Posted by: @snowangel

To end 2025 I read The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer (it had very entertaining plot, might be one of my favorites) and a Luke Short western that I was given for Christmas.

I remember I really liked that Heyer book! My favorites are "A Civil Contract," "Beauvalet," "The Foundling," and "Simon the Cold Heart." I also really like her mysteries. "A Christmas Party" is one I enjoyed enough to reread. There is an old black and white movie of "The Reluctant Widow" but if memory serves it was just ok.

I love Louis L'Amour's westerns, but I haven't really explored the genera outside of him. Would you recommend Luke Short?

Too bad about having so many busts in reading lately, @Arin! Good to hear that The Will of the Many was a success finally, though, and I hope the sequel (and the rest of the quartet) lives up to the standard.

@Aileth, oh, interesting - I assumed pretty much everything came out of copyright earlier in Canada than in the US since Lewis is already out for you all. Thanks for filling me in!

@Jo, lots of interesting books on your list (as always!). What are you reading now?

Glad you've been enjoying your new Savery books, @Anfinwen!

Too bad to hear Kate DiCamillo's more recent works have been a disappointment, @Col-Klink.

I ended up rereading a couple of Agatha Christies (by mistake again), along with a short American Girl History Mystery, but otherwise didn't get much reading done in January. However, I started Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens last week and am making pretty good progress in it. Definitely not one of his tighter plots and I don't know that I buy some of the changes of heart, but it's been engaging.

Does anyone here still buy and own astronomy books?  I ordered an old edition of The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer and an astronomy atlas from National Geographic.  Somehow I actually prefer the physical book over anything projected on a screen. I am old fashioned that way, but it means more to me than something that is stored in a device like a Kindle.  I think you are getting more for your money with the actual physical books and something pleasing to look at.  Astronomy books are some of the most attractive to me, and they are often large and filled with beautiful photographs. What are some of your astronomy books if you still own them? 🙂

Posted by: @anfinwen

Posted by: @snowangel

To end 2025 I read The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer (it had very entertaining plot, might be one of my favorites) and a Luke Short western that I was given for Christmas.

I remember I really liked that Heyer book! My favorites are "A Civil Contract," "Beauvalet," "The Foundling," and "Simon the Cold Heart." I also really like her mysteries. "A Christmas Party" is one I enjoyed enough to reread. There is an old black and white movie of "The Reluctant Widow" but if memory serves it was just ok.

I love Louis L'Amour's westerns, but I haven't really explored the genera outside of him. Would you recommend Luke Short?

Oh, I have A Christmas Party, but haven't read it yet, I'll have to put it on my list for 2026. I don't think I have any of the others you mention. Have you read Footsteps In The Dark?

I've only read one Louis L'Amour book, anyway yes, I would recommend Luke Short if you enjoy the genre. I've read 8-10 Luke Short books, I liked Bounty Guns, Ride The Man Down, Brand of Empire, Bold Rider, and Coroner Creek. I do not recommend Paper Sheriff or The Stalkers. I think Savage Range was just okay. And I have Gunman's Chance on my desk to read after I finish the Tahn series, I've been wanting to read this one for a few years since I love the movie Blood On The Moon (1948) which is based on this book.  

I finished rereading Tahn and Return To Alastair, getting ready to start The Scarlet Trefoil. I greatly enjoyed reading Tahn and Return To Alastair again, I think I still like them best in publication order so obviously Tahn is my favorite. And means The Scarlet Trefoil has the weakest plot in the series, but I do like the character development through out the series.

Posted by: @snowangel

Oh, I have A Christmas Party, but haven't read it yet, I'll have to put it on my list for 2026. I don't think I have any of the others you mention. Have you read Footsteps In The Dark?

I've only read one Louis L'Amour book, anyway yes, I would recommend Luke Short if you enjoy the genre. I've read 8-10 Luke Short books, I liked Bounty Guns, Ride The Man Down, Brand of Empire, Bold Rider, and Coroner Creek. I do not recommend Paper Sheriff or The Stalkers. I think Savage Range was just okay. And I have Gunman's Chance on my desk to read after I finish the Tahn series, I've been wanting to read this one for a few years since I love the movie Blood On The Moon (1948) which is based on this book.

Thanks for the recs (and non-recs, those are just as important)! I've been itching for a good western, and I've read nearly everything of Louis L'Amour's. My favorites of his are actually his more pirate-y/adventure on the high seas books. They are set in the late 1500s/early 1600s

I had to look it up, but I do remember reading and enjoying Footsteps in the Dark. I think it was a good one. I also remember liking Why Shoot a Butler?

Posted by: @arin

I think it's the author's first work, so i hope she gets better with experience,

...that was what I thought when I read one of her books back in 2018, so unfortunately I suspect that's not happening. That's a shame, because her books have an interesting starting premise. *notes down The Will of the Many for future investigation*

@jo I have had A Train in Winter sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it for two or three years now, and I just haven't sat down and started. 

@aileth, @anfinwen, @valiantarcher I've been following your conversation about Constance Savery with interest since my experience with her writing is the two Bethlehem Books reissues (this is one of my favorite parts of Enemy Brothers)--and I just read Tenthragon for the first time last month.  

*makes notes on @ladysnowangel's Luke Short recommendations* I've read a fair number of Louis L'Amour westerns, so it'd be nice to branch out a bit. @anfinwen I also liked Fair Blows the Wind and the ones about Barnabas Sackett and his sons, but my favorite L'Amour is the first one I ever read--The Walking Drum, which is set even earlier. 

I just started a reread of Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne and was considering following it with Last of the Breed (a Louis L'Amour) since both novels cover much of the same territory albeit about a century apart and it would be interesting to compare the two...

Also on my to-read list is Team of Rivals which is about the various members of Lincoln's cabinet. I was quite excited to run across it in a thrift shop last weekend since I'd heard good things about it, and maybe having it in hand will mean I'll actually get around to reading it. 

@mel I love the Enemy Brothers art! The whole train sequence is probably my favorite part of the book too. The Walking Drum is fantastic, such a shame he never wrote the sequel (I believe I've heard that he intended to). My only grief with it is that the main character is slightly less moral than his typical hero, but it is a fantastic picture of life in those times across multiple continents. I enjoyed West From Singapore as the short stories in it reflect his own travels in those seas. I have a really cool book of his called The Sackett Companion that details the real people and places used in that series, as well as the fictional ones. 

So... has anyone here ever read War and Peace?  

I've seen an adaptation of it and enjoyed it on the whole and I've read Les Misérables multiple times so I feel like I should be able to read War and Peace. But I haven't been able to get into it. (The first four chapters or so are about a bunch of people gossiping at a party, which I feel is the most boring way to provide exposition.) Maybe it's the English translations I've been trying but I feel like Leo Tolstoy's writing style just isn't very fun to read, compared to Victor Hugo's. (I know it sounds ridiculous to describe Hugo's writing as fun, given the depressing nature of his stories, but if you compare the first couple of chapters of Les Misérables to the first chapters of War and Peace, they kind of are fun to read.) I know the story and characters get interesting eventually though. 

Does anyone who's read the book have any advice for me? Is there a particular translation I should try?

Posted by: @col-klink

So... has anyone here ever read War and Peace?  

No, but in the immortal words of Woody Allen: "I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia."

(I do know my grandmother read it once, and in the original Russian, which was her native language. But she's long since passed away and I don't know if anyone in the family ever asked her what she thought of it.)

@col-klink 

I remember reading a library copy of War and Peace decades ago.  I read the entire novel by Leo Tolstoy, and it took me a very long time to get through it. Also, I still have an abridged paperback edition which my mother purchased for me years ago.

Sometimes I prefer shorter versions of books such as The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide.  The old edition isn’t so bulky and takes up less space than the new more recent revision of that book. So I recently purchased it, and it seems good enough for anyone who has stargazing for a hobby. It is also less expensive than the newer edition. I recommend it highly.

What is the longest book that you’ve ever read? I think the longest books that I have read include Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (remember that Tolkien considered the three parts to be one story) at about 1200 pages.  The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer is about 1500 pages. Both of these books took weeks to read, but they were interesting enough that I couldn’t put them down for long.  Shirer’s book was very sad and dark in places. 🙁

Posted by: @narnian78

I remember reading a library copy of War and Peace decades ago.  I read the entire novel by Leo Tolstoy, and it took me a very long time to get through it.

Do you remember if you enjoyed it? 

@col-klink 

Yes, I enjoyed it. I have liked reading long novels by authors such as Dickens.  They often require much time and patience, but I usually like period time settings and characters. 🙂

Have you finished the Tahn series, @SnowAngel?

@Anfinwen, are you still reading some of Savery's books or are you working on something else now?

@Mel, have you started Team of Rivals yet?

@Col-Klink, I read the first book of War and Peace years ago - and have yet to pick it back up again. Unfortunately, no recommendations then, but I hope you're able to make better progress on it quickly!

@Narnian78, hard to say exactly what the longest book I've read is, though it might be some sort of doorstop fantasy (if it's not the Bible).

I did finish Martin Chuzzlewit last month. Not my favourite, but with some good bits and

Posted by: @col-klink

So... has anyone here ever read War and Peace?  

Yes, I read the Constance Garnett translation when I was twenty. I eventually enjoyed it but it did take awhile. If I remember correctly I didn't start enjoying it until Natasha was grown up. My mom read (and likes) the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, she did take almost two years to read it from start to finish, whenever she felt like she was burning out she would set it aside and read a different book or two, then return to War & Peace. I can't remember how long it took me to read it, longer than it took me to read Les Misérables but less time than it took my mom!

@valiantarcher

@arin I had almost the opposite experience with Sunrise on the Reaping vs. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I preferred Sunrise to Ballad. I liked neither as much as the main trilogy, but…well I’m not generally a fan of tragedies, and Ballad was too frustrating for me. I am surprised I liked Sunrise as much as I did, but at least there I could root for the main character wholeheartedly, knowing that though this book would end badly his story wasn’t over. For a while I was considering them both additions to canon, but over time I saw more reasons why it doesn’t quite fit the logic of the main trilogy. They’re subtle and probably there are ways to explain them away that would satisfy most people, but the main thing I can’t square away is

That said, I may still reread someday and there are some interesting themes.

@jo I used to read LotR every year and there were a few years (when the movies were coming out) when I read them twice a year: once for the library’s summer reading program and once in December. It’s actually been a few years since I read them though, and even longer since I read The Hobbit, so I’ve started The Hobbit and intend to do a full reread at last!

@narnian78 I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be very helpful, but I have read Reason and Imagination in C. S. Lewis: A Study of Till We Have Faces. I read it because I thoroughly loathed Till We Have Faces when I read it, and was hoping something would give me an idea of why. Did I just not understand it, I asked myself? Was it simply Too Deep for me? Well, reading Reason and Imagination confirmed that I understood it well enough, it just wasn’t for me. I won’t go into why I disliked it so thoroughly here except to say that Greek or Roman mythology has never had the draw for me as it’s had for others I know and I dislike this myth in particular.

Anyway though I’ve read quotes and things from Peter Schakel before about other things (mainly Narnia) and that’s really cool that he was your professor in college!

@snowangel I remember that Childhood of Famous Americans series! I did like the Robert. E. Lee one a lot.

Ooh, Tahn is one of my favorite books! I do like the other two books but Tahn is one of my comfort reads.

@col-klink I read an abridged version of War and Peace (which I should have known but did not know that it was abridged) shortly after watching the 1956 movie with Audrey Hepburn as Natasha and enjoying it more than I expected. Having watched the movie made it easier for me to keep track of characters, but I think if I read the whole book as I intend to someday then I’ll also probably have to find some kind of cheat sheet to keep them straight. Even the abridged version was difficult to get into at first, and that with the movie fresh in my mind, but I eventually did and really enjoyed it. I found an unabridged used copy a few years-ish ago and keep meaning to read it, but I haven’t yet. Constance Garnett is the translator of the one I found. Maybe this will be my year!

My own reading since I last commented has been very interesting. I finished the other books in The Mysterious Benedict Society series, (including the prequel which I did not enjoy so much) as ebooks and Every Living Thing by James Herriot as an audiobook. Also a few more Poirots, (audiobooks as well) but the most memorable of these was, I think, Five Little Pigs. It’s a sad story at times, but so well done in my opinion. And I’m not just saying that because I mostly guessed the solution before we got there. It made me cry, but not entirely out of sadness.

I got on a slight nonfiction kick (for me, at least) and listened to The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but I didn’t get as much out of it as I was hoping. Then The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth which was well-written in some ways but very annoying with the crassness among other things. I wouldn’t recommend it. The next nonfiction I listened to was Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee and that’s a book I can’t recommend highly enough!