They (you know, self-proclaimed experts unwilling to be named) claim that variety is the spice of life. If that is true…then the middle of my literary year was spicy.
Grab your drink of choice and come on a time, place, and topic tour of the great middle portion — from the time the snow should melt until gardens yield fruit.
Tang Dynasty China — ninth century AD to most of us — proved to be the earliest time period I encountered. I visited the British Isles several times – Regency era, Victoria’s reign, and the first half of the twentieth century. Some visits were fiction, but others factual. (Some days I feel the line is blurred.) Brief visits to Okinawa, a Caribbean Island, Bostwana, Bankok, and Iraq added a dash of spice to the rich assortment of United States locations – Florida, California, Idaho, New York, Texas, and Missouri to name several. And a visit or two to the future or a fantasy world allowed questions of dragons and next century Chicago to dance with the real world.
What shall I read for dessert? What’s a good topic to end a year of travel between the pages?
Join me next Tuesday for the wrap-up.
For more detail on selected volumes — click on over to the “Review” page and read about some of my recent favorites.
