Autumn's gentle rain inspires reading, amongst other things!

We have gone from brilliant blue skies and sunshine to gentle mists and subdued colours in 

fall's foliage.  It's lovely......but not the best weather for getting the last 

of the apples picked, alas.

Once the moon has set the mornings are dark before sunrise, and we ate our breakfast this morning with the lights on, and outside Calli prowled until she thought she might join us at the breakfast table and her yellow eyes showed up by the window where she knows Charles will let her in and out.

I have been seduced by the library and the literary columns in the papers.

A few weeks ago, when I was listening to Wallace Stegner and "All the little live things'

while I knitted, I was reminded that there were later books of his that

I had not read, written after my great enthusiasm for his writing about the West, 

and also that of Ivan Doig.

I have snatched moments from busy outside days and lengthened my bedtime reading, and

 now have these to go back to the library.....

Which did I enjoy most?  "Crossing to Safety" was a book I could relate to, 

remembering past friendships, but the Essays on the environment, the West

 and appreciations for other western writers kept my interest to the end and coaxed me into

ordering these Ivan Doig books, to see where he has gone with his writing

since I read Dancing at the Rascal Fair, This House of Sky, English Creek and The Sea Runners.

If you will look closely you will see in this current stash the latest book by

Alexander McCall Smith,  "The Charming Quirks of Others"

Would you like to guess which book my hand falls to as I pass it over

the selection?  Ah yes,  my current delight with the writing of

McCall Smith, with the characters of Isabel Dalhousie, Jamie and Charlie,  will cast a spell over the Charming Quirks, but it will be a quick read and then I can

immerse myself in Doig's stories of Montana. and
Robert McCrum's take on the English language.

And when will I get those blessed socks knit, you ask????