The Saturday Moring Post (No. 166)

  

I discovered two new favorite authors in 2025. In this installment we have two more novels by one of them. One is what I consider a more "serious" novel, and the other a comedy.

Beginning last week and going forward for now, I'm going to include two books in all my Saturday Morning Posts, and not publish an extra Sunday edition. I'm slowly catching up to my reading, though I am still a month plus behind. However, I like a bit of a backstock of reviews to post, and while I read a lot of books in 2025, I doubt my 2026 reading pace will, as I mentioned in my last post.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer   B

This is the more serious novel. It is not gloomy, but is content to tell the story of the first year of a marriage of convivence as a quiet drama rather than a rambunctious comedy. It has the usual cast of original and lovingly drawn characters, steeped in the authentic society and norms of the age, 1814.

The story has our male protagonist arriving back in England on leave from the Army fighting the French in the Peninsular campaign in Portugal due to the sudden death of this father. He finds that his father spent more money than he had coming in, and almost the entire estate will have to be sold off to settle his father's debts, including the ancient family home. Moreover, now reduced near poverty (in the eyes of the upper classes) he is now honor bound to give up his true love, being no longer an eligible prospect. He does so voluntarily, saving her father from having to deny him his daughter's hand in marriage. He is further told that in order to save the family estate, he needs to not only sacrifice his love, but he must marry a wealthy heiress. His now-ex-lover's father knows a wealthy businessman in the City who has a very plain, but down-to-earth daughter that he promised his late wife that he would find a nobleman for her to marry. And as the title suggest, he does his duty, and the daughter does hers as well by agreeing to be his wife, knowing that he loved another. 

The wife is determined to make her husband comfortable, and he to do right by her, despite still loving the girl he had to abandon. He also has to contend with the fact that his wife's father is not only very rich, but very generous and spoils his daughter, showering both her and him with expensive gifts, such that he has to push back against his father-in-law fearful that he'll be seen as dependent on his father-in-law for money when he wants to prove his competency at managing the affairs of his estate. 

I enjoyed this novel. While not my favorite, is was always interesting, with colorful characters, especially the father of the bride.

Cotillion by Georgette Heyer  A

(Cotillion; an elaborate dance with many changes of partners.)

Freddie. What is it with Freddies that they are always pleasant idiots? Think of Freddie  Treepwood. If you know, you know. Well in this story we have Freddy Standen, a character very much in the Freddy/Freddie mold, a pleasant idle, young fashionably dressed man about town, who is, like Bertie Wooster, is kindhearted and always willing to help a friend or any damsel in distress... And who, unlike Bertie, somehow manages to pull it off all by himself, often to the amazement of everyone who knows him.

The premise of this story is that the adopted daughter of a rich cranky old man has summoned his four great nephews to his house. As they suspect, he tells them that he will leave all his money to this adopted daughter, Kitty, but only if she marries one of the nephews. If not it all goes to charity. Two of them have arrived when the story opens, a third, Jack, the roguish one Kitty loves, declines to play the game and stays away. And the fourth, our Freddy is sort of on the way there because Jack told he should go. He stops at an inn to eat dinner, knowing how meager his uncle's table would be. Kitty, after rejecting the offers of marriage from two of the nephews, runs away, only to come upon Freddy at the inn. She devises a plan to get to London in order to get to he true love, Jack. While she does not tell Freddie her plan, she says that she has to get away from the bleak house of her Uncle, and suggests that this can only be accomplished if Freddy proposes to her and she accepts. Freddy doesn't need his uncle's money and has no desire to marry her, or anyone else. But she says it's only for a month, and they will break up by the end of it (once she meets Jack) Being kind hearted, he gets talked to it and takes her down to London as his fiancée, to meet his family telling no one of non-real nature of their engagement. Still, he takes on the responsibility of guiding her safely into London society, and wearing the right clothes.

This is one of Heyer's comedies, and the best so far. It is like a fuller, more rounded and grounded Wodehouse novel set in Regency England instead of the 1920's England that Wodehouse sets his stories in. Freddy, is very much a slightly more competent (in his limited social sphere) Bertie Wooster, with his language laced with Regency slang and his one passion being clothes. Once again you have a great variety of interesting characters and a richly sketched London scene of that era, in clothes, social norms, and the life of the wealthy ton.

Having read more than a dozen Heyer novels now, I'm used to a lot of the, what I have to assume authentic, slang she has her characters spouting, but if you're not familiar with it, it might prove a little daunting until you get used to it. But otherwise, there are many witty observations, and whenever Freddy is on the page, hilarious conversations. If you enjoy Wodehouse, I think you will really enjoy this story as well. It starts in the middle of a gathering that the reader knows nothing about, so it is a bit confusing, but stay the course. Freddy arrives and story takes off.

My 2026 TBR List

My TBR list doesn't exist. I've never really had one. Not in any formal form. If I had one, Vol 9 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion would certainly be on it, as I expect it to be released in 2026. I might also reread all the books leading up to it. But that is my "to be read" list. Now, I have already lined up several other books from Amazon to try starting tomorrow, more about them in a moment, but I'd hardly call that a TBR list. But other than those books, I don't know what I'll be reading in 2026. Indeed, to tell the truth, I'm approaching my 2026 reading with some trepidation. I don't know if I'll find many books that I want to read.

I guess I've always been on the cusp of running out of books to read. And sometimes I do. This is due, in large part, to being something of a fussy reader. I know what I like, and don't stray far from it. What I'm looking for is posted on every Saturday Morning Post book review. 

I have, however, made real efforts over the last several years, to expand the types or genres of books I'm willing to read, with some great successes. I would never have discovered the Emma M Lion books if I hadn't given Jane Austen a try. Nor all those Georgette Heyer Regency romances that I've greatly enjoyed without a willingness to try something new. The problem is that I enjoy books more for the way they are written than the plot or genre, which makes the books I like harder to identify, since the writing I enjoy might be found in a variety of genres.

The problem going into 2026 is that I'm going in mostly empty handed. While there are still Heyer books to read, most of the remaining ones are either historical novels or mysteries, neither of which I can get too exited about. I'm not a fan of mysteries, and neither of hers that I've read have impressed me. And I'm finding that historical adventure stories are no longer my cup of tea either. There are plenty of L M Montgomery novels to read, but again, I'm not too excited about them either. I've read one of her non-Anne books, and while it was fine, it was not enchanting. Ellis Peters wrote quite a few books under her real name and other pen names, but a number of them are mysteries... and others may be hard to find.

Going forward I am going to have to pursue a number of new avenues if I'm to find books to read. I'll have to expand the number and types of book-tube channels and book bloggers I look in on for suggestions. I will have to look back on old books and authors I've enjoyed in the distant past, and see if I can track down more books from them, ideally on Gutenberg. And I'll have to see what I can find on Amazon as well. 

I have made one move in that direction already. Amazon has been offering three months of Kindle Unlimited for $.99.  I've taken them up on that offer, so I have three months to find my next favorite authors, if any exist, on KU. I had KU for several months earlier in 2025 and I found it hard to find books that interested me in the program, despite having several million books on offer. I'm going to have to try harder this time. 

Indeed, I've started already. I picked up the Horowitz mystery book that I had on hold at the library. Now if this one works better than the first one I tried, there are several more books in that series that I can borrow and read. Plus, I found a Heyer book that the library doesn't offer. 

And of course there are millions of self-published books to be found. I just have to come up with authors and titles that I thought were interesting, but not interesting enough to spend money on a digital file. 

And if nothing else works, I can wander the shelves at the library. I have found books that way in the past.

2025 is going to be a hard year to top when it comes to reading. I've read some great books, and a lot of books as well. I'll sum up on my 2025 reading in January. Hopefully, I'll find new treasures in 2026. And if not, well, what's the point of having a wall of books, if not to revisit the best of them?

The Saturday Morning Post ( No. 165)

 

We have a murder mystery story this this episode by one of my favorite authors. Murder mysteries are not one of my favorite genre, but I have read them in the past, and this one was recommended by Wanda, a book review blogger that I follow. So how did I like it?

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

A Christmas Party AKA Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer  DNF 38%

Wanda, when she recommended this story to me described it as: "I reread it in December when I can. All the characters are delightfully despicable!"  I can assure you that the all but one are indeed despicable. As for delightful, well that's in the mind of the reader. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood for this story, though I think the more likely reason I abandon this book is that I don't find despicable characters delightful, either in books or real life. I simply don't care to spend my time in their company. 

I've watched a YouTube video on Heyer's mysteries, suggesting why she is not considered amongst the most famous of the mystery writers of the golden age between the two world wars. The presenter's conclusion was that she was simply too famous in other genre, namely Regency Romances to be considered as a mystery writer. That fame, and that association with other genres simply overshadowed her mystery stories, even though she wrote one a year for years. The other factor might be that her husband contributed at least to the mechanics of the murder, which perhaps diminishing her stature a little in the minds of mystery lovers. For me, having only read one and one/third of them, I've found that they lack the flare, wit and engaging characters of her romances. 

But on to the story at hand.

In this story she brings a wealthy family, often at odds with each other, together for Christmas, hosted, very reluctantly, by the estate owner. The invited guests also bring along companions who are even less welcomed by the nominal host. Each of these characters are given multiple times to annoy each other, and, in this case, me, with only one who is not annoying. Then there is a murder, and the police arrive, at which the point I decided I had read enough, and well, I knew who, if not how, the murder was done.

Heyer played by the rules, giving you the clue you needed. The problem was that the key clue, was a toss away line that struck me, at least when I read it, as seemingly unnecessary. And then, when events around the time the murder was being committed were being recounted, and act was described in more detail than strictly warranted, so that it struck me that toss away line was the explanation to solve the mystery. I'm being vague so as not to spoil the mystery. This is not to say that I knew just how murder was done, but it told me who done it. I looked ahead just to make sure I was right, and I was. 

Still, if like Wanda, you enjoy a carefully crafted mystery with a host of despicable characters, something on the order of those "Knives Out" movies, you will likely enjoy this Heyer mystery outing. They are solid for what they are, though I haven't read enough of the golden age mystery writers to say how they fare against the Christies, Sayers, et. al.

 

Happy Winter Solstice!

 

It is, in the northern hemisphere, that time of the year again of the coldest days, the longest nights, and shortest days. However, with the arrival of the winter solstice it is time to create some light and cheer, for the tide has turned and light and warmth are, well, only four or five months away here in Wisconsin. But still, spring will come...

So let me wish all of you the light and cheer of family and friends, no matter what you call, or how you celebrate your winter solstice holiday!

The Saturday Morning Post EXTRA! EXTRA! (No. 164)

 

Back to the library ebook catalog, and a lazy pick. All I did was type in a reliable author's name...

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. 

The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer  A

Heyer seemed to have had a great deal of fun with this story, and so will you. The story is set in the English countryside prior to the Regency period. A wealthy earl or some such nabob, dies early on in the story. His natural heir, his grandson, had been hustled out of England because it appears that he murdered someone, though he denies it. He had pledged his treasured "talisman ring" of the title to pay a gambling debt, but when he went to repay the debt, the fellow who held it, hoping to keep the ring, avoided seeing him, and subsequently turned up murdered on a dark night. With his grandson unavailable, the dying earl obtains the promise of his half-French niece, who inherits the estate, and nephew of his, a man about town, to marry each other, a practice designed to keep the money in the family. The two, out of respect for the old guy, and for other reasons, agree do so, but, alas, they don't get along... And then the grandson, the rightful heir secretly turns up, tossing another wrench into the gears... To avoid a scandal should the grandson be apprehended, the two cousins set out to prove his innocence.

This is very much a mystery story with a romance side plot or two. But it's great charm, as usual, is in its sly and witty dialog and the wonderful characters Heyer created for this story. 

There is a a reason why Georgette Heyer books have always remained in print for the better part of a century while other popular authors have faded away. Her stories are unique in their ageless authenticity of the language and setting, making them stand out from their imitators. Moreover, I doubt that her writing and effervescent storytelling has been matched, especially in her comedies such as this one. They are timeless.

Heyer sold her first novel at the age of 17 and year in year out never stopped writing and selling books in the millions not only in Regency romances, but in a variety of genre, from mysteries to medieval historical fiction. There is, as I've said in many a review, a very good reason for this. Don't let the genre label put you off.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 163)

 

A trip down memory lane this time. A reread for perhaps the sixth time. I hadn't anything in hand, so I reached for my book shelf, and selected...

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs  A (on a sentimental curve)

Actually looking back, I gave this book on first read as grade of 3 1/2 stars out of my 1- 4 star rating system in 1971. It is a great work of imagination, but I always wish there was more depth to it. Deeper characters, more dialog and more time spent on the story. But this is my complaint about all of those pulp stories and all of the early science fiction I read in my youth when I try to read them as an adult.

I read this and the next two books featuring John Carter to my kids as bedtime stories, and every so often I go back and read it again. I usually don't continue on, as it is just more of the same; one strange adventure after the next. 

I will, however, take this opportunity to let you, dear reader, on a great secret that has been kept for over a hundred year. And that is that unbeknownst to John Carter himself, he is perhaps the last survivor of the original inhabitants of Barsoon, the civilization that built all those dead cities. The evidence is clear.

1) John Carter can't recall his childhood or past. All he remembers is being a soldier who never ages.

2) There a variety of races with different skin colors in the lost ages, all of who intermixed to form the current race of red skinned humans. Thus Carter's whiteness is consistent with being a member of the first civilization.

3) The strange method of his return to Mars - simply by wishing to return -  and finding a different body awaiting him, though inexplicable by our science could be explained by some sort of ancient time-travel mechanism, and so it all but confirms his Barsoonian heritage. Apparently he is some sort of time traveler, part of an experiment from that lost and distant age.

4) And then consider the fact that not only could he consume any and all food found on Mars, but he quickly (re)developed his telepathic abilities. It is extremely unlikely that an ordinary Earthman would be able to digest the food or possess any telepathic abilities.

5) Given the fact that he never seemed to age can easily be explained by him being a Martian, who can live a thousand years or more.

6) And the final and undeniable proof of his Martian origins is that he was able to sire offspring with an egg-laying human(oid), the incomparable Dejah Thoris. It is almost impossible to believe that an Earth human could impregnate a Martian whose internal organs were said to be different, not to mention the egg-laying.

The inescapable conclusion is John Carter, that gentleman from Virginia is, and always has been a Martian, likely given the vast age between the old civilizations on Mars and 1865, some sort of time traveler who got lost in time and space. QED

December Writing Update

Some old business first. 

Life - yes, that "life" - has reared its unwelcomed head, and together with the holidays, has resulted in my wife not yet getting around to reading the manuscript of The Idle House Ghost and Nine Again. This is not a major problem, since it being the busiest time of the year for many people anyways, I likely would not have plagued my beta readers with it until after the first of the year, in any event. And though it will not go out until after the first of the year it's target publication date in February has not changed. Much. I won't set an actual date until she had completed her read through.

As for writing fiction...

I have not been actually been doing much of that since my last report, for several reasons. First, of course "life" again had me doing and thinking of other things. Early on I did spend time early thinking about new angles and making revisions to reflect those thoughts for the first part of that Lorrian novel I had started, before setting it aside last spring to write The Founders' Tribunal, The Ilse House Ghost and Nine Again. However, I have to admit that it still fails to excite my interest. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I haven't found that something to make it sparkle. And if it fails to excite my interest, I have good reason to believe it will fail to excite the interest of most of my readers as well. Especially since most of my long time readers who are still with me, found my books while looking for science fiction, and that's not what I'm writing these days. While I won't say never, unless I can find someway, and some character, to spark my interest in the story, I may well leave this one in "the trunk." 

But if not that, what?

Looking ahead I see: {Blank}

I have no idea for a new novel.

What I do have is a gnawing sense that I need to write one more Red Wine story. A novella will do. A novella would be ideal. I rather like novellas these days. 

The premise of these stories is that they are prequels to the Red Wine Agency thriller novels of intrigue written by the fictional character, Tarashay Clare. in my story Chateau Clare. Which is to say, a fictional character of a fictional character. Since I don't think writing true thrillers is in my wheelhouse, I wrote these lighter stories with more modest stakes and set them prior to those novels, recounting the time when he is being  slowly drawn into the bare knuckle world of Great House intrigues. Given that premise, I feel I need to write one more story that would fully draw Red Hu into the Great Game as the mysterious Red Wine of the Red Wine Agency. And given the feeling that just one more story would wrap this series up, that is what I am hoping to write.

If I can come up with the story. Always a big if.

I am, however, happy to report that ideas are coming right and left, though I haven't a clear idea of the story yet. I have a premise and am running variations of some early scenes in my head during idle times which change daily as a new idea appears in the middle of the night. All these ideas have to be rustled together into a story. Given that task, I doubt that I'll be ready to pull all the loose ends together into a story that can be put into words on a screen much before the release of The Isle House Ghost and Nine Again. 

Not, mind you, that there is any urgency to get this story out. In my one novel a year project, this story would either be my 2028c project or my 2029a project. Either way I care to look upon it, I am far ahead of the pace I set for myself. And given the inexplicable burst of creativity that has seen the rapid writing of three novels and three shorter works in the last two plus years, I don't feel any urgency to get something out on any sort of schedule. That said, by nature, I hate putting things off, so if I am able to put together a story, it will out sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2026. It is, however, still very much a bird in the bush. We'll just have to see if I can get it in hand. Stay tuned.