Ooooh, more books to covet! (Chiefly 4, 5, and 9.)

But, 3. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (the most beautiful and tragic love story ever told)? Either I'm not remembering this one right or it's been far too long since I read it.

My mind immediately went to The Westing Game :)

Anything Sherlock Holmes, anything Agatha Christie as well.

Thanks!! I got it from toreadabook, which is a fabulous icon journal for book lovers.

a w e s o m e

My favorite comfort books will always be Trixie Belden Mysteries. Reading those books made me believe, yeah, girls can do something — meaning, anything.

If you can find it, go with the first one, called "Secret of the Mansion." Honey and Trixie are introduced here, along with another character who becomes very prominent in the series.

One of my favorites, though, is the second one, called "The Red Trailer Mystery." The first time I read it I was amazed that two 13-year-old girls were allowed to make decisions for themselves, take risks and suffer the consequences of those risks. That's a theme throughout the books — take responsibility for all decisions.

It cracks me up, though, that two of the characters' families were filthy rich. That always allowed Trixie, whose family was of modest means, to go on some pretty amazing adventures, all expenses paid!

Trixie introduced me to the mystery genre which I still love today. I'm getting through the Charlie Parker series now, and I owe it all to Trix.

I hope your evening made up for the complicated day.

2. Yes, 'Liquor' is a comforting read. 'Guilty But Insane' is half-way read, been portioning it out so as to savor.

"Fur Person" by May Sarton is probably my all-time favorite comfort book.

Alice Adams, "The Stories of Alice Adams."
Marge Piercy, "Woman on the Edge of Time."
Ann Beattie, "Burning House."

Hello, I just followed you over from birdgirl_1107 's comfort books post because I wanted to see what other people's lists looked like. I absolutely love "The Westing Game"- that was the first mystery I ever read and it simply entranced me. I also went through a period where I read pretty much nothing but Elaine Cunningham books, over and over when I stopped being able to find new ones. My favorites were "Elfshadow" and "Elf Song" the first two from the Songs and Swords series. And I loved "Going Postal" so much! I had read a few other Terry Pratchett books before I found that one, but that was the book which made me decide to go back to the beginning of the Discworld series and read them all in order (I'm now up to "Soul Music") :D

I am very much a fan of books :) And that's a good thing, because I've been working in a library for the past five years!

I don't think I have read The Cities series. Back when I was reading Cunningham my greatest problem was that I couldn't find very many of her books. This was years ago, before I really knew about Amazon.com... I'm feeling like its time to find them again!

"Going Postal" is simply a masterpiece of comic genius. And it has some good scenes with the Watch in it! Wikipedia claims that there will be a third Moist to be called "Raising Taxes". I can't wait :) And sweet, I was already planning on reading "Hogfather" this Christmas. Is it alright if I friend you?

I will check out "City of Ravens" :) Yay to everything!

*manically flips between your entry, Goodreads, and the web site of her local library*

You are a menace to my TBR list.

And, oh yeah, PTerry. Total potential for comfort reads. I luckily disqualified him immediately by limiting myself to books I own/have read more than once.

a giant ball of enabling – exactly. I used to have to write things down. Or at least type them into a document that resided on my computer in some folder that I could never find. Now all I have to do is click. And click. And clickandclickandclickandclickclickclick. Eventually my clicker finger will give out and then I might be saved.

That being said ... *still regarding you suspiciously*

Oh, and I'm also still eavesdropping on your conversation with akikotree. More agreeing with you on not expecting to love Going Postal and being surprised and all. I think I'm still a Watch girl at heart though.

I had NO IDEA there was a movie version of Going Postal. That just might be what it takes to get me to finally subscribe to Netflix. Sid James would indeed have made a fabulous Vimes.

If you ever want to pursue a second career, imo, you'd be a roaring success as a casting agent. OMG, Charles Hawtrey as Reg Shoe! Brilliant! And I think Joan Sims is Lady Sybil Vimes. Do you suppose Pratchett could have had them in mind when he was writing it?

Anything by Robin McKinley, but particularly The Hero and the Crown, Sunshine, and Chalice.
Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse mysteries.
Anne of Green Gables & other LM Montgomery, Little House, Little Women.

Laura Childs has been on my want-to-read list for a while now.

I will be little help, because I have truly enjoyed them all, but the most recent one, A Brew to a Kill, was a fun read. Murder by Mocha was funny and a little campy, too.

Anything by Alice Hoffman.
And I find I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith the perfect, 'Go away, world' book.

At Risk, Turtle Moon, The Third Angel, Second Nature, The Story Sisters (my favourite.)
And her recent one, The Dove Keepers is grand. :)

I just started reading Scarlett Fever today and I already kind of love it. Suite Scarlett is good, but this one feels like she's really hit her stride.

Now I need to do one of these lists.:D

"This thing for subways that don't stop where they're told. Subways that maybe stop other places that aren't found on maps, and there's the whole underground man-made cave thing."

Then let me give you a Chesterton quotation from "The Man Who Was Thursday":

"...The poet delights in disorder only. If it were not so, the most poetical thing in the world would be the Underground Railway."

"So it is," said Mr. Syme.

"Nonsense!" said Gregory, who was very rational when anyone else attempted paradox. "Why do all the clerks and navvies in the railway trains look so sad and tired, so very sad and tired? I will tell you. It is because they know that the train is going right. It is because they know that whatever place they have taken a ticket for that place they will reach. It is because after they have passed Sloane Square they know that the next station must be Victoria, and nothing but Victoria. Oh, their wild rapture! oh, their eyes like stars and their souls again in Eden, if the next station were unaccountably Baker Street!"

"It is you who are unpoetical," replied the poet Syme. "If what you say of clerks is true, they can only be as prosaic as your poetry. The rare, strange thing is to hit the mark; the gross, obvious thing is to miss it. We feel it is epical when man with one wild arrow strikes a distant bird. Is it not also epical when man with one wild engine strikes a distant station? Chaos is dull; because in chaos the train might indeed go anywhere, to Baker Street or to Bagdad. But man is a magician, and his whole magic is in this, that he does say Victoria, and lo! it is Victoria. No, take your books of mere poetry and prose; let me read a time table, with tears of pride. Take your Byron, who commemorates the defeats of man; give me Bradshaw, who commemorates his victories. Give me Bradshaw, I say!"

"Must you go?" inquired Gregory sarcastically.

"I tell you," went on Syme with passion, "that every time a train comes in I feel that it has broken past batteries of besiegers, and that man has won a battle against chaos. You say contemptuously that when one has left Sloane Square one must come to Victoria. I say that one might do a thousand things instead, and that whenever I really come there I have the sense of hairbreadth escape. And when I hear the guard shout out the word 'Victoria,' it is not an unmeaning word. It is to me the cry of a herald announcing conquest. It is to me indeed 'Victoria'; it is the victory of Adam."

And a story link, "The Angry Street", again by Chesterton.

(The Man Who Was Thursday is my comfort book; I can re-read it over and over again and still be delighted).

The Camelot Caper by Elizabeth Peters
Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton
The Masqueraders or False Colors by Georgette Heyer
The Blue Sapphire by D.E. Stevenson