Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2023

Our first Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl for 2024 is all about looking back over our reading from the past year and picking our top reads.  As usual, I am doing two lists, one of my top ten favorite new reads, and one of my top ten favorite re-reads.  I've linked each title to my review here on my blog, and provided a little info about each book as well, including its publication year.

My Ten Favorite New Reads:

1. Code Name Edelweiss (PG-16) by Stephanie Landsem, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction spy story set in Hollywood during the build-up to WWII

2. A Deed of Dreadful Note (PG) by Patricia Meredith, 2023 -- Christian historical fiction murder mystery based on the life of mystery novelist Anna Katherine Green

3. High Lonesome (PG-16) by Louis L'Amour, 1962 -- western adventure about strangers banding together against terrible foes

4. Murder on Black Swan Lane (PG-13) by Andrea Penrose, 2017 -- historical fiction murder mystery set in Regency England

5. A Right to Die (PG-13) by Rex Stout, 1964 -- a Nero Wolfe murder mystery involving the Civil Rights Movement

6. Beauty (G) by Robin McKinley, 1978 -- gentle and wholesome fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast

7. The Lilies of the Field (G) by William E. Barrett, 1962 -- sweet story of finding common ground despite outward differences

8. And Then There Were None (PG-16) by Agatha Christie, 1939 -- classic murder mystery about people trapped on an island

9. In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (PG) by Bette Bao Lord, 1984 -- middle grade book about a Chinese immigrant family in the 1950s

10. The Vanderbeekers on the Road (G) by Karina Yan Glaser, 2022 -- middle grade book about a family road trip

My Ten Favorite Re-reads:

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (PG) by A. Conan Doyle, 1902 -- classic Sherlock Holmes mystery

2. The Blue Castle (PG) by L. M. Montgomery, 1926 -- classic about a woman stepping out into life from the shadows

3. Shane (PG) by Jack Schaefer, 1949 -- western about a loner who adopts a family

4. The Black Stallion (PG) by Walter Farley, 1941 -- middle grade classic about a boy and wild horse who rescue each other

5. Playback (R) by Raymond Chandler, 1958 -- hardboiled detective mystery starring Philip Marlowe

6. The Enchanted April (G) by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922 -- classic about four women who discover their true selves in Italy

7. Borden Chantry (PG) by Louis L'Amour, 1977 -- western murder mystery

8. Jane of Austin (PG-13) by Hillary Manton Lodge, 2017 -- Christian fiction retelling of Sense and Sensibility set in modern-day Texas

9. By the Great Horn Spoon! (PG) by Sid Fleischman, 1963 -- middle grade classic tall tale about the Gold Rush

10. Big Red (PG-10) by Jim Kjelgaard, 1945 -- middle grade classic about a boy and the dog he loves

You can see all my lists of favorite reads since 2014 on this page.

Check back later this week for a more fulsome look at my 2023 reading, including how I did with various challenges and so on!

"Curtains for Three" by Rex Stout

I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries.  They relax and rejuvenate me.  Just hanging out with Archie and Wolfe and Fritz and Saul and Fred and Orrie and Inspector Cramer in the Brownstone on West 35th Street is like a little vacation for my inner being.

This is one of the collections of three short mysteries that are especially delightful when I'm very busy.  If I have to set the book down between stories, I won't have to worry I'll forget what's going on, as the stories won't be related in any way.

Of the three in this book, "Disguise for Murder" was my favorite because it had a pretty big surprise in it that I didn't see coming, though in retrospect, made so much sense.  I love mysteries that do that.  Also, Archie got to engage in some thrilling heroics, which is always extra delightful.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for murder, violence, peril, and vague discussions of people having extramarital affairs.

This is my 9th book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

Top Ten Tuesday: I Love a Mystery

I love mysteries.  I've got more than a hundred posts on this blog tagged "mystery."  It's my favorite book genre, no question about it.  So for today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt ("Books from Your Favorite Genre") from That Artsy Reader Girl, I give you My Ten Favorite Fictional Detectives. 

1.  Sherlock Holmes from the canonical books and stories by A. Conan Doyle, and also in the Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King.

2.  Philip Marlowe from the books and some of the short stories by Raymond Chandler, who is my favorite author of all time.

3.  Archie Goodwin & Nero Wolfe from the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout, which I love so much I've collected all of them.  (I know technically these are two people, but they work as a team.)

4.  Frank & Joe Hardy from the Hardy Boys by F. W. Dixon, which I read over and over and over as a kid.  (Again, totally a team.)

5.  Jack Reacher from all those books by Lee Child, which I guess are classified as thrillers and not mysteries, but he always solves a mystery in them, so that's how I view them.

6.  Trixie Belden from the series by Kathryn Kenny, which I also read over and over and over as a kid.  I loved Trixie's gang of friends, the Bob-Whites, and use to pretend I was one of them!

7.  Drew Farthering from the series by Julianna Deering, which is one of the best Christian mystery series I've ever encountered.

8.  Gwen Marcy from the books by Carrie Stuart Parks, the other best Christian mystery series I've found.

9.  Jane Austen from the series by Stephanie Barron, which I thought was going to be dorky and irksome, but actually turned out to be really fun!  

10.  Irene Kelly from the series by Jan Burke, which I started reading a few years ago and really ought to finish one of these days.

(All photos are mine, from my Instagram account.)

Who are YOUR favorite fictional detectives?  Do we share any favorites?

The Finally Fall Book Tag

I'm borrowing this from Joseph over at The Once Lost Wanderer.  We had about a week of what I consider to be fall weather in early October, but it's been hot and muggy again lately.  Still, the evenings are cool, trees are beginning to change color, and I've got that energized-and-creative vibe going on that I get in fall and spring, so yay!

For some reason, I keep hearing the voices of random cast members on Whose Line is it Anyway? reading these questions in the ridiculously perky voices they use whenever they're the "contestant" on the "dating show" game they do.  Which is cracking me up.

(Photo by me)

1. In fall, the air is crisp and clear: name a book with a vivid setting!

I'm going to go with The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, because Middle-earth is so vivid, I want to live there.  And not just because of the movies, but because of the way he describes all the places.  Every time I re-read it, I am in awe of his world-building.

2. Nature is beautiful… but also dying: name a book that is beautifully written, but also deals with a heavy topic like loss or grief.

I think Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is an amazing look at how the death of one person can so drastically affect others.  Mr. Dashwood dies at the beginning, and his wife and daughters have their whole world upended.

3. Fall is back to school season: share a non-fiction book that taught you something new.  

The first one that comes to mind is Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western by Will Wright.  I learned so much about story structure from it, not only for westerns but just for all kinds of stories.  And I discovered a lot about what kinds of story elements really draw them, which I hope has helped me use them more effectively in my own writing.

4. In order to keep warm, it’s good to spend some time with the people we love: name a fictional family/household/friend-group that you’d like to be a part of.

Today I pick the Curtis family and their gang in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.  I'd love to marry Darry and help take care of Soda and Ponyboy, or move in next door to them and become their friend, or whatever -- I've actually imagined being part of their lives on and off since I first read the book.

5. The colorful leaves are piling up on the ground: show us a pile of fall-colored spines!

6. Fall is the perfect time for some storytelling by the fireside: share a book wherein somebody is telling a story.

All of the Nero Wolfe books are narrated by Archie Goodwin as if he were telling you a story, and I love them dearly!  My favorite is A Family Affair, but I don't recommend that you start reading the series with it, as it won't work as well if you aren't already familiar with the characters.

7. The nights are getting darker: share a dark, creepy read.

I don't read a lot of creepy books.  Can't deal with them, just like I can't deal with scary movies.  But I do like a dark story now and then.  My beloved Hamlet is quite dark, and creepy in spots too, I suppose.

8. The days are getting colder: name a short, heartwarming read that could warm up somebody’s cold and rainy day.

I think it would be hard not to be warmed and cheered by A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.  It's so sweet and quirky and cheerful.

9. Fall returns every year: name an old favorite that you’d like to return to soon.

I get very much in the mood for The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle in October, and this year is no exception.  Not sure if I'll squeeze in a re-read, but if not this year, then next year!

10. Fall is the perfect time for cozy reading nights: share your favorite cozy reading “accessories”!

Well, I kind of just read anywhere, anytime?  I read when I'm brushing my teeth.  I read when I'm waiting for water to boil while making lunch.  I read in the car (when I'm a passenger, don't worry).  So really, my favorite cozy reading accessories are a book and a bookmark. 

I mean, it's fun to sit by my fireplace on a chilly evening and read.  Or to sit on the swing in the backyard in the summer and read.  But really, I just want a book and a bookmark.

I'm not going to tag anyone with this, but if you love books and autumn and tags, feel free to fill this out!

"The Mother Hunt" by Rex Stout

I've seen the Nero Wolfe Mystery version of this many times, so I was never in doubt of how Nero Wolfe would solve the mystery of who left a baby in a wealthy widow's vestibule and then killed a couple of women.  I must admit that anymore, I don't read these books for the mysteries in them -- I read them to spend time with Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe and their cohorts.  Hanging out with my imaginary friends for a hundred pages or so is what keeps me coming back for more, and the superb mysteries are simply a bonus.  Because the mysteries are excellent too!  If you love mysteries and haven't tried this classic series, you are missing out.

Archie is at his most charming here, romancing their client in his own delectable Archie way.  He almost never enters a relationship with a client, and this one gets pretty serious, so you know this woman must be fairly special.  

This one was written in the 1960s, and it does have a more modern feel to it than many of the earlier novels.  The issues of unwed motherhood and marital infidelity are important parts of the case, and while no salacious details are shared, the word "abortion" does crop up once.  Very edgy for the day, I'm sure.  But as usual, Wolfe is not interested in who is hooking up with whom, except as it might have bearing on who murdered whom.


Particularly Good Bits:

He was tall and broad and handsome, with a big smile that went on and off like a neon sign (p. 58).

"Nothing corrupts a man so deeply as writing a book; the myriad temptations are overpowering" (p. 59).

No man with any sense assumes that a woman's words mean to her exactly what they mean to him (p. 98).


If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for the content mentioned above, and for a few more swear words than I'm used to in a Nero Wolfe book.

"Archie Meets Nero Wolfe" by Robert Goldsborough

Does it ever happen to you that you're in the middle of a book (or four), and then another book arrives at your house, and you're like, "Oh, I'll just read the first page to see what it's like, and then I'll read the rest after I finish the book (or four) I'm working on right now."  And two days later, you've finished the whole new book.

Well, that's what happened to me with Archie Meets Nero Wolfe, which bears the entirely unneeded subtitle A Prequel to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries.  I mean, what else could it possibly be?

You know by now that I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries.  They're one of my happy places.  I've never read a Wolfe pastiche before, though, and I was a leeetle nervous going into this.  I've read enough Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austen pastiches to know that sometimes you find someone golden who can write those characters they way they ought to be written, but most of the time you get all miserable because it's sort of bad fanfiction written by someone with a tin ear.

Happily, Goldsborough is good.  His pacing is sound, and he plots well.  His dialog for Wolfe was excellent -- I could really feel like yes, this was Wolfe.  Same for Inspector Cramer.  The 'teers, Saul and Fred and Orrie, were good too.  But of course, the quality of any Nero Wolfe pastiche is going to hinge on the portrayal of Archie Goodwin.  He's the narrator of the originals, the real heart of the stories, and by far my favorite character in them.  Archie is make or break.

And here too, Goldsborough made it work.  Not quite so perfectly as Wolfe -- it wasn't until the last third of the story that I really started feel like yup, this is my Archie Goodwin.  But that's actually okay, and may have been intentional, because the book begins with Archie at 19, freshly arrived in NYC and trying to find his niche in the big city.  He's still zesty and charming, but feels a little unformed, and I've decided that Goldsborough did that on purpose, because Archie at 19 obviously wouldn't have yet acquired the flair he has as a grown man.  It's by hanging out with Saul Panzer and Nero Wolfe that he can learn to be more than just brash and brave.  

After I'd finished reading this, I did a little internet sleuthing of my own and discovered that Goldsborough had previously written several Nero Wolfe mysteries, so I'm kind of thinking I'll try to find some of those now too.  Not like I've run out of actual Nero Wolfe books, because I have half a shelf of them I haven't read yet, but... the more, the merrier, huh?

The actual plot of Archie Meets Nero Wolfe revolves around a kidnapping case that Wolfe solves with the help of his go-to independent operatives, Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, and Orrie Cather, as well as someone who pops up in a couple of the originals, Del Bascom.  And Del Bascom brings along a bright young fellow he's taken on as an assistant, one Archie Goodwin.  By the end of the book, Wolfe has come to appreciate Goodwin's detecting instincts, ability to recall entire conversations verbatim, and energetic inability to sit around and do nothing.  He offers him the job of assistant, warning him he'll need to be part secretary, part clue hound, and part pants-kicker.  And, well... we all know how that turns out.

Particularly Good Bits:

"False humility is a transparent plea for praise and recognition, neither of which I find worth the price of the pretense" (p. 138).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some violence, a child in peril, and a little bad language here and there (the same kind you'd run into in the original books).  

It's Funny -- Inkling Explorations for September, 2015

This month's edition of Heidi Peterson's Inkling Explorations is focused on "A Funny Story Opening in Literature."  I'm going to share the beginning of Gambit, one of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries.

At twenty-seven minutes past eleven that Monday morning in February, Lincoln's Birthday, I opened the door between the office and the front room, entered, shut the door, and said, "Miss Blount is here."

Without turning his head Wolfe let out a growl, yanked out some more pages and dropped them on the fire, and demanded, "Who is Miss Blount?"

I tightened my lips and then parted them to say, "She is the daughter of Matthew Blount, president of the Blount Textile Corporation, who is in the coop charged with murder, and she has an appointment with you at eleven-thirty, as you know.  If you're pretending you've forgotten, nuts.  You knew you couldn't finish that operation in half an hour.  Besides, how about the comments I have heard you make about book burners?"

"They are not relevant to this."  He yanked out more pages.  "I am a man, not a government or a committee of censors.  Having paid forty-seven dollars and fifty cents for this book, and having examined it and found it subversive and intolerably offensive, I am destroying it."  He dropped the pages on the fire.  "I'm in no mood to listen to a woman.  Ask her to come after lunch."

"I have also heard you comment about people who dodge appointments they have made."

Pause.  More pages.  Then:  "Very well.  Bring her here."

I returned to the office, shutting the door, crossed to the red leather chair near the end of Wolfe's desk where I had seated the caller, and faced her.  She tilted her head back to look up at me.  She was a brownie, not meaning a Girl Scout -- small ears and a small nose, big brown eyes, a lot of brown hair, and a wide mouth that would have been all right with the corners turned up instead of down.

"I'd better explain," I told her.  "Mr. Wolfe is in the middle of a fit.  It's complicated.  There's a fireplace in the front room, but it's never lit because he hates open fires.  He says they stultify mental processes.  But it's lit now because he's using it.  He's seated in front of it, on a chair too small for him, tearing sheets out of a book and burning them.  The book is the new edition, the third edition, of Webster's New International Dictionary, Unabridged, published by the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts.  He considers it subversive because it threatens the integrity of the English language.  In the past week he has given me a thousand examples of its crimes.  He says it is a deliberate attempt to murder the -- I beg your pardon.  I describe the situation at length because he told me to bring you in there, and it will be bad.  Even if he hears what you say, his mental processes are stultified.  Could you come back later?  After lunch he may be human."

She was staring up at me.  "He's burning up a dictionary?"

"Right.  That's nothing.  Once he burned up a cookbook because it said to remove the hide from a ham end before putting it in the pot with lima beans.  Which he loves most, food or words, is a tossup."

(Gambit by Rex Stout, p. 1-2)

I always get a big kick out of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, and these books routinely make me laugh, which is why I often refer to them as "nice, cheerful murder mysteries."  This opener is one of my favorites, because I love how much Wolfe loves words, that he would burn a dictionary in their defense -- but it's so ridiculous too, and so I laugh with glee.

Don't forget to visit Heidi's writing blog, Sharing the Journey, to read other people's entries into this month's Inkling Explorations and to link up your own!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most-Read Authors

This week's theme from The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Authors I've Read The Most Books From."  I've decided to list only authors I've read primarily as an adult, as otherwise my list would be entirely overrun by the likes of Ann M. Martin, Beverly Cleary, Franklin W. Dixon, Lois Gladys Leppard, and Marguerite Henry.

I'm listing these in alphabetical order by last name because for some of them I don't have an exact count on how many of their books I've read.

Jane Austen

I've read her six major novels, plus some of her juvenilia, Lady Susan and what there is of The Watsons and Sanditon.  My favorites are Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey.  I like Austen for her caustic wit, shrewd observations of human nature, and fully realized characters.

Raymond Chandler

Chandler is my absolute favorite author, so it's no surprise I've read all 7 1/2 of his novels (the 1/2 is cuz he never completed Poodle Springs, but Robert B. Parker did an entertaining job finishing it) and many of his short stories and essays.  I don't exactly have a favorite of his books, though I'm very fond of The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, and Farewell, My Lovely.  I like Chandler for his surprising descriptions, acerbic dialog, and brisk pacing.

A. Conan Doyle

Of course by now you know I'm a devoted Sherlockian.  I read the entire canon in 12 months not long ago, but I'd read nearly all of it many times before.  I've also read The White Company, which is the only non-Holmes book of Doyle's I've read so far.  My favorite Holmes adventure is The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I also dearly love "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and many of the other short stories.  I like Doyle for creating the coolest detective and chronicler ever and for his inscrutable but logical plots.

Ernest Hemingway

I almost didn't put Hemingway on here, but then I counted up how many of his books I've read and realized that I've read 6 1/2 of his books (Garden of Eden is unfinished) and all of his short stories, plus a good many of his essays and articles, so he belongs firmly on this list.  My favorites of his are The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast, and I'm quite fond of his Nick Adams stories too.  I like Hemingway for his terseness, his attention to detail, and his ability to make me understand characters who are very different from me.

Jan Karon

Reading Karon's books about Mitford is a little like making a visit home for me.  Why?  Because she set Mitford in the mountains of North Carolina and patterned parts of it after the town of Blowing Rock.  My family moved to NC's foothills when I was 12, and Blowing Rock quickly became one of our favorite places to visit, so much so that when Cowboy and I got married, we honeymooned there.  I haven't read the last few of her books, though I own all of them and look forward to beginning the series over again one of these days.  I've read the first six or seven, and am very fond of them.  I like Karon for her warm humor, quirky characters, and heartwarming storytelling.  

Laurie R. King

I've read all of King's novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (my favorite is The Beekeeper's Apprentice), all of her Kate Martinelli mysteries (my favorite is To Play the Fool), several of her stand-alone novels (my favorite is Keeping Watch), and the first of her Stuyvesant & Grey books.  In fact, there are only 2 of her published novels I haven't read yet, and I'm kind of holding off on them so I have something to look forward to, other than her upcoming releases.  I like King for her strong female characters, exciting mysteries, and especially for her excellent characterization of Sherlock Holmes.

L. M. Montgomery

I've read all 8 of her Anne of Green Gables books numerous times, her Emily of New Moon series, and I'm currently reading a bunch of her short stories.  My favorites are Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Windy Poplars.  I like Montgomery for her happy endings, fanciful characters, and beautiful descriptions.

Patrick O'Brian

I have read all 20 of Patrick O'Brian's novels about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin's adventures in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.  I also have his unfinished 21st book in the series, but I'm kind of saving it for when I reread the whole series.  I like O'Brian for the way he immerses me in a world I would otherwise never visit, and for the complex and endearing characters he created.

J.K. Rowling

I have, of course, read all the Harry Potter books.  And the book of stories by Beedle the Bard.  My favorite is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, hands-down.  I like Rowling for her deft wordplay, humorous dialog, and ability to communicate hard truths simply and kindly.

Rex Stout

I'm not even sure how many I have read of Stout's mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  I know I've read 16 of the books I own, plus probably 6 or 8 more from the library over the years.  I've also read a couple of his non-Nero Wolfe mysteries, which were nice, but it's the characters of Archie and Nero that keep me coming back for more.  I like Stout for his snappy dialog, twisty mysteries, and memorable characters.

"A Family Affair" by Rex Stout

This is my favorite Nero Wolfe mystery.  But I don't recommend you read it unless you're already familiar with the characters and have read several of the books or seen at least a season of the A&E show.  Because something shocking happens in it, and if you don't already know the characters super well, you aren't going to care.  And that would be a shame.

I remember the first time I read this, probably ten years ago now.  I had to stop reading it several times toward the end just so I could process what had happened.  To remain spoiler-free, I'll just say that the basic plot is this:  a waiter at Wolfe's favorite restaurant is murdered right in Wolfe's house, and so Wolfe and Archie Goodwin go to work on the mystery without a client or fee present.  This was the last Nero Wolfe mystery published during Stout's lifetime, which makes the whole story extra poignant.

Random personal note:  they mention Danbury, CT, in this one.  They mention it in a few others too.  We lived in Danbury for a few years before moving here.  The thing I liked best about that city was that it pops up in Nero Wolfe mysteries now and then because it's only a few hours from NYC.

Particularly Good Bits:

I'd buy a pedestal and put her on it if I thought she would stay.  She would either fall off or climb down, I don't know which (p. 90).

The most interesting incident Tuesday morning was my walking to a building on Thirty-fourth Street to enter a booth and push levers on a voting machine.  I have never understood why anybody passes up that bargain.  It doesn't cost a cent, and for that couple of minutes you're the star of the show, with top billing.  It's the only way that really counts for you to say I'm it, I'm the one that decides what's going to happen and who's going to make it happen.  It's the only time I really feel important and know I have a right to.  Wonderful (p. 110-111).  (So timely, considering yesterday was election day, huh?)

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

This is my twelfth book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Challenge!  I've reached my goal!  Huzzah!

A-Z Bookish Questions

Like half the blogs I read have done this, including Flowers of Quiet Happiness, Lady of the Manor, and Reading in the Dark.  I finally have time!  Hooray!  I've been wanting to do this meme for like two months now!


Author you've read the most books from:  Probably Rex Stout.  I love his Nero Wolfe mysteries!  And he was a very prolific author.

Best sequel ever:  I don't know about "best ever," but Christopher Paolini's Brisingr was sooooooooooo much better than Eragon and Eldest.

Currently reading: Middlemarch by George Eliot for the first time.

Drink of choice while reading:  Hot chocolate.

E-reader or physical book:  Physical book.  I don't own an e-reader.

Fictional character you probably would have actually dated in high school:  I would have loved to have gone out with Ponyboy Curtis from  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Glad you gave this book a chance:  Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange.  I wasn't sure I'd like Austen pastiches, but I discovered an author I now like so much!

Hidden gem book:  An Antic Disposition by Alan Gordon.  Brilliant retelling of Hamlet that utilizes elements from the original Scandinavian story of Amleth.

Interesting bookish question you wish this meme include:  What's a book you wish you could un-read?  For me, it's Longbourn by Jo Baker.  Awful mess.

Just finished:  Betsy-Tacy by Maude Hart Lovelace -- for the first time!

Kind of books you won't read:  Smut.

Longest book you've read:  Probably Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  Unless you count The Lord of the Rings as one book.

Major book hangover because of:  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  I was so loathe to leave the world that I promptly read it all over again.

Number of bookcases you own:  Seven full-size, six smaller.

One book you read multiple times:  ONE?  Okay.  I reread The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin every few years.  I have to let at least 4 years go by between readings so I forget some things and have some surprises while I read.

Preferred place to read:  My teal rocking chair.  It was my grandma's, and passed down to me when we got married.  It's sooooo comfy.

Quote you like from a book you read:

Reading regret:  Not having more time to read.

Series you started and need to finish:  Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.

Three of your all time favorite books:  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Black Stallion by Walter Farley -- those are my top three.

Unapologetic fangirl for:  Raymond Chandler.  Absolute favorite author!

Very excited for this release more than all the others:  Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King -- the next novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes!

Worst bookish habit:  Turning up my nose at books just because they're popular.  Sometimes they're actually good.

X marks the spot:  Is this supposed to be about bookmarks?  I love bookmarks!  I used to collect them, and I still have loads.  My favorites include a metal bookmark with a picture of Boromir on the front and a Sherlock Holmes one I made myself that bears the quotation "Education never ends, Watson.  It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last."

Your latest book purchase:  Just bought The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook used online this morning.

Zzzz snatcher book:  I remember lying awake thinking about Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle while I was in the middle of it.

"Homicide Trinity" by Rex Stout

I love Nero Wolfe mysteries.  They're never too sinister, too serious, too worrisome.  Neither are they light, fluffy, or predictable.  They make me happy, with Archie Goodwin's snappy patter and wry commentary, Wolfe's reluctant genius, and all those yummy dishes Fritz Brenner concocts.  I've noticed that whenever I finish a deep, serious book, I reach for a Nero Wolfe mystery to cleanse my literary palate.  In fact, that might be the best way I could describe them:  they're like sherbet.  Crisp, tangy, and delicious.

There are a lot of novel-length Nero Wolfe mysteries, and there are also a lot of collections of three shorter mysteries.  This is one of the latter.  The three stories are each about 60 pages, and each are delightful in their own way.

In "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo," Wolfe and Archie investigate the death of a woman who was strangled with Wolfe's necktie.  In his office.

In "Death of a Demon," a woman brings her husband's revolver to Wolfe for safekeeping because she's tempted to kill her husband with it.  Guess who ends up dead from a bullet of that gun's caliber?

In "Counterfeit for Murder," a quirky, determined woman named Hattie Annis hires Wolfe to make the NYPD eat dirt.  And solve a murder that involves a counterfeit ring.

The last story is easily my favorite in this collection, and Hattie Annis is possibly my favorite client of theirs ever.  I spent much of the story debating whether I'd rather have her played by Agnes Moorehead or Thelma Ritter, and decided in favor of Thelma Ritter because she's less bitter and more spunky.

All in all, a fine trio of murder mysteries, and it successfully washed Hemingway out of my head so I could move on to other books and not keep thinking, "This is nice, but it's not Hemingway."

Particularly Good Bits:

"The subconscious is not a grave; it's a cistern" (p. 66, "Death of a Demon").

A corner of his mouth twitched.  "That's why I put up with you; you could have answered with fifty words and you did it with one" (p. 76, "Death of a Demon").

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for occasional, mild bad language, discussions of violent deaths, and the suspicion a dead woman had been sexually assaulted.

This is my seventh book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Challenge.

"Death of a Doxy" by Rex Stout

I think that the first episode I ever saw of the A&E series A Nero Wolfe Mystery was the one based on this story.  Because the actors for that show are most indelibly fixed in my head in these particular roles.

If you've never watched the show, I need to explain that the show is kind of a throw-back to the idea of a local repertory theater group.  By which I mean that while the regulars (Archie, Wolfe, Fritz, Saul, Fred, Orrie, Lon Cohen, and Inspector Cramer) are all played by the same actors all the time, there's another group of actors that all play different characters depending on the story.  For instance, this story has a character named Avery Ballou played by actor James Tolkan.  Tolkan plays 11 completely different characters in other episodes.  So while some series regulars on the show always play the same characters, other series regulars play a different character in every story.  Which took a little getting used to.  And for me, all those regulars are most indelibly stamped in my head as the characters they play in this story.  When watching other episodes, I'll sometimes think, "Oh, her!  She was Stella Fleming."  Or "Oh, him!  He was Avery Ballou."  So I think I saw this one first, and possibly more often than some of the others just because I only had a couple of eps on VHS at first, though I know have both seasons on DVD.  And a t-shirt, which I serendipitously am wearing today.  Hmm.

But enough about the show!  (It's wonderful.  Try to see it.  Swell period costumes, great acting, top-notch plots... sorry, I said enough, didn't I.)  I'm supposed to be reviewing the book here.  I hadn't read it before, so that was an added bonus :-)  But any trip through a Nero Wolfe novel is a delight for me.  I simply love these characters and their world.  Archie Goodwin might be my favorite narrator of all time, even over Philip Marlowe (!) -- he's got such zest and zing, and is generally cheerful.

The plot of this one, as you might have guessed, involves a dead doxy.  "Doxy" being another name for a "kept woman."  The doxy in question was two-timing her sugar-daddy with none other than Orrie Cather, one of the freelance detectives Nero Wolfe sometimes hires to help tail a suspect or gather information, etc.  When the doxy dies, Orrie lands in jail on suspicion of murder.  Wolfe, Archie, and the other tow freelance operatives they sometimes hire (Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin, just so you know) decide they don't believe Orrie did it, and they set out to find out to did.

Particularly Good Bits:

He uttered a French sound, loud, maybe it was a word (p. 142).

Cramer said a word, loud, which I omit because I suspect that some of the readers of these reports are people like retired schoolteachers and den mothers (p. 148).

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for allusions to people being in a sexual relationship.

My Forty Favorite Novels

Inspired by a question on the WXROZ blog a few days ago, I decided to update my list of my ten favorite novels, as I hadn't really listed them off for a few years and I knew it probably had changed a bit.  But I had so much trouble narrowing it down to ten, and felt so bad about some of the books I had to leave off, that I decided to expand it to my top fifty.  But then fifty was too many, so I finally settled on forty.  I have read each of these books at least twice, and many of them I've read over and over and over and over.  They are all dear friends, and there are only two here that I don't own a copy of.  Yet.

Anyway, here they are:

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
3. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
4. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss
5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
6. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
7. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
8. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
9. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
11. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
12. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
13. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
14. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
15. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
16. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
17. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
18. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
19. Persuasion by Jane Austen
20. King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
22. A Family Affair by Rex Stout
23. The Long Goodbye  by Raymond Chandler
24. The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle
25. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
26. An Antic Disposition  by Alan Gordon
27. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
28. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
29. Shadows Over Stonewycke by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella
30. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
33. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
34. Anne of Windy Poplars by L. M. Montgomery
35. Henry Reed, Inc. by Keith Robertson
36. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
37. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
38. The Man in the Box by Mary Lois Dunn
39. The Boxcar Children  by Gertrude Chandler Warner
40. Fear is the Key by Alistair MacLean

Have you read some of these?  Loved or hated them?  What're your favorite books?  Post your list in the comments here, or on your own blog and leave me a link -- I love learning about other people's favorite books!

I'm planning to do a list of my favorite authors soon, one of my favorite nonfiction books, maybe a list of my favorite series, my favorite genres... and on my other blog I'll do a long and updated list of my favorite movies soon.

"And be a Villain" by Rex Stout

It wasn't until I was about half through that I realized I'd read And be a Villain once before.  It seemed a bit familiar, but a lot of Nero Wolfe books seem familiar because I've seen the TV show versions of a bunch of them, and I can't always remember just which books they used for the show.  But nope, I'd read this one a few years ago.  Fortunately, a Nero Wolfe mystery is always worth re-reading!

And be a Villain concerns the murder of a guest on a radio talk show, right when the show was airing live.  It's people with Stout's usual vibrant guest characters, and as always, Wolfe is brilliant, Archie is quippy, Inspector Cramer is cranky, and I have absolutely no idea who the murderer is until Wolfe does his big reveal.  

Whenever I want a quick pick-me-up, a Nero Wolfe mystery is a sure thing, and I don't need Archie to give me odds on it to know I'll enjoy it.

Particularly Good Bits:  On such occasions he always insisted that a red wine and a chilled white wine must be among those present.  Usually they had no takers, but this time there were two, Miss Koppel and Traub, who went for the Montrachet; and, being strongly in favor of the way its taste insists on sneaking all over the inside of your head, I helped out with it.

"Archie doesn't like him, and I have learned that it is always quite possible that anyone he doesn't like may be a murderer."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate it:  PG because it contains some swearing and revolves around murder, but nothing is graphic.

"Too Many Cooks" by Rex Stout

I love Nero Wolfe mysteries.  They are never less than a joy to read.  The dialog sparkles, the plots dazzle, the characters-of-the-day amuse, and the regular characters delight.  In other words, precisely what I needed to bring me out of the everything-is-meaningless-and-grasping-for-the-wind funk I was in after This Side of Paradise. 

I thought I'd read this one before, as it's in a Nero Wolfe omnibus I found in my parents' basement a couple weeks ago.  Surely I read that omnibus (two novels and a trio of short stories) back when I first discovered Rex Stout?  But I didn't actually remember any of it while reading, so maybe I just never actually cracked this book, always saving it for when I ran out of library books or something?  'Tis a puzzlement.

At any rate, this is a jolly good mystery.  Wolfe is the guest of honor at a meeting of a group of world-renowned chefs at a resort in West Virginia.  Which means he has to not only leave his Manhattan brownstone, he has travel on a train.  Overnight.  Poor Archie Goodwin -- if you've read any of these books or seen the TV series based on them, you know he's not along because he's expecting to have fun. 

But they do get to West Virginia with no actual mishaps, and once settled there, of course the murder and mayhem commence.  One of the chefs is killed, and several of the others had expressed their malice toward him before he died, including Wolfe's particular friend Marko Vukcic, whose ex-wife was married to the deceased.  Fortunately, there's a master sleuth and his trusty aide around to sort everything out. 

As a bonus, the recipes for a lot of the dishes described in this mystery are included in the back!  I've always wanted to try the dishes Fritz Brenner (Wolfe's resident cook) concocts, and The Nero Wolfe Cookbook is on my Christmas list, but until the day I get that, I might just try out one of the recipes included in this book.

(Originally posted on Hamlette's Soliloquy on Aug. 20, 2012.)