WANAFriday

This week’s #wanafriday blog prompt is: Share something cool that you’ve recently discovered with your blog readers. This could be a great book, a gripping TV show, a neat tip, an awesome recipe, or something else!

Many moons ago, I was waxing nostalgic about M. M. Kaye’s Death In… mysteries and bemoaning the fact that she’d only written six of them and I’d read them all. A blog reader (perhaps it was the lovely Ellen Gregory?) suggested I try Mary Stewart’s mysteries.

Now, I’d only ever heard of Mary Stewart because of her Merlin trilogy. I’d no idea she’d written romantic suspense (back before there was such a genre). Wanting to fill the Kaye-shaped hole in my reading life, I picked up her Airs Above the Ground.

And was hooked.

In short order, I tore through The Moonspinners, The Gabriel Hounds and My Brother Michael. I appreciate Stewart’s wonderfully evocative descriptions of her setting and her attention to details of the natural world. I enjoy her courageous heroines and her very manly men. It’s also interesting to note the way attitudes have changed over time, even in something as small and simple as the fact that people in her books smoke like chimneys!

I’m delighted to have discovered Mary Stewart’s mysteries and happy to recommend them to you. If you enjoyed Kaye’s Death In… books, you’re in for a treat with these!

 

Check out other people’s recent discoveries:

• Cora Ramos: All Those Pretty Little Apps
• Liv Rancourt: Discovery!! What Does The Fox Say?
• Ellen Gregory: 10 Rules For Writing First Drafts (via copyblogger)

My blogging group recently started doing weekly blog prompts to get our (collective) creative juices flowing. This Friday we’re posting about the one book we can read over and over again without getting bored. (Note: For this post, I’m sticking to fiction).

This prompt is a hard one for me because–as my husband well knows–I’m not much of a re-reader. (With my TBR pile as high as it is, I can’t afford to be!). But sometimes I just crave a comfort read, a chance to return to an old friend who I can rely on to entertain, uplift, and transport me into another world. All my favorite re-reads have some things in common: they’re set in locales far removed from my here and now, they bubble over with wit and whimsy, they have sympathetic characters, and they leave me with a smile on my face.

So, without further ado, here are three of my favorite re-reads (no, I couldn’t pick only one):

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

When self-deprecating oldest sister Sophie is transformed into an old woman, she sets out to seek her fortune as cleaning lady to the horrible wizard, Howl. An all-around funny, touching, and romantic read.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer

An impending marriage proposal from Sylvester, Duke of Salford, causes Phoebe Marlow to run away from her home into the teeth of a snowstorm. However, circumstances throw them together again, much to the amusement of all. An unusual heroine, comic situations, and a cast of fun characters make this a charming read.

Anything by L. M. Montgomery (yes, I cheated again)

But if I had to pick: Anne of Windy Poplars and The Blue Castle.

Everyone’s familiar with the red-headed Anne, but I love many of the lesser-known Montgomery books. In The Blue Castle, downtrodden 29-year-old Valancy learns that she has only one year left to live. For the first time in her life, she decides to say and do exactly what she wants, and discovers adventure, love, and beauty along the way.

I noticed two other things about my list of re-reads:

1. They all have romantic plots or subplots.

2. They are all books I first read as a teenager (back when, I suspect, I was more open to falling in love with books than I am now).

Updated with links to other participants:

• Cora Ramos: Mistress of Synchronity
• Linda Adams: The Beauty of Omniscient Viewpoint
• Margaret Miller: Reading Books the Second Time Around
• Ellen Gregory: My re-reading book: The Lions of Al-Rassan
• Seth Swanson: It’s been a while
• Tami Clayton: Visiting Old Friends Between the Pages Once Again
• Janice Heck: Tuscany in Mind–Second Time Around
• Kim Griffin: Favorite Novel Reread