Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be—
I had a mother who read to me.
Historical Fiction Author
I was impressed by this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of a wealthy, influential family’s gradual decline during the industrialization of America at the turn of the last century, which seems to be a somehwat overlooked classic of American literature. Read my full review of the book here.
Different from the movie, but in some ways even better—short, beautifully written chapters that capture the little wonders and joys of everyday life. Read my full review here.
A light-hearted, hilarious satire of the classic fairytale, filled with kings, princesses, spells and a villainous Countess who fancies herself as a poet. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder than I did when reading this than I have at anything other than P.G. Wodehouse!
A captivating memoir of two sisters’ adventure in homesteading by themselves in South Dakota in the first decade of the 20th century. I couldn’t put this one down—it reads almost like fiction, filled with colorful characters and adventures. Read my full review here.
There’s much more to this charming book than the central plot, a little girl’s account of her adored elder brother’s romance. It depicts a really vanished way of life in the prosperous (you could almost say affluent), self-sustaining American family farm; and the life of a large, loving family with a faith put into daily practice and an appreciation for knowledge and learning that goes beyond the boundaries of organized education. And Leon Stanton shares the award for scene-stealing supporting character with the aforementioned Mrs. Harris.
A great classic murder-mystery and WWII novel combined—the setting is one of the most outstanding features of the book. It takes place in a British military hospital in the thick of the Blitz; the murder victim is an air-raid casualty who dies on the operating table, the suspects are the attendant doctors and nurses. You can read my brief review on Goodreads here.
A fine adventure in historical nonfiction, filled with fascinating detail—the story of two girls from wealthy upstate New York families who traveled to rural Colorado to teach school in 1916, when the surrounding country still partook of much of the wild West. Read my full review here.
A collection of short mysteries in another unique setting, this time American—rural Virginia of the early 1800s. Similar to Chesterton’s Father Brown stories with their theological overtones and musings on justice, but from a Protestant perspective, and a vivid glimpse into a period of history that I’m less familiar with. Read my full review here.
Have you read any of these? What were your favorite reads of 2011?
The other day I dug out our copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters To His Children, because I wanted to look up a passage I remembered about the American section of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. In the process of looking through the entries where he discusses literature I came across this paragraph:
There is quite enough sorrow and shame and suffering and baseness in real life and there is no need for meeting it unnecessarily in fiction. As Police Commissioner it was my duty to deal with all kinds of squalid misery and hideous and unspeakable infamy, and I should have been worse than a coward if I had shrunk from doing what was necessary; but there would have been no use whatever in my reading novels detailing all this misery and squalor and crime, or at least in reading them as a steady thing. Now and then there is a powerful but sad story which really is interesting and which really does good; but normally the books which do good and the books which healthy people find interesting are those which are not in the least of the sugar-candy variety, but which, while portraying foulness and suffering when they must be portrayed, yet have a joyous as well as a noble side.