I’m concentrating on nonfiction for the first half of 2015, which is not to say that I won’t read some fiction, too. Some of these books will fit into my nonfiction focus, and others will have to wait for the latter half of the year.

Along with Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, I’d like to re-read David Copperfield. Such a good story.

The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada by Thomas Costain could be considered a nonfiction classic of Canadian history. It’s the first in a series of books on Canadian history that I’d like to read through someday. Maybe this year is the year to at least start.

The following five were all Newbery Honor books, back when children’s literature was a very small world. I’d like to read them to see how well they hold up:

Downright Dencey by Caroline Dale Snedeker. About a friendship between a Quaker girl and a waif in Nantucket in the early 19th century.

Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Anne Carroll Moore. Ms. Moore was the head of children’s services for the New York Public Library System from 1906 to 1941. She was something of a dictator of what was tasteful and excellent in children’s books for many years, keeping a stamp in her desk for books she didn’t like which said, “Not Recommended for Purchase by Expert.” Ms. Moore was the self-proclaimed Expert.

The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish. “Four fairytale-like stories linked by the theme of a Dream Coach which travels around the world bringing dreams to children.”

The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account Of What Befell A Little Boy In Search Of Adventure by William Bowen. After smoking some magical tobacco five year old Freddie finds himself and his friends transported to The Sieve, a leaky ship on the Spanish Main. I don’t think this book would be allowed in these tobacco and drug conscious days. Ah, for more innocent(?) times!

Cedric the Forester by Bernard Marshall. “Set in the time of King Richard the Lionhearted, Cedric plays a pivotal role in the signing of the Magna Carta.”

Then, there are these classics and historically popular books that I have on my TBR list:

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William R. Manchester.

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome.

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