My January books

2026 began the same way as 2025 ended - with more books!
This is an overview of the books I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and those I have read to the cats (marked with 😸).
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book or how I found it and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (the cats also refuse to give ratings 😉). Should you want a little more information on a book you're interested in, though, just let me know.
You may notice that I don't number the list anymore. There's a reason for that which I will go into in a future post.


"Buster Keaton Remembered" by Eleanor Keaton and Jeffrey Vance, first published in 2001

Written by Keaton's wife of 26 years, Eleanor, and film historian Jeffrey Vance, the book chronicles Buster Keaton's life and career film by film, supported by a lot of pictures.

This is of course part of my personal silent film project.

"Grey Mask" by Patricia Wentworth, first published in 1928
(Miss Silver 1)

When Charles Moray returns to London four years after his fiancée has broken off their engagement not long before the wedding, he gets drawn into a plot concerning a drowned millionaire, his heiress - and his ex-fiancée.

More ear ringing for Liz on whose blog I came across Wentworth whose Miss Silver series fit right in with my vintage crime reading.

"Murder at the Bookstore" by Sue Minix, first published in 2023
(The Bookstore Mystery series 1)

Crime writer Jen Dawson is working on her second book when her friend Aletha from the bookstore is getting killed.
Jen turns amateur sleuth.

I found the newest available volume of the series on OverDrive, but started with the first one.
Does my plot description sound annoyed? The reason is I was. I didn't want to DNF another one right away and pushed through, but then promptly deleted the following books from my wishlist.

"The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Talking Skull" by Robert Arthur (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1969 😸
(The Three Investigators 11)

At an auction for abandoned luggage, Jupiter buys the old trunk of a magician. There are more people interested in that trunk, though. What is the mystery behind that and behind "Socrates", the talking skull, they found inside it?

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the eleventh in the series.

"How to Read a Book" by Monica Wood, first published in 2024

Violet is in prison for driving drunk and causing a fatal car crash.
Harriet is a widowed and retired teacher volunteering at the prison book club.
Frank is a retired machinist whose wife was killed in the crash.
After Violet gets out of prison and the three have an encounter at a bookstore, their lives start to become intertwined.

Another random OverDrive find. It started alright, but I thought the last third went a little overboard.

"The Picture House Murders" by Fiona Veitch Smith, first published in 2023
(A Miss Clara Vale Mystery 1)

The year is 1929. Oxford trained scientist turned librarian Clara Vale is notified that her uncle Bob has died and left everything to her, his money, his house with laboratory - and his dectective agency!
Trying to find out what to do with her inheritance, Clara takes up one of Bob's open cases, a fire in a local picture house.

I found this one as a new entry on OverDrive, it's a pity that it's the only one of the series there so far as I really enjoyed it.

"Tod im Äther" = "The Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1989

This is a collection of short stories by Marsh some of which feature Roderick Alleyn. There's also a telescript for an episode of "Crown Court" (which you can find here if you want to see Joan Hickson as the defendant). It closes with two introductions to the creation of Alleyn and his wife Troy.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.
I would say short stories were not Marsh's strong suit, but there aren't many of them, anyway.

"Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth - A Life Beyond "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Jane Lancaster, first published in 2004

Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878 - 1972) was a US-American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator.
She received a Ph.D. as one of the first female engineers and worked in her field through almost all of her life, until his death in 1924 closely together with her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth.
You may have heard about her if you read "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on Their Toes", written by two of her thirteen children, Frank Jr. and Ernestine. They are humorous descriptions of life in the large family of two engineers whose work in scientific management also found application in the organization of their home.

A while ago, YouTube recommended the two movies made after the books to me. I have read the books more than once, especially as a kid, I also knew the movies, but the recommendation made me look for more actual information about Lillian Gilbreth and I happened to find this exhaustive biography - and by exhaustive I mean almost 400 pages packed full of information about an amazing woman. Sometimes a bit too much information as I can't be expected to remember every organization Gilbreth was a member of or all those many, many lectures she held, but hey, it obviously was interesting enough to keep me going until the end although the second part in particular wasn't always an easy read.

"Secret Lives" by E. F. Benson, first published in 1932 😸

A new addition to the residents of Durham Square leads to a battle for social supremacy between Mrs Mantrip whose father had turned the Square into a respectable neighborhood and Miss Leg, the newcomer. Little do they know that they both have a secret that connects them.

I looked up a book which mentioned a book which led to a recommendation of Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" novels (I had watched the series before) which guided me to this book. The ways of books are strange sometimes.
A most amusing book!

"Tied Up in Tinsel" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1972
(Roderick Alleyn 27)

While Alleyn is in Australia, his wife Troy has been invited for Christmas by Hilary Bill-Tasman to paint his portrait.
The eccentric Hilary is restoring his ancestral home and all of his staff have served sentences for murder.
Other guests are his uncle and aunt, his mentor, and his fiancée.
When his uncle's manservant disappears after the Christmas celebrations, it's lucky that Alleyn has just returned from Australia.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.

"The Vampyre : a tale" by John William Polidori, first published in 1819 😸

Rich, young, orphaned Aubrey comes to London where he meets Lord Ruthven by whom he's both fascinated and repelled. They travel to the European continent together where Aubrey learns about vampyres, a folk tale he dismisses until a gruesome incident resulting in a young girl's death.
After Lord Ruthven gets shot by robbers, his body disappears mysteriously.
When returning to London, however, Aubrey meets Lord Ruthven again - and he shows interest in Aubrey's sister.

Polidori's "The Vampyre" is often regarded as the first story featuring a "modern" vampire.
It was inspired by a novel fragment of Lord Byron (whose physician he was and to whom it was attributed at first before Byron and Polidori set it right) and is a result of the famous ghost story telling contest which also led to Mary Shelley's writing of "Frankenstein".
As a short story, this is a quick read if you are interested in the beginnings of the genre. Definitely quicker than "Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood" (published in 1845 - 1847 as penny dreadfuls) which introduced many of the tropes like the fang-like teeth or the hypnotic powers. Varney has almost 900 pages! Dracula only turned up in 1897, by the way.
The copy I read, which was acquired in 1819 according to a note on the front page, had a few notes in the text. I couldn't read all of them completely, but two of them said "Perfectly horrid!!" which I found really interesting.

"Krabat" by Otfried Preußer, first published in 1971

Set in the times of the Great Northern War (1700 - 1721), the book tells the story of Krabat, a young orphan, who starts as an apprentice at a mysterious mill in Lusatia.

A re-read for a blog post. I can't even say how often I have read this book since my childhood. Absolutely a favorite.

"Maisie Dobbs" by Jacqueline Winspear, first published in 2003
(Maisie Dobbs 1)

The year is 1929 (yes, again, but Maisie Dobbs and Clara Vale are quite different). Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, has to find out if a woman is cheating on her husband, but discovers a greater secret that takes her mind back to her own past.

Another random OverDrive find. I'm torn. It was a smooth read, but a few things were a little too smooth and perfect, like Maisie's backstory.
My library only has two other of the series of 18 books, #16 and #18, and I don't think it makes much sense to read those without knowing Maisie's development between 1929 and 1945.

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, first published (in serialized form) in 1871 😸

Young Laura leads a solitary life with her father in an Austrian castle.
When a carriage accident happens near the castle, they get an unexpected guest, the beautiful and enchanting Carmilla. A strange friendship evolves, but then Laura gets haunted by dreams and gets weaker every day.

Le Fanu's Carmilla is one of literature's earliest female vampires. The novella is 26 years older than Stoker's "Dracula" and has more layers than just being a vampire story (I'll just say women).
I had read it ages ago and didn't remember anything, so it was time for a re-read. Definitely a recommendation from me.
Gundel didn't like Polidori's Lord Ruthven much, but after hearing that Carmilla could turn into a black panther-like cat, she said maybe she'd make a good vampire herself after all.

"Tension" by E. M. Delafield, first published in 1920

When Lady Rossiter, the wife of private college director Sir Julian, learns that the new Lady Superintendent, Pauline Marchrose, is the woman who had broken off the engagement with her cousin, she does everything to have her removed.
A budding romance between Marchrose and Sir Julian's agent Mark Easter, whose wife is in an institution, is the perfect basis for a campaign against her, and tension rises.

Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home has introduced me to the "British Library Women Writers" series (I found she has already reviewed this book here). I had a look which of the novels I could find rather easily, this was one of them.


DNF:

"A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping" by Sangu Mandanna, first published in 2025

A young, talented, and powerful witch resurrects her great-aunt from the dead and loses almost all of her power, so she runs her aunt's enchanted inn after being banished from the guild.
Then she finds out about a spell that may be able to restore her power.

I'm starting to think that most "cozy literature" isn't really for me. I read about 15% of the book and then found I didn't feel much like wanting to pick it up again. I did anyway, but was still bored after a few more pages. As there was a waitlist of four or five people, I thought the nice thing to do would be to give up there and then.

How and why did you start watching silent movies?

This was a question asked in a comment a while ago, and I had to think about how it actually started.
On March 11, 2025, I wrote my first silent movie post and ever since I have one every Thursday. To be honest, I was surprised about that myself - and hadn't even assigned a day to the "series" in the first post - and I would be lying if I said it was always easy.

"Wanna watch a silent movie with me?"
"Oh boy, looks like he's a weird one.
Good looking, but weird."

Sometimes I had to resort to presenting shorts simply because I didn't prepare ahead and then didn't find the time or, even more important, the concentration to do a long one (expect a short next week as I'm back to work tomorrow, by the way).
That doesn't just have to do with the runtime of a movie, however, but also with the way I write those blog posts. I know I'm not a gifted writer to start with and on top of that I sometimes have writer's block. Yes, for a "simple" blog post that not many of my readers are interested much in, anyway.

In March, I wrote about my attention span and how I wanted to work on improving it again after a friend had said that movies had become much too long for her attention span.
I had done a "Little Lord Fauntleroy" marathon with different adaptations for Christmas and couldn't make myself watching the silent one with Mary Pickford. That gave me the idea.
"You need a lot of attention for a silent movie and some are really long, too.
So I thought that could actually work quite well as a part of my "training". I'll be watching silent movies and writing about them here."

"You still haven't watched my movie.
Do it quickly or you're gonna get it."

Little did I know then that I wouldn't just watch movies, but also read blog posts and reviews and even some academic articles which didn't always make it easier for me to get to the actual writing in time.
Little did I also know that I would really enjoy jumping around like that, so much in fact that I now started reading biographies and treated myself to a fat book (second-hand at a great price) on the history of silent films in the US (which I haven't dared to start yet, though).

The question remains how I even got the idea to use silent movies for this "project"?
I also wrote in March "Watching silent movies has never been easy for me although I grew up with them. No, I'm not that old, they were re-runs on TV, thank you very much." Thinking about it, that's probably not completely true. I doubt I really ever watched a whole film, but snippets in the compilation shows broadcast on weekends, for example Bob Monkhouse's "Mad Movies" which actually had a narration.

So my first real watch was probably the night before my English-"Abi" (the final exam in my "Abitur" before I left school). My plan had been a last moment vocabulary cram, but instead we watched "Phantom of the Opera" with Lon Chaney and we laughed so hard at some of the scenes.
Years later, I had a classic horror phase - Dracula, Phantom, Nosferatu, Frankenstein, etc. - and suddenly loved the film.

"So you thought we were funny, did
you?" "Actually, Nosferatu, I thought
you were creepy as heck. Still do."

Even more years later, the TV channel ARTE, which I have mentioned before, showed several silent movies. I recorded a few of them and watched them in installments. Then the hard drive on my TV broke, interrupting my efforts abruptly. I had never finished the almost three hour long "Die Frau im Mond" by Fritz Lang and couldn't get myself to pick it up again (on YouTube, for example).
Film documentaries are my favorites on ARTE. History, life stories, reviews. Mostly classic and black and white, though. I have always loved old movies.
One of those documentaries was about Douglas Fairbanks and it was really interesting.

Now I'm going to blame Lisa from Boondock Ramblings for the final kick (along with Pickford of course).
When I joined her in the "Winter of Fairbanks" watching movies with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., I remembered that I had been wanting to see his dad's movies for so long now.
His "Thief of Bagdad" was the one to start my project, and if you have been following my posts at all, you may have noticed that I have a soft spot for him.

"Girl, you would have fangirled over me so hard
in the 20s. Come on, admit it." "Yup, I would have.
Especially when you laughed, you rogue. Even
if your son looked much better."

Well, there you have it. That's how I came to bore you with a silent movie post each week.
I don't regret a thing. There are more of us out there than you may want to believe 🙃

My December books

Another year gone by, I can hardly believe it.
What better to end the year with, though, than a list of books. Here are those I read in December.
It's an overview of what I have finished in a month (not necessarily started in the same month) and what I have read to the cats (marked with 😸)
Have you wondered, by the way, why some of the pictures in my book posts look so professional and some not? Of course, I could always find pictures on the web, but doing it like this is a way for me to remember which books I read in electronic form, either from the library - professional looks - or on The Internet Archive - screenshots of the covers digitized from physical copies - or which books I read in printed form - those pictures are taken by me just holding them up. As I usually seem to finish books at night, you get the "reading lamp colors and weird angle look".
I will be adding a short explanation why I chose a book and possibly if it's a re-read candidate, but I'm usually not going to add real reviews or ratings (the cats also refuse to give ratings 😉). Should you want a personal rating for a book you are interested in, though, or a little more information, just let me know.


1. "Peter Cushing : An Autobiography" by Peter Cushing, first published in 1986 😸

"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on 'til you come to the end: then stop." What better advice than Lewis Carrol[l]'s when attempting to write a life story? However, since my life how I knew and loved it ended with the passing of my belovèd wife Helen, I intend to take this narrative no farther than that fateful Thursday in 1971, January 14th."

I have to admit that to me Peter Cushing has mostly been Van Helsing and Sherlock Holmes, I hadn't even seen him as Baron Frankenstein. This book covers his rather short Hollywood career - he chose to go back to England - and about his theatrical and TV and film career back home.
He also speaks about his childhood and youth and the times before becoming an actor and thoses when he "was resting" meaning when he was without an engagement.
In fact, he had to earn his living for a while by designing head scarves.
A big part of this book is dedicated to the love story of him and his wife Helen, though, which will not surprise you after the quote above.

2. "The Last Library" by Freya Sampson, first published in 2021

June is a library assistant who lives only for her books and for the small village library where her mother worked until her death.
Only when the council discusses closing down six village libraries including hers, she finds her voice thanks to the support from her patrons for whom the library is just as important as for her.

I read Sampson's second book last month, this is her debut novel. As a librarian, I was interested in this (in a very nostalgic way) although I don't work in a public library myself.

3. "Black as He's Painted" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1973
(Roderick Alleyn 28)

When Ng'ombwana's (a newly independent African republic) president Opala - who happened to attend the same public school as Alleyn and was a good friend of his - is about to come to London for a state visit, the Special Branch is in uproar because "The Boomer" (Opala's nickname at school) refuses all their security measures.
At a reception at the Embassy, there's an assassination attempt, but instead of the president the Ambassador is killed. 
Hampered by the fact that the murder has been committed on "foreign soil", Alleyn and his Special Branch colleague try to solve the case.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham.
Although the book was easy enough to read, it was also tough because some of the speech hasn't aged very well, but part of that is actually needed for the plot.
There's one character I really liked and a cat for which I had to do a quick check of the ending (not the solution, though) after a few pages, but she's not only fine, she also plays an important role.

4. "The Art Thief" by Michael Finkel, first published in 2023

Within six years, Stéphane Breitwieser stole artwork from museums and fairs in different countries while his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus stood watch - even in crowded museums during the day.
Unlike most art thieves, however, Breitwieser didn't sell the sculptures, paintings, weapons, etc. He stole them for "his" collection displayed in the attic bedroom in his mother's house where they lived. The value of the stolen pieces from over 200 heists is estimated at around $1.5 to 2 billion.
When he got caught, his mother threw part of the collection into a canal and burnt the other part.

Another random find on OverDrive. I like watching art documentaries and have also seen several on art forgery and theft, but surprisingly - I watch most of them on our French-German TV channel - I hadn't heard about Breitwieser yet.

5. "Antarctica" by Claire Keegan, first published in 1999

The debut collection of stories by the Irish author, each one of them gripping you in a different way.

I found it as a new entry on OverDrive.

6. "Old Christmas : from the Sketch Book of Washington Irving" by Washington Irving, first published in 1875

These five sketches around old English Christmas traditions are from Irving's "Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent." from 1820.
They describe the holidays as spent on a rural estate where traditions even older than from the 19th century are still observed.

When I did some research for my blog post about ghost stories at Christmas, I came upon this book and it made a quick seasonal read. The style is very flowery, but I quite enjoyed it in connection with the illustrations.

7. "The Secret Christmas Library" by Jenny Colgan, first published in 2025
(Happy Ever After series 6)

Mirren has already found a rare book once before. Admiring it at the British Museum, she meets a Scottish laird looking for a precious book in the crumbling castle left to him by his grandfather and gets hired by him to help in his search.

I found this one as a new entry on OverDrive and hoped for another quick fun seasonal read.
Instead, it was really close to becoming a DNF. Although I finished it rather quickly, I was annoyed with it all the time - the characters, the style (how often can you use the word "vast"?), the editing, and that it wasn't very Christmassy. I guess I hoped it would become better and then I was too far in to DNF.

8. "The Library Book" by different authors, first published in 2012

The book is a collection of 23 stories by writers about libraries or including libraries, depending on their being fiction or nonfiction.

This was a recommendation on OverDrive.
I was torn. There were some excellent essays, there were some quotes that really could have come straight from my heart (mostly due to nostalgia), but there were also some that were simply boring or repetitive (for example the everlasting "print or electronic" discussion, ok, so I prefer a printed book, but these days I read e-books as well because it makes access easier for me, isn't it important people read at all?).
Some have aged well, some not so much if you watch the development in the last few years (I'm talking book bans for example).
Of course I'm aware that most stories refer to public libraries in the UK and the danger of a lot of them being shut down at that point (I don't know how the numbers mentioned have changed since then).

9. "Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon" by Matthew Norman, first published in 2025

Grace - who has two children - and Henry have both lost their spouses.
Almost a year later, with the holidays approaching, their mothers try to bring them together. They are not ready yet, though, and become "grief partners" instead, bonding over a holiday movie marathon ... and some mice.

I found this one as a new entry on OverDrive and really enjoyed it.

10. "The Brits in Hollywood: Tales from the Hollywood Raj" by Sheridan Morley, first published in 2006
(updated edition, originally published as "Tales from the Hollywood Raj" in 1983)

Many British actors and actresses - mostly men, though -  went to Hollywood (even before it was called that) to make films there. Most of them had a theatrical background. Some stayed, such as Ronald Colman or Cary Grant, some went back home, some chose to go back and forth.
A nickname for them in the Golden Age of Hollywood was "The Hollywood Raj" (hinting at the "British Raj", the time of the British Crown's rule in India).

I heard about Dean Street Press from Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home. When checking out their website, I found a few titles that looked interesting to me, among them film-related books by Sheridan Morley (this was not a Dean Street Press edition, though).
The book listed a lot of names of peoples and films not all of which I knew, but it was still an interesting read.

11. "Der Hyazinthen-Mörder" = "Singing in the Shrouds" by Ngaio Marsh, first published in 1958
(Roderick Alleyn 20)

A serial killer strangles women and leaves them behind with their necklaces torn and flowers strewn over their bodies.
His third victim is found near a cruise ship. Suspecting "The Flower Killer" on board because of a torn boarding card in the victim's hand, Alleyn joyns the cruise to investigate undercover.

This is still part of my vintage crime project for which I keep getting books by Marsh and Allingham (just four of the Marshs missing now!)

12. "From the Alps to the Dales: 100 Years of Bettys" by Annie Gray, first published in 2019 😸

Founded by a Swiss baker and confectioner in 1919, Bettys is a Yorkshire based family company famous not for only for their Yorkshire tea rooms, but also their products among which tea and coffee lie in the responsibility of their sister company Taylors of Harrogate.
The book tells their history from 1919 to 2019.

I have read all of Annie Gray's books that I own so far to the cats, but haven't convinced them yet to become food historians themselves as they are more interested in what's on their plates now.

13. "The Case of the Silken Petticoat" by Christopher Bush, first published in 1953
(Ludovic Travers 43)

Private detective Ludovic Travers is witness when a young woman storms into Café Rond and kicks well-known critic Clement Foorde in the shin over a review he wrote on Robert Ashman's book "The Silken Petticoat".
Some time later, Ashman is found drowned in a river and he's not the only body in this mystery which Travers has to solve.

I had never heard of Christopher Bush before - as far as I remember - when Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home reviewed one of his books for a 1952 challenge. I found a few of his books on The Internet Archive and started randomly with this one.

14. "A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas, first published in 1954 (as a book, it was a recording first) 😸

The Welsh poet's story is a beautifully told nostalgic memory of the Christmas of a young boy, the family gathering, playing in the snow, going carolling.

I hadn't known the story yet, it was mentioned in an article but it certainly evoked memories of past Christmases of my own. Reading it might become a Christmas ritual.

15. "The Women on Platform Two" by Laura Anthony, first published in 2025

Saoirse doesn't want to have children, her fiancé Miles does. After a negative pregnancy test and an ensuing discussion, Saoirse leaves to do some thinking and ends up on a train where she meets an old lady, Maura, who tells her the story of her best friend Bernie and herself in the Republic of Ireland of the 70s when contraception was still forbidden.
(TW: Domestic violence/suicide)

I think I found this one as a new entry on OverDrive.
While knowing about all contraceptives being forbidden in Ireland around that time, I hadn't heard about "The Contraceptive Train" before when 47 women's rights activities took a train to Belfast to buy contraceptives there which were illegal to bring back into the Republic.

16. "The Carlyles at Home" by Thea Holme, first published in 1965

"Home" was 5 Cheyne Row in Chelsea, London where the Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher Thomas Carlyle lived from 1834 to his death in 1881.
With him lived his wife Jane until her death in 1866. She was an avid writer of letters which allow us a look into the Carlyles' life from her point of view.

I found the book through a review by Liz from Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home (whose ears are probably ringing by now).
While it was very interesting to read, for example how difficult it can be to find reliable servants (there's a lot of that), I went to hug my appliances and my cats afterwards. We three are lucky in many regards to live now instead of back then (because we are a spoiled lot).

17. "The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Moaning Cave" by William Arden (the books were published attributed to Alfred Hitchcock), first published in 1968 😸
(The Three Investigators 10)

What makes a cave moan and why has it started again after 50 years? Is the legend about "The Old One" true and what about the rebel El Diablo, can he still be alive?
This time Jupiter, Pete, and Bob are on a case trying to help out the Daltons who own the ranch next to Devil Mountain.

I read this series a long time ago and am going through it again bit by bit after writing a blog post about it. This book is the tenth in the series.