Favorite Reads of 2021

Photo by Charl Folscher on Unsplash

The list is a little early this year, but with all the fuss about supply chain, I wanted to make sure you had time to get your hot little hands on any interesting titles (since some of you refuse to buy a Kindle and get your books instantly, no matter what I tell you)!

I recently ordered some copies of my latest books and discovered Amazon has a new strategy: they tell you the delivery date is approximately when Jesus comes again and then surprise you with it arriving earlier! For example, my copies of School for Love and Matchless Margaret were due December 16 (I kid you not--about six weeks after I ordered them), but they came today.  I see what you're doing there, Amazon, and it's very effective.

If you haven't been on Facebook to be bludgeoned by my announcements that I've written my fourth Regency romance, I've written my fourth Regency romance! And it's available now!

A reader emailed me to say that, while The Naturalist is her favorite, she has enjoyed them all. I'm curious to hear the favorite title of other readers. No matter what I write, my favorite book always seems to be the last one I've written, which is a good thing, I suppose. I haven't decided yet if there will ultimately be five or six books in the series--it depends on if I give Hetty a book after telling Edith's story...

Anywho, on to my yearly eclectic list of favorite reads, of which possibly only two were published this year. (And some were published quite a while ago, so, even if you gift it to someone who already read it, they probably read it so long ago that it's practically new again.) May you find something here which appeals to the readers in your life!

Favorite Noir Mystery

I taught another mystery class at Timber Ridge this year, and they do love their mysteries there. The class sent me on a little side trip of noir, and, since I adore Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (and named Matchless Margaret's hero after the author), I gave Raymond Chandler's most famous book a try.

If you've seen the famous Humphrey Bogart movie, you'll be delighted to hear his voice every time Philip Marlowe speaks, and it's also quite interesting to find the book is racier than the movie, given the era in which it was adapted for the screen. I'm not sure the plot makes total sense, but the book is so stylish that you hardly care. Los Angeles in the 1930s! A pornography book ring! Two daughters living high-risk lifestyles! Read the book and then pop some popcorn and dial up the movie.

Favorite Literary Fiction

If you gift this one, there's a danger that your recipient might already have it on the nightstand, since everyone (except my 22YO daughter) read and loved Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. 

This book is quite the departure, but equally wonderful. We have interlocking stories with multiple points-of-view that cross time (and space). What brings them together is some manuscript of a comic ancient-Greek story. It is absolutely literary fiction, not crowd-pleasing WWII historical fiction (which has become kind of the McDonalds of historical fiction). So beware. If your reader doesn't love books and imagination and even a little sci-fi, they are not gonna love this book.

Favorite Nonfiction Author I Might Now Be a Little in Love With

If I can't marry C. S. Forester for his Horatio Hornblower books, I may have to run off with Ian W. Toll for his naval history books, of which I read THREE in 2021. Which you might prefer depends on if you would rather pick up a Horatio Hornblower book or a WWII history.

Loving both, I couldn't choose. Six Frigates looks at the founding of the U.S. Navy and the War of 1812. War in the age of sail! What's not to love? You'll immediately want to plan a trip to Boston to see the U.S.S. Constitution.

And then Toll has a trilogy about the War in the Pacific, of which I read the first and second volumes and especially loved the first, Pacific Crucible. Pearl Harbor and codebreaking and the struggle upward from such a bad beginning (for the Americans) is absolutely riveting.

Favorite Female Friendship Fiction

I realize I read both "girl" and "boy" books, but if you have women in your life who only read "girl" books, they might love this one, for its humor and pathos and for the female friendship at the heart of it. It was my mom's choice for the Family Zoom Book club.

A big, sad woman goes in search of her dreams and a golden bug in New Caledonia, accompanied by the assistant she didn't know she needed.

Favorite "Memoir"

I put memoir in quotes because Gerald Durrell has taken some liberties with these stories inspired by his family's time on Corfu between the Wars. The book "inspired" (i.e., had almost nothing to do with) the television adaptation The Durrells of Corfu, which I didn't even make it through one episode of because I was being such a disillusioned book snob about it. The Durrell family is hilarious, and little Gerald lives a young boy's dream of a life, exploring the island and collecting whatever fauna catch his eye. His long-suffering mother indulges all her children, really, which, in Gerry's case, means letting him bring home all manner of creatures and neglecting his education. There are three books in the series, all worth reading, but the first is my favorite.

Favorite Adventure/Survival Book

This one also came from a Timber Ridge class I taught called "The Adventurers," and everyone loved it. An oldy but a greaty. 

Alfred Lansing follows Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated trans-polar expedition that didn't even make it to Antarctica before getting ice-locked. You know I love people facing frostbite and shipwreck and abandonment. You'll come away from this amazing story admiring Shackleton's leadership and the endurance of the crew of the Endurance.

Favorite Microhistory

Absolutely fascinating history of one of the world's most famous diamonds. Knowing nearly nothing about the diamond, the Moghul empire, the history of Afghanistan, and the history of the Punjab, this was all news to me and just about putdownable. (Warning--it's also quite violent and features lots of people and governments and rulers behaving badly and people being literally blinded.)

The sorry tale of Sikh child-maharajah Duleep Singh handing over the diamond to the British East India company was no shining moment for the British empire, but I was interested to see that his interesting and tragic story has been made into the movie BLACK PRINCE, which is streaming on Netflix currently.

 And certainly another visit to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels is in order. You never know when the world might get upside-down enough that international courts decide that, yes, Britain should honor the Taliban's demand to return the jewel to them! (Out of all the groups claiming the Kohinoor, this was the most ridiculous, since Afghanistan stole it from India, and one doubts the Taliban would put the funds to the best use.)

And, finally:

Favorite Trash Classic

My book club added this particular subgenre this year after getting tired of YA. (Our fatigue probably has a lot to do with raising teenagers ourselves. Do we have to read about them, too?)

Not only did we resurrect the trash classic V. C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic and add The Clan of the Cave Bear to the to-read pile, but I finally got to read Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls.

 This book has aged so well! Its themes of fame, wealth, career, the pressure on women not to age, the pressure on women to be beautiful and thin, substance abuse--all still so timely and so worth discussing.

 And the funny thing is, because it was written in 1966, it's pretty darned tame now. Frank, but tame. (You don't realize how used to graphic sex we are until you read what used to be considered trashy.)

 

Hope you found something here, and may 2022 be another good reading year! This is the first year I think I'm not going to complete my Goodreads challenge because I spent so much time writing, but tomorrow is another day.

Cover Reveal for Matchless Margaret! Pre-Order Now

 

Whose "fine eyes" are these?

Dear readers, I'm happy to announce Matchless Margaret is just about finalized, and I've set her up for pre-order on Amazon! There will be both Kindle and paperback versions, and I managed to get Matchless Margaret down to 99,000 words so that you won't feel like you've committed to War and Peace.

Matchless Margaret's birthday will be Thursday, November 4, 2021, and, as promised, we will celebrate with a tea party and walk through early 19th century Bath in person (and over Zoom) on November 20. More on that later.

If you haven't gotten around to starting my traditional Regency romance series, the kickoff book The Naturalist is going to be a mere $0.99 on Kindle this weekend! (Or read it as part of your Kindle Unlimited subscription.)

Just $0.99 on Kindle (10/21-24)!

Matchless Margaret is the fourth book in the series, but they all work as standalones, too, so don't be daunted. It just adds to the fun to know everyone's story and to see people at different points in their lives.

All righty. On to the cover reveal! My designer Kathy Campbell did her usual impeccable work, combining the lovely person of Elizabeth McEuen Smith and a period illustration of Milsom Street to create this wonderful book cover:

Won't you join her in Bath this winter?

Pre-order now by clicking here! And thank you for your faithful readership.

Margaret on Milsom Street

Oh, happy day, I have finished the rough draft of the next installment of my Hapgoods of Bramleigh series! Four years have passed since the events of the first three books (because I can't marry Margaret off at age 15-16), but only one year in my writing time, which must be something of a record for me. This is what a nearly-empty nest and COVID remoteness have done for me! Cover design for Matchless Margaret is underway, and I'm starting to kick around launch plans.

But first,

Question: What do I, as an author, have in common with J. K. Rowling?

If you answered mind-boggling book sales; untold wealth; side hustles of amusement parks, movie adaptations and merchandise; or red hair, you're wrong.

Correct Answer: My books get longer and longer.

Yes, folks, so far Margaret's story is clocking in at 115,838 words, which is about 25,000 words longer than School for Love, which was longer than A Very Plain Young Man, which was a whopping 25,000 words longer than The Naturalist. In brief:

Margaret............................115,838

School.................................93,121

Young Man.........................91,805

Naturalist............................66,263

However, unlike Rowling, I am putting out my own books and really cannot afford to be so prolix when the word count determines how many pages the paper book will be and how wide the spine and how much the darned thing will cost to print. (If I could get all my readers to move to Kindle or reading on their phones/tablets, I could give Gone With the Wind a run for its word-count money if I felt like it, but not so with physical books.)

I love Margaret's story. I hate to think of cutting any of it, so I'm giving myself a couple days to let it sit before I start hacking away. Maybe I'll even keep a copy of the original for my e-book readers who might be interested in the "director's cut" later--although I've often thought director's cuts aren't as good as the theater versions. It never hurts writing to be gone over and gone over and pared down for economy and elegance.

While I ponder, I've been drinking my "Jane Austen Blend" tea that I bought in Carmel (delicious) at the charming Jane Austen at Home shop.

Speaking of Jane Austen at Home, I've also been re-reading Lucy Worsley's bio of Amazing Jane that happens to have the same title.

I actually have no memory of having read it before, but Goodreads tells me I gave it a star rating in 2017, and Goodreads never lies.

Much of Matchless Margaret takes place in the beautiful city of Bath, England, and the husband and I had planned to visit again this fall on an empty-nest, hooray-COVID-is-over trip. I'd even picked out the hotel I wanted to stay this time, just a hop, skip, and a jump from where Margaret lodges in Henrietta Street. 

[Pardon me while I weep a little while...]

Well, as long as the U.S. requires a (negative) COVID test before flying home, this trip is off the table. We both work, and his is the kind of job (pastor) that does not allow him to get stuck in foreign countries for weeks at a time. 

Which makes me think that, when I launch Margaret on the world, the launch parties (both the in-person one and the Zoom one) will include a virtual "walk through early 19th century Bath"! After I've spent all that time poring over old maps and peering at old engravings and reading excerpts from odd little random books, I'm taking you readers with me.

So mark your calendars for sometime in November or January and we'll go for a stroll on Milsom Street:

and grab tea and a scone at the Pump Room:

More to come. Thank you, dear readers.