Books for the Easy Chair

Village School, by "Miss Read"

Before there was Jan Karon, there was Miss Read! This book is the first of a heart warming series. Set in the imaginary world of Fairacre, a village in England, Miss Read, the headmistress, regales her readers with humorous stories about her students and the village residents.

Miss Buncle's Book, by D.E. Stevenson

Miss Buncle, who has no imagination, sets out to write a book because, as she explained to her publisher, her dividends were so poor. The thin disguises, however kind, that she assigns to her friends are nonetheless truthful. Therefore the reactions of those friends is surprising only to Miss Buncle.

High Rising, by Angela Thirkell

The unmarried Anne Todd, a wonderful secretary as well as a devoted bedside nurse to her decrepit mother, is an archetypal Thirkell heroine: plucky, determined, resourceful, but acutely aware that being safely married would be a better alternative.

Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E.M. Delafield

Behind the rather prim and proper title, lies the hilarious diary of a long-suffering and disaster-prone Devon lady of the 1930s and her forlorn attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle upper-class household from falling into the chaos.

My Friend Annie, by Jane Duncan

Annie wears lace and keeps clean, Janet likes cover-alls and dirt; Annie stays quiet and smiles, Janet speaks her mind and sometimes yells.

Although Annie herself stays somewhat peripheral to the story, My Friend Annie provides an affectionate glimpse of growing up in Scotland before World War Two with just enough spark and just enough mystery to make it a memorable read.

At Home in Mitford, by Jan Karon

Father Tim, a cherished small-town rector, is the steadfast soldier in this beloved slice of life story set in an American village where the grass is still green, the pickets are still white, and the air still smells sweet.