Blogtober Six : Reading

 

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. 

The dancing water fountain is always fun to watch. 

This old chimney is a remnant of the days when the Butchart family business was making Portland cement. It's beginning to crumble, but still stands tall in the distance. 

Through an opening in the Japanese Garden is a small cove where boaters come and go. 

What have you enjoyed reading lately? Do you read digital or print books? Which do you prefer?