Downton Abbey

Binge watching "Downton Abbey." Like a lab rat hooked on crack cocaine that forgoes sleep and food. If anyone's looking for me, I'll be in the early 1900s.

A Quiet Life in the Country, T.E. Kinsey

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The first book in Kinsey's Edwardian-era mystery series featuring spunky Lady Hardcastle and her equally spunky lady's maid Flo. This is definitely a cozy, and my taste runs to thrillers, but as a cozy it hits all the right marks. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are both likeable, clever characters with interesting backstories. Kinsey, I think, is at his strongest in the dialogue, which is peppered with period phrases, and he captures class distinctions in speech.

Eleven Days, Donald Harstad

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Police procedural based on true events that took place in Iowa. Harstad is a retired cop, and the book definitely has a "day in the life" feel, so much so that it often reads more like a fictionalized memoir than a thriller: there is a surreal disconnect from the horror of the events and the banality of everyday life, which reminded me, oddly, of reading former Treasury Secretary Henry (Hank) Paulson's On the Brink blow-by-blow account of his and his teams response to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

I just finished reading "The Eyre Affair," the first book in Jasper Fforde's series about a "literary detective" named Thursday Next.

Thursday inhabits a wacky alternate reality 1985 Great Britain with her time traveling father, pet Dodo named Pickwick, her aunt Polly and eccentric inventor uncle Mycroft. Things get serious when arch-villain Acheron Hades murders a minor character out of the pages of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit and then sets his sights on Jane Eyre.

I thought the concept was insane and fabulous. I was hoping something with more heart than dazzle, but it doesn't matter: I have to recommend it based on the sheer madcap creativity.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley

Book #1 of Bradley's 1950's England Flavia de Luce mystery series. The magic of Bradley's style is that his writing is full of perverse and delightful twists. 11-year-old Flavia is wise beyond her years and yet innocent in her thorough-going delight in the gruesome. The mystery was layered and enjoyable, but it is really Flavia who makes the whole book come alive through her personality. I am excited to read more by this author!

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

 I'm not sure how I missed reading this in school, but I did. I even missed the movie version or even the cliff notes, but there are only so many times as a writer you can read references to Atticus Finch and not get curious. 

I LOVED this book, and it was a complete, total, and utter joy to me that I didn't know anything about it before I read it, so I won't spoil it for anyone in that enviable position, but it was brilliant - one of those books that remind you why classics are classics, because they're so darn good! It was like Huck Finn and everything I've ever enjoyed about a John Grisham, rolled up into one great page-turning story. I stayed up late several nights because I couldn't put it down!