Inches of Sleet and Rain Make Me a Sloth Reading Books

What miserable weather! Even Sasha wanted nothing to do with today's sleet and downpours. She curled up into a tight ball, her nose under her tail, and slept all day. I tried to be more active but failed. I succumbed early this afternoon and headed under bedcovers with my books, the rain hammering our metal roof. I finished Motherland by Maria Hummel, which was an exquisite, touching read of one mother's struggle to keep her children alive when Germany fell in 1945.

And I'm well into my Julia Spencer-Fleming mystery read for 2014, To Darkness and to Death, the fourth in the series starring Episcopalian minister and former Army helicopter pilot Clare Fergusson and Millers Kill Police Chief Russ Van Alystyne (sic). I'm determined to read the Clare Fergusson novels in order, though I'm itching to get at some of her best that are to come. As you may recall, the incomparable In the Bleak Midwinter is the first in the series and is a book I constantly try to foist on unsuspecting victims--all for a good cause--the joy of a great book. To Darkness and to Death is my next "easy" read after Red Wolf.

The other book I'm just starting is The Secret Rooms: A True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret by Catherine Bailey. I can finally, at long last, really dig in because I have my own copy now, so I can mark it up the way I want. It's a riveting history. No wonder, the English castle dates back to the 12th century. This book is a reading event! I discovered this from dipping into the first few chapters of my library copy, which has since been returned.

And, to think, the last episode of Downton Abbey, Season 4, is being broadcast on Sunday. How depressing that will be as it closes for another season. The only bright light is that it will be around for a fifth season!