March Book Report

Birthday flowers, 2026

I finished 12 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“It is fruitless to search for the characteristics of an “American” identity, because each nation has its own notion of what being American should mean.”
           ― Colin Woodard, American Nations

Here are the books I finished in March 2026: 

1. Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere (3-stars)
2. No Grater Danger by Victoria Hamilton (3-stars)
3. Delectable Mountains by Earlene Fowler (4-stars)
4. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller (4-stars)
5. How to Calm Your Mind by Chris Bailey (3-stars)
6. Oranges by John McPhee (audiobook, 3-stars)
7. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard (5-stars)
8. The Family Tree Problem Solver by Marsha Hoffman Rising (4-stars)
9. The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear (4-stars)
10. Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh (4-stars)
11. Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum (4-stars)
12. Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh (3-stars)

I got an e-reader for my birthday which has led to a Ngaio March binge which I am thoroughly enjoying.

26 Questions in 2026 (#6 and #7)

 To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

#6 - First classic you ever read?
#7 - Favorite children's classic?

The first classic I read for Classics Club was the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I participated in a read-along for this book, which was probably a good thing because I didn't love this book and that might have been the end of my club activity if I hadn't had the read-along to keep me going. 

The first classic I ever read was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I wrote about my experience with it in 2013 in a meme about re-reading. 

Little Women is also my favorite children's classic. I am also fond of Alice in Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Eloise by Kay Thompson.

When I was a kid I loved the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, the Pippi Longstocking books by Astrid Lindgren, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald.  I haven't read any of these since I was actually a kid, however, so I don't know if they hold up. 

February Book Report

My partner's new hobby ❤

I finished 7 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“Both described at the same time how it was always March there and always Monday, and then they understood that José Arcadio Buendía was not as crazy as the family said, but that he was the only one who had enough lucidity to sense the truth of the fact that time also stumbled and had accidents and could therefore splinter and leave an eternalized fragment in a room.” ― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Here are the books I finished in February 2026: 

1. Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews (3-stars)
2. Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie (4-stars)
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  (audiobook, 4-stars)
4. The Case has Altered by Martha Grimes (4-stars)
5. Scrap Quilts from Crumbs, Strips, and Strings by Emily Bailey (3-stars)
6. Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jonasson (3-stars)
7. Lavender Lies by Susan Whittig Albert (3-stars)
   

This looks like a mystery-heavy month, but I am also reading a history book and a book about genealogical research which has provided a nice balance for my reading.  I do need to focus more on the mystery series that I identified for making progress on. I put in a bunch of library requests for those titles spread out over the next several months so that should help. 

26 Questions in 2026 (#5)

To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

 #5 - If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore? Obviously this should be an author you haven’t yet read, since you can’t do this experiment on an author you’re already familiar with. 🙂 Or, which author’s work you are familiar with might it have been fun to approach this way?

I love this idea but I have not been able to come up with an author that I want to do this with whose work I haven't already read most of. I am definitely a completist, when I find an author I like I keep reading their work until I am out of books. I have finished (or very nearly finished) the works of Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Robertson Davies, Colson Whitehead, and Margaret Atwood. Until I read one of their books though, I don't know if I am interested enough to read the whole oeuvre. 

I did do this once with a poet -- Jane Kenyon and I enjoyed the experience. I read a biography of her along with the poetry and essays in order of publication. 

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude 

by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this narrated by John Lee which was an excellent choice because there were a lot of Spanish words that I would have stumbled over, including many very similar names. Lee did an excellent job of making the different names clear. He also has a beautiful voice. 

I read this book when I was in college and did not like it at all. Since then I listened to Love in the Time of Cholera which I did enjoy. That inspired me to give this another try and I am glad I did. 

The story is set in the mythical town of Macondo and tells the story of the Buendia family which is intricately intertwined with the history of the town. It starts with this memorable line: 

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice...”

Then weaves through time and various versions of reality to spin a tale of beauty and suffering and love. 

“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end." 

This book is on my Classics Club list.

26 Questions in 2026 (#4)

To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

 #4 - Classic author who has the most works on your club list? Or, classic author you’ve read the most works by?

Charles Dickens definitely has the most spots on my list -- I have read 4 of his novels for the Club and there are 4 more of his books on my current list.

Classics Club Spin

It is time for another Classics Club Spin. The last two e resulted in DNFs for me, but I am trying again! 

On Sunday 8th February 2026 the spin number will be posted and the challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by the 29th March, 2026.

1. Howards End, E. M. Forster, 1910
2. A Tale of a Tub, Jonathan Swift, 1704
3. Song of the Lark, Willa Cather, 1915 
4. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh, 1945 
5. Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
6. Dune, Frank Herbert, 1965
7. The Razor's Edge, W. Somerset Maugham, 1944
8. Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy, 1955
9. The Armies of the Night, Norman Mailer, 1968
10. Russia House, John le Carre, 1989
11. Steamboat Gothic, Francis Parkinson Keyes, 1952
12. True Grit, Charles Portis, 1968
13. The Years, Virginia Woolf, 1937
14. The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch, 1973
15. Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty, 1946
16. Aesop's Fables
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1967
18. Come and Get It, Edna Ferber, 1935
19. The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922
20. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray, 1847

January Book Report

Contoocook, NH, Jan 2025

I finished 10 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“Consider my grandmother... But she wasn't a fan of the unvarnished truth. She liked the truth fully varnished, with a tinted glaze and a doily on top.” --A. J. Jacobs, It's All Relative

Here are the books I finished in January 2026: 

1. The Road that Made America by James Dodson (5-stars)
2. N or M by Agatha Christie (3-stars)
3. Love Lies Bleeding by Susan Whittig Albert (4-stars)
4. Evans Above by Rhys Bowen (3-stars)
5. It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree by A. J. Jacobs (4-stars)
6. Get a Hobby: 365 Things to Do for Fun by Jasmine Cho (3-stars)
7. Monday the Rabbi Took Off by Harry Kemelman (3-stars)
8. The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland (4-stars)
9. Iowa, the First Free State in the Louisiana Purchase : From its Discovery to the Admission of the State into the Union, 1673-1846 by William Salter (4-stars)
10. Chile Death by Susan Whittig Albert (3-stars)

I am off to a good start with my reading this year. It was very cold and snowy in New Hampshire last month which made curling up in a comfy spot with my book very appealing.

26 Questions in 2026 (#3)

To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

 #3 - Best book you’ve read so far with the club? Why?

I give all the books I read star ratings, and 5-star books are fairly rare -- I save that for books that were really wonderfully written and that really spoke to me in some way. Out of the 110 books I have read for the club there are only 8 that I gave 5 stars.

• The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Roots by Alex Haley
• Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

I understand that the question asked for a favorite, but looking back at these amazing reading experiences I really can't put one above the others.

 

26 Questions in 2026 (#2)

To kick off the new year the Classics Club posted a list of 26 questions designed to help members consider their relationship with reading classics. I plan to answer one question every few weeks throughout 2026. 

 #2 - What classic are you planning to read next? Why? Is there a book first published in 1926 that you plan to read this year?

I don't have a 1926 book on my current list but an earlier list included Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy which was published in 1926.

I'm not sure which one I will read next, I rarely plan that sort of thing in advance, I just pick up whatever appeals to me in the moment. I have a couple of Classics Club titles in progress -- both very slow progress. War and Peace is my "read at lunch at the office" book and has been for several years now--I am making slow but regular progress on it. Several months ago I began listening to One Hundred Years of Solitude on audio in the car, but other things to listen to while I drive keep appealing to me more. Not sure if that one will end up abandoned or not. 

Making Progress on Series

In 2023 I set it as a goal to make progress on some of the many multi-book series that I had been reading. I set a specific goal of reading 20 books from a specific list of series and I accomplished that. Since then I have continued reading from these series and have added a few new ones. In 2026 I am setting myself a goal of reading another 20 books from specific series.

1. Vintage Kitchen Mystery series by Victoria Hamilton. There are 12 books in this series and I have read the first 6.  [6 remaining]
   
   
2. Commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon
   There are 32 books in this series and I have 6 left to read.  [6 remaining]
   
   
3. Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear
   There are 18 books in this series and I have read the first 7.  [11 remaining]
   
   
4. China Bayles series by Laura Whitig Albert 
   I have only read 6 of the 29 books in this series, but I have enjoyed them so want to keep going.  [23 remaining]
   
   
5.  Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper series
   I am up to book 12 in this 15 book series of quilting-themed mysteries so I may wrap this one up this year. [4 remaining]
   
   
6. The Bibliophile Mystery series by Kate Carlisle
   I have read 10 of the 17 adventures of book-restorer Brooklyn Wainwright. [7 remaining]

I will need to read 57 books to finish up these series which I don't expect to happen this year, but if I finish 20 that will be good progress. Then I can start reading some more new-to-me series!

The Road that Made America

The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road by James Dodson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book of history, a travelogue, and a memoir, all mixed together into a very readable and super-informative story about early America.

"Little known today, the Great Wagon Road was the primary road of frontier America: a mass migration route that stretched more than eight hundred miles from Philadelphia to Augusta, Georgia. It opened the southern frontier and wilderness east of the Appalachian mountains to America's first settlers, and later served as the gateway for the exploration of the American West. In the mid-1700s, waves of European colonists in search of land for new homes left Pennsylvania to settle in the backcountry of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas." --flap copy

Dodson was an excellent companion for a modern-day journey along this historic route. His writing reminded me of John McPhee and John Gierach, which I really like. I learned a lot about the history of Pennsylvania and am inspired to check out the Pennsylvania Trails of History at some point.