The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall

Vacation over, I came home to a library book that I needed to get read and back to the library. This book was just as delightful as the first one. Birdsall writes a children's book that is fun for an adult to read - the mark of a good, if not great, writer.

This is just the kind of book I loved to read when I was young.

I will definitely read the others in the series. I just need to get them from the library.

The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer

Read my review right before this one, of The Nonesuch. Pretty much this runs the same.

However, I must add that they've re-released many of Heyer's books, and I love the artwork on the covers.

My favorite Georgette Heyer book is still The Grand Sophy, but I've enjoyed them all.

One advantage of reading your books on a Kindle is that no one knows if you're reading trash or the great American novel. It's also a disadvantage. I've had some wonderful conversations with fellow travelers that were sparked by recognizing a familiar book cover.

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer

Okay. You want a clean, Regency era romance? Georgette Heyer is your girl. Formulaic for sure, but sometimes that is exactly what I want.

My only criticism is that she uses a lot of slang from that era in her writing with no explanation of the terms. Sometimes it takes a couple of books worth to catch on to what some of that means. Lucky for me, I'm pretty familiar with this kind of superficial novel and caught on pretty quickly.

This makes a great vacation read. Easy to keep track of what's going on, and a wonderfully predictable ending. I know that is not always great literature, but it is great escape reading which is what I was looking for.

Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert

Number 19 (!!) in the China Bayles series. I had no idea there were so many, and I've read and enjoyed every one of them.

However, I almost couldn't bring myself to read this one. The name of my dire nemesis woven into the title made it difficult. Luckily I love this series too much to let that deter me, and I enjoyed it as much as the rest of her books.

I must say the cover artist knows her material. I'd recognize that leaf shape anywhere.

Village School by Miss Read and JS Goodall

The book is set in Fairacre, England, post World War II. Miss Read is the teacher at the Village School. It's a delightful peek into the people who live in the village. I still giggle when I think about the woman who cleans the school and her convenient aches and pains when she doesn't want to do something.

It's been compared to Jan Karon's Mitford. Yes, in that there is no drastic plot, just a nice meandering through a school year, getting to know the students and people in the village and their various quirks and personalities.

 I understand there are several books in the series. A friend of mine recommended the books, and I really enjoyed this first one. I'm sure I'll read more of them.

Murder Under Cover by Kate Carlisle

I sometimes base how much I like a vacation by how many books I was able to read. If Cozumel were rated by the number of books read, it might be the all time winner on books per number of days on vacation ratio. Yet I don't even think of myself spending that much time reading. Even better.

This is the fourth in the bibliophile series. I'm still liking this series. The next book is due out in 2012. I'll be ready for it!

Cozumel - Closing Time

We spent an inordinate amount of time observing a family of iguanas that lived in the rock wall at the ocean end of the property.  There were three iguanas, which we nicknamed the teenager, tween, and baby. At one time there was some speculation that the first day we had seen an even bigger iguana, who we declared the mother. By the end of the week we'd pretty much concluded that there were really only the three. But we don't really know for sure.

We gave play by play reports of all activity. Mostly they were sunning on the rocks. Occasionally they ventured into the grassy area to eat.

Their lives mirrored ours.

 

The tween and the teenager

 The sun has set on our lovely week in Cozumel.

Cozumel - Friend Time

This post is completely indulgent. It's more pictures than anyone but me will probably want to look at, but it's my blog, and these are not even all the pictures I wanted to put on. 

Ray, Diane, Scott, Karen, Tamara, Dave, Gayle, Fred

Diane and Ray

Dave and Tamara

Karen and Scott

Gayle and Fred

Scott and Karen

Karen and Gayle

Fred

Scott and Karen

Dave, Scott, Karen, Tamara, Diane, Ray, Fred, Gayle

Karen and Scott

Fred and Gayle

Karen and Fred

Fred, Gayle, Scott, Karen, Dave, Tamara, Ray, Diane

Fred, Gayle, Scott, Karen, Dave, Tamara, Ray, Diane

Karen, Tamara, Diane, Ray

Dave, Tamara

Dave, Tamara

Diane, Gayle, Tamara, Karen

Karen, Tamara, Gayle, Diane

Tamara, Dave

Gayle

Ray, Diane

Ray, Diane

Fred, Gayle

Gayle, Karen

Fashionista

Fred and Scott

Diane

Diane, Karen

Karen, Scott

Diane, Ray

Trophy Kid: Or How I Was Adopted by the Rich and Famous by Steve Atinsky

A friend recommended this book to me - it was light, funny, and enjoyable. It's youth fiction, and only took me a few hours to read. In fact, I zipped through it the afternoon we were leaving for Cozumel so that I could get it back to the library on time.

The main character is a Croatian boy who was adopted as a very young child by a couple of American movie stars. At first I thought the book was going to be pretty silly, but I liked the message it ended with.

Cozumel - Villa Time

As far as I was concerned, I never really wanted or needed to leave the villa. It was paradise in itself.

Here are a few shots around the house.

This was typical of the bedrooms. A couple of beds in one room, another room with another bed, and a bathroom for each "suite". There were four suites. Each main room in the suite had a view of the ocean side of the property.

 This is the middle floor hallway. One suite on each side. The counter you see on the left had a sink, and bottled water available.

 Looking down from the middle floor to the entry way.

 The living area was a great room, which I love  - the kitchen, dining room and living area all open to one another. Again, all had a wonderful view of the pool and ocean.

 This was a screen enclosed sun room. A lanai of sorts. We didn't spent that much time in there because it was too delightful just to be outside.

 The view from the sun room.

 Here is the main entry to the house. We rarely used it.

This is a great shot of the ocean side of the villa. The top level has one suite of rooms, where Gayle and Fred stayed. The middle level has a suite on each side. The three arched windows in the center are part of the hallway between the suites. Karen and Scott were on the left side, and Ray and I were on the right side of those windows. The lower level had a suite with just one bedroom. That's where Dave and Tamara stayed. It is on the right side of the house. The dining room, etc. are on the left side, and the living room and sun room are in the center of that lower level.

It was a wonderful place to stay.