"Farewell, My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler's crisp, laconic, sharp, caustic, dazzlingly evocative writing is always good for what ails me.  Especially when what ails me is a mild case of summertime SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and its accompanying discomfort in my own skin.

I try to limit myself to one Raymond Chandler book a year so that there is always enough time between my reading of any single book to make it feel fresh again with each reread.  So far, that's been working pretty well.

In Farewell, My Lovely, private investigator Philip Marlowe accidentally encounters an ex-con named Moose Malloy.  Moose is fresh out of prison and single-mindedly hunting for the love of his life, a singer named Velma.  He corrals Marlowe into helping him look for her, then accidentally commits a murder while trying to get information out of a black saloonkeeper.  Marlowe has to report the murder to the cops, but this is early 1940s California, and nobody really cares about an accidental murder of a black man who wasn't rich or famous or important in anyway.  Marlowe is told to forget about it, and the cops will track down Moose in their own good time.  The injustice bothers him, and he makes a lot of snide remarks about it to various authorities, to no real avail.

But Marlowe keeps getting sucked back into Moose's quest to find Velma.  Sometimes things happen to him that seem unconnected to Moose, like getting hit on the head and waking up to discover a murder, or getting hit on the head and waking up in a private hospital for recovering drug addicts.  But he starts to realize everything is all connected, eventually.  It feels for quite a while like a meandering spiral of a story, but that spiral is getting pulled tighter and tighter and tighter like a watch spring the whole time.

Particularly Good Bits:

I didn't say anything.  I lit my pipe again.  It makes you look thoughtful when you are not thinking (p. 91).

Aster Drive had a long smooth curve there and the houses on the inland side were just nice houses, but on the canyon side they were great silent estates, with twelve foot walls and wrought-iron gates and ornamental hedges; and inside, if you could get inside, a special brand of sunshine, very quiet, put up in noise-proof containers just for the upper classes (p. 119-120).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for violence, including not-overly-detailed descriptions of some gory murders, as well as innuendo (mainly in dialog) here and there, some bad language, and the aforementioned casual racism and some racial slurs common in the era.  This is hardboiled detective fiction from the 1940s, so it's not actually smutty, but most of the characters Marlowe encounters are not nice people.

This has been my 6th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"Pigeon Post" by Arthur Ransome

Every time I read an Arthur Ransome book aloud to my kids (who are now teens, but I still call them my kids), I think I can't possibly love it more than the previous Swallows and Amazons books.  And I am usually wrong.    They tend to be better and better the farther we get in the series.

(We actually didn't like Coot Club much and decided to skip it for now after a few chapters, but that was because it was mainly about Dick and Dorothea, and we wanted to read about the Swallows and the Amazons, not the Ds.)

We adored Pigeon Post.  First of all, it was a jolly good adventure.  One part toward the very end made us all laugh so much that I had to stop reading, wipe my eyes, and blow my nose because I was crying from laughing so hard.  And it took several starts before I could really move on, because the laughter didn't want to stop.  Man, what good stuff.  And the final quarter or so of the book was absolutely thrilling -- I read until I was hoarse and we still didn't want to stop.  

Pigeon Post is all about the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty, and Roger) and Amazons (Nancy and Peggy) and Ds (Dick and Dorothea) deciding to go prospecting and find gold so that Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim (aka Captain Flint) would settle down near home and stop wandering all over the world having adventures.  They figure if they find gold, he will be too busy gold-mining to go galivanting.  

Being their typical resourceful selves, they figure out a way to convince their parents to let them go camp far away from the lake to do their prospecting, using carrier pigeons to relay messages every day assuring the Natives that they are well, safe, and happy.  And, in the end, one of those carrier pigeon messages ends up saving the day for more people than just the prospectors.

I'm not sure kids ever have been this awesome and jolly and free to roam around doing cool things.  But I like to believe there was a time and place when it was possible.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some perilous and intense things happening at the end.

This is my 5th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"Magic for Marigold" by L. M. Montgomery

I read Magic for Marigold for our final Mother-Daughter Book Club meeting of the school year.  It was my first time reading this particular L. M. Montgomery book, and a first time for nearly everyone else in the book club, too, which was really fun.

Marigold is born into the type of large and eccentric family Montgomery excelled at writing.  Her father dies before she is born, and her mother names her daughter after the woman doctor who saves her newborn's life.  Marigold grows up in her family's large old home, with her grandmother and her great-grandmother and an aunt, as well as her mother.  And a bounty of aunts and uncles and the occasional cousin scattered across Prince Edward Island to give advice on how Marigold should be raised.

Marigold is not as dreamy and fanciful as, say, Anne Shirley or Emily Starr, probably because she grows up in a loving home with her own mother still alive.  She isn't as mousy as Jane Stuart, either, probably because her grandmothers are not tyrants and her mother is not an absolute milksop.  And maybe that's part of why I didn't love Marigold as much as Anne or Jane -- because she isn't as extreme.  She's sweet and kind and whimsical, and I did find that endearing, but she didn't lodge herself in my heart.

(from my Bookstagram account)

I also found the book as a whole whimsical and fun, but not a pure delight.  I blame that on how often things just go disappointingly wrong and unpleasant for poor Marigold.  Instead of mishaps coming out all right repeatedly, events that start out well go sour.  Over and over.  I got to feeling very sorry for Marigold over that, for sure.

Is this an unpleasant book?  Not in the slightest!  If you're an L. M. Montgomery fan, you're going to have fun with it.  Even if you aren't, you probably will find plenty to enjoy if you like gentle books about children growing up in bygone days.

Particularly Good Bits:

"If you don't believe things you'll never have any fun.  The more things you can believe the more interesting life is, as you say yourself.  Too much incredulity makes it a poor thing" (p. 86).

"I can't help liking things and I'm glad I do," said Marigold in a sudden accession of common sense.  "It makes life so much more int'resting" (p. 261).

"Keep your dream, little Marigold, as long as you can.  A dream is an immortal thing.  Time cannot kill it or age wither it.  You may tire of reality but never of dreams" (p. 319).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's good and wholesome and uplifting stuff, no doubt about it.

This has been my fourth book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list!

"The Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief" by Maurice LeBlanc

What fun!  I had honestly never heard of Arsène Lupin before I bought this book.  I bought it because I really love the MacMillan Collector's Edition books, which are elegant pocket-sized hardcovers with delightful dust jackets.  I check every now and then to see what books they have released lately in case any are of interest to me, and this one looked like fun.  Sort of a precursor to The Saint books by Leslie Charteris, in a way. 

Arsène Lupin steals expensive things from rich people. Along the way, he often solves a crime or clears up a mystery.  Sometimes, though, the story is really just all about a clever heist he pulls of.  He's a gentleman thief, after all, not a detective.

Of the nine short stories in this collection, my top favorites were:

"The Seven of Hearts," in which Lupin not only executes a daring burglary, but solves an old crime.

"The Escape of Arsène Lupin" because I always enjoy prison-escape stories.

"Holmlock Shears Arrives Too Late" because it was really funny, and didn't so much poke fun at Sherlock Holmes as play with his character like this was a fanfic story (which it basically is).

I liked this book so much, I have asked my mom for a boxed set of the complete collection (there are like 8 or 9 more books, though not all in these editions, alas) for my birthday.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a little violence here and there, plus obviously themes of theft and robbery.  No cussing; no smut.

This has been my third classic book read and reviewed for my fifth Classic Club list.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie

My sister-in-law sent me a copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles as part of a little book box last year.  She sent it to me to cheer me up when I was having a really stressful time, and it definitely worked!  Even though it took me a few months to read the book itself, having it to look forward to was a definite morale booster, as were the neat goodies that came with it.

This is not only the first book featuring the great detective Hercule Poirot, it's Agatha Christie's debut novel.  It's full of all the elements you would expect from a Poirot mystery:  a seemingly unsolvable crime, lots of suspects, some red herrings, and a solution that eventually makes sense.  Plus, we get to see Poirot and Hastings become friends, which is so fun!  

Is this my favorite Poirot mystery?  Don't think so, but it doesn't have to be.  I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad I've finally read it!

Particularly Good Bits:

"You gave too much rein to your imagination.  Imagination is a good servant, and a bad mater.  The simplest explanation is always the most likely" (p. 84).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murder and the tiniest bit of strong language.

This is my second book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"Sitka" by Louis L'Amour

Basically, Sitka is an origin story for the state of Alaska.

I'm not even joking.

Jean LaBarge grows up in the swamps of Pennsylvania before heading off into the wilderness and ending up a young man on the California coast.  He spends a lot of time on sailing ships.  He gets big and tough and true-hearted, like all the best L'Amour heroes.  He keeps in touch with his childhood best friend, who stays in the East and becomes an important politician.

And he obsesses over Alaska.

Now, having been obsessed with Alaska myself since I was 11 years old, I understand that last bit.  There's something kind of magical about even just the name.  Alaska.  

I actually bought my copy of this book while in Alaska last August.  (I bought it in Skagway, not Sitka, but that doesn't matter.)  It took me thirty-four years to get there -- quite a bit longer than it takes Jean LaBarge.  He gets there while it still belongs to Russia and helps to open up to the possibility of Russia selling it to the United States.  He also spends several months crossing Russia from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  He falls in love with a Russian princess, with a sort of classic Medieval courtly love, since she's already married to a really great guy.  He makes enemies and defeats them.  Lots of really exciting stuff happens in the best style of L'Amour's sweeping epics.

It took me six months to read the first 60 pages of this book, and three days to read the last 250.  Make of that whatever you want.

Particularly Good Bits:

It gleamed there on his calloused palm, heavy as sin in the heart of a man.  "If that isn't gold, what is it?" (p. 55).

To a fool time brings only age, not wisdom (p. 78).

It was a pity, he reflected, that the men of good will are so poorly armed, for at times it was a handicap not to hate (p. 169).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some brawling and other non-gory violence, some references to bawdy houses, alcohol consumption by adults, scenes of children in peril, and mild innuendo about men's intentions toward women.  

This is my first book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list!

"Daniel Boone's Own Story" by Daniel Boone and "The Adventures of Daniel Boone" by Frances Lister Hawkes

How weird that these two short books have never crossed my path before this!  Especially considering what a big fan of Daniel Boone I have been since I was in single digits.  I've read so many junior biographies about him, so many articles... but never his own short account of how he helped open Kentucky for settlement?  Not sure how it escaped me before now.

Well, Daniel Boone's Own Story is the bold adventurer's own recounting of how and when and why he explored Kentucky with his brother and a few friends, how he returned to lead surveyors there, and why he brought his own family with a larger group to settle there.  This all happened before and during the American Revolution, but had little to do with the Revolution except to mention Lord Dunmore a couple of times (he who was Royal Governor of Virginia until the Revolution began) and to talk about refusing to surrender to British authority even as a possible escape from being held captive by a hostile tribe.  

I loved how Daniel Boone expresses himself in this.  He's straight-forward, modest, thoughtful, a little funny here and there, and can turn a pretty phrase.  And he repeatedly credits God with blessing his efforts, helping him and others out of difficulties, and making the beautiful wilderness land that Boone so cherished.

The Adventures of Daniel Boone by Francis Lister Hawks obviously draws on Boone's book, but fleshes the narrative out more.  It talks about Boone's life before and after the opening of Kentucky, which is nice.  I didn't learn much new from it that I hadn't read in other books, but I enjoyed the refresher anyway.  Hawks has a high-flown, old-fashioned writing style that makes Boone seem doubly plainspoken and uncomplicated by comparison.  But I didn't dislike the book just because his prose got a little purple here and there.  

Particularly Good Bits:

So much does friendship triumph over misfortune that sorrows and sufferings vanish at the meeting not only of real friends, but of the most distant acquaintances, and substitute happiness in their room (p. 4, Daniel Boone's Own Story)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of torture, some of which would be very disturbing for people with vivid imaginations.

Since these are so short, I am counting them together as my 50th book read for my 4th Classics Club list.  Which means I have finished my list!  Again!  Since January of 2014, I have read and reviewed 200 classic books :-D

(Actually, I've read more classics than that in those ten years, because I only count a book once for the Classics Club, and if I read it again after that, it doesn't count for my lists.)

I'll be making a fifth list soon!  Stay tuned for that...

"The Murder on the Links" by Agatha Christie

My mom gave me the gorgeous Chiltern Classics edition of The Murder on the Links for Christmas, and I promptly started reading it on Christmas Day.  And finished it a few days after New Year's.  And took almost a month to get around to reviewing it.

I swear this isn't because I didn't enjoy this mystery!  I definitely did -- it had some lovely twists I didn't see coming, plus a couple that I thought I saw coming but was not quite correct about.  Hanging out with Poirot and Hastings was delightful.  Watching Hastings fall in love without noticing was adorable.  

I don't have anything particularly long-winded to say about this book.  That's partly because it simply is a good mystery, and I have no bones to pick with it.  And it's partly because I did read this almost a month ago and then fell prey to the busyness of January and failed to review it until now.

I would like to mention that I do rather like Hastings, and I know a lot of Poirot fans don't.  My affection for him stems pretty much entirely from his portrayal by Jonathan Cecil in several of the 1980s Hercule Poirot films starring Peter Ustinov.  Cecil plays Hastings as so sweet and likeable, albeit definitely not bright, and I shall probably always be fond of him as a result.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, insinuations about people having extramarital affairs, and a sprinkling of old-fashioned cuss words.

This is my 49th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list!  One more to go, and I'll have read and reviewed 200 classics since 2014!

Reading Goals Behind and Ahead

I like goals.  Even when I don't reach them.  Last January, I set a few reading goals for the year, and I finally have a few minutes to look over how that all worked out.

I wanted to read 55 books.  I read 68!  Huzzah!

I wanted to read at least 12 classics for my fourth Classics Club list.  I read 15!  Sweet!

I also wanted to read at least 12 books about people who are substantially different from myself.  And I read 16!  Yay!

I also chose 25 books I wanted to read in 2025, some of them rereads and some new reads.  I read 7 of them.  Epic fail.  Didn't even read 1/3 of them.  Sigh.  Oh well.

Now, time for my 2026 reading goals!

I want to read 13 books about or set during the American Revolution in 2026 to mark our nation's 250th birthday.  I'm listing them under #RevolutionaryWarReads on Instagram, if you are curious.  I hope to do a post just about that pretty soon.

Once again, I aim to read at least 12 classics and 12 diverse books.

And I'm setting my overall goal at 55 again because I know that will keep me reading but not daunt me.

Have you shared any reading plans or goals for 2026?  If so, drop me a link in the comments so I can see what you're planning!

"A Merry Christmas and Other Christmas Stories" by Louisa May Alcott

What a wholesome and cozy collection of Christmas stories!  Well, stories plus a section from the very beginning of Little Women.  

I thoroughly enjoyed all the stories here -- there wasn't a single one that didn't move me in some way and bring a smile to my face.  I'd read a few of them before, but long ago, so they felt pretty fresh and new to me again. 

The stories included here are:

"A Merry Christmas" -- the March sisters share their Christmas breakfast and find their own joy doubled, then exchange and receive gifts with their own family plus others.

"Kate's Choice" -- a wealthy orphan must decide which of her aunts and uncles she will live with now, and surprises everyone with her choice.

"The Quiet Little Woman" -- a warmhearted orphan is taken in by a family to be their maid-of-all-work, but yearns for their kindness and friendship more than anything.

"Tilly's Christmas" -- a poor child rescues a half-frozen bird and shares kindness and love with those around her, and is rewarded by an unexpected friend.

"What Love Can Do" -- people living in a boarding house with a poor family acquire a fresh understanding of what it means to show love and kindness to others.

"Rosa's Tale" -- an aging horse uses the Christmas gift of speech to tell the story of her life.

"Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" -- a widow learns the truth about her dead husband, a man who lodges at her house, and herself.  Probably my favorite story of all!

Particularly Good Bits:

Half the real beauty, virtue, and romance of the world gets put into humble souls, hidden in plain bodies (p. 117, "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot").

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Good, wholesome, heartwarming stories.

This has been my 48th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  Looks like I'll be finishing this list and starting another one this winter sometime!

"The Cricket on the Hearth" by Charles Dickens

I can't believe I'd never read this before!  Somehow, I thought it was about a literal cricket sitting on a hearth, telling us stories about the people he's met and things he's experienced.  It is not about that AT ALL.  

I mean, there's a cricket in the story that does chirp near a hearth.  But it's not a talking or sentient cricket.  It's kind of a symbol of contentment and coziness in your own home and among your own family members.  I'm so glad this was one pick for this year's #DickensDecember readings over on Instagram, because I absolutely delighted in this book.

This book is actually about a sweet and cheerful young wife, her older and devoted husband, and some of their friends.  A shadow of suspicion falls over their happy home for a while, and I devoured the last couple chapters of this book in great worry over what was going to happen.

SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH.  One of the things I liked best were some cool parallels to the Biblical account of Mary and Joseph.  A young and sweet wife, an older husband who suddenly suspects things are not right with his marriage, his plan for a quiet and private separation, and a sudden revelation of unknown facts that makes everything okay again.

I am not always the biggest fan of Charles Dickens, but this is going on my list (with A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities) of Dickens books I truly and thoroughly enjoy!

Particularly Good Bits:

But let us be genteel, or die! (p. 74)  (I am guessing that Amy March's line "Let us be elegant, or die" in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is an allusion to this line, since the March sisters are such fans of Dickens.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some allusions to suspected marital unfaithfulness.  No cussing, smut, or violence.

This has been my 47th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"The Golden Road" by L. M. Montgomery

My kids and I enjoyed The Story Girl so very much when I read it aloud to them last year that we decided to read the sequel together this year.  Happily, I still remembered all the voices I had given the characters, even though I had read a couple of other books aloud to them in between.

This was a lot of fun, and we laughed a great deal over the little magazine that the kids put together periodically, simply called Our Magazine.  We all looked forward to those chapters because they were sure to set us howling with laughter.  But there were poignant things here too, like the repeated foreshadowing that one character would not live long past childhood.  Happily, none of them died during the story, but you knew that one of them was going to in the next few years.

The ending is also bittersweet, as the gang of friends breaks up and goes their separate ways.

We need more children's books like this where it's just a lot of fun adventures had by a group of kids who are friends.  Nothing truly awful happens to them, or anything unbelievable.  They just get into and out of a bit of mischief here and there, have some adventures, have quarrels and make up, and so on.  I love slice-of-life books like this, and you never know, I might write one someday.

Particularly Good Bits: "Nothing is ever lost to us as long as we remember it" (p. 257).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Good, clean, wholesome fun.

This has been my 46th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  Getting so close to finishing off another set of fifty classics!!!

"The Happy Prince and Other Stories" by Oscar Wilde

When I found this book in the children's section at a bookstore sometime within the last year or so, my first instinct was, "This must be mis-shelved."  Oscar Wilde?  In with the books for kids?  But lo and behold, he wrote fairy tales that are totally kid-friendly.  They remind me a lot of Hans Christian Andersen's stories -- most of them are poignant or even melancholy, but also lovely and often funny.

My favorite stories were:

"The Remarkable Rocket" -- a firework thinks he's the coolest thing ever and ends up a total dud.  It's so slyly funny!

"The Young King" -- a new king goes through a series of lessons to become wise and good.

"The Star-Child" -- a fallen star is rescued in the form of a human baby, grows up thinking he's awesome, and eventually learns a really important lesson about appearances and pride.

As I typed those out, I just noticed that all three of those have a very strong common theme.  Huh!

Most of the stories were a bit sad or almost-sad, but most of them also had really funny things in them, as you might expect from Oscar Wilde.

Particularly Good Bits:

"But I have imagination, for I never think of things as they really are; I always think of them as being quite different" ("The Remarkable Rocket," p. 47).

They did not understand a single word of what he was saying, but that made no matter, for they put their heads on one side, and looked wise, which is quite as good as understanding a thing, and very much easier ("The Birthday of the Infanta," p. 105).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some really sad bits.

This has been my 45th classic read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I'd never read anything by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before this.  Oh, quotations here and there, sure.  Books and articles about him, sure.  But never one of his full writings.  I came away very impressed.  I want to read more of his stuff.

The Introduction explained that Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together while living in a secret, illegal seminary to teach young German pastors in Nazi Germany.  He and the other teachers and about twenty-five seminary students all lived and worked together, and I'm sure his experiences there are what prompted him to write about how Christians should and shouldn't behave in daily life, both in Christian communities and in the world in general.

He focuses on the importance of being part of a community, on what a Christian's daily life can and will look like both when living with others and also when living alone, on different kinds of earthly ministries, and on the importance of confession and Holy Communion for believers.  I found the last two sections to be the most interesting and enlightening.  

The section on Ministry was divided up into small, useful segments of ways that we can serve God and our fellow human beings in our daily life through things like the Ministry of Holding One's Tongue, the Ministry of Meekness, the Ministry of Listening, and several others.  This was good, practical, uplifting advice to anyone and everyone, and I will be rereading that section in the future, I am sure.

Bonhoeffer didn't pull any punches when talking about how important it is to truly repent of our sins and turn away from them, and how comforting it is to confess them to a fellow Christian such as a pastor and receive comforting reassurance that God forgives those sins for the sake of Jesus's suffering and death on the cross.  We often reply on privately confessing our specific sins to God and publicly only confessing in a general way, during a worship service -- and those are important!  But some sins can weigh so heavily on a Christian that we feel maybe we can't be forgiven for them, which can lead to despair and be very destructive of souls and hearts and minds, and that is where private confession can provide amazing comfort and relief.  I've known that, in a vague way, for most of my life, but Bonhoeffer really explained it in such clear and relatable ways that it became much more real to me, somehow.

I think the one, single part of this book that was the most immediately helpful for me was this:

It is one of the particular difficulties of meditation that our thoughts are likely to wander and go their own way, toward other persons or to some events in our life.  Much as this may distress and shame us again and again, we must not lose heart and become anxious, or even conclude that meditation is really not something for us.  When this happens it is often a help not to snatch back our thoughts convulsively, but quite calmly to incorporate into our prayer the people and the events to which our thoughts keep straying and thus in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation (p. 85).

I often have this problem when I am reading the Bible and praying, and I love that extremely practical and solid advice.

This is a really short book, but so meaty and wise!

Particularly Good Bits:

The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer (p. 19).

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world.  He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream.  God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth (p. 27).

In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life.  Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things...We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good.  Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.  We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts (p. 29).

Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake; spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake (p. 34).

The Old Testament day begins at evening and ends with the going down of the sun.  It is the time of expectation.  The day of the New Testament church begins with the break of day and ends with the dawning light of the next morning.  It is the time of fulfillment, the resurrection of the Lord.  At night, Christ was born, a light in darkness; noonday turned to night when Christ suffered and died on the Cross.  But in the dawn of Easter morning Christ rose in victory from the grave (p. 40).

Here we learn, first, what prayer means.  It means praying according to the Word of God, on the basis of promises.  Christian prayer takes its stand on the solid ground of the revealed Word and has nothing to do with vague, self-seeking vagaries (p. 47).

Why do Christians sing when they are together?  The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because here they can unite in the Word.  All devotion, all attention should be concentrated upon the Word in the hymn (p. 59).

"Seek God, not happiness" -- this is the fundamental rule of all meditation.  If you seek God alone, you will gain happiness: that is its [meditation's] promise (p. 84).

Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words (p. 91).

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.  God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.  We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps -- reading the Bible.  When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God's way must be done (p. 99).

Sin demands to have a man by himself.  It withdraws him from the community.  The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.  Sin wants to remain unknown.  It shuns the light.  In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person (p. 112).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  This is good and godly stuff, though younger people may not understand it thoroughly.  I didn't understand all of it myself on just one reading.

This is my 44th book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list.  Only six to go to finish this list!

"The Adventures of Elizabeth in Ruegen" by Elizabeth von Arnim

This is the third and final "Elizabeth" book from which Elizabeth von Arnim took her pen name.  I love Elizabeth and her German Garden the most, and then I think I like the sequels The Solitary Summer and The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen about equally -- not quite so well as the first book, but it was still lots and lots of fun!

Elizabeth decides she wants to take a little vacation by herself to the quaint and charming island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea.  She would like to walk all the way around the island, but none of her friends are willing to undertake walking all the way around a fairly large island, and her husband says that wouldn't be practical OR proper, so instead, she takes a cart and driver and her faithful maidservant Gertrud and determines to drive all the way around the island.

Like in the previous two books, people and circumstances conspire to prevent her from wholly and completely accomplishing her goal.  Elizabeth perseveres.  She sometimes loses her natural good spirits just a little, but recovers them before long.  And her writing made me laugh aloud repeatedly, just as I hoped it would.

I liked the first part best, when it's just Elizabeth and Gertrud and the driver, and the only things that spoil Elizabeth's plans are things like hotels having no vacancies.  Once she met up with her odd cousin Charlotte, things turned almost a little screwball here and there, with the mishaps and misunderstandings piling up a bit too quickly for my taste.  Also, there were a lot fewer passages describing and appreciating the beauty of the world around her, which are something I absolutely love in von Arnim's books.

Overall, I'll totally read it again, but not as often as Elizabeth and Her German Garden.

Particularly Good Bits:

If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside (p. 3).

Admirable virtue of silence, most precious, because most rare, jewel in the crown of female excellences (p. 5).

Every instant of happiness is a priceless possession for ever (p. 20).

As soon as there are no trains to catch a journey becomes magnificently simple (p. 35).

Why not take the beauty and be grateful? (p. 36).

What had I been doing with my life?  Looking back into it in search of an answer it seemed very spacious, and sunny, and quiet.  There were children in it, and there was a garden, and a spouse in whose eyes I was precious; but I had not done anything.  And if I could point to no pamphlets or lectures, neither need I point to a furrow between my eyebrows (p. 42).

You need not, after all, let your vision be blocked entirely by the person with whom you chance to live; however vast his intellectual bulk may be, you can look round him and see that the stars and the sky are still there, and you need not run away from him to do that (p. 44).

I know no surer way of shaking off the dreary crust formed about the soul by the trying to do one's duty or the patient enduring of having somebody else's duty done to one, than going out alone, either at the bright beginning of the day, when the earth is still unsoiled by the feet of the strenuous and only God is abroad; or in the evening, when the hush has come, out to the blessed stars, and looking up at them wonder at the meanness of the day just pat, at the worthlessness of the things one has struggled for, at the folly of having been so angry, and so restless, and so much afraid.  Nothing focusses life more exactly than a little while alone at night with the stars (p. 59).

...the forest was so exquisite that way, the afternoon so serene, so mellow with lovely light, that I could not look round me without being happy. Oh blessed state, when mere quiet weather, trees and grass, sea and clouds, can make you forget that life has anything in it but rapture, can make you drink in heaven with every breath!  How long will it last, this joy of living, this splendid ecstasy of the soul?  I am more afraid of losing this, of losing even a little of this, of having so much as the edge of its radiance dimmed, than of parting with any other earthly possession.  And I think of Wordsworth, its divine singer, who yet lost it so soon and could no longer see the splendour in the grass, the glory in in the flower, and I ask myself with a sinking heart if it faded so quickly for him who saw it and sang it by God's grace to such perfection, how long, oh how long does the common soul, half blind, half dead, half dumb, keep its little, precious share? (p. 72).

How good it is to look sometimes across great spaces, to lift one's eyes from narrowness, to feel the large silence that rests on lonely hills!  Motionless we stood before this sudden unrolling of the beauty of God's earth.  The place seemed full of a serene and mighty Presence (p. 109).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG.  Completely clean in every way.

This is my 43rd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse

My teens and I listened to The Code of the Woosters while on a family road trip this summer, and howled our way through the whole thing. Jonathan Cecil is an absolute delight when it comes to reading the Jeeves and Wooster books.

If you are curious, this is the book involving an antique cow creamer.  Someone buys it.  Someone else wants it.  Bertie agrees to steal it.  Bertie decides not to steal it.  Various friends of Bertie's get engaged, break of engagements, attempt to steal the cow creamer... it's extremely convoluted.  And hilarious.  But not in a way I can explain.  Wodehouse really is one of those authors that you just have to read yourself -- and if you find him funny, you find him very funny, but if you don't... you probably think people who are laughing over the antics and hijinks in his books are very odd.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a sprinkling of old-fashioned cuss words here and there.

This is my 42nd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Midsummer Mysteries" by Agatha Christie

I did it!  I read all four of these season-themed Christie collections in four consecutive seasons!

It's the little things in life, amiright?

The short stories in this volume include stories about Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Mr. Quin, Tommy and Tuppence, and Mr. Parker Pyne.  Plus a story or two with none of them.  I've grown so fond of Pyne and Quin that I have actually picked up collections of stories about only them, because I'd like to read more!

I'd say my favorite stories in this are "Jane in Search of a Job" and "The Rajah's Emerald," which happen to be two of the stories with no famous detectives in them.  I also really liked "The Oracle at Delphi" and "The Incredible Theft."

I most definitely did NOT like "The Idol House of Astarte," which was creepy.

I just learned that Harper Collins is doing two more collections similar to this: Capital Christie and Country Christie, and now I want those too.  So far, it seems like you can only buy the former in the UK, and the latter won't be released until September.  I will probably wait until September and then see if I can't order them both from someplace like Waterstones that ships to the US.  Or maybe they'll have them in the US by then too.

Particularly Good Bits:

The book she took with her to read was not the excellent one on Grecian Art recommended to her by her son but was, on the contrary, entitles The River Launch Mystery.  It had four murders in it, three abductions, and a large and varied gang of dangerous criminals  Mrs. Peters found herself both invigorated and soothed by the perusal of it (p. 165, "The Oracle at Delphi")(I love that last line because that's what good mysteries do for me, too.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for crimes such as murder and abduction and theft, and the sorts of violence you might expect Agatha Christie to write about.  No rubbing gore in the reader's face, in other words.  There are a handful of mild curse words, and some very polite dialog mentions about people having romantic affairs, etc.

This has been my 41st book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list.

"The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective" by Catherine Louisa Pirkis

I'm so glad that some reader friends of mine picked one of the short stories in this collection to include in the #DickensDecember buddy read event on Bookstagram last winter.  These stories are so delightful!  I can see why Brooke was a big hit back in the 1890s, even considered a female Sherlock Holmes.  She's bright, knowledgeable, clever, and not sniffing around for a husband.  That probably made her seem kind of unusual (and maybe unladylike) in her day, though now we're pretty used to confident female characters who aren't trying to catch the eye of every eligible man who crosses their path.  

There are seven short stories here, all of them enjoyable mysteries.  Loveday Brooke is a professional detective -- she earns her living working as an operative for a detective agency.  She's unmarried, in her thirties, proper and ladylike, and ready for whatever assignment comes her way.  She solves crimes using observation and deduction, like so many classic detectives.  Although these mysteries don't quite "play fair" (they don't give the readers every single clue), they're still very fun to read.  I only wish there were more!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some violence, including murders.

This has been my 40th book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list.