Quick Lit: February 2017

Here’s what I’m reading lately:

A Fountain Filled with Blood (Julia Spencer-Fleming)

Somehow I missed this one as I was reading through the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. It was well worth the read (though One Was a Soldier is my favorite so far). I tore through it in Mexico and wished all over again that I hadn’t finished the rest of them. Please write faster, Ms. Spencer-Fleming.

Run Fast, Eat Slow (Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky)

Does anybody else read cookbooks in the winter? I didn’t recognize this was a habit of mine until I was writing this post.

It was a birthday gift from my BRF, and not only did it sustain me through months (count ’em, five months!) of not being able to run, but it also has dragged me out of my winter food rut.  I like its focus on quality ingredients and complex flavors over calories and substitutions.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John LeCarre)

This one is a classic and builds the cold war world carefully. Meticulously. The writing is intensely skillful, like the spycraft it paints. Highly recommended, but not if you need a happy ending.

The Whole Truth

Ring of Truth

The Truth Hurts (all by Nancy Pickard)

This series about true crime writer Marie Lightfoot frequently had me fooled. In each book, she weaves the past and present in one accelerating mystery. Recommended.

Your Money or Your Life (Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez)

I picked this up on the recommendation of Eliza Cross, host of the January Money Diet.

Robin and Dominguez (no relation) seek to help their readers build financial independence, but they go about it without the fancy gimmicks or the expensive programs/spreadsheets/paraphernalia. The focus is not on the investment vehicle, but on the reality that we spend our life energy (i.e., time working, time preparing for work, and time recovering from work) for money, so let’s figure out what the real cost and real payoff is in that work. I have a lot of homework to do, but it’s going to be worth it.

And, because it’s winter, I am spending some time holed up on the couch rereading my favorites. Like comfort food, only in story form. This includes Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome, Dawn’s Early Light and Yankee Stranger by Elswyth Thane (I’ve read these so many times I have large swaths of text memorized) and stories by both Annie Dillard and Connie Willis. I recommend it all.

What are your comfort reads?