This week we celebrate being back at work (because we love writing historical fiction) and Ana wants to know, “What are you looking forward to reading in 2020?“

Katie’s looking forward to finally finishing Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend series.

“I’ve been holding off on the last book until I finished all my review and research books. Also, God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, the sequel to Life After Life, which I thought was simply brilliant. Also, I need to get my hands on The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemison. I borrowed the first from a digital library and I loved everything about it. Now I can’t wait to get the second into my hot little hands.”

Currently sitting at C.V.’s bedside is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

“My Kindle always has several books waiting to be read.  This year I am looking forward to reading The Other Woman Vanishes by Amanda Quick, Plantagenet Princess, Tudor Queen: The Story of Elizabeth of York by Samantha Wilcox, Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah, and keeping up with Savannah Martin, my favorite cozy mystery series, by Jenna Bennett. Sigh, if only I had more hours available for reading.”

Kathryn says “So many!

Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, and Miriam Toews’s Women Talking are all calling from my night table. I just ordered Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet by Marta McDowell because it didn’t make it off my wish list and under the tree. I loved the new Apple TV + mini-series Dickinson and want to know more about the poet’s physical environment.

Linda replies, “Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea is one I’m waiting for since I’m a huge fan of Allende.

I also love family generational sagas, so Greenwood by Michael Christie has caught my attention. Lady Clementine, by Marie Benedict, about the wife of Winston Churchill, will be the next in my ongoing passion for books about women in history who were close to famous men.”

And finally, Ana purchased French Fashion, Women, and the First World War in October at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

“I was stunned to find this book because it was everything that interested me: WWI, women’s lives and roles, dressmaking, fashion, Paris, the world in transition. And it was packed with photographs! It was over 500 pages of fascination and wouldn’t even allow myself to unwrap it until after Christmas because I knew it would consume me (delightfully, of course) as soon as I opened it.”