker-upper of books stacked on the shelves at the side of the classroom, whether they were assigned reading or not.) I seem to remember this one being used “officially” for a poetry unit, and I know I read it cover to cover. Re-reading it some thirty-plus years later, I’m rather amazed to find that I remember the whole thing, including the illustrations. Must have been at an impressionable age! An interesting collection, perhaps most notable now in 2013 for the vintage appeal of what was deemed “modern” in 1966, which was when this was published. There are a few gems which have held up well; I might share some of these soon.
• Extra Virgin  by Annie Hawes – 9/10 –an Englishwoman and her sister, off on a working holiday in Italy, buy an old stone house in an olive grove. I’m working my way through this dense creative autobiography slowly and with huge enjoyment. Not at all cutesy and patronizing – a danger of the “we bought a house in a foreign paradise and fixed it up and here are our superior adventures” genre; this particular author is observant and sensible and self-effacing and wryly humorous. I’ve already done some author research, and found that she also eventually acquired a local partner to go with the house; it turned into a long-term affair in more ways than one; she still lives there. Good stuff.
• Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pierce – 7.5/10 – poignant story of a young boy who mysteriously discovers a long-vanished garden when the clock in the hall strikes thirteen. A children’s tale which can be appreciated by adults on a whole different level.
• Coronation by Paul Gallico – 6.5/10 – a deeply sentimental novella about an excursion-gone-awry to see Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in London in 1953.
• The Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein – 8/10 – classic Heinlein shorts, full of space travel and esoteric mathematicians and lovely girls (vital measurements given with a wolfishly appreciating grin) and Evil Communist Russians and grim deaths and eternal (though frequently misplaced) optimism and politically snide remarks. Good nostalgic vintage sci-fi stuff, to be read with “it was the era” political correctness blinders on!
• The Big Red Train Ride by Eric Newby ~ 1979.  I quit part way through, so no review and no rating. Newby does the Trans-Siberian Railway in the late 1970s. Not nearly as captivating as I’d hoped it would be, and he tries too hard to be funny, which just comes off as condescending, but I’m intending to give it another try down the road. 
• Mexican Days: Journeys into the Heart of Mexico by Tony Cohan ~ 2006. My rating: 5/10. A slightly self-indulgent and ultimately slight account of an expense-account trip to lesser known Mexican travel destinations. Aimed at the well-heeled eco-tourist, perhaps? Some readable bits; not a truly awful book, just…slight. So no review. And it might just go into the giveaway box.
• Roman Fever and Other Stories by Edith Wharton – 6.5/10. All very readable, some more so than others. Wharton in eloquent with a lashing of bitterness in most of these.
• Laughing Gas by P.G. Wodehouse – 8/10 – Deepy silly, as only a Wodehouse epic can be. A rather delightful read to lighten the mood this busy month.
• No Love by David Garnett ~ 1929. My rating: 8/10. Two families, one island. A sophisticated and nicely constructed novel of love and jealousy.
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn ~ 2001.  My rating: 3/10. No review. This was cute, but ultimately too contrived for my enjoyment; the premise employed by the author wasn’t strong enough to carry a tale of this length. But many people love it, so don’t take my word for it. I found it too much like work to read, so I bailed.
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt – 10/10 – Macabre, cold-blooded and unexpectedly funny. Kudos to the author for the ending; it went a different direction than I’d expected, in a very good way. Loved it. Not for the squeamish!
• Enchantment by Monica Dickens – 5/10 – One of the author’s last adult novels, published when she was 74 years old, and perhaps because of that it felt rather slight, in an “author getting tired” sort of way. Readable, but very much in a minor key compared to many of her earlier works. I appreciated her sensitive handling of her superficially unattractive characters. Rather a brave book, come to think of it.
• JUNE 2013
• At Mrs. Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor – 9/10. Taylor deftly juggles her characters in this slightly disturbing, beautifully written novel; her first.
• Crewe Train by Rose Macaulay – 9/10. Loved it!
• Antigua, Penny, Puce by Robert Graves – 8.5/10. Social satire; sibling rivalry.
• Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim – review pending. Nice!
• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym ~ 1952. My rating: 10/10. Inner voice observations of a spinster. Classic Pym. One of her very best.
• The Quiet Village by Ursula Bloom ~ 1965. My rating: 6/10. Hard to describe. A cross between an Agatha Christie and ??? Workmanlike storytelling with more than a touch of suspense. I mostly enjoyed it. “Light” reading, definitely, but good for the genre. (Romantic-suspense? Village gothic?) I’m curious about this author; have never encountered her before.
• The Driftway by Penelope Lively – 4/10 – A story with a strong message for the younger set. The preachy bits are galling, but the historical bits are excellent. Think Puck of Pook’s Hill with way less focus and cohesiveness. Interesting, but in general not a success. This writer can do much better.
• Ringing the Changes: An Autobiography by Mazo de la Roche ~ 1957.  My rating: 9/10. Perhaps most intriguing for what the author doesn’t share with us? Rather fascinating memoir from a world-famous Canadian author now mostly forgotten. (Jalna et al.)
• Wheels Within Wheels by Dervla Murphy – 9/10. Excellent memoir by a fascinating woman. Recommended.
• A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke – 6/10 – No review – It was diverting enough – if there is an equivalent category to “chick lit” from a male POV I think this falls nicely into it – “guy lit”? – but I’ve spent as much time as I can spare just in the reading of it. An Englishman in Paris. Modern take-off on all things French. Cutting and sarcastic and yes, very, very rudely funny. Lots of sex, but surprisingly inoffensive given the “over-sharing” aspect! I laughed, but not too loudly. Fiction, though it reads like a memoir.
• A Nice Long Evening by Elizabeth Corbett – 6/10 – Circa 1933 –  A pleasant family saga with an unusual protagonist, 80-year-old Mrs. Meigs.  Part of a series; I’ll be on the lookout for the others.
• The Rendezvous and other stories by Daphne du Maurier – 7/10 – A collection of 14 stories from throughout this author’s stellar career. Some are excellent; others perhaps not so much. Worth reading, especially for du Maurier fans.
• Brief Lives  by Anita Brookner – 7.5/10
• In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield – an early collection of vignettes which the author herself did not desire republished. Pre-war propaganda detailing the more offensive traits of the German character. In various contexts, quite fascinating.
• The Winds of Heaven  by Monica Dickens – 7/10
• Zigzag – A Life on the Move  by James Houston – 9/10. Autobiographical snippets regarding artist and writer James Houston’s travels after leaving the Arctic, and his experiences as a master designer with Steuben Glass.
• A Doctor’s Pilgrimage: An Autobiography by Edmund A. Brasset, M.D. – 8/10. Well-written and appealing memoir of a Nova Scotia doctor in the 1930s and 40s.
• Schoolhouse in the Wind by Anne Treneer – 8/10.  Memoir of a Cornish childhood in the early years of the 20th Century.
• A Fool in the Forest by Leonard Clark – Essays of childhood and adolescence in the Forest of Dean in the Cotswolds, near the Welsh border.
• JULY 2013
• Outside the Line by Christian Petersen – 6/10
• An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym – 7/10.
• Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym – re-reading this one for the ? time. This time I will try to get a review up.
• Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson – 9.5/10. Wow! Strong book, in so many ways. Loved it. One of the best I’ve read in 2013 to date.
• Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban – 9/10
• Cornish Years by Anne Treneer – 8/10
• The Shout and other stories by Robert Graves – 7/10. Short stories & personal anecdotes. Some hit, some miss. An uneven collection, but contains enough good stuff to be a definite keeper.
• Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge. Oh, wow!!! This one gets an enthusiastic 10/10. What a marvelous novel. I will be looking for more by this author, though an initial search has left me with the awful feeling that she may be hard to track down, aside from this title, which was re-published by Persephone in 2003.
• The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod. 10/10 for the writing, though not exactly a “pleasure” read. Classic Can-Lit. Beautifully written but frequently gloomy, desperately wallowing in despair. Makes me glad that I missed this one in high school; I can see all sorts of elements in these very Canadian “literary” tales to have an English teacher all fired up with opportunities to identify symbolism and assorted deeper meanings.
• A Breath of Fresh Air by Betty Cavanna – And now for something completely different… Away from the dark shores of Cape Breton and south to New England for a light and superficial “teen novel” regarding a girl’s struggles with the divorce of her parents, neatly packaged with a parallel plot line featuring Louisa May Alcott. Sadly, only a 4/10 for this vintage teen tome.
• Enchanted Summer by Gabrielle Roy. My rating: 8/10. Re-reading this for the second time this year, because I’m wanting to review it for the Canadian Book Challenge. Short anecdotes by the esteemed Canadian novelist; perfect reading for outside in the leafy shade of a hot summer day.
• Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively – another autobiography – I do seem to read a lot of these – and nicely done. Still mulling this one over. I do intend a review.
• The Young Clementina by D.E. Stevenson – 9/10 – Grand summer reading which I’ve fully embracing after my recent foray into the literary heaviness of Alistair MacLeod. D.E. Stevenson spins a strangely likeable melodramatic tale of love, misunderstanding, and redemption.
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce ~ 2012.  My rating: How about a 3/10?  Because it did start off with some promise. Sadly it went all mawkish and droopy and all directions of highly unlikely. I’m all into magical reality if it’s convincingly well done, but this one turned into a madly skipping stone, demanding more of my suspension of disbelief than I could possibly give.  And the Big Sad Secret which was revealed at the end was so terribly boring, and the “life affirming” ending was so stereotyped that I was tempted to give the thing the toss-across-the-room treatment. It was only saved by the fact that it was a library book. Sorry about my rude dismissal, those of you who loved this one, but my dislike for the way this deteriorated from its early promise is savage and sincere. Ick. No review. That was all I had to say.
• The Landlord’s Daughter by Monica Dickens – 7/10. One of the author’s darker novels, written during the 1960s. Despite the horrid bits (a gruesome murder, an abusive and twisted relationship involving the titular character) I liked this one. Not warm and cosy! (Though there is a nice big cast of characters, some quite sympathetic.) The author’s wry humour is still in fine form, despite her macabre theme.
• Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat – an average of 6.5/10 – please see review if curious about that rating. This Can-lit kids’ classic has its strengths and weaknesses. In typical Canadian style, I straddle the fence in my review. 😉
• River for My Sidewalk by Gilean Douglas – 7/10. Interesting memoirs of a British Columbia woman homesteading in solitary happiness in the Cascade mountains in the 1940s and 1950s. A mix of fact and philosophy; a loving ode to nature.
• The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton – 6/10. An unusually playful (though with plenty of serious overtones) minor novel from this observant and cynically-slanted master writer.
• Hazel Rye by Vera and Bill Cleaver – 5/10. Ostensibly a juvenile “relationship novel”, but surprisingly complex in stylistic language, and an entertaining adult read. I enjoyed it.
• The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy ~ 1966.  My rating: 10/10. An absolutely beautiful collection of four episodes in the life of Christine, the autobiographical protagonist first written about in the author’s earlier novel, Street of Riches.
• Frederica by Georgette Heyer – an easy 7.5/10. A happy romance; smart, witty, and a whole lot of fun, set in Regency London.
• The Room Upstairs by Monica Dickens. A rather creepy (in a very readable way) suspense novel, set in New England. Well done.
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. It’s been years since I’ve really read Dame Agatha, though I enjoyed a long dalliance with her in high school; a fellow bookworm chum and I decided to read every single mystery, and while I know I missed a few, the project kept us busy for several years. Now I’m wondering if I want to repeat it, this time in chronological order. Hmm… I’ll keep you posted. 
• Hi, There! by Gregory Clark – 9/10 – a collection of short, amusing anecdotes and essays by one of Canada’s most widely read journalists; Clark’s long and stellar career stretched out over six decades, ending with his death in 1977.
• My Discovery of America by Farley Mowat – 6/10 – Canada’s Fierce Old Man of Letters falls afoul of the United States border crossing authorities (in 1985) and tells all about it in blistering detail. Occasionally humorous; overwhelmingly (and rightly so) indignant.
• Summer by Edith Wharton – 8.5/10 –  published in 1917, and raised a few eyebrows, dealing as it does with a young woman’s “sexual awakening” and her struggles with morality.
• The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie – Christie’s second published book. I do believe that the idea for the Agatha Christie Project – a chronological reading of all of her books – has taken root. I’ve added a page dedicated to this long-term personal project.
• The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie – a mysterious death in France sees Poirot and Hastings hop the Channel.
• AUGUST 2013
• Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
• Silver Linings by Gregory Clark
• Strangers by Anita Brookner
• Honeymoon in Purdah by Alison Wearing
• A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories by Robin McKinley
• The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
• Hello to Springtime by Robert Louis Fontaine
• Jade by Sally Watson
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman ~ 2013.
• The Living Earth by Sheila Mackay Russell ~ 1954. My rating: 4/10. A bleakly melodramatic novel centered on the experiences of a teacher and a nurse in northern Alberta in the 1940s/50s.
• The Man in the Brown Suit  by Agatha Christie
• Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris  by Paul Gallico
• Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera & Bill Cleaver
• Mrs Harris Goes to New York by Paul Gallico
• Akavak: An Eskimo Journey by James Houston
• Fast Fast Fast Relief  by Pierre Berton
• The Protected Place by Gilean Douglas
• SEPTEMBER 2013
• The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss
• The Innocents by Margery Sharp
• Summer Visits by Margery Sharp – 6.5/10 – Rather shockingly risqué; this novel is definitely outspoken. A complicated family saga, which I rather enjoyed. I will be re-reading it in the future, and expect to review it then; one of Margery Sharp’s last novels (perhaps her last?), and it shows that she could still pound out an engagingly quirky tale.
• A Candle for Saint Jude by Rumer Godden – 6/10 – A very short novel – a novella, really – concerning the matriarchal head of a London ballet school, and her dilemma regarding several of her star pupils and ex-pupils. All about acceptance, and the difficulties of relinquishing control. Nicely done, but ultimately one of Godden’s minor works, despite its marvelous readability and its keen insight into the dance world.
• Paper Moon by Joe David Brown – 10/10 – Hands down! Loved it! Read this one in high school; this re-reading stood up marvellously well. An 11-year-old orphan and her maybe-father develop their talents as small-time con artists as they travel around the south-eastern United States in the darkest years of the Great Depression.
•  Another Pamela by Upton Sinclair
• The Faithful Servants by Margery Sharp – 7/10 –  a wryly cynical tale of a fictional London charity which disperses small sums to female servants experiencing financial hardship. Follows several key characters for periods of their lives; an interesting overview of a century of change in domestic service, from the 1860s to the 1960s. And, because it is by Margery Sharp – that lover and master (mistress?) of the written word – an effortless read. An unusual book.
• This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
• With Powder on My Nose by Billie Burke
• Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart
• How It All Began by Penelope Lively – 5/10 – a fairly standard “relationship novel”, well written but not terribly outstanding. The mugging of an older woman sets off a string of events which the author describes in linked format. A diverting enough read, in a minor key.
• The Ivy Tree  by Mary Stewart
• I Wouldn’t Have Missed It For the World by Peg Bracken – 6/10 – humorous collection of musings, meandering and anecdotes about travel. Some gems in here amidst the fluff. I read this while travelling myself, and occasionally laughed out loud at the universal experiences I shared with the author. Light and charming, in a slightly dated sort of way.
• Dear Doctor Lily by Monica Dickens – 7/10 – one of Dickens’ last novels, and showing much of the old magic, though a wee bit sketchy here and there. In the same line as Kate and Emma, and The Heart of London. A gloves-off depiction of a variety of troubled lives and of the way random encounters can change lives, both for the better and for the dreadful worse. The occasional personal redemptions save the novel from utter bleakness. Thought provoking, and very, very readable. Monica Dickens was indeed a master story-teller.
• The World My Wilderness  by Rose Macaulay ~ 1950. My rating: 9.5/10. Wonderfully written, bleakly realistic depiction of the aftermath of World War II and its effect on an expatriate teenager and her divided family, split between France and England. Heart-breaking, and absolutely worth reading.
• The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
• OCTOBER 2013
• The House that is Our Own by O. Douglas – 8.5/10
• Pink Sugar by O. Douglas
• Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
• Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart – 4/10
• Taken by the Hand by O. Douglas
• Eliza for Common by O. Douglas
• When Jays Fly to Barbmo by Margaret Halderson
• The Secret of Chimneys  by Agatha Christie
• The Innocent Traveller by Ethel Wilson.
•  Where the Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
• The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge
• The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne ~ 1974. My rating: 7/10. The real Christopher Robin writes about his famous father, his fantastical yet lonely childhood and the real places which inspired the Hundred Acre Wood.
• “K”  by Mary Roberts Rinehart ~ 1914. My rating: 6.5/10. A period piece deluxe. Secret identities and double lives; love triangles (and quadrangles) and hospital drama. Feminist themes and good old-fashioned romantic suspense. Interesting read; rather enjoyable in its melodramatic way.
• Nurse is a Neighbour by Joanna Jones ~ 1958. My rating: 5.5/10. District Nurse Joanna Jones seems to be channelling Monica Dickens (though with less success) in this briefly sarcastic memoir of her travels about the countryside in rural post-war Britain. Some humorous episodes and a deeper understanding of Nurse Jones’ situation redeem it as the book goes on.
• Columbella by Phyllis A. Whitney ~1966. My rating: 3/10. A stinker of a suspense-romance, salvaged only by its nicely described setting, that of the St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Shell collecting, jewel thieves, love triangles, heaving bosoms all round.
• The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay ~ 1956. My rating: 9/10. What a lot to process in this unusual novel, Macaulay’s last, and perhaps her best known. It’s so many things: satire, light fiction, philosophy, examination of religion, travel… and so much more. This took me several weeks to read; I kept having to put it aside as it was really too stylistically intense and dense with ideas to read all at once. Interesting. And nothing at all like Crewe Train, or The World My Wilderness. What a surprising writer Rose Macaulay is turning out to be. A review is definitely pending.
• Land Below the Wind  by Agnes Newton Keith ~ 1939. My rating: 9/10. Humorous and self-deprecating account of Agnes Keith’s introduction to life in the tropics, accompanying her British forestry official husband to North Borneo in the 1930s.
• Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather ~ 1940. My rating: 7.5/10. Jealousy, attempted revenge and moral musings in 1850s Virginia.
• The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury ~ 1972. My rating: 6.5/10. Eight boys time travel their way through Halloween night. Sketchy plot, but glorious descriptive passages.
• NOVEMBER 2013
• Seven Tears for Apollo by Phyllis A. Whitney ~ 1963. My rating: 5/10. Phyllis A. Whitney channels Mary Stewart, and mostly pulls it off. An emotionally fragile heroine deals with various villains, including her not-quite-as-dead-as-reported husband. Counterfeit art, the Isle of Rhodes, a masterful hero. Need I say more? Well, yes.
• Little Vic by Doris Gates
• In Spite of All Terror by Hester Burton ~ 1968. My rating: 7.5/10. Juvenile historical fiction centered around the evacuation of London schoolchildren in 1940, plus Dunkirk, and the Blitz. The author writes from recollections of her own experiences, and the strength of the novel is in the details she observed. The heroine here is likeably flawed.
• My Sister Eileen by Ruth McKenney ~ 1938. My rating: 7.5/10. Sparkling memoir of two sisters growing up in Ohio in the early years of the 20th century, and their eventual relocation to New York.
• Thornyhold  by Mary Stewart ~ 1988. My rating: 8/10. The first three-quarters of this novel is excellent, a moving portrait of a woman moving forward from a lonely and slightly brutal childhood. The ending is not so strong, but the whole tale is very readable. No heroics in this peaceful village saga, merely a romance of a woman and a house, with a man appearing with perfect timing. We also have an adorable small boy, and a cat. Did I say “comfort read” yet? 😉
• Past Imperfect by Ilka Chase ~ 1941. My rating: 7/10. I already knew Ilka Chase as a novelist, but I blush to admit that I did not know that she was also a very prominent stage and movie actress, as well as a radio show presenter. This outspoken memoir more than fills in the gaps. Name-dropping galore, but appropriate, because Ilka did definitely run with the crowd she shares anecdotes about. Very interesting.
• After the Falls  by Catherine Gildiner ~ 2009. My rating: 8.5/10. Brilliant memoir by Toronto psychologist looking back at her adolescence in Buffalo, New York in the 1960s. Outspoken and funny and tragic and compulsively readable. A follow-up to the also-bestselling Too Close to the Falls, which you may already be familiar with. (I’m not, but it’s on my “find immediately” list as of right now.)
• War Stories  by Gregory Clark ~ 1964. My rating: 8/10. Thirty-eight compact articles on the author’s experiences as an officer in WW I, and as a front-line correspondent in WW II. Succinctly written, to the point, heartfelt, and frequently humorous.
• The House on the Cliff  by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1966. My rating: 7.5/10. An orphaned actress inherits a house and finds happiness and love in the country. A mild and enjoyable romance, epitomizing D.E. Stevenson’s comfort-read style.
• The Moon-Spinners  by Mary Stewart ~ 1962. My rating: 9/10. An improbable but action-packed romp in the dusty mountains of Crete. Mary Stewart hits her stride with this one; never a dull moment. Loved it!
• Fletchers’ End  by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1962. My rating: 7.5/10. As soon as I started this one I realized that I was coming in to the story part way through; it is the sequel to Bel Lamington. No worries, though, as it worked quite well all by itself. A newly married couple buy a derelict country house – Fletcher’s End – and restore it and make it their own. A peaceful book, gingered up just a bit by a side plot of a friend’s love affair needing resolution, and by an 11th hour scenario of possibly losing the precious house. All’s well by the final page, of course!
• The Quiet Village by Ursula Bloom ~ 1965. My rating: 6/10. Second time reading this one, because I wanted to refresh my memory as to in what indefinable way it was just slightly missing something. A smooth read, rolls right along, but the plot feels a bit too superficial, not really detailed enough, though this is understandable when one considers (as I recently learned) that the author wrote a stupendous 500+ books in her career. With that in mind, a rather creditable story; it could be so much worse. The words obviously flowed from this writer’s pen; I wonder how much editing she did, or if it was all done in one take?
• The Silver Thorn by Hugh Walpole ~ 1928. My rating: 6.5/10. Fifteen eclectic short stories, from cosy to horror, written in the 1920s.
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell ~ 1853. My rating 9/10. What a fabulous little period piece, required reading for anyone tracking the progress of the English novel through the years. This one is so frequently referenced, I was a little afraid it might not live up to its reputation, but it does. Abundant humour balanced by pathos. Enjoyed it thoroughly.
• The Tomorrow-Tamer and other stories by Margaret Laurence ~ 1963. My rating: 9/10. Ten short stories set in Ghana, during the transition from British colony to fully independent nationhood. Laurence lived in Africa for seven years; in Somalia from 1950 to 1952, and Ghana from 1952 to 1957. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but these were uniformly excellent. 
• Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer ~ 1970. My rating: 7.5/10. A pleasingly frothy Regency romance. Viscount Desford rescues a rather sweet orphan, the aptly named “Cherry”,  with far-reaching consequences.
• Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1934. My rating: 6.5/10. Miss Barbara Buncle anonymously writes a book about her neighbours, and sets off a storm in the village. Second time reading this fluffy confection of a book, and I’ve dropped my rating this time round from an 8 to a 6.5. Mostly because I’ve read enough D.E. Stevenson in the meantime to realize how much better she can do. Here’s the original review. I thought to rewrite it, but on reflection I think I will just leave it be.  2012 Review: Miss Buncle’s Book 
• Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1936. My rating: 6/10. Miss Barbara Buncle, now married, dabbles in house renovation and matchmaking. Another re-read. Again, no changes to the last year’s review. 2012 Review: Miss Buncle Married 
• The Streetby Mordecai Richler ~ 1969. My rating: 8.5/10. A set of ten linked short stories – fictionalized memoirs – set in Richler’s oft-visited childhood realm of St. Urbain Street. Rude, funny, poignant and above all readable.
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• How Far to Bethlehem?  by Norah Lofts ~ 1964. My rating: 5.5/10. A slightly hit-and-miss creative retelling of the Nativity story, from Annunciation to the Birth in the Stable. Much to enjoy, with jarring notes here and there as the author points out her clever use of coincidence in bringing together elements from the Bible and popular versions of the legend.
• The Odd Women by George Gissing
• DECEMBER 2013
• The Stormy Petrel  by Mary Stewart ~ 1991. My rating: 8.5/10. A slight but very nicely put together, mildly exciting suspense-romance, involving a young Cambridge Don, Rose Fenemore, and her encounters with two evasive men on the fictional Scottish island of Moila. Short and refreshing. One of the author’s last novels, and most confidently written despite its slightness. Again, nice.
• Bel Lamington by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1961. My rating: 6.5/10. Orphaned Bel makes her way in the big, bad city. Virtue is rewarded, after numerous setbacks.
• One Happy Moment by Louise Riley ~ 1951. My rating: 4.5/10. A vintage novel concerning a young librarian from Montreal finding herself and growing a backbone in the mountains near Lake Louise. Clunky styling and an awkward plot kept it from reaching significant heights.
• A Big Storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin ~ 1993. My rating: 7/10. Love and friendship and escaping unhappiness and the bliss of new babies, plus a whole lot of gently snarky humour in the book publishing business and catering trade. Just this side of both chick lit and farce, the author’s astringent wit keeps things moving.
• Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White ~ 1993. My rating: 9.5/10. A collection of embellished memoirs and vignettes of southern Georgia life. Hugely entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny, and poignant in an exceedingly good way. Deserves its many rave reviews.
• The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger ~ 2009. My rating: 6/10. Well researched and well written historical fiction set in 1860s Egypt, in the household of the consumptive Lady Lucie Duff Gordon. Lady Duff Gordon’s letters were published and her account of her stay along the Nile is well known, but Kate Pullinger has decided to tell things from the POV of lady’s maid Sally Naldrett. Started off very well, but went steadily downhill once the prim Sally discovered the joy of clandestine sex with Omar the Egyptian factotum. It was so close to being a great story, but the characters got less relatable as the story progressed, rather than more. Good for a Canadian Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2009, though, so opinions obviously vary from my own!
• Saturn Over the Water  by J.B. Priestley ~ 1961. My rating: 7.5/10. An unexpected Cold War thriller set in London, New York, South America and Australia. An artist sets out to discover the whereabouts of his dying cousin’s biochemist husband who has gotten mixed up with a group of evil rich men seeking to create a new world order. Many close calls, coincidences, martinis, luscious girls, and fast driving ensue. Think John Wyndham with a dash of Ian Fleming. Pure camp; surprisingly entertaining.
• He Comes Up Smiling by Charles Sherman ~ 1912. My rating: 5/10. A piece of fluffy vintage American humour concerning a handsome young hobo who accidentally switches identities with a wealthy stockbroker. High jinks and romance ensue.
• A Time to Love by Margot Benary-Isbert ~ 1962. My rating: 9/10. An excellent historical fiction set in the years just prior to and at the start of World War II. Fifteen-year-old Annegret of the earlier books The Blue Mystery and The Shooting Star goes away to boarding school and becomes very aware that the world beyond the sheltering walls of her family home is fast becoming a dark and dangerous place. A rare story told from the German point of view; very much anti-Hitler but also making clear the conflicted positions of many “common” German people in the years leading up to the war. A thoughtful and even-handed book; a lovely and relatable bildungsroman. The author draws heavily upon her own experiences as a German citizen during the war; worth reading for that element alone, though there is much more here to mull over and to enjoy.
• Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson ~ 1954. My rating: 8.5/10. A girls’ school headmistress attempts to help some of her students cope with difficult personal situations, and finds her own life much changed as a result. Aka Blow the Wind Southerly and The Enchanted Isle.
• The Little Wax Doll by Norah Lofts ~ 1960. My rating: 9/10. An over-the-top village thriller concerned with the designs of a coven of nasty witches upon a virginal village teen, and a school teacher’s foiling of their nefarious plans. Also published as The Devil’s Own and The Witches under the pseudonym Peter Curtis, and made into a suspense-horror film starring Joan Fontaine, 1966’s The Witches. An unexpected read, which garners a “hidden gem” designation for its surprising quality, despite the stereotypical plot and sheer silliness of the storyline.
• Raisins and Almonds by Fredelle Bruser Maynard ~ 1964. My rating: 8/10. A brief but touching memoir of a 1920s Saskatchewan prairie childhood, and a deeply moving examination of what is was like to be a member of the lone Jewish family in a community of Scandinavian Lutherans.
• The New Moon With the Old by Dodie Smith ~ 1963. My rating: 6.5/10. I read this one last year and was wondering how a re-read would go over. Nothing’s changed. The annoying bits still annoy; the amusing bits still salvage this odd novel. I thought I might want to add to the review, but I can’t think of anything I’d say differently this time around. So here you are, in case you missed it first time round: 2012 Review of The New Moon With the Old
• Tell No One Who You Are: The Hidden Childhood of Régine Miller by Walter Buchignani ~ 1994. My rating: 6.5/10. Biographical. A family of Polish Jews in Belgium sends their young daughter to be hidden away during the early years of World War II. She is the only one to survive the war. Told in simple language and suitable for pre-teen to adult readers, this is a sombre story full of Régine’s detailed remembrances. Shocking without being sensationalized, the rational and calm voice of the third person narrator emphasizes the brutal reality of so many “normal people” swept up in events beyond their control. A tribute as well to those who quietly did the right thing and helped hide the innocent, at great personal risk.
• Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher ~ 1916. My rating: 7.5/10. A charming children’s story (with a lesson for the grown ups about child rearing and educational techniques) about a little girl raised by two overly doting aunts to be completely helpless. When Elizabeth Ann is suddenly transplanted to the country home of the slightly scorned rustic branch of the family, she undergoes a startling transformation into competent, independent Betsy.
•  Letter from Peking by Pearl S. Buck ~ 1957. My rating: 3/10.  An American woman, happily married for twenty years to a half-Chinese, half-American man, leaves China with her twelve-year-old son at the start of the Communist government takeover. Her husband, due to an extreme sense of duty, remains behind in his job. The woman settles into her family home in rural Vermont, complete with faithful hired man. A letter arrives. Her husband has been pressured to take on a Chinese wife, to prove his loyalty to his country. The woman puts off answering it. The son runs into issues with his mixed race ethnicity. They talk. A lot. Not one but two prospective suitors materialize. “Divorce your husband and marry again!” Oh, what to do, what to do???! By the time it all sort of resolved itself (sort of) I no longer cared. Meh.
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day  by Winifred Watson ~ 1938. My rating: 8/10. What a relief to turn to this playfully frivolous novel after Pearl Buck’s dismal thing. Middle-aged Miss Pettigrew, inefficient governess, is on her uppers. Down to her last shilling, she knocks on the door of one Miss LaFosse, following up a lead from an employment agency. Miss Pettigrew is welcomed in and definitely proves herself useful, but in a most unanticipated way. Dashing young men, cocktails, nightclubs…! Miss Pettigrew has never experienced such a whirl as she does in this utterly life-changing day.
• The Album by Mary Roberts Rinehart ~ 1933. My rating: 5/10. The brutal axe murder of a helpless elderly invalid triggers a number of unpleasant developments and eventually more deaths in a secluded enclave of stately homes. A hoard of gold bars, a charming private investigator, and a likeable if rather silly (don’t go for walks alone in the dark, you fool!) narrator, hidden identities, truth serum, controlling mothers, and much more – an abundance of threads to this tangled tale. Points off for needless length and too many unresolved red herrings, but all in all a decent example of its genre and its era.
• Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart ~ 1997. My rating: I wavered between a 4.5 and a 5/10, but I eventually decided to go with the 5. A very sweet, very mild domestic drama, with just a few glimpses of the author’s previous talent for tense situations. These evaporate into gentle misunderstandings, and the ending is happy enough to satisfy the gentlest of old-fashioned grannies looking for a pleasant few hours literary diversion.
• A Bent Twig by Dorothy Canfield
• No Holly For Miss Quinn by Miss Read
• The Christmas Mouse by Miss Read
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Margin Released by J.B. Priestley
• Salt is Leaving by J.B. Priestley
• The Episode of the Wandering Knife by Mary Roberts Rinehart ~ 1949
• Heart of Asia by Roy Chapman Andrews ~ 1951
• Shadows by Robin McKinley ~ 2013. My rating: 4/10. A teen-audience fantasy concerning a vaguely described struggle between magic and science, in a sketchily depicted alternate world.
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