First a little progress on my Prairie Schooler design "Winter". Well, winter does indeed progress, but it can't go fast enough for me. My stitching however is happily moving along at a nice pace even if it is only very slowly emerging from the linen! A door to get into the house, two evergreen trees, part of the border and Winter at the top (almost anyway). A few stitches every day does add up, but it may take a while. Hopefully I can finish before mid-March.
I think I have decided on a new series to work on reading my way through. Something a little different than the Little House books. Very different actually. Did you ever come across the Penguin Underground Lines? The set of twelve books came out in honor of the 150th anniversary of the London Tube. I had to have them all when I first saw them and dutifully read one book and then ever since not another.
The set consists of twelve books, twelve stories--one for each Underground line. They are "city-based vignettes" centering around a part of London that the Underground line runs through. At the moment I am reading volume on the Circle Line. The nice thing about the books is they are novella-length--mostly between 100-200 pages, so not only do I have a good chance of reading through the whole set this year but they are quick reads so, instant gratification and motivators to keep reading steadily.
Hopefully I won't neglect the more difficult themes from my beginning of the year list and only focus on the easy, comfort reads. Of course it is January and comfort reads help me through the long, dark and very cold month, so a good book to escape into is always on my mind. I also want to do a little rereading this year (otherwise why bother keeping books I have read once before already, right?). I was doing a little shelf browsing this weekend and there are two that caught my eye. I'll start one now and keep one in reserve. I have read both, though the first one was read so long ago it will be like picking it up for the first time.
Judith Koll Healey's The Canterbury Papers appeals for several reasons. I am in the mood for historical fiction (though pre-20th century) and the Medieval era has been one I am happy to revisit soon. While the details are lost now, I do recall that it was a very satisfying read. It is a novel of "dark family secrets, duplicity, and a missing heir to the throne." The setting is England and France. The ward of Eleanor Aquitaine is sent to retrieve letters hidden in Canterbury Cathedral only she is abducted along the way. I see, too, that the author even published a sequel that I missed.
I'm a great fan of Katharine McMahon's books, and one of my all-time favorite novels is her Crimson Rooms. I loved it and was thrilled to see a sequel published, The Woman in the Picture, which I had to have when it first came out. Of course that was several years ago, so it is definitely time to pick it up and read it. First I feel like going back and rereading the first novel. I'll catch myself--before I say I wish she would publish a new book--and read/reread these two first!
I finished a book (will tell you about it this week), read a great short story, dipped into several others and have lined up a few new reads. Despite the bitter cold weather, it was a happy reading weekend. Did yours include any bookishness?