January Reads I

Watching too much HGTV these snowy days has slowed down my reading somewhat. Here's what I've read (or am reading) so far this month:
Emile Richards "Lover's Knot", book three of her Shenandoah Valley series. I didn't realize this was book three when I checked it out. Although there were a few references to previous characters, it was not necessary to read the books in order. I enjoyed the Shenandoah Valley setting especially after visiting the area and driving the Skyline in October of '08. I hadn't considered the impact on the lives of the people who were displaced by the building of the National Park. Had I read the book prior to being there, I would probably have paid more attention to the area.
The book was well written with mystery enough to keep it interesting. I will check out "Wedding Ring" and "Endless Chain" on my next library visit. As you can see, her books have a quilting theme.
E. Annie Proulx's "Accordion Crimes" was not nearly as good as her Pulitzer Prize winning, "The Shipping News". The book follows the maker and various subsequent owners of an accordion through a century. It was more like reading several short stories with the only cohesive element being the accordion. Proulx is sometimes too dark for me as she writes about the strange foibles of her characters, but her wit and lyricism keep me reading.
Colin Dexter's "Death Is Now My Neighbor" and Catherine Aird's "Harm's Way" are both British murder mysteries. I adore British mysteries. I love the way they send me to the dictionary looking up words new to me - or to Wikipedia for the meaning of British terms I don't understand. I have always loved reading novels set in the British Isles; did some of my ancestors come from the farms and villages of which I'm reading?
Colin Dexter's Chief Inspector Morse and his long suffering assistant, Lewis came alive for me on public television's 'Masterpiece Mystery' series. I'm reading all the Dexter books our library has, then will head to Half-Price Bookstore to try and find the rest of them. "Death Is Now My Neighbor" is the book in which we find out what the E in E. Morse stands for. (Shall I spoil it for you?)
Catherine Aird is a new author for me. Our library has five more of her mysteries and I will put them on my "to be read" list.
Rita Mae Brown's "Dolley" is the last of my current check outs. It is about Dolley Madison's years in the White House and includes her famous saving of Stuart's portrait of George Washington when the White House was burned during the war of 1812. Reading well researched historical novels has long been my favourite way of learning history.
Brown also loves history and "met" Dolley Payne Madison when she sat on her grave at Montpelier in 1949 when Montpelier was still privately owned. In her preface, Brown states she researched this novel eight years before writing it. I'm less than one-fourth into the book, so perhaps should have saved it for the next January Reads.
Brown may be best known for "Rubyfruit Jungle" which sounds familiar to me, but I'm not sure I've read it. I will most likely read it and any Rita Mae Brown titles our library has.
Before that, however, in keeping with my resolution to read one non-fiction for every five fiction books, I will read "All About Tea", a Marshall Cavendish Cuisine book Gene & Kristina Young sent me for xmas. I have paged through it and it looks very interesting. By the time I read it from start to finish I expect to know more about tea than the fact that I love it.
(A P.S. about Montpelier - we did not visit either Monticello or Montpelier while in Virginia even though we were at the visitor's gate of both. Instead we opted to tour the farm once owned by President Monroe. Not only was it less crowded, the more humble home was more to my taste.)