Reading!

According to "Good Reads," I have read 59 books this year so far.  My year's goal was 62 books.  But I think they count the ones I didn't read all the way, which is fine with me as some of those took quite a bit of time to get to the point where I couldn't stand reading anymore.

Recently I have been embroiled in a number of books by authors who all seem to publish their books in the fall each year.  Sue Grafton's Y is for Yesterday was just terrific.  I will miss Kinsey when her series is over, and I am curious to see what Grafton offers for her in Z is for...  I also loved Jan Karon's To Be Where You Are, her 14th Mitford book.   Somehow, I found the writing more delightful than the past few books.  A reader can get frustrated by her switching characters between chapters without telling you who's narrating, but about mid-way through the book, you get used to it.  Father Tim always saves the day, in his own way.

Louise Penny, who lives just over the Quebec border from Vermont, came out with an excellent Glass Houses this fall.  A mysterious being arrives on the village green and silently watches.  Who is he/she/it after and why?  Again, the wise and kind Inspector Gamache handles it all.  Penny has a wonderful way of building suspense and, although I try to savor her annual books, I find myself turning pages quickly to find out what happens next.

I enjoyed Jenny Colgan's The Bookshop on the Corner, a light romance about a young woman who leaves busy London and sets up a traveling bookshop in Scotland.  I would love to visit Scotland someday, and small village cozies set there really are fun for me.  And I discovered a couple of new-to-me authors this summer that I will keep looking for.  Dawn Lee McKenna was recommended by Karen and writes about a rural part of Florida that I am intrigued with, and Kelley Armstrong, known for her fantasies, has also been writing mysteries set in an off-grid town in the Yukon that shelters people who don't want to be found for one reason or another, beginning with City of the Lost.  I can't wait for the third book in the series.