I know, I know. I have great intentions at the beginning of December to post the November reads and then I get behind. And I read so little in December that it seemed after a certain point that I might as well wait and count the two months together. And already we’re a week into January, so I’d better get last year’s books finished off so I can start the year afresh with this year’s reads. My own reviews are no great reads, but I’ve decided to ignore that and to let them free into the world anyway.

Aunt Dimity Digs In, Nancy Atherton

From the jacket: “Lori Shepherd is up to her elbows in pureed carrots and formula bottles for her three-month-old twins. When a beautiful nanny arrives to lend a hand, it’s not a moment too soon for Lori — or the nearby village of Finch. A local civil war is brewing over visiting archaeologist Adrian Culver’s excavation, and it seems that Lori — with the help of the ghostly Aunt Dimity — is just the one to settle the dispute.”

Why this book? I liked the first one I read, I was headed away for a business trip, and the local charity shop had it in.

My take: Whereas I’d enjoyed the Aunt Dimity book I’d read earlier this fall, I didn’t really understand what had made it a successful series. This one, however, is clearly much earlier in the series and helps to provide some of the backstory I’d been missing earlier. I love a cozy set in the Cotswolds and this one fulfilled my requirements to the “t.” No murder in it, only a series of misunderstandings in the present and ill will from the past — probably exactly the sort of “mystery” that haunts any small town. I’d definitely read another in the series.

Pages: 275

Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery

From the jacket: “It seemed only yesterday that the skinny, freckled redhead had first come to the Island. Now here was Anne, at pretty sixteen, teaching at the Avonlea school and all grown up. Well, not quite grown up. In fact Anne was not very different from her restless young pupils — mischievous and spirited as ever.”

Why this book? There’s a read-along on Ravelry and it’s been ages since I read the series as a whole.

My take: While I’m sure I must have read this book since 1990, I did find an invitation to a friend’s 16th birthday party serving as a bookmark. (Not being one to disrupt history, I’ve left it inside the cover to serve again in the future…)

I admit that this story may best lend itself to the 16-year old. Anne’s flowery prose does get a bit … tiresome … when read at the ripe age of 33, but I know that when I was sixteen I totally spoke and thought and wrote that way. (Stop laughing. I’m not nearly as bad about it now as I was then!)

That said, I’d forgotten entirely about Davy and Dora and Paul and his stone people and Miss Lavender and Charlotta the Fourth, so it was nice to be reintroduced to their parts of the story. Because without each of them, Anne wouldn’t get past this stage to go on to become the woman she does.

Pages: 277

Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, Holly Black

From the jacket: “When seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she’s trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city’s labyrinthine subway system. … When a bewildered Val allows Lolli to talk her into tracking down the hidden lair of the creature for whom Luis and Dave have been dealing, Val finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus.”

Why this book? I liked Holly Black’s talk at the National Book Festival and I was previewing it as a potential Christmas present for a friend based on the book flap blurb.

My take: Interesting, but not as good as I wanted it to be. A traumatic event sends Val to the city on her own and keeps her from returning to her suburban home and single mom. The streets are not safe from their own danger, of course, and Val rapidly finds that her new friends have their own issues and threats to her safety. When she inadvertently leads one of her new friends into life-threatening danger, though, she proves herself loyal and temporarily enslaves herself to a troll to save Lolli.

Her servitude to Ravus leads Val into further danger — from a growing “fairy dust” drug problem to threats from otherworldly creatures — until finally she is forced to confront her own demons in order to save her new friends from theirs.

I’m not quite sure why I didn’t like this book except that I found the love story to be distracting and far fetched. I think without it this would have been a must-read.

Pages: 313

Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper

From the jacket: “The three Drew children, on holiday in Cornwall, had found a crumbling parchment map and embarked on a hunt for ancient treasure linked with King Arthur. The treasure, which lay ‘over sea, under stone,’ was more precious than life itself, for, if found by the right people, it would help keep at bay the ancient forces of evil that were once again powerful in the world.”

Why this book? I read The Dark Is Rising several years ago and wanted to read the first book in the series. This is the first time it’s been available at the library since I started looking.

My take: While not as compelling a page-turner as the second book in the series, this book definitely pulled me in. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jane, Simon, and Barney and to their Great-Uncle Merry and how they were going to solve the various clues that the map held in order to prevent the quartet of bad guys from finding the treasure first. The kids are realistic in their attitudes and minor squabbling and you really feel like you’re tagging along beside them as they run around town trying to figure out the next answer. I like that the bad guys are, for the most part, charming and suave, because I think most bad guys are in real life (or else how would they progress so far?). I believe we will meet the kids again further into the series and I’m looking forward to the progression of the story.

Pages: 252

Anne of the Island, L.M. Montgomery

From the jacket: “Wishing couldn’t keep Anne of Green Gables from growing up. Anne’s whole world was changing — her childhood friends marrying, Anne herself leaving the Island for four years of college. But as much as life changed, important things stayed the same — especially spirited, irrepressible Anne.”

Why this book? See above.

My take: Anne, the college years. I have fond memories of this book and of Patty’s Place, Anne’s home in Redmond for three years, and their guardians, Gog and Magog. I love Aunt Jamesina and the cats and I love how Gilbert desperately tries to win Anne over to the truth that everyone but she sees. (I admit that I’d totally glossed over Roy Gardiner, though…) It definitely helps that I have a wonderful four years at college to look back on myself and lifelong friends I made to make me especially sentimental about similar stories.

Pages: 244

Total pages read during November and December: 1,361