January was another lockdown month worse than ever, because now we have a curfew at 8 PM and huge fines for breaking it, which means it’s not just illegal but pretty much impossible to see anyone. Isolation is really getting to me. The numbers are going down, though, which is good, and people are starting to be vaccinated, though I am low on the list. In any case, I spent a lot of time in January on pure escapist reading, and I read twenty-eight books in a variety of genres, with a very high rate of excellence.
A delightful romance, recommended by a friend. Two men in London who haven’t been making relationships work pretend to be each other’s boyfriends and of course end up falling in love. Really well written, memorable, and really fun to read. As an attempt to read feel-good romances that are not set in Italy but are actually good, this was really successful.
Book World: Our readers recommend light classic novels to lift your holiday spirits
Stephanie Merry, The Washington Post
Dec. 22, 2020
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Love in a Cold Climate/The Enchanted April/Diary of a Provincial LadyVintage/New York Review Books Classics/Macmillan Collector s Library - handout
Critic Michael Dirda has found the antidote to the winter blues, and it should surprise none of his readers to learn the cure involves cracking open a book from a time gone by. In a last-ditch effort to regain what is usually called the holiday spirit, he wrote in a recent column, I ve taken to fleeing the present, at least now and then, and reading my way into another era.