Not My Mother's Books

Come Be My Guest, by Elizabeth Cadell.  Image copyright Furrowed Middlebrow.

All these long years while I have been collecting Elizabeth Cadell, there was little on the internet about her.  A club…a place listing all the books.  I bought what I could, and at the same time bought D. E. Stevenson and Baldwin.  Much to my disappointment, there was little on the internet about any of them.  Since April 12th, while I suffered with my really nasty common cold, I’ve been reading these comfortable old favorites.

Cadell has charmed me with her characterizations then mixing a little romance with a kind humor.  Not all the people in her books are young, and there’s often nothing stereotypical of these characters at all.  I confess that I’d stopped reading mysteries by Box because they were a bit too bloody for me.  There was also a gathering of authors who wrote way above me, below me, or bored me stiff.  But not Cadell. 

Though she writes of train trips or of liners wending their way across tossed seas, she also creates worlds with a totally contemporary feel to them.  I find myself cheering on her hero’s, wanting to poke her occasional fuzzy heroine, and applauding the fat, old man who invented shoes that “were like walking on Ayr.”

I picked up one book last night, The Lark Shall Sing, and I so enjoyed it that I came to the computer to find the following two volumes that I don’t own:  The Blue Sky of Spring and Six Impossible Things.  Much to my total dismay I found them at appallingly high costs.  One hundred something for a paperback.  One of the hardbacks was $400.00.  Yes, I was in shock.

I was pleased to discover a number of book sites that discuss my old favorites.  There are not just pages here or there, but these wonderful authors are now on Facebook.  I was heartened by all but the cost of the books I don’t yet own.  I haven’t given up though. 

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Himself:  Gym, work, play.  Perhaps a load of laundry to get him up and down the stairs.

Herself:  Pool, write, deliver a quilt that G and I washed repeatedly for the Store.  Doctor at 3:30pm for my persistent cough. 

Reading:  Cadell, The Lark Shall Sing.  Just put her name into Google and follow the links.

Balance:  A Little of everything.