Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas, Part 1

So it’s that time again – time to not recommend books for Christmas. I have this thing about imposing my book choices on people, so I get around it by not recommending books I really enjoyed during this past year.

And it was a good year, perhaps a great year, for reading. This week I cover mysteries and suspense, fiction, faith, writing, and art. Next week I’ll cover history and biography, general non-fiction, and poetry.

For all the listings, the links direct you to my reviews or articles at this blog or Tweetspeak Poetry.

Mystery and Suspense

Any of the Inspector Gamache novels by Louise Penny.

Two Judge Dee Mysteries by Robert Van Gulik.

The Chessmen by Peter May.

The Essential Margery Allingham Collection.

Burke’s Gamble by William Brown.

Murder and Other Acts of Literature, edited by Michele Slung.

The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell.

As the Crow Flies by Damien Boyd.

Any of the Stephen Puleston mysteries.

Any of the British Library Crime Classics.

A Question of Inheritance by Elizabeth Edmondson.

Fiction

East of Coker and Invective by Andy Owen.

Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

The Yoga of Max’s Discontent by Karan Bajaj.

There Will Be Stars by Billy Coffey.

Romey’s Place by James Calvin Schaap.

A Whole Lot by Bradley Wind.

In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman.

The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss.

Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Stone of Destiny by Jim Ware.

Ember Falls by S.D. Smith.

Faith

The Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite.

Chicken Scratch by Kelly Chripczuk.

George Whitfield: The Evangelist by John Pollock.

Writing

Christian Writer’s Guide by Mary Harwell Sayler.

Art

Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings by David Coombs.

Four books on Ai Weiwei.

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Images. Used with permission.

A remnant

After 1 Samuel 24

A small piece of cloth

a remnant, a tiny piece

that will not matter

to the whole

a tiny piece cut

in a place of hiding

in a place of refuge

and last resort

The whole robe was at risk

yet only a small piece taken

as a sign

as a promise

as the hope for reconciliation.

Photograph by Kevin Phillips via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

A study of mainline churches was undertaken in Canada to determine what made some churches grow in membership while so many more have been declining. Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition has the story, and the answers may be surprising.

Perhaps it’s the election, perhaps it’s just coincidence, but some really good poetry is being written right now. I’ve included four below – but there are so many more.

Louise Gallagher remembers her mother, Jerry Barrett thinks the skylight is falling, Eric Geiger on why routines are so vital for leaders and creators, and more.

Faith

Seeing Seamlessly – Dr. Steven Garber and The Spiritual Gift of Creating Beauty – Beccas Hermes -- both at The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, & Culture.

‘Ideas Have Consequences:’ The Common Ingredients of Growing Churches – Thomas Kidd at The Gospel Coalition.

12 Brilliant New Study Bibles Coming OutThis Year – Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center.

Are We Playing Church? – Becky Hastings at Altarwork.

The Skylight is Falling, the Skylight is Falling – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

Hillsong & God - Cameron Buhttel and Jeremiah Johnson at Grace to You.

Poetry

On My Late Grandmother Still Receiving Mail – J.P. Celia at First Things.

Witness removed – Barbara Mackenzie at Signed…BKM.

Lovesong – Aaron Belz.

Key to the Kingdom – Ted Mathys via Academy of American Poets.

Advent Haiku and A Psalm for POTUS – Tim Good at Pics, Poems, and Ponderings.

Life and Culture

5 Reasons Why Leaders and Creators Need Routines – Eric Geiger.

The memory of my mother – Louise Gallagher at Dare boldly.

Writing

5 Ways to Help Your Readers  Suspend Disbelief – Mike Duran.

One by One – Music by Paul Cardall, Words by David Bednar

And the back story on One by One.

Painting: Interior with Artist’s Daughter, oil on canvas (1935-36) by Vanessa Bell.

Touching the robe

After 1 Samuel 24

I touch the robe

I cut a small piece

my knife sharp and poised

in the shadows,

capable of more

far more

yet I stop with only

the small piece of cloth

to demonstrate both

the possibility

and the obedience.

Photograph by Maliz Ong via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Elizabeth Edmondson’s “A Question of Inheritance”

It’s the mid-1950s. Hugo Hawksworth and his young teenage sister Georgia live at Selchester Castle in the town of the same name, the guests of the Selchester family. Hawksworth was in the special service (later called MI-5) during World War II. Injured in Berlin in 1945, he walks with a limp – and the injury sidelined his MI-5 career into a desk job, at a “special operation” near Selchester.

He’s already solved one murder mystery at the castle. The new earl of Selchester, an American, is arriving with his two daughters, and it seems that someone may be out to do the new earl in. And over a blizzard-like Christmas, a murder happens – but it’s one of the guests, electrocuted in a greenhouse.

In Elizabeth Edmondson’s A Question of Inheritance, Hawksworth finds himself once again finds himself simultaneously engaged in a castle murder, MI-5 politics, art stolen by the Nazis during the war and smuggled to England. He works closely with Freya Wryton, a Selchester niece who writes successful novels under a pseudonym and is keeping her literary activities secret from everyone.

The mystery has all the right appeals – a big castle, a conniving family, art works hidden away in the attic, some light comedy with the teenage sister (and the new earl’s teenage daughters), weather trapping the characters, several credible suspects, and action that keeps popping and driving interest to the end.

Elizabeth Edmondson

Edmondson has written numerous historical novels and mysteries, including a series about Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy. She has also written under the name Elizabeth Aston. Alas, she died this year at age 67 after a short battle with cancer, which means this second mystery is the last of the Hugo Hawksworth novels. And it appears that we’ll never know if Hugo’s relationship with Freya will move beyond partners in solving mysteries to the romance that is only hinted at.

A Question of Inheritance is a good, enjoyable mystery.

Related:

My review of A Man of Some Repute.

Photograph by Karen Arnold via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission. (The photo is actually of Arundel Castle, similar to but not the actual Selchester Castle.)