Books Feb 3rd Through Mar 6th

The effort to read the stack next to my bed has brought up a lot of vintage books from authors I have not previously read. I am choosing to listen to as many as I can since this goes much faster for me that reading print books.

First up this month on audio was The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie. I have always loved Agatha Christie but had not read this one before or this series for that matter. The vintage feel of this was great while it was a bit confusing as first. This book is not told from the view point of the investigator which was something different. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brene Brown was next and I surprisingly liked this more than a previous one by this author. It as the last was really short but heavy on subject matter. Another vintage book was up next. I chose Cover Her Face by P.D. James  an author I had never heard of until a collection of short stories was published last year. This is an author that I enjoy and will likely listen to a lot more of in the coming months. Still in the vintage vein and one I heard recommended on the What Should I Read Next podcast was up next. My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse was that recommendation. I did not think it was the best thing ever but it was an easy and relatively short listen. The next book I listened to was also a recommendation from What Should I Read Next and an author I had not heard of previously. This book was stellar and Still Life by Louise Penny will lead to me reading all of her books in this series. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was started honestly at the recommendation of a friend and it's sheer popularity. It started with me really not liking Ove but by the end I loved this book! My only "complaint" is that it seemed to wrap up really neatly in the last couple of pages.


In Print I finished 2 books during this time span. I am down to just 3 more library books before reading from the stack ( at least the ones I can not find in audio).  Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child's Developing Immune System by Jack A. Gilbert, Rob Knight and Sandra Blakeslee. Maybe I like this book so much because it confirms my suspicion that we are to concerned with germs as a society. Our systems need a little dirt and a lot of microbes. I love biographies and auto-biographies which help lead to the next book, that and my favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are.  There's a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak by Jonathan Cott was extremely interesting. Despite one of his books being my favorites I did not know anything about the author prior to this book. It was a great mix of his life, remembrances from friends and art work.