Read, Write, Repeat.

I have been immersed in a writing retreat for the past week at beautiful, 60-degree Port Ludlow, Washington with a bunch of very talented writers from the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

There were readings. There was singing. There was a lot of information about foreign rights, school visits and other authorly topics. There was a lot of good food. Glow sticks and hats even made an appearance.

There may indeed be future blog postings about what I learned at the retreat, but for now I’m still processing everything.

But that could take a while. And meanwhile, I don’t want this blog to go as dry as the grass in my rain-deprived front yard.

So, to keep everyone busy reading while I ponder, here is a list of book recommendations from my aunt, Faye Clow, who was the director of the Bettendorf, Iowa, public library.

These are books she suggested in the library’s annual Staff Favorites bibliographies. (These are adult titles, but in the photo to the right, she’s holding a picture book she loved — The Little Green Goose by Adele Sansone.)

• Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
• The Dower House by Annabel Davis-Goff
• Lost Lake by Mark Slouka
• From the Holy Mountain by William Dalyrymple
• Taking Retirement: A Beginner’s Diary by Carl H. Klaus
• Discovering the Body by Mary Howard
• The Huntsman by Whitney Terrell
• The Good German by Joseph Kanon
• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
• Warriors of God by James Reston
• The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
• Buxton: A Black Utopia in the Heartland by Dorothy Schwieder
• Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War by James Carroll
• The Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power by Marina Belozerskaya
• Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck
• The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War by David Lebedoff
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

What are you reading now? Or what’s next on your to-be-read list?