Sometimes you just need Paddington to read to you, and he’ll do it as long as you bribe him with marmalade sandwiches. Honestly, I think he’d do it even without the treat.

Tonight’s book is A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick, and my Christmas present from Karen. It’s a series of letters from famous writers, artists, scientists, and leaders to children about a shared love of books. Each letter is accompanied by an illustration, and each pairing is thoughtful and thought-provoking. It’s not the sort of thing you can plow through if you expect to enjoy it, but is lovely to dip into for a few letters each night.

The sock is last year’s Smock Madness, which I discovered when I was moving bags around. Sock #1 is already done, which makes it a better project than this year’s Sock Madness socks, which are only up to the heel flap of the first sock. Wool socks are a part of my daily quarantine wardrobe for at least another month, so finishing a pair would be a nice gift to myself.

Fine. Let’s get my metaphorical house in order and get caught up on some book reviews. To start the year, I finished two books I really enjoyed:

The Art of Theft, by Sherry Thomas

In the fourth of the Lady Sherlock mysteries, Mrs. Watson comes to Charlotte with a Christmastime request — would she be willing to … retrieve … something on behalf of an old friend?

What can Charlotte say? She owes Mrs. Watson such a debt of gratitude. So despite her hesitations, she agrees. But this isn’t the sort of heist that can be accomplished with just the two of them. It’s going to require the assistance of Lord Ingram and Stephen Marbleton — and even her sister Livia — to pull this off. Acquaintances from earlier in the book series will cross their paths, as will at least one character from another Thomas series (which I’m now excited to read).

They will all journey across the Channel to France, where they must gain access to an exclusive Yuletide Ball. Charlotte, always one step ahead of murderers in her previous adventures, must now figure out not only how to successfully resolve Mrs. Watson’s friend’s request, but also how not to get caught in an international intrigue or in the crosshairs of a power play.

Charlotte’s adventures continue to be some of my favorites. I was lucky enough to get to attend an event at Loyalty Bookstore back in the fall with Sherry Thomas and to be in the room when she got to meet Kate Reading, a local voice actress who reads the Lady Sherlock audiobooks. The next book in the series is due out in the fall, so you still have plenty of time to get caught up with this great series — either in print or via audiobook.

Pages: 297. Personal copy.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, by Kate Racculia

The first thing you need to know is that there is an eccentric old billionaire, Vincent Pryce, beloved by many in Boston, who is about to drop dead at a hospital fundraiser. He has set up a Poe-inspired quest to celebrate that fact, and the prize may be some of his wealth. Everyone in Boston is very interested.

Second, you need to understand that Tuesday Mooney is very nearly always the smartest — and most reclusive — person in the room. As a development researcher for the fictional equivalent of Mass General, she likes to think of people as puzzles to be solved, which makes her both good at her job and off-putting to be around, except to a couple key people: her best friend, Dex, a drama queen stock broker, and Dorry, the motherless teen girl from the apartment next door who worships the ground she walks on. She also has just made a new friend, rich playboy Nathaniel, who refuses to fall neatly into any of the boxes she’d created for him when she researched his family. Oh, and there’s also Abby, who disappeared when they were teens, and who may or may not be haunting Tuesday.

People’s true identities must be sussed out. There are games within games within games going on here: peel off one layer of the onion only to reveal the next. Players will have to confront both inner and outer demons to solve Pryce’s puzzles, and Tuesday will not only have to learn to play well with others but also to trust them in order to move ahead and be considered for the final part of the game on Halloween night.

This is The Westing Game for adults and a well-crafted, multi-layered mystery of identity and reliability and, even, ghosts. Highly recommended.

Pages: 359. Library audiobook.

Total January reads: 2 books; 656 pages.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the cause of how we’ve added certain books to our physical TBR piles. I decided to focus on ten books I bought because I loved their author’s earlier work:

1. Threatened by Eliot Schrefer, because of Endangered
2. Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home by Bailey White, because of Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living
3. The Blue Shoe: A Tale of Thievery, Villainy, Sorcery, and Shoes by Roderick Townley, because of The Great Good Thing
4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, because of Eleanor & Park
5. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo, because of Because of Winn-Dixie (and others)
6. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, because of Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths
7. Odes by Sharon Olds, because of The Dead and the Living
8. The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and This Zigzag Life by Natalie Goldberg, because of Writing Down the Bones
9. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson, because of A Walk in the Woods
10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, because of Housekeeping

How often do you buy books from an author, perhaps without giving it your normal amount of consideration, simply because you loved one of their previous works?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share the top ten signs you’re a book lover.

Here are some ways folks may know I love books:

1. There are very few surfaces in my apartment that do not contain books. This does not keep me from stopping at every bookshop and Little Free Library that I pass.
2. I belong to three library systems — in three states — and the Library of Congress.
3. My insurmountable TBR list predates Goodreads. It used to be written on brightly colored index cards in tiny writing. Periodically one still resurfaces. Occasionally, I’ve read one title of the 75+ contained on it.
4. I can — and do — read (print books) and walk. Mostly I put my finger in the book when crossing streets.
5. I have 60 audiobooks on my phone.
6. Every time I have moved, the first box that gets unpacked contains Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. (My college roommate said she knew immediately that we’d be friends.)
7. We own copies of Harry Potter titles in a variety of languages, including a couple we don’t read.
8. My Halloween costumes are often based on bookish characters.
9. Every year, I tamp down my crowd anxiety to brave thousands of people at the National Book Festival.
10. I literally have the tshirt. (And the tote bag. And the socks. And the Christmas pjs. And … )

How about you? Are there obvious signs that you’re a book lover, too?

In this week’s episode of knitting and books from piles around my living room, we have my Wohin socks, now halfway into the first of three repeats of the heel flap pattern. Also, you can clearly see my yarn has shifted into golden from its original yellow. Yes, it does kind of look like a pineapple, or maybe an infected giraffe. But still, they are colorful and mostly cheerful.

Also, on a side note, while looking for a project bag to put this sock in, I opened one and found last year’s Sock Madness socks in there. I’d started the second sock already, which is very exciting!

On the reading front, I raced through and enjoyed Jen Wang’s latest graphic novel, Stargazing, although not as much as I loved The Prince and the Dressmaker.

I continue apace with the latest Veronica Speedwell mystery, The Murderous Relation. I’m making it last, since I can’t return it to the library right now anyway. (They locked all their book returns until the library reopens.

I’m sort of stuck on my audiobook, Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test, because one of the two main characters is about to do something cringeworthy, and if I don’t listen, she can’t do it. To be fair, she also can’t get through it and to her happy ending, so I will have to resume soon.

Finally, I just started Homerooms and Hall Passes by Tom O’Donnell. Haven’t heard of it? It’s the latest role playing game that will take you from the mendacity of your usual plundering and quest solving and plunk you down in a suburban middle school. Life will never be the same for this elf, barbarian, magician, and knight.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see how everyone else is sheltering in place.

So, here’s the thing: I don’t actually do a lot of cooking. And even my baking is way less than I think it should be. But … I love buying cookbooks. I am a sucker for them! It’s gotten bad enough that I now force myself to take them out of the library and won’t let myself buy a copy unless we’ve made a recipe out of them.

But, at the moment, no one’s libraries are still open. (That’s true, right? Chicago finally closed theirs, right?) And we’re all stress baking. So, if you need a new cookbook, let me give you some recommendations (and a link to one of my local bookstores, which will ship them to you for free through the end of the month).

So, here are ten of my favorite cookbooks, with thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesdays:

1. Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book — Hands down, my absolutely most-used baking book.
2. Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden & Martha Holmberg — A great option if you eat seasonally and lots of veg.
3. Teeny’s Tour of Pies by Teeny Lamothe — Teeny is a local baker who wrote a cookbook where you can make mini pies in cupcake tins
4. The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu Jaber — Actually more of a foodie memoir, but with Middle Eastern-American recipes at the end of each chapter, including my favorite hummus recipe.
5. Electric Bread by Suzan Nightingale — My favorite cookbook for my breadmaker.
6. Any Moosewood cookbook — Honestly, I buy these any time I see them at a used bookstore, which isn’t as often as you’d think, in part because their recipes are straightforward, vegetarian, and well loved and, therefore, home cooks don’t often part with their copies.
7. Laura Werlin’s Great Grilled Cheese — Okay, so this is less great cookbook and more just inspiration in a book when I’m wanting melty cheese in a different way (brie with apricot jam, for instance).
8. Perfect Pops by Charity Ferreira — Popsicles are very comforting and can be made while you sleep.
9. The Joy of Cooking — Because sometimes you just need an all-purpose, no nonsense cookbook to give you the bare basics.
10. My grandmother’s collection of recipes — Sorry. You won’t find this in the bookshop, but it is one of my most treasured possessions.

I have not cooked from either of these cookbooks, but they would be next on my list to buy: José Andres’ and Matt Gouldings’ Vegetables Unleashed (it’s only a matter of time before he adds Nobel Peace Prize winner to his resume) and The Hot Bread Kitchen by Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez (all bread products originated by the women who have trained/work at this NYC immigrant-friendly bakery). I have read all the recipes in the latter and would absolutely bake my way front to back.

How about you? What are your favorite cookbooks/baking books?