For Janice - Books Part 7

I'm heading downtown to meet Jo for lunch in an hour or so, our first visit to Benino's for lunch in a long time. Looking forward to it.

Starting with the far left (this was from 2016)

So I moved downstairs with my last entry. I'll stay in the lounge for the next few and take a look at the books on the built-ins, starting with the shelves on the left side and working to the right.

Bottom shelf

1. Bottom shelf. This contains a mix of books, in alphabetical order, all to be read. All but 3 of the books are mysteries. They range from Kate Atkinson (Jackson Brodie) through Alan Bradley(Flavia de Luce)  to Ken Bruen (Jack Taylor), John Burdett (Bangkok mysteries), Raymond Chandler (classics) and a variety of others. The three non - mysteries are David Hajdu - Positively 4th Street (about Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, etc), Kim Stanley Robinson - The Ministry of the Future (climate fiction) and Ransom Riggs - Library of Souls (part of the Mrs. Peregrine fantasy series)

Science fiction & Fantasy

2. Second from bottom. It basically contains any Susan Cooper books I've not yet read, from the Darkness Follows and the Boggart fantasy series. There are also some individual Sci Fi books, A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor (part of her Chronicles of St Mary's Time travel series), the first book in Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series) and an older Sci Fi story by H. Beam Piper. Back in the day I enjoyed his Fuzzies trilogy.

Mystery series

3. Third from bottom. This shelf features series on which I am working - Alexander McCall Smith - The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Colin Cotterill (two series; one in Cambodia featuring coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun and the other in Thailand featuring intrepid reporter Jimm Juree). I haven't tried Timothy Williams yet. The two books are from his Inspector Trotti series, set in Italy.

A mix

4. Middle shelf. When I first got hooked on English footie, I received a number of books on the subject. Jo bought me Football's Greatest Heroes. The Rupert Annual is falling apart but I bought it in Germany many years ago, I think. The Rivals is Jo's book about the rivalry between Martina Navratilova and Chris Everett. Accusation is a CanLit book by Catherine Bush. I've enjoyed a couple of her stories. I've never read A Wrinkle in Time. I saw this copy recently and it seemed to be telling me to finally try it. The hard covers I believe we bid on at the Cumberland auction.

Various hard covers

5. Third from top. Jo and I like to wander through antiquey stores when we're traveling. I bought the bottom two, each silly stories about Dagwood Bumstead, when we were down in Chemainus for the summer antique / craft fair. I found these in a store on the main street. I don't know where we bought the remainder but they are old editions of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel, William Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Alexander Dumas' The Queen's Necklace.

Mostly Fiction

6. 2nd from top. This shelf contains books Jo brought from England and others we've found locally, including Return to the Willows by Jacqueline Kelly, some humor by PG Wodehouse, a Daphne du Maurier that I've never tried, two by Susan Vreeland, The Jane Austen Marriage Manual (a Xmas gift to Jo from me) and a couple of others. Visibly, they provide a nice splash of color.

Lara McClintoch mysteries

7. Top shelf, left side. Lyn Hamilton is a Canadian mystery writer who features Toronto antique store owner and archeologist Lara McClintoch in her mysteries. Lara travels around the world looking for items for her store and getting involved in a variety of mysteries. It's a fun series. I have a few still to read as you can see.

More mysteries

8. Top shelf, right side. For the most part, these books all are part of American crime writer Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series. Kate is a native Alaskan investigator who travels around Alaska solving crimes. I enjoyed the first two very much. A Murderous Procession is the last book by mystery writer Ariana Franklin. I thought her Mistress of the Art of Death historical series was one of the best I've ever read. It's unfortunate that we will get no more books from her as she passed away in 2001. She did write one book with her daughter and it now seems that another that she didn't complete has been finished by her daughter as well.

So there you go, another look at books I still have to read... Enjoy the rest of your week!