Yes, I know I pledged to take some time off, but the book trek excited me, and I wanted to share it.

When I got sick and prepared for my surgery, Connie Brooks of my local bookstore Battenkill Books contacted me.

She had good news: a friend and long-time reader of my blog had purchased a $100 gift certificate for me to come to the bookstore and buy some books while I was home recuperating from my foot surgery.

It was a sweet gift from someone who knows me well. Today, Maria and I were both crashing together in exhaustion, planning to take and maybe tomorrow off from work.

I had this idea: let’s go to the bookstore together and spend that $100 on books we want to read and start reading them tonight. Maria deserved this gift as much or more as I did. She has worked so hard helping me out.

Roaming around a bookstore with a $100 option is one of the most excellent gifts we could get, and it is here at just the right time. I can’t t think of a better life for us.

We spent about 45 minutes in the bookstore.

Maria got two books, Oh, William!, by Elizabeth Strout, a story about the aftermath of a broken marriage, and Nick Offerman’s Where The Deer and the Antelope Play. In 2020, inspired by the farmer/author Wendell Berry Offerman and his wife drove across much of America to think about our relationship with the outdoors and our national parks.

I got three books. One was The Magician by Colm Toibin, a new novel based on the remarkable life of Thomas Mann,  one of the greatest writers in literary history.

A gay man married (and closeted), he had six children but had to hide his identity for almost all of his life. He and his family lived through the rise of Nazi Germany (barely)  and fled to America. It’s yet another 500-page book, my third in a month.

Mann is one of the most compelling, tortured, and brilliant writers in all history.

My second book was the literary opposite of the first; it’s the new mystery by famous Vermont writer Archer Mayor, a death investigator for the state of Vermont, called Marked Man. Mayor writes perhaps the gentlest mystery series in America; it’s appropriate for his home state. This is his 32nd book.

I love reading Mayor; his books are engaging, gentle, and short – just under 300 pages. I feel like I’ve grown up with Joe Gunther, his hero. I’ve read every one of his mysteries. I’ll finish it in two or three hours. I like his new love interest.

Gunther is a police legend in charge of the mythical Vermont Bureau of Investigation, the state’s main murder squad. (Murders in Vermont are pretty rare.)

If the series is the gentlest in the mystery world, Joe Gunther is the most admirable and most ethical detective I’ve ever read in a mystery series. It’s the perfect book for my tired soul and frayed nerves.  The plots in Mayor’s books, as befits his side job, are especially well-crafted. He doesn’t do drama and gore.

You know for sure that nothing horrifying will happen around Joe Gunther or in a Mayor mystery. Bless him for that.

The third book is another fat, promising, and challenging read by Chris Bohjanian called Hour Of The Witch, and I’m especially eager to wade into it.

The story takes place in joyless Boston in 1662. Young Mary Deerfield is intelligent and resourceful; she also believes demons are fighting for her soul. The story is about her plot to escape a violent marriage with a vicious husband.

On top of that, she is increasingly being targeted as a possible witch.

It reads like a thriller, according to the reviews. It’s 400 pages long. The subject matter caught my eye; I expect it will be a lot less gentle to read than the Mann novel.

So thanks, Caroline, for this thoughtful and timely lift. We are both settled in for the night and beyond, taking advantage of your generosity.

I went a little over $100; I was happy to pay the small balance in cash.