For My Reading Pleasure -- and Yours!

Books are my joy in good times and my solace in troubling ones. With just over a week to go in this craziest election season ever, I much prefer reading some of these books, stacked on my bedside table, to the endless chatter and speculation online.

Many of the folks I follow here are avid readers as well, so for them, and as a record for me, here's what's in that stack from my local library, from top to bottom:
--Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd (2016) by Alan Bradley, the latest of his Flavia de Luce mystery novels. I've loved every one of his previous books about young Flavia (click on the "books" link to learn more about them).
--Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories (1991) by Gerald Durrell, because Phil and I are so enjoying "The Durrells" on our local PBS television station (originally on ITV).
-- The Stargazer's Sister (2015) by Carrie Brown, "based on the life of Caroline Herschel, sister of the great astronomer William Herschel and an astronomer in her own right" (more details). Both Phil and I loved this novel and highly recommend it!  
-- Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016) by Arlie Russell Hochschild. No matter who wins the Presidential election in November, this book looks to me like an essential read for those of us on the left. Hochschild's article in The Guardian last month will give you a good introduction to her concerns. 
--Homegoing (2016) by Yaa Gyasi is bound to be disturbing, given the topic -- "how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation," in the publisher's words (more info there) -- but is essential reading, I think.
--A Man Called Ove (2014) by Fredrik Backman because I always prefer to read the book before seeing the film version! 
--Overdressed: The Shockingly  High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012) by Elizabeth L. Cline was recommended to me by my daughter. Neither of us follow fashion, but have noticed that the quality of the clothing we do buy has gone downhill in recent years. This link gives you a detailed overview of the book's content.
--A Great Reckoning (2016) by Canadian writer Louise Penny, the twelfth of her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries, is superb. I've read most of the others, and would love to hole up for a couple of weeks and read them all straight through! Maybe if we get snow this winter...

Blip 1672