I just finished " Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures". Another Canadian book. Great stuff. I don't often enjoy medical type stories, but this is fantastic! I highly recommend it. I also just finally finished a one of the "Sandman" graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. I loved all of his other works that I'd read, but I'm not, nor have I ever been a "comic" person. I finally got into it, read it, and it's not so bad. I suspect they'll grow on me. Anyone have a Library Thing account?

Fun and light: anything by P.G. Wodehouse. Agatha Christie's memoir "Come, Tell Me How You Live" is laugh-out-loud funny. She was a "plus size" woman traveling with an absent-minded archeologist husband in the 1930's ... but some situations (shopping for reasonably fashionable travel clothes? choosing a new purse? packing for your husband?) never change. Lindsey Davis has a mystery series set in Rome around AD 70. The main character is the equivalent of of private detective. He's working himself out of the lower class, his wife is a Senator's daughter -- so she's scandalously chosen to live below her station. You don't need to know any "History" to enjoy these, because these are about the common people anyways. M. C. Beaton has two popular series -- quite a few books, easy to find. For her, I'd recommend finding book #1 to start each series because that gives you the set-up, but after that it doesn't matter too much if you stick to proper order or not. Rhys Bowen has several mystery series I like. The breeziest is her "Lady Georgiana" series set in the 1930's ... Georgie is 32nd in line to the British throne, penniless, but can't "work" for a living lest she bring shame to the royal family. Plus women at that time didn't have many choices when it came to earning their own living. Steve Hockensmith has an interesting series. What if a very intelligent mid-western cowpoke becomes inspired to be a detective after hearing about Sherlock Holmes? Cool, except this cowboy can't read or write, because in the early 1900's young boys sometimes had to leave schooling early to support their families. They're kind of hard to find, but Simon Levack has a series of four mysteries featuring an Aztec slave, set in the days immediately before the spanish conquest. Funny, but sort of heart-breaking too since you know the destruction that's coming. Enjoy your holiday -- sitting in a ski lodge with a book/Kindle and a warm drink while the family knocks themselves out sounds fantastic!

funny Karma and flaming O! Donna... umm.... Charleston West Virginia? lol um.... don't see very many big cities! lol Gallipolis? Jackson? Pomeroy? Winchester, centerville? I'm totally stressed... don't know how we are going to get him there, he needs a car since they share a lab with another college that is 30 miles away... thank you all for your prayers "HI.....I've been missing you guys"..... hehehehe

Thank you so much for all the recommendations. I'll be traveling a lot soon and I'm sure I'll read a lot of these. I have Aunt Dimity queued up to read, along with the first Ngaio Marsh book. I'll probably try Miss Read next and/or Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Many of those mentioned I have read. Rhys Bown mysteries, Amelia Peabody mysteries, Georgette Heyer, Mitford books, etc. But it was helpful to have those recommendations because it was lovely to see there are others who enjoyed those books as well. And I will try the audiobook of the Amelia Peabody mysteries because I often fall asleep to an audiobook, so it's helpful to have a good recommendation. I tried A Man Called Ove and I'm sure I'll finish it, but it is unbearably sad to read it right now so I laid it down. I have a friend who has cancer and also a suspicious spot on her liver and she is the light of her husband's life. I want to escape from pain and loss right now. A murder mystery like Agatha Christie writes should be sad, I guess. It's murder, but somehow that doesn't reach out and snatch my heart out like the pain of Ove losing his wife. Another time in my life I would probably have liked A Gentleman in Moscow and A Man Called Ove. So thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to respond. It will be nice to have this thread to check when I finish the stack of books I have now.