Here’s what I read in April, 2009:

1. The Match by Mark Frost (250 p.) Entertaining true story about a 1956 golf match between two masters and two amateurs. Good story.

2. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos (388 p.) Cornelia and her new husband move to the suburbs … I enjoyed this just as much as I did her first book, Love Walks In.

3. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (211 p.) A long-time childhood favorite which I like to revisit from time to time–in this case, it was the book Mom and I read together on a trip.

4. The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash (286 p.) What happens when your genius photographer father dies and leaves his work to your genius artist daughter? You acknowledge that maybe your talent is just as inspired as theirs, of course, but not without a certain amount of heartache.

5. Skating Shoes (aka White Boots) by Noel Streatfeild (282 p.) I always loved this YA book about poor, sick Harriet whose doctor send her to a skating rink to regain her strength, where she becomes friends with a skating prodigy.

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Book #7 and the finale of the series–do I really need to say more?

7. Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod (237 p.)
8. Withdrawing Room by Charlotte MacLeod (188 p.)
9. Palace Guard by Charlotte MacLeod (176 p.)–the first 3 Sarah Kelling mysteries, very “cozy” in flavor, light and frothy, except, you know, for people dying left and right…

10. Legacy of the Dead by Charles Todd (346 p.)
11. Watcher of Time by Charles Todd (421 p.)–More serious in tone, these are also murder mysteries, taking place right after WWI. I don’t think I enjoyed the last one as much as the earlier books in this series, but they’re still darn good.

12. Cape Wind by William Whitcomb (305 p.) True story about the political machinations behind and against the proposed wind farm in the Nantucket Sound. Interesting!

13. The King and the Cowboy by David Frankin (224 p.) Disappointing, though entertaining enough. This was touted as being about the ’secret’ friendship between King Edward of England and Theodore Roosevelt in 1900, but it spent at least 3/4 of the book talking about how the men (not to mention Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany) came to power, and barely touched on the one scheme they worked on together … so it felt misrepresented, though as I say, it was interesting enough. Strongly skewed to the story of the British King, too, and only lightly touching on TR.

14. Japanese Inspired Knits by Marianne Isager (142 p.) Knitting patterns for, well, Japanese inspired sweaters.

15. Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett (534 p.) House of Niccolo book #3, Nicholas goes to Crete… Do I really need to keep telling you how much I love Dunnett’s books?

16. Exile’s Song by Marion Zimmer Bradley (493 p.) Fantasy. Book #1 of the story of Margaret Alton, trained as a musicologist, but returning to Darkover only to discover that she’s an heiress who can read minds–quite a shock to her logical brain!

17. Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson (264 p.) One of those quiet, smooth, atmospheric kinds of history books–one that covers in extreme detail the summer of 1911, which was filled with sunny skies and social occasions, and little awareness of how the world was about to change. Nicely put together, but perhaps a little too serene.

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