Literary Feast

Most of the time I tend to read non-fiction on a variety of topics. I usually have as many as four different books on the go at any one time. Once in a while, however, I like to take a "brain candy" break and indulge in some good fiction. Alas, there isn't much being published these days that appeals to me, so I turn to the old tried and true stuff that I enjoyed in the past.

It used to be that once a read a book, I could remember the plot, the author who wrote it, where it was published and all kinds of other details. I could even remember where information could be found on a particular page. My memory was almost photographic. Those days are now gone, but it has an upside to it -- I can read the same thing over more than once and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time I read it.

Last night I managed to grab a few books by one of my all time favorite authors -- Georgette Heyer. Georgette Heyer was a mistress of historical novels set in the Georgian and Regency eras. These are NOT like the typical regency romance novel churned out by the likes of Harlequin Romance Inc. They bear a closer resemblance to Jane Austen's novels and have delightful storylines and subtle humor. Heyer was also an accomplished mystery novelist.

It used to be that if I went to the section that contained Heyer's novels, I could find pretty well all of them there. Those days are gone, however. Most of them have been sold off in the discard bin, where I managed to pick up a few.

I also found (oh joy!) a "new" Dorothy Sayer's murder mystery. I say "new" because it is actually an old manuscript that she started back in 1936 and then laid aside to work in another direction. The trustees of her estate gave the incomplete manuscript to novelist Jill Paton Walsh and asked her to complete it. It will be interesting to see if I can detect where one author left off and the other begins, and if Walsh was successful in maintaining the right feel.

Lastly I picked up an Elizabeth Peters murder mystery. Peters has a very quirky character in Amanda Peabody and her husband Emerson that I enjoy and her mystery novels, which are usually set at some Egyptian archeological dig, make for an entertaining read.

My spring cleaning is nearly at an end, and it is time to play!