Throughout the year, I discovered a number of new-to-me authors including Toby Neal, Carolyn Astfalk, Barbara Golder, and Therese Hackenkamp. I learned that Carolyn writes a blog and hosts a monthly linkup about what you read the previous month. I'm going to give it a try.

My husband enjoys mysteries as much as I do, though he generally prefers ones written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Usually I say that I don't like "historical fiction", but when he's sitting there chuckling while reading a book, I had to find out why. Tim introduced me to the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Trout, written over five decades starting in the mid 1930s.
Nero Wolfe is an eccentric detective whose expensive fees support his reclusive lifestyle, his epicurean tastes, and his twelve hundred orchids. The stories are well written and full of great and humorous descriptions.
Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout
When the student of a female immigrant fencing instructor accuses her of stealing, her friend enlists Wolfe to help prove her innocence. When that man and another end up dead, the case becomes much more complicated. Wolfe's confidential assistant, Archie, narrates the story and is quite candid in his descriptions of others.

Bad case of pernicious inertia. He never goes anywhere anytime for anybody.
Too Many Women by Rex Stout
Archie, Nero Wolfe's assistant, goes undercover to investigate a murder at a Wall Street firm, where he discovers a fringe benefit: hundreds of women work there. Everyone's alibi is air-tight, so Archie and Wolfe set a trap.
The atmosphere up there was of thick carpets, wood panels and plenty of space, but as for the receptionist, though she was not really miscast she was way past the deadline, having reached the age when it is more blessed to receive than to give.

I admit I lied to him. I told him that you’re just a front here and the real brains of this business is a skinny old woman with asthma that we keep locked in the basement.


The following two books were on my last year's list that I never got to. Sometimes I find non-fiction either intimidating, too dry, or not all that accessible. I decided to plot out a reading plan for each of these books and read them over the course of the year. And, as you may have guessed, I'm already behind.

I bought Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith by (Bishop) Robert E. Barron shortly after it was released, but never read it. Like the book above, I am trying to read one chapter a month. I am, like the book above, again behind. More to come next month.
Head on over to Carolyn's for more An Open Book.
AMDG