Welcome to a haven full of manuscripts, thumb drives, collie and Lassie memorabilia, and especially books, books, books. They spill out everywhere: in the bathrooms, at the back of the sofa, perched on arms of chairs and laid on tables. Alcoves exist aplenty for curiosities and stuffed animals. Feel free to explore the files! "Television" counts favorites from Rupert Holmes' sensational series about radio station WENN to Disney's copyboy-turned-reporter, Gallegher. "Books" contains poetry, book lists, and pages on different series books and the best children's magazine ever published, "St. Nicholas." Finally, the "Times and Seasons" folder ranges from the celebration of Christmas—with my mom's terrific wine biscuit recipe!—to nostalgic essays about the people and places of the Rhode Island of my youth. Tired? Curl up on the glider-rocker with a good book, the kaliedoscope, or a soft pillow! The soundtrack of our lives may lull you to sleep: podcasts like "The Tech Guy" and "A Way With Words," George Winston tunes, John Denver singing, the television keeping the bird company, but most commonly soft instrumental Christmas music in the background, as we await Christmas here, but love the autumn best. Oh, and if the budgie lands on your head, don't forget to give him a kiss!

         On the Shelves: Some of My Favorite Books

     Fiction

• Anything Madeleine L'Engle wrote (although I found The Love Letters rather tedious)—her religious nonfiction is especially good)
• Issues of the old St. Nicholas magazine
• Kate Seredy's The Open Gate (her other novels, too, especially The Chestry Oak, which always makes me cry)
• Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford
• Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment
• The Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers
• Any Albert Payson Terhune collie book
• The "Rivers of London" fantasy series by Ben Aaronovitch
• National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
• Don Stanford's The Horsemasters
• Frances Hodgsen Burnett's The Secret Garden
• Robert Heinlein's juveniles, like Have Spacesuit Will Travel and Podkayne of Mars, plus Stranger in a Strange Land and Friday
• Most of Mercedes Lackey's novels, especially the "Arrows" trilogy/other Valdemar books, Sacred Ground, Diana Tregarde stories (Note: SERRA novels emphatically not recommended to those especially sensitive to portrayals of child abuse)
• Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris' Adept series and Kurtz's Lammas Night
• Nick O'Donohue's "Crossroads" series featuring veterinarian B. J. Vaughan
• The Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling
• John Verney's Callendar family books
• Earl Hamner's Spencer's Mountain, The Homecoming, and You Can't Get There from Here
• Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy
• Rupert Holmes' Swing
• Joe David Brown's Addie Pray
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and its sequel
• Louisa May Alcott's girls' books, especially Eight Cousins and Little Women
• A Christmas Carol
• Christmas After All by Kathryn Lasky
• Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• Mark Twain's masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
       Nonfiction
• Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow books
• Books about the English language, including those by Mario Pei, William Safire, and Richard Lederer
• Books about the Great Depression, World War I homefront, and Victorian/Edwardian era
• The Golden Age of Radio
• Books about the homefront and journalism during World War II
• Books concerning history/celebration of Christmas (not recipes/Christmas crafts)
• And various books about HTML markup language and WordPerfect!
• Books about living in the country alá Gladys Taber