(“Adult” as opposed to children’s fiction authors, not as in R-rated content…) So there are soooo many books that I love that I need to just step back and discuss the authors. Here are the ones I reread every year or two:
Jane Austen. If you didn’t know that, you don’t know me well enough to be reading my blog! Pride and Prejudice is my favorite, but Persuasion is right up there, too. I do read them all twice a year…
Charles Dickens. David Copperfield is his best, but I have a special spot in my heart for Our Mutual Friend. Bleak House is wonderful, too! I’m not so fond of the sad ones.
Elizabeth Goudge. Her novels are exquisite. The Dean’s Watch is a heartbreakingly beautiful story of the transformative power of one man’s love. The Scent of Water tells of one woman’s journey to faith and peace when she inherits an old house in a country town. They’re all excellent, but sadly many are out of print.
Dorothy Sayers. I discovered the Lord Peter Wimsey novels in college… Lord Peter is the most charming detective I’ve encountered. I do love a good murder mystery!
Josephine Tey. I also love good character-driven mysteries. The Daughter of Time (a fascinating exploration of the truth about Richard III) and Brat Farrar may be my favorites.
PG Wodehouse. When I’m down (or when I’m trying to avoid doing something or studying), there’s nothing like a little Jeeves and Wooster or Mike and Psmith to cheer me up! Derek read me some when I was in labor with Tommy. And Dr. Whalen says Wodehouse is sublime, so there.
JRR Tolkien. Yes, I always do an annual read-through of The Lord of the Rings. We read them aloud as a family nearly a decade before the movies came out, so it’s legitimate. For those who think it’s just science fiction, there is scholarly work out there on Tolkien, including this book by one of my favorite professors. For those on the other side who think LOTR is going to be the modern epic, I fully admit that I skim all the poetry.
One more beloved novel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. Molly Gibson is one of the most loveable heroines in all of English literature. This, Gaskell’s last novel, is unfinished, but fortunately we know where it was headed! The only other Gaskell novel I’ve read is Mary Barton, which I honestly didn’t like (it was sortof a combination of Dickens and George Eliot at their worst), so I wouldn’t recommend it. I do intend to read more Gaskell–her biography of Charlotte Bronte was great, and I’ve heard that North and South is well worth the read. Maybe now that the BBC has done a miniseries of it (I think), our public library will acquire a copy.
Since our kingdom group was planning to go to Shakespeare in the Park in the evening, I decided to bring along my wide-awake son for his first exposure to live Shakespeare. He loved it until Richard seduced Lady Anne (really the best scene in the whole play), then he got kindof squirmy, so I decided to take him to Janet and Corey’s to sleep until the play was over. Since Janet was on baby duty at home while Corey and Nelson and Emily and I were enjoying fresh air and fine theatre, and since I’d already seen the first half of Richard III a couple weeks ago before being rained out, I decided to stay and chat for awhile. (It’s amazing how easy it is to talk for hours with my mommy friends…)
This view of the stage shows how light it was and how easy I thought it would be to find my friends. Well, by now it was pitch dark except the stage, and I suddenly realized that there were thousands of people on the grass, and I couldn’t find the three people I wanted to find! I was distraught–wandered around (apparently right by Emily without realizing it), sat down randomly to watch a scene or two, then realized how dire my predicament really was and got back up to search again. This time Emily turned towards the light at just the moment I was looking in that direction, and I found them, just a little over two hours after leaving with Tommy. You cannot imagine my relief! The end of the play was pretty good, and by the time I picked Tommy up and got home, it was almost midnight. 
We had a pretty fun weekend outside…on Saturday, we tackled our back deck area, cleaning up all of the deck chairs, table, porch swing, etc so that we can have a barbeque party out there sometime soon! Tommy got over his aversion to the water and quickly began begging to get sprayed by Daddy!
Since it was about 90 degrees out, Tommy helped spray Mommy and Daddy, too. Somehow you’re not as miserable when you’re in your clothes and soaking wet with cold hose water! Tommy thought this was all great fun.
I wasn’t the only Muller to be overjoyed by Laura’s arrival…Tommy acted like she was an old friend! Within minutes, they were thick as thieves, laughing at each other like old cronies.
When we weren’t playing with Tommy, having deep talks, praying and working on Psalm 119 together, doing housework together, we just shared our lives…
I should have gotten a picture of us reading our matching copies of Elisabeth Elliot’s 
Oh, and besides taking Tommy to the playground in 110% humidity and walking up and down the street with him whenever it tickled his fancy, Laura won his heart by reading him his favorite books about 8 times apiece…add to that a bit of German gaming (Derek and I love being able to play our 3+ player games with other “serious gamers”!), our traditional Laura-introduces-Em-to-cool-Christian-music-that-she-had-never-heard-of-before routine (I’m now very interested in 
