Dec. 22: On Vacation at Last!

The FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The final installment of the FitzOsbornes saga was the heftiest, but it also flew by the fastest. Cooper did a great job finishing up the story--as several reviewers have remarked, it's hard to go into much detail for fear of spoilers, but many of the lines fell where I'd hoped, though there were some devastating surprises.

Overall, I felt like I had a whole new understanding of what the war was like for the citizens of England. While Angela Thirkell's books go more into the "mom details" of trying to feed people on rations, etc., Cooper seems to capture the way younger women felt at the time.

I do have one spoiler question that I will ask as circumspectly as possible: who are the parents of the two year old mentioned at the end? There's one mention of a father that's dropped into the text and then never mentioned again, and Sophie is usually so open that I was confused. Hmmm. May have to reread.

Our librarian mentioned that she was going for the Downton Abbey crowd when she bought those. Hmmmm. I know I loved 'em, and I am stuck on disc 2 of season 1 of DA!


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A Christmas Beginning: A Novel by Anne Perry
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I think this is the second Anne Perry Christmas novel (tho maybe not. Maybe it's another Victorian era writer whose work I dissed earlier--I will check). Found this one at the church rummage sale and thought I'd try 50 cents' worth of Christmas cheer.

It wasn't even 5 cents' worth, though I did read it as my first vacation book (didn't have time to get to the library before it closed and I was feeling lost, having finished Michelle Cooper's FitzOsborne series). It involved Runcorn and a grisly murder, much class distinction and subjugated desire. . . . very little plot and even less suspense. The case is solved through sudden revelations that seem to have no lead-in and very little context.

I'd ask for my 50 cents back, but the church is a good cause!


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Lyle is home; did some pleasant shopping; had a nice time at the AFS Progressive Dinner and got to see my sweet little "niece" who has had a long, hard bout with mono and is feeling pretty discouraged. We'll do something together over the week and see if we can just cheer her up!

Hey, guess what? No school till the WED. of the New Year!