"Winter of My Contentment"

Winter is not my favorite season. I don't like cold, dreary days. I like sunny weather, but I do require a change of seasons. So I take the good with the bad. Winter makes me appreciate summer more, and it gives a balance to life that I enjoy.

When it is cold I want to just shut the doors, turn up the heat, and hibernate. In the past that has not been possible. I had a job that required me to venture out each day, plus there was always somewhere I had to go for a meeting or something to do with the kids. But now the kids are on their own and I am a writer who works out of his house. I can stay inside and be a hermit if I want to, and a lot of the time I do.

Best of all I can read and read and read. I love books and lately it seems there have been more good books on the market than ever before. Most of my favorite writers have new novels out and I can open the pages to their stories and let myself fly around the world, and get caught up in tense adventures and walk away unscathed. 

Karin Slaughter always entertains me and her book INDELIBLE is one of her best. It is an intense mystery that absorbed me from start to finish. Karin has continuing characters in her stories and I have gotten to know them well. They are friends of mine now.

Sheldon Siegel also uses the same characters over and over in his books. In his latest novel THE CONFESSION attorney Mike Daley and his partner and ex-wife Rosie Fernandez take on one of their toughest cases yet. It involves a priest accused of murder.

The great thing about Karin and Sheldon's books is that if you enjoy the latest ones you can always go back and read the three or four that preceded them. That will take care of more than a couple of winter afternoons.

I also am a Nelson DeMille fan. I didn't like his last book UP COUNTRY but I have heard good things about his latest NIGHT FALL. It is sitting on my table ready for me to get started on it. But before I get to it I plan to read Tony Hillerman's SKELETON MAN. I have read just about everything Hillerman has ever written and he gets better with every book.

His main character is Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and each book follows an adventure he has. Most of these take place on the Navajo reservation and employ the culture of the Navajos to a great extent. This leads to the story being mystical as well as dramatic.

Following that I will read Ken Follett's WHITEOUT. Again, I have been a Follett fan since the days of THE KEY TO REBECCA. Some of his books have been better than others but I hear this new one is Follett in top form. I will let you know.

Now if you have the opportunity to stay inside on a cold winter's day and read you can take these suggestions I have made. Each of them is guaranteed to help pass the time in the most pleasant way. So instead of having a winter of discontent, you can have a reading winter of pure contentment.

 

 

 

 

 

©2004 Jackie K. Cooper

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