With the turn of the calendar to October came autumn weather. It's been chilly enough to light the fires. Two gas fireplaces provide all of our heat for the winter and they are set to come on at a certain temperature. We don't heat the upstairs of our home as we like a cool bedroom and there is enough heat rising to keep us comfortable. It was very cozy to come downstairs on these first days of October to warmth and glowing fires.
I dislike reading on electronic devices and when we travel, I find it difficult to take enough books to keep me going for a few weeks. I'll read Tim's books, but that's rarely enough. On our Iceland/Scotland cruise in June, I frequented the book exchange on the ship and found the top three books that I enjoyed so much I brought them home with me. (I left more books than I took.)
Jane Smiley is a new author to me, but she has written many books, some for young adults and others for adults. Perestroika in Paris is a YA book, full of engaging characters. It's a wonderful story of unlikely friendship set in that beautiful city.
Mystery readers will be familiar with Josephine Tey. I was happy to find a story I had not yet read. The Windsor Knot by S. J. Bennett is one of three novels featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II as an unlikely and in-the-background mystery detective. I loved it and have read the other two books and hope to add them to my collection.
The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift is one of those books that follow the pattern of a year in a garden. Swift adds to the charm by weaving the Medieval Book of Hours into the rhythm of the garden she created at Morville House in Shopshire over a period of 20 years. It's a book I'll refer to again and again.
The Lost Art of Mixing and The Rose Arbor are two fiction novels with lovely stories that demand little, good choices for easy reading. And the Louisa May Alcott volume contains three of her stories, Little Women, Good Wives, and Little Men. My childhood books of Alcott's are tattered and I was pleased to find this hardcover version.
A few more glimpses of Butchart Gardens in the photos.
Through an opening in the Japanese Garden is a small cove where boaters come and go.
Your home sounds very cosy with those glowing fires and no cleaning to do! I shall check out those titles. I look forward to S J Bennett’s newest book which is out soon. I think it was you who recommended her to me originally. B x
ReplyDeleteTo Love and be Wise is (another) great novel by Josephine Tey.
ReplyDeleteThe SJ Bennet books are so good. There are 4 in the series now and a 5th in February.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteLorrie, I just took a few moments and read through all of your Blogtober posts thus far and I thoroughly enjoyed it . . . from glimpses of Butchart Gardens to your own garden harvest to the conversation with the raven (that one made me chuckle) to the glorious sights of the mountains and valleys! Blog posts with bits of the every day are some of my favorite to read.
ReplyDeleteLoved today's peeks at what you're reading. I, too, prefer an actual book to a device, but I am not the voracious reader that you are. Lately, I have been listening to audio books (something I thought I'd never do) because I spend time in my car while my mom runs errands and I need to be able to see when she comes out. If I am looking down at a book, I may not see her and I try to save her unnecessary steps on her painful feet/legs.
Great photos!
ReplyDeleteI love those gardens. I'm reading something in a series, but I cannot remember what! It's been a busy weekend.
I don't read digital books, but enjoy actual books in my hand. I read The Rose Arbor recently and finishing The Victory Garden by the same author. I enjoy that author's books.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to find some books that interested you on the ship. Like you, I prefer real books. Having said that I have just started to listen to audio books through my air pods. When I go for my eye injections there is a lot of waiting involved. I find it hard to read with my eyes dilated so the audio books are working great. I just use one air pod so that I can still hear when they call me in for my appointment.
ReplyDeleteI have not read any of those books, nor have I heard of the authors so now you have me on a quest... which one first?
ReplyDeleteI got into digital books during the pandemic when I was gifted an electronic reading device. These days, I borrow e-books from my library. But I would buy print books that I want to own and read again.
ReplyDeleteI have read some Jane Smiley but was not aware o that she had written any YA books. Tempted by this one ... I bought the sweatshirt that says "I read banned books" -- it has a picture of a tall stack of the frequently banned and among the few I hadn't already read were a couple of that genre. I was surprised at how good they were -- way back in the dark ages when I qualified as a YA, we just had to try to sneak books out of the Real Adult section of the library.
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