Belles-Lettres: Brilliant, Blue-Ribbon Books 2013

Biggest Surprise of the Year -  I Loved This Book! 

So Big by Edna Ferber; published in 1924

Top Three Non-Fiction Books That Were Entire Educations in Themselves: 

At Home by Bill Bryson; How to Live, Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell; The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey

Top Three Fiction Books (not mysteries): 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; Equilateral by Ken Kalfus; Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.

Author Most Read: 

Donald Westlake - Six of his Dortmunder capers

Most Delightful Reread: 

Counting My Chickens... by The Duchess of Devonshire

Brothers I Would Most Like to Meet: 

Reggie and Nigel Heath of The Baker Street Letters, The Brothers of Baker Street, and The Baker Street Translation by Michael Robertson

Best Foreign Location: 

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and West With the Night by Beryl Markham

Most Laugh-Out-Loud Dysfunctional Family: 

The Spellman Files and The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Dreamiest Tale: 

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

Best Road Trip: 

The Lost Continent - Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson

Mystery Writer I Am So Glad I Found: 

Peter Lovesey - The Last Detective, Diamond Solitaire, The Summons, and Bloodhounds. 

As If I Needed More Reasons Not To Go On A Cruise: 

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace.

Proof That The South Shall Rise Again: 

Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White.

Authors I Have Met and Their Books I Read This Year: 

Duffy Brown (Killer in Crinolines), William Zinsser (The Writer Who Stayed), and George S. McGovern (Abraham Lincoln)

Orchids and Angels and Creatures of the Wood

A spray of orchids. 

I took this photo in the Orchid Conservatory,

 Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

 Charlotte, NC.

I finished out 2013 reading the December entry in Jean Hersey's The Shape of a Year. I have posted some tidbit each month from her book that is an account of a year spent on her Connecticut farm. She has proved to be a pleasant companion.

Ms. Hersey is quite busy in December. She adds to her hothouse orchid collection benefiting from the bounty of another grower who is moving to Florida and giving away his plants. She spends time with cans of spray paint gilding Christmas angels made from copies of Reader's Digest and flowers made of artichokes for her front door wreath. 

She offers two recipes - one for herb butter and another for chapattis, a flat bread made by the Hunza people of Pakistan. She takes in the warmth and fragrance of a neighbor's cow barn when she arrives to pick up a load of hay to spread on her roses for the winter.

She reflects on holidays past and is excited at the arrival this Christmas Eve of her daughter and grandchildren. She marvels at the winter stars and snows and sunsets. And, of course, she writes of the wild creatures in the woods, the gardens, and fields.

I began wondering about the animals, the shrew, the fox and the deer and all the others outside there going their quiet ways this Christmas Eve, following their own particular stars.

What did Christmas mean to all these creatures of the wilderness, and the others -- rabbits, woodchucks, and our birds that visit the feeders and even the cricket in the kitchen? Their world must feel the Christmas season, if differently. Surely some instinct tells them that the shortest day has come and gone this week, that little by little the sun will rise higher in the heavens now. Each day will be longer though imperceptibly at first.

Ah, yes. Let there be light!

Chats with Southern Writers

Eudora Welty at her desk

Photo by

Jill Krementz

I have been on a bit of a tear lately watching archived programs from C-SPAN's Booknotes and Q and A. Really, I can sense my IQ increasing just listening to non-fiction authors talk about presidents, history, books, philosophers, and other writers. 

I recently re-watched a 1997 Booknotes interview with Jill Krementz, a woman who has spent decades photographing writers. She was on the program to talk about her book The Writer's Desk (1996), a collection of photographs of authors seated or standing where they do their best work. I own this book and pick it up every now and then to reacquaint myself with the faces of such notables as P.G. Wodehouse dressed in suit and tie typing away in his study; Joyce Carol Oates at her electric typewriter that is perched in front of a large window; or William F. Buckley, Jr. on the phone in the back of the limousine he had specially built to accommodate his long legs and which he very often uses as his office. 

It is one of my favorite books and I wrote about it last year here.

I was curious to see if Ms. Krementz had other books that included photos of writers, and sure enough my library had one titled Parting the Curtains: Interviews with Southern Writers (1994). The interviews were conducted between 1975 and 1994 by Dannye Romine Powell, a poet and former columnist and book editor for the Charlotte Observer.

So here we have thoughts on the creative process from Angelou to Welty with Conroy, Foote, Haley, Percy and Price in between. A total of twenty-three writers living and writing below the Mason-Dixon line accompanied by black-and-white photos taken by Ms. Krementz.

Both books feature on their cover the now-famous photo of Eudora Welty at her desk in her bedroom in Jackson, Mississippi. 

I have already skimmed through this volume to look at the photos and am anxious to read what the writers have to say for themselves and their craft. A fortunate find indeed! 

A Gift Just for Me

Bloomsbury Bookbag

by Levenger

I do love to treat myself. This year I splurged and bought the above pictured Bloomsbury Bookbag from Levenger. It was on sale before Christmas (and still is for $49) and comes stocked with a selection of bookish items. Mine contained a full-size notepad, a book bungee, bookmark sticky flags, two small magnifying cards, a selection of index cards, and a telescoping pen.

It is quite the stylish tote! This bag is made of blue (not quite as dark as in this photo) cotton canvas with leather trim and handles. The inside is lined and roomy and has a zippered pocket. There are six outside pockets just made for stuffing. The bottom is flat so it sits well - an important consideration.

Also pictured are three books on my list to read in 2014 beginning with The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin and One Summer by Bill Bryson. The book that is still gift wrapped is an autographed copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt that I bought in Savannah on my recent Grand Southern Literary Tour 2013.

Of course, this bag will hold much more than books, but I can't think of anything else I would rather carry around with me. 

What gift did you treat yourself to this year?

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith

Even a traditionally built woman such as Mma Precious Ramotswe can jump...to conclusions, that is. As Botswana's clever detective discovers, even after the most careful investigation, sometimes what seems to be the truth isn't always. 

In the latest book about the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, the detectives are baffled by a case of the anonymous character assassination of the owner of the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (that gives the novel its title). Then there is the client who hires Mma Ramatswe to verify the identity of a young man who has inherited a farm from his uncle. Could the nephew be an impostor or does the client stand to gain in some way by proving that he is?

There are a few new characters introduced and, of course, there are the regulars that make this series such a delight: the prickly associate detective Mma Makutsi; her gentle husband Phuti Radiphuti; and Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni, husband of Mma Ramostswe, who owns the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and is concerned that he is not a 'modern husband'. 

Over the course of the investigation of these newest cases, there is a deepening of the friendship and respect between Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi as each woman learns a lesson or two from the other. Quite a reminder of how valuable some friendships can be.

I love settling in with these citizens of Botswana. Mr. McCall Smith writes with such tenderness for his characters. And, somehow, he can make even an episode of Mma Ramotswe getting stuck in the mud in her little white van amusing and enchanting at the same time.  

As always, during the investigations there are many cups of tea, slices of cake filled with sultanas, talk of cattle, musings on life and human nature, and bumpy rides in the little white van that Mma R. feels such an affection for. I am always happy to be along with her for the ride.

By the Numbers: 2013

Books Read 2013: 101 

(2012: 112)

Fiction: 16

(2012: 23) 

Mysteries: 46

(2012: 42)

Non-fiction: 38

(2012: 47)

Poetry: 1

(2012: 0)

Rereads: 2

(2012: 12)

E-Books Read: 38

(2012: 26)

Books Read From My Own Shelves: 32

(2012: 49)

Books by Female Authors: 53

(2012: 50)

Books by Male Authors: 48

(2012: 52)

A Steadfast Companion - Christmas 2013

That Christmas Thing

I've spent sober Christmases

and ones so drunk I danced with the tree.

I've spent joyous Christmases

and ones so sad I sobbed by the tree.

I've spent extravagant Christmases

and ones so poor I didn't even have a tree.

I've spent family-and-friend Christmases

and ones so alone I named the tree.

I've spent warm California by-the-pool Christmases

and ones so cold I plucked icicles from the tree.

I've spent hale and hearty Christmases

and ones so sick I threw up under the tree.

I've spent loud, rambunctious Christmases 

and ones so quiet I listened to the tree.

And, this Christmas, in her honor and with love,

I promise to plant a tree.

---Belle

December 1993