The topic this week is Books I Want to Read Again (This could mean books you plan on re-reading OR books you wish you could read again for the first time.)

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – this book is the only one I’m planning to re-read. I first read this a child and often re-read it in December.

The rest are books I’d love to read again for the first time:

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman – one of the best historical novels that I’ve read. It’s about Richard III from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. And it’s a long book, nearly 900 pages that took me a while to read it, but never once did I think it was too long, or needed editing. I loved it, but will I ever get round to re-reading it?

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie – one of the Poirot murder mysteries that I was never really sure who I thought was the culprit, and I’ve now forgotten who it was. So, I want to read it again to see if I can spot the culprit before Poirot reveals him/her.

On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill, the 17th Dalziel and Pascoe novel. I’d really like to re-read it some time as it is a complex book, that begins with a transcript written by Betsy Allgood, then aged seven, telling what had happened in the little village of Dendale in Yorkshire before the valley was flooded to provide a reservoir. That summer three little girls had gone missing. 

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier – historical fiction about the life of Honor Bright after she emigrated from Dorset to America in 1850 where she joined a Quaker community in Ohio. It intertwines her story with that of the ‘Underground Railroad’, helping the runaway slaves from the southern states to escape to Canada.

Pompeii by Robert Harris – Vesuvius erupts destroying the town of Pompeii and killing its inhabitants as they tried to flee the pumice, ash and searing heat and flames. This book brought history to life and I could feel the danger and fear as Vesuvius inevitably destroyed Pompeii.

Thirteen Hours by Don Mayer – moving at a fast pace this book follows the events during the thirteen hours from 05:36 when Rachel, a young American girl is running for her life up the steep slope of Lion’s Head in Capetown. It reflects the racial tension in the ‘new South Africa’ with its mix of white, coloured and black South Africans. 

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner – the story of Lyman Ward, a wheelchair bound retired historian who is writing his grandparents’ life history and also gradually reveals his own story. It’s a long book, but completely enthralling.

A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine – this is psychological crime fiction. You know right from the beginning who the murderer is, but not why or how the murder was committed. It’s not even clear immediately who the victim is. I think it’s a book that could stand many re-readings, just to work out how everything ties in together and for different perspectives to become clearer. A fantastic book.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby, set in the early 1930s in Yorkshire it paints a moving and vivid portrait of a rural community struggling with the effects of the depression. It is a wonderful book, portraying life in the 1930s. I would very much like to re-read and enjoy it again and again. I’m sure that I would find plenty in it that I’ve missed on this first reading.