April 2023 Books

 Personal Reading

Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour

by Pamela Aidan

A short novella about Fitzwilliam Darcy (later to be Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice) when he was 13 years old and home for Christmas from boarding school.

A Proper Darcy Christmas

by Pamela Aidan

A sequel to the Fitzwilliam Darcy series I read last month.  It's about a year after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy married.  They've just had their first baby and are snowbound at Pemberley as Christmas approaches.  Then a stranger arrives under mysterious circumstances and attempts to woo Miss Georgiana Darcy.

Georgette Heyer's Regency World

by Jennifer Kloester

A wonderful reference book describing the social customs, politics, and history of the upper class during the Regency period of England (when George III was experiencing bouts of insanity and unable to rule, so his son was the Prince Regent).  This is the time period when Jane Austen lived and her novels.  This book was very helpful in understanding Jane Austen and Pamela Aidan's books and characters.  Since Charles Dickens was born during this time and started writing towards the latter part of the Regency, this was also helpful in understanding his books.  The author frequently references characters from Georgette Heyer's books as examples of the various topics, but you can get a lot out of the book even without having read her books.

Geography Read-Aloud

Books set in Wisconsin:

Winter Days in the Big Woods

by Laura Ingalls Wilder

A picture book excerpt from the longer books Little House in the Big Woods.

Books set in Michigan:

Clever Beatrice

by Margaret Willey

A folk tale from Michigan.  A young girl and her mom are very poor.  The only way to get money is to trick the rich, but not very smart, giant who lives in the woods.

Mail by the Pail

by Colin Bergel

A young girl finds out how to get mail to her father who works for weeks away from home on a ship that goes all around the Great Lakes.  Based on an actual marine post office that sends a boat out to meet the ships to deliver mail.

Mackinac Bridge: The Story of the Five-Mile Poem

by Gloria Whelan

A boy watches the great bridge being built across the straits to connect the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.  He is excited about what many say is an impossible task, even though it will mean that his father's ferry boat will go out of business because of the bridge.

Eat My Dust! Henry Ford's First Race

by Monica Kulling

An interesting account of a 10 mile race that Henry Ford entered in order to earn the money he needed to work on his dream of building cars that were affordable for everyone.