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Adam Thomas's avatar

Busman's Honeymoon is excellent!

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Elisabeth Grace Foley's avatar

It's the only one of the Lord Peter novels I haven't read yet...I've been putting it off for a while solely because I kind of hate to finish the series and know there are no more to come!

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Adam Thomas's avatar

Yes, I can understand that feeling! It is a very strong end to the series, so at least it ends on a high

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Tony Dekker's avatar

I like all of Dorothy L. Sayers' detective novels. Busman’s Honeymoon is one of the best ones.

Dandelion Wine I read years and years ago. I remember loving it, and I remember the mysterious Bradburyesque "town ravine," but no specifics.

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Elisabeth Grace Foley's avatar

Dandelion Wine had never even been on my radar (probably because I assumed it was science fiction), until this year a couple of my fellow-authors on a podcast interview were enthusing about it and I looked it up—and it sounded like a good fit for summer.

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Tony Dekker's avatar

Ray Bradbury is perhaps most famous for his science fiction, but he wrote a number of books with fantasy elements set in small-town America. There always seem to be boys playing in "the ravine" and train whistles blowing in the distance. And the man was a brilliant writer.

Dandelion Wine is certainly a good fit for summer. I'd be very interested in hearing your opinion of it.

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Dominika's avatar

This is such a fun list! I love Busman's Honeymoon. It's like Sayers at her most uninhibited wish fulfilment in fiction haha! Green Money is also on my summer reading list! And a Margery Sharp though I haven't figured out which one yet. Possibly Something Light. Some Tame Gazelle is perfect summer reading. Soothing and witty. And Dandelion Wine is quintessential summer reading.

Also, have you read any Mary Hallock Foote? She wrote about the American West and was the controversial inspiration for Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose, although her writing is supposed to be excellent in its own right. I've been meaning to read her work.

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Elisabeth Grace Foley's avatar

It's the last Wimsey novel I haven't read, and I kind of hate the idea of coming to the end of the series! But fortunately they have the quality of re-readability, too.

I've read two others by Margery Sharp so far, Cluny Brown and Rhododendron Pie. Both enjoyable, though I think the latter was my favorite (it's been years since I read Cluny Brown though). I haven't actually read anything by Mary Hallock Foote yet, though I'm very familiar with the name!

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Emma Troyer's avatar

These are all new titles to me!! Will look forward to hearing how you like them.

I haven't made a list for this summer, partly because lists put me into a get-it-done type mentality and I want to enjoy reading luxuriously and slowly - something that shouldn't be hard, but of course I make everything more difficult than need be. (LOL.) I am planning to read Below Stairs by Margaret Powell with a friend, and am currently enjoying Angela Thirkell's Wild Strawberries, a funny little romance given to me by another friend. Other than that, I'm really enjoying reading my collection of cookbooks more in depth and even trying some of the recipes!

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Elisabeth Grace Foley's avatar

My lists have gotten shorter over the years, not because I read any less, but so as to avoid self-pressure to check them all off or disappointment at having not gotten around to some (I always end up doing a lot of random spur-of-the-moment reading in the summer too!).

Wild Strawberries is perfect summer reading! If you enjoy that one, you'd probably like some of Thirkell's other earlier books too.

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Emma Troyer's avatar

Oh, I cannot agree more ^^

I will definitely be looking for more Angela Thirkell. I just finished the novel and it was one of the most amusing little morsels I've read in a long time.

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