Book List 2024

This the first time in many years that I've read such few books.  I think it's because I started and stopped reading more books than I finished.  For the last dozen years or so I've decided I don't want to give my time to books that don't resonate with me, have foul language, whose characters I wouldn't want to spend time with in real life, or for a variety of other reasons.

People have asked in the past about why I read children's books.  Usually I've seen them recommended somewhere.  Plus, often I think the illustrations are beautiful, the stories are short and concise, and there's a truth in a very simple format.  And I recommend the best ones to my grandchildren or their mother.

| indicates a children's book

January

• The Comfort of Crows.  A Backyard Year.  Margaret Renkl.  Illustrated by Billy Renkl    
• |Sophie’s Squash.   Pat Zietlow Miller.  Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf

February

• The Frozen River.  Ariel Lawhon    
• Recipe for a Charmed Life.  Rachel Linden    
• |Orion and the Dark.  Emma Yarlett
• |Big.  Vashti Harrison

March

• The World of All Creatures Great & Small.  Welcome to Skeldale House.  James Steen    
• Excellent Advice for Living.  Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.  Kevin Kelly
• The Beekeeper’s Promise.  Fiona Valpy

April

• Real Clothes, Real Lives.  200 Years of What Women Wore. The Smith College Historic Clothing Collection.  Kiki Smith
• Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame.  Olivia Ford

May

• |Home.  Isabelle Simler.  Translated by Vineet Lal    
• The Last Bookshop in London.  A Novel of World War II.  Madeline Martin
• Why We Read.  On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out.  Shannon Reed    
  

June

• Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We’re Discussing in the Faculty Lounge.  Shannon Reed
• The Comfort of Ghosts.  Jacqueline Winspear

July

• The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club.  Helen Simonson   

August

• |Tiny Jenny.  Little Fairy, Big Trouble.  Briony May Smith
• The Shop on Royal Street.  Karen White
• The House on Prytania.  Karen White
• Flight Patterns.  Karen White

September

• Barbara Isn’t Dying.  Alina Bronsky
• |Quill the Forest Keeper.  Marije Tolman    
• |Making Space.  Paola Quintavalle, Miguel Tanco    
  

October

• Weyward.  Emilia Hart
• |A Bear Called Paddington.  Michael Bond

November

• The Lions of Fifth Avenue.  Fiona Davis
• A Certain Kind of Starlight.  Heather Webber
• The Home-Maker.  Dorothy Canfield

December

• A Bakery in Paris.  Aimie K. Runyan
• |There’s a Ghost in the Garden.  Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Katty Maurey
• Christmas at Thompson Hall.  Anthony Trollope
• How to Winter.  Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days.  Kari Leibowitz

Have you read any great books lately?

--Nancy.