Atonement, by Ian McEwan

Despite all the good things I’d heard about Atonement, I hadn’t read the book before going to see the movie the other night.  In fact, I’d decided not to read the book before seeing the movie, because I’d heard people who loved the book say they were disappointed with the movie.  To avoid disappointment, I [...]

Symphony, by Jude Morgan

I think it’s official — I am going to have to admit Jude Morgan to my elite Pantheon of Historical Fiction authors.  Which creates some gender issues, because it used to be the Pantheon of Historical Fiction Goddesses, but I’m just going to have to work around that. 
Symphony is the kind of book I love [...]

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis (Old Favourites #8)

Someday I’m going to make up a list or writers who were my spiritual guides and mentors, and like a lot of Christians I’d put C.S. Lewis at the top of my list.  I read the Narnia books as a child and got into his spiritual/devotional nonfiction as a teenager.  Mere Christianity was an important [...]

The Boyfriend School, by Sarah Bird (Old Favourites #7)

There’s nothing deep or life-changing about this book — it’s just a lot of fun, and I’ve always enjoyed the love story of unsuccessful photojournalist Gretchen Griner, who decides to take a stab at writing a romance novel and improbably has a romance hero fall practically into her lap.  Rye St. John fulfills every romance [...]

The Last Convertible, by Anton Myrer (Old Favourites #6)

Here’s another book I read as a young adult that had a huge impact on my view of life and particularly of love.  It’s also one of the very few novels by a male author that has remained a favourite over the years.  I read it first as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book — yes, [...]

Gaudy Night, by Dorothy Sayers (Old Favourites #5)

I’m sure I can’t be the only young woman whose expectations of romance were set unreachably high by reading Gaudy Night at an impressionable age. Let’s not detail exactly how many Lost Years I spent looking for Lord Peter Wimsey, and cut straight to my review.
My cousin Alison put this book into my hands, [...]

The King’s Daughter, by Suzanne Martel (Old Favourites #4)

Originally published in French as Jeanne, Fille du Roi, this is another work of young-adult historical fiction I’ve loved for years, although I was older when I read this one — probably 19 or 20. It’s aimed at teenaged readers, but I enjoyed rereading it just as much as I enjoyed it the first [...]

Mistress Malapert, by Sally Watson (Old Favourites #3)

Mistress Malapert probably wasn’t the first work of historical fiction I read, but it was certainly the book that made me fall in love with the genre. It’s the story of the headstrong and selfish Valerie, who disguises herself as a boy and runs away from a harsh guardian in Elizabethan England. [...]

Mandy, by Julie Edwards (Old Favourites #2)

The “Julie Edwards” who wrote this book is actually “Julie Andrews” of Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame — she went through a period of writing children’s books under her married name in the 70s (Her name appears as Julie Andrews Edwards on newer editions). Both this one and her Last of the [...]

Kate, by Jean Little (Old Favourites #1)

For my first Old Favourite, I chose the book that I was completely in love with when I was about 13. I like everything I’ve read by Canadian children’s author Jean Little, but Kate is not only my favourite of hers, it’s my favourite YA novel of all time.
I guess I met [...]