A Book-filled Weekend

Woman Reading
by
John Keaton

This will be short and sweet as I am trying to carve time out to actually read this weekend. I have four books going:

Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym - Not as engaging as the first-person narrative of A Glass of Blessings which I just finished, but many cups of tea will be enjoyed I am sure.  The two main characters, the elderly and bossy Miss Doggett and her companion the younger and very plain Miss Morrow, have taken in as a renter the new curate, the handsome, red-haired Reverend Stephen Latimer. Love in sure to follow.

My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - I have just read the entries on the five or six bookstores I have visited myself. Next I think I will read by state what these eight-four writers have to say about their favorite places to find a good book. 

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore - This is a mystery about the supposed murder of Vincent Van Gogh investigated in nineteenth century France by an aspiring painter, Lucien Lessard, and his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.

A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet - This is the second by the author in her Max Tudor mysteries. This one concerns the murder of a wealthy, bitter old man. The suspects number many as Oscar, the victim, had called all of his family to his castle for Christmas.

A Bag from a Book Sale

Oh joy. Another book sale. This one for the benefit of a local historic home. The home has two book sales a year and I certainly benefited from going to one last August (here).

I was quite restrained in my buying. I bought four hardback books. I must have picked up and put down many more but I try to zero in on the hardcovers and choose ones that I feel I will want to keep.

Here is the loot:

Great Detectives: A Century of the Best Mysteries from England and America (1984) edited by David Willis McCullough. 

Here in a whopping 725 pages are two novels, a novella, and fourteen short stories by some of my favorite mystery writers - Christie, Stout, Westlake and Chandler. The novels include The Chill by Ross MacDonald and Death Notes by Ruth Rendell.  This should keep me 'guessing' for quite a while.

A Wodehouse Bestiary (1985) edited by D.R. Bensen.

Oh, Mr. Wodehouse. How I do adore thee. A collection of your always witty stories starring your wonderful human characters - Bertie Wooster, Ukridge, Mr. Mulliner - and their trials and tribulations with characters of the animal kingdom - a swan, a snake and your beloved Pekineses. 

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy D'Art (2012) by Christopher Moore.

I had this on my to-be-read list and snatched it up for a dollar. It is part mystery, part history, and all comedy. The time is the fin-de-siecle Paris. The tale concerns baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as they investigate the mystery surrounding Vincent Van Gogh's supposed suicide. Guest stars include Monet, Manet, Renoir and others and includes color photos of their paintings. What fun.

Montaigne Selected Essays (1949) Modern Library Edition.

I love the serendipity of it: Finding this collection just as I was halfway through How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell.