March:
28. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett - PJ is a 63-year-old alcoholic hoarder who has never gotten over the death of his eldest daughter and the end of his marriage. His remaining daughter doesn't want to have much to do with him, although she reluctantly checks in on him. When tragedy strikes and two of his brother's grandchildren are orphaned, he takes them in. He's a kind man, if immature. His ex-wife and best friend have gone to Alaska and are out of touch but he's read that a girl he used to have a crush on has been recently widowed. He's had 3 heart attacks, won a lottery, and done very little besides drink since he lost his job, so PJ decides to go on a road trip to Arizona to ask newly-widowed Michelle if she'll marry him. The kids can probably stand to get out of town. Sophie ends up joining them, as does Pancakes, an orange tabby known for predicting when someone is going to die. A quirky, sad, funny, beautiful road trip novel, my favorite of the year, so far. I absolutely loved it and will be looking for more by Annie Hartnett. Sent by a friend. Thanks, Susan!
29. The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie - 12-year-old Tessa loved her home in Florida and her best friend Rachel, but her father got a job offer he couldn't refuse. Now, they have moved into a very old house in Chicago that's haunted. The lights flicker, a child cries in the hallway, and there are strange crackling noises. Tessa is a pastel artist and a drawing has appeared in her sketchbook. In the park, she meets one of her classmates, who pulls her into his circle of friends. And, they're happy to help her unravel what's happening and why. Who is haunting Tessa's house, especially Tessa herself, and what do they want her to do? Nice and creepy, this middle grade book would make a great fall read. I thought the story lost a little steam toward the end and I didn't understand the point of the character Cassidy, who only showed up a few times, but otherwise a fun read with a nice little ghost mystery.
30. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2 by Beth Brower - When I read the first volume of the Emma Lion books set in 19th-century London, I thought the price I paid for a 104-page book was a bit much. But I absolutely had to continue reading on. So, I went to Hoopla and checked out the only thing available, the audiobook. Guys, I am not an audiobook reader. I fell asleep 3 times, I kid you not. So, I ordered a copy of Volume 2 and found that I'd fallen asleep 3 times in only 18 pages! Whoa. So, paper it is. At any rate, the story continues with a cat named Tybalt, a Roman ghost, objects that mysteriously disappear from one home and appear in another, Emma's obligation to help her beautiful cousin catch the eyes of the most suitable marriage prospects, a possible growing friendship with her tenant in Lapis Lazuli Minor (a portion of her home that's been sectioned off and rented), and her icy relationship with her cousin-by-marriage, Archibald. Midway through this book, I realized that I am so immensely entertained that I'm giving up the thought of trying to save money. Beth Brower deserves it. I've already ordered the next two in the series.
31. Have Space Suit — Will Travel by Robert Heinlein (ebook) - I think this is only my second read by Heinlein, the first being Stranger in a Strange Land. Have Space Suit — Will Travel is one of Heinlein's "juvenile fiction" titles and apparently a bit of a cult classic. I've wanted to read it for years after seeing numerous references to the book, usually mentioned as a favorite from childhood. I recently discovered that you can buy it at a reasonable price as an ebook (it's out of print and paper copies are expensive). The story is about Kip, who enters a contest to try to win a trip to the moon. Instead, he wins a spacesuit, fixes it up, and just happens to be testing it when aliens arrive and snatch him up. Imprisoned on the moon and then Pluto, Kip meets a young genius named PeeWee and a creature called the Mother Thing and together they will fight to survive, save Earth, and find a way to return home. Some of the science bits went way over my head but I enjoyed Have Space Suit — Will Travel for the action, adventure, and the way it encourages youngsters to study hard.
32. Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling - OK, I would really like suggestions for books as action-packed and edge-of-your-seat as this, but for adults. What is it with middle grade books that there's so much more action than I feel like I get from grown-up novels? Am I looking in the wrong place? In Across the Desert, 12-year-old Jolene spends much of her time in the library, reading about travel and wishing for escape. Addie, also 12, has lost her father and live streams her adventures flying an ultralight aircraft and exploring in the desert. Jo is the only person who watches Addie's live streams and she's gotten to know Addie via email. Jo is an amateur cartographer and likes to follow Addie's adventures on maps. But, because Addie goes by "Addie Earhart," clearly not her real name, when Addie's motor dies and she crashes in the desert nobody believes Jo when she tries to find help. There's no recorded video, she doesn't know how to locate Addie's mother, and she gets a lot of stern warnings that not everything on the internet is as it seems. Jo can't let Addie just die in the desert, so she takes what she thinks she needs and sets off to rescue her. A terrific journey and survival story that's also about life with an addict, friendship, trust, and believing in yourself.
33. James by Percival Everett - Probably everyone knows about this book but just in case . . . it's the story of Huckleberry Finn told from the side of Jim, a slave and Huck's friend. I chose it for the Massachusetts Center for the Book challenge. This month's prompt was, "A book featuring an unlikely friendship," and it definitely fit well as they have to defend their friendship and it's tested during their journey on and off the Mississippi River. A great book for its look at friendship, racism, cruelty and kindness, danger and survival. It kind of throws the idea of cleaning up language in old books in your face by making it obvious that the language (particularly the "n" word, in this case) is of the times and needs to stay in place. It needs to make your skin crawl. You need to be horrified by the way slaves were treated and feel steeled to do your part to stop racism.
But, James is also just a great read. Now, there is one part that's considered controversial but it's a spoiler. If you know what that part is, I can tell you that it did not work for me. But, it's Percival Everett's story, not Mark Twain's, and he took it to a new place that's his own creation so I'm fine with that. James is a 5-star read, highly recommended. To double up on my challenge and fit my slot at book group, I suggested James and led the discussion. Double the fun!
34. Hear the Wind Blow: A Novel of the Civil War by Mary Downing Hahn - Haswell's father died at the beginning of the Civil War and his brother Avery left to join the fight soon after, leaving Haswell, his mother, and little sister Rachel to handle the farm. When an injured soldier shows up near death at their door, they risk their lives taking him in to help him back to health. I think if I say anything more it'll be a spoiler but there's a great deal of danger, a journey, a brief respite, and another journey. Point being, I thought this was a pretty good middle grade Civil War novel but it's about a family and the dangers they encounter rather than a story of soldiers. Mary Downing Hahn typically writes ghost stories for middle graders, so Hear the Wind Blow is a bit of a departure but it's a good one.
35. Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver (ebook) - I got this ebook for free with Kindle points and I'm so glad I happened to see the ad that said the ebook was on sale. Blue Pastures is a book of essays about life, nature, poetry, writing, and a little about Edna St. Vincent Millay and Oliver's connection to her. Like her poetry, the writing is lovely, funny, deeply respectful of nature, thought-provoking, and a little spiritual. There are hints that her youthful home life was not good but that she discovered poetry and nature as escapist retreats early in life. I have her nonfiction book on writing poetry and this book definitely made me want to dig for it.
36. Flight #116 is Down! by Caroline B. Cooney - When a plane crashes on the large estate of a teenager whose parents are out of town on business, Heidi opens up her home and several communities band together to save as many lives as possible. Recommended by a friend who loved this book when she was young and has held onto her copy, the first 50 pages or so of Flight #116 is Down! introduce the reader to a large cast of characters, both on and off the plane. Then, the plane crashes and the action begins. A taut, heart-pounding thriller from that point, mostly told through the eyes of teenagers so I guess this book could be classified as YA. A fun and sometimes harrowing read. The pages absolutely flew. Thanks for the recommendation, Laura!
37. The Flowers' Festival by Elsa Beskow - The next 5 books are from a set of children's books I bought because I like Ollie's Ski Trip by the same author and read it annually with my Christmas pile. In The Flowers' Festival, little Lisa's grandmother has gone on an errand. There's a festival going on in town but Lisa is not allowed to go alone. However, a fairy shows up and offers to let Lisa attend the Flowers' Festival in her grandmother's garden. Basically, it's a bunch of anthropomorphized flowers parading around and keeping the weeds outside the fence (although they're given refreshments). Of the set, The Flowers' Festival was my least favorite because it reads like a bunch of lists of flowers and not much happens besides rudely refusing to let the weeds in. The illustrations are very cleverly done.
38. Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip by Elsa Beskow - Woody and Little Pip are Acorn children (with little acorn caps on their heads). When Mrs. Acorn sends them to collect nuts, they find a leaf and go flying away. They don't mean to fly as far as they do. Squirrel shows up to ask if he can rent the downstairs room in their tree and Mrs. Acorn is rude to him but then he offers to go look for the children when they don't return in a timely manner. Hazel, the youngest Hazelnut child, hides in his tail. Squirrel leaves her on a toadstool and tells her not to move, but Hazel is a child and goes exploring. Meanwhile, Woody and Pip have been through a few adventures and are trying to get home on a sailboat. You can see where this is going. The children are safely returned, the squirrel is rewarded with the opportunity to rent the room he asked about, and all is well. There's a great review of the book by Tyler McGaughey, who gave it one star on Goodreads: "An interminable book about a magic forest filled with complete a**holes." That review made me laugh. I found it an adventurous tale and enjoyed Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip. But, Tyler has a point. There were some rude characters, for sure.
39. Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow - Of this little boxed set of Elsa Beskow's books, Pelle's New Suit is my favorite. It has minimal text but tells a complete story. Pelle is a boy who has his own lamb. When he's in need of a new suit, he sheers the lamb, takes the wool to his mother, and asks her to card it. She says she'll happily do so if he'll do some chores in return. Each step of the process requires Pelle to find someone to help him and he does chores for payment. So, the wool is carded, spun, woven into fabric, dyed, and then made into a suit — all by bartering with labor for payment. It's both educational and heartwarming to see the process through. In the end, Pelle goes to his lamb and thanks him for his new suit, which wouldn't be possible without the lamb's wool. Lovely.
40. Princess Sylvie by Elsa Beskow - Princess Sylvie is about a king and princess who like to go for walks together. One day, Sylvie sees a gate that leads to the forest and asks if they can go through it. The king fumbles around with his keys, having never been through the gate, and discovers that he does have a key to the gate. In the forest, the king is distracted by birds and doesn't see that Sylvie has wandered off. She ends up playing with a lonely bear, who is very happy to have a playmate but the king says the bear can't come back to the castle. However, Sylvie does return to play with the bear. Princess Sylvie is by far the silliest of the books in my boxed set. Elsa Beskow wrote books with each of her children's names in them and I'm guessing she had a Sylvie. It may be silly but it's a book that made me smile so I liked it.
41. Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow - Another favorite from the boxed set, Children of the Forest tells the story of a family's life under the roots of a tree. They collect blueberries and mushrooms, help prepare the food to last through the winter, play with squirrels and frogs, hide under toadstools when it rains, and wait inside for the long winter to end. It's a very simple and sweet tale that takes you through a single year with a happy little family and it's just a pleasant, restorative read. If I were to choose two from the boxed set to read over and over to children, they would be Children of the Forest and Pelle's New Suit. While I'll probably skip The Flowers' Festival for rereads, I will likely return to those two for fun.
42. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (ebook) - In 1851, Jean Marie Latour is asked to take on the job of Bishop in a new part of America with red desert hills and arroyos, pueblos and people who have inhabited the land for generations. He takes with him his best friend, the Vicar Joseph Vaillant. After a treacherous journey, they arrive at their new home where Latour spends decades quietly performing his duties, often involving travel through hostile weather and land to baptize, perform marriages, and listen to confessions. Both the story of a time and place that no longer exist as they once did and a deep friendship in which the two friends are frequently forced apart in the name of their spiritual duties, Death Comes for the Archbishop is a sweeping tale that begins when the two men head for America and ends with their eventual deaths. It is absolutely lovely, written with such vivid detail that I feel like I just time-traveled to the Southwest in the 19th century. This one was a buddy read!
43. Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling - I enjoyed Across the Desert so much that I went to see how much this other desert survival book by Dusti Bowling cost and it was affordable, so I grabbed a copy. Canyon's Edge tells the story of Nora and her father going on a hike and rappelling into a desert canyon. Since tragedy struck, Nora's dad is afraid of people and won't let Nora go to school. Nora has PTSD and is undergoing therapy. Their family has always been into outdoor activities, so rappelling down to hike in a slot canyon is not unusual. When a flash flood catches them off-guard and her father is washed away, Nora has to figure out how to stay safe and locate her father. Quite a harrowing tale, this one is told mostly in verse, although the opening chapters are narrative text. As usual, I loved it. I don't think Dusti Bowling can write a bad book.
Happy April! I had a pretty terrific month with some definite standout reads. Favorites were The Road to Tender Hearts, James, Across the Desert, The Canyon's Edge, Blue Pastures, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2, and Death Comes to the Archbishop. But, I liked or loved everything else with only a couple of the Elsa Beskow books disappointing me a bit. The Flowers' Festival is the only one I think I'd never reread (given my love of children's books, it's not unusual for me to reread picture books). Other than The Flowers' Festival, there was nothing at all that I actively disliked or found significantly subpar so I'm calling this a fabulous reading month.
The oddity of the month was that I actually read 3 -- THREE! -- ebooks. Normally, I am not much of an ebook reader but when I discovered Have Space Suit — Will Travel was finally accessible to me without breaking the bank, I was excited to dive right in. Blue Pastures . . . well, I'll read anything by Mary Oliver, so I was excited to read it for free. And, I suspect I might have a copy of Death Comes for the Archbishop in paperback but not knowing where it was at a time when I agreed to do a buddy read, I dashed out and found an ebook for a whopping 54 cents. So, I don't have to feel guilty if I discover I do, in fact, already own a copy.
We also had a banner month for books that walked out the door as we donated 10 boxes of books to one of the local libraries (and then I volunteered to help sell them — I'm hoping that works out). The last year's book purge has been a success, although there's still more to be done. But, the biggest victory is that we have dramatically fewer books stacked on the floor or in boxes. There are still some but we're getting close to having everything neatly shelved. After that, the goal is to have actual space on the shelves as we simply have too many books to read in a lifetime.
Hope your March was an excellent one in every way and that April treats you right!
©2026 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.
