The Comfort Of Old Familiar Books by Stephanie Suesan Smith

 I am writing for Caroline Clemmons today as she is under the weather.

I love books.  I have a bedroom lined with bookshelves, with more bookshelves in the middle of the room, all full of books.  I have books stacked precariously on top of the bookshelves, and more all over the house.  Some, maybe most, of my books are reference books.  However, I keep some fiction books to re-read over and over.  They are comforting, like mac and cheese, and a nice fire.

Some of my favorites are the entire J.D. Robb In Death series (too gory for Caroline) and others like Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy.  I am looking forward to the next In Death book, Random In Death.

Of course, Caroline Clemmons books have their own bookcase.  Here are some favorites of her books.

The Surprise Bride series has new covers.  Caroline wrote Jamie, about the oldest boy.  His Mom sends for brides for him and his brothers.  He knows she sent for the other brides, but as a widower, he doesn't want a new bride.  Surprise!  He gets one too.

I enjoy The Texan's Irish Bride, where a man gets tricked into marrying the daughter of some Irish Travelers brought to the United States.  He ends up taking in the whole family after the leader of the group wants the daughter for himself.

I also enjoy the Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides series.  It is set in a fictional town near Bandera, Texas.  When I was a kid, my parents took me to a dude ranch in Bandera, hoping to cure me of my horse addiction.  A kid was horsing around and fell off his horse.  I was determined to catch that runaway horse and ran after it.  Everybody thought the horse ran off with me, but I was having a ball galloping instead of the plodding walk we had been doing.  I didn't catch the horse but did have fun.  I got a horse when I was twelve.  We sold her when we moved, but my sister and I got horses when Dad bought a peach orchard between Weatherford and Mineral Wells when I was fifteen.  I helped my Dad irrigate the property with drip irrigation, pick peaches, fertilize them, spray them, and prune them until I left for graduate school.

What are your favorite old books?  Tell me in the comments so I can check them out.