A Wartime Marriage, aka Flight from Bucharest, by Mary Jane Staples

Captain Harry Phillips, a British officer, is a prisoner of war in a German-controlled hospital in Romania. It’s 1918 and while Germany has gone from near-victory to an unsuccessful Spring Offensive on the Western Front leading to eventual defeat, its army and military intelligence are still feared. Harry is recovering from being shot in the thigh but has been treated well, so is not worried when he is summoned to meet with the German officer in charge of the hospital, Captain Carlsen.

The Whirling Shapes by Joan North #20BOS26-7

I have always enjoyed the type of fantasy where strange things start happening to ordinary people, and there were some series like Narnia or the Edward Eager books that I reread multiple times. But when I discovered a new author at the library – especially one who had written more than one book, I was always pleased. I remember finding a British author called Joan North at a local branch of the Boston Public Library, although I never saw her books anywhere else. She had written just three books that landed somewhere between middle grade and YA fiction. A few weeks ago I came across a box of books I hadn’t opened recently and found The Whirling Shapes.

A Far-flung Life by M. L. Stedman #20BOS26-5

I remember what a tear-jerker The Light Between Oceans was so I was not expecting an easy read in A Far-flung Life but it took nearly all of the 430 pages to get from tragedy to the promised resilience. This epic novel beginning on an Australian sheep station in 1958 features a small but compelling cast of characters.

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl was the restaurant critic for the New York Times from 1993 to 1999, and although I doubt we frequented the same places, I often followed her reviews and enjoyed reading about the disguises she wore to avoid being recognized. Staff at high-end restaurants used to post pictures of her in the back, hoping not to be caught unawares. Somewhere in this house I have a copy of Tender at the Bone, the first of her five memoirs, but I have never got around to reading it. Last week, I was at my mother’s for dinner and she told me she had just enjoyed The Paris Novel and wanted me to read it because there were certain things I would appreciate. She was right: I started reading that very night and found there were many parts of Stella's travels that spoke to me.

Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson

Frances Field knows she was lucky to be taken in by an uncle and aunt when she was orphaned at three but whatever she owes them has been amply repaid – she has acted as housekeeper and slaved for her indolent aunt since her late teens, without payment or time off. When the war begins she is eager to do her bit but is forced to go on catering to her aunt’s every demand until a bomb lands near their home, breaking most of the windows in Wintringham Square. 

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien - Reading Ireland 2026

O’Brien’s first novel is a coming of age story, with autobiographical elements, about Caithleen Brady and her frenemy, Baba Brennan; two girls from rural Ireland who yearn for something not available at home. Cait’s mother dotes on her but does not protect her or prepare her for life, perhaps because she cannot protect herself from a drunken, spendthrift husband. Cait is conscious that she doesn’t have the possessions her friend does: nice clothes, for example, or a bicycle. Baba always wants more, however, and helps herself in a very unattractive way to what she wants – she takes the flowers Cait picked for their teacher so she can present them, she snatches biscuits from the Bradys’ kitchen although she must know how little the family has, and she ends up with Mrs. Brady’s rings. She is a vivid but unlikable character while Cait is dreamy but annoyingly passive.

The Golden Collar by Elizabeth Cadell

Henry Eliot isn’t sure exactly how he became engaged to the beautiful and autocratic Marly Stonor, daughter of Sir Bertram Stonor, the CEO of the firm where he is an architect. However, his status as future son-in-law doesn’t spare him from being summoned like a schoolboy when Sir Bertram has an assignment. Sir Bertram has been thwarted in his attempts to purchase some coastal property in the Algarve region of Portugal for his daughter (and, eventually, Henry) and he decides to send Henry to represent his interests because Henry speaks Portuguese, having grown up in Brazil.

The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring

Set in 1990, The Road to Dalton takes place in a small, economically depressed town north of Bangor, Maine, focusing on a few interconnected families.  The most prominent are two married couples, of which the women, Bev and Trudy, have realized they are in love with each other, not their husbands.  Bev’s son Nate is a newlywed with an infant daughter; his wife, Bridget, is the daughter of the most (only) affluent family in town, owners of the lumber company.  And there is Rose, who works as the receptionist at the police station, got pregnant in high school and has two sons and a resentful, abusive boyfriend.  I heard about this trilogy from Susan at Cue Card and was curious enough to request the first book from the library last week.  

Tapestry by Fiona McIntosh

Jane is a pragmatic Brit who met a handsome American in Cornwall five months ago and was swept off her feet. Despite being newly engaged, she has doubts about whether her fiancé, Will Maxwell, is The One, despite his good looks and devotion. When a freak accident leaves him in a coma, she feels guilty for her wavering commitment and tries to compensate by exploring various New Agey solutions, one of which catapults her from 1978 London to 1715 Scotland, married to Will’s ancestor, Lord Nithsdale. 

The Tall Stranger by D.E. Stevenson

Nell is worried about her friend, Barbie France, who has been very sick and is not getting better. When the doctor she works for accompanies her to the hospital in a thick fog, he recommends that Barbie recuperate in the country. Nell calls Barbie’s aunt, Lady Steyne, and Barbie is sent by ambulance to the Cotswolds to Underwoods to rest. Barbie misses her work for an interior decoration firm but it is wonderful to be spoiled by her Aunt Amalie and her companion, Miss Penney.

Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery, for the #1925Club

When I was about 13, my family went to Martha’s Vineyard to spend part of a weekend with my father’s law partner. His children were younger so I begged to be taken to the local library (What, you say, you needed an excuse?). And what do you think I found on a discard table near the Chilmark Library door but a three-book series I’d never heard of by the author of Anne of Green Gables - also set on Prince Edward Island but about a different orphan. They were first edition hardcovers; unfortunately falling apart, but I have cherished them anyway. All three are delightful page-turners.

Mrs. Lorimer's Quiet Summer by Molly Clavering #DeanStreetDecember24

As the introduction by Elizabeth Crawford to this new edition points out, after serving as a Wren in WWII, Molly Clavering settled in Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway, in the Scottish Borders. She was already acquainted with another writer, D.E. Stevenson, who had moved to Moffat with her husband James after the bombing of Glasgow in the early 1940s. This is the story of two writer friends during one full summer, inspired by the real life friendship of Molly and Dorothy.

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry – 16/20 of Books of Summer

When a former colleague, Deb Englander, mentioned this book early in 2024, the subtitle – Investigations Into A Forgotten Mystery Author – immediately caught my attention and I asked the Boston Public Library to order a copy.

Long Island by Colm Tóibín – 15/20 Books of Summer

In Brooklyn (2009), Eilis Lacey was encouraged by her sister Rose to leave her small town in Ireland for better employment prospects in New York. She finds a job in a department store and takes bookkeeping classes at night but is lonely. Eventually, she began attending Friday night dances with a friend and meets an Italian-American plumber. When she gets bad news from home that Rose has died, Tony persuades her to get married secretly before she returns to Ireland to be with her mother.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane – 12/20 Books of Summer

Mary Pat Fennessy lives in public housing in South Boston, working as a health aide at a nursing home, trying to pay her bills and worrying about her children. Her son died of a drug overdose after coming back from Vietnam. Her daughter Jules is going into her senior year of high school, hanging out all night with teens her mother distrusts.

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Title: Becoming Madam Secretary
Author: Stephanie Dray
Publication: Berkley, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: United States

Description: This fascinating historical novel about Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, begins in 1933 when FDR asks her to join his Cabinet and she presents him with a list of ground-breaking goals she would need him to support – get rid of child labor laws, limit working hours, create a minimum wage . . .  .

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Title: The Diamond Eye
Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: HarperAudio, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Soviet Union and United States

Description: When Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko is sent to the United States during WWII to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s international student conference, Stalin’s goal is to showcase a military sniper whose skill has earned her the nickname Lady Death, hoping she and the rest of Russian delegation can generate American support on the Eastern Front.

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, for the #1937Club

Title: Baby Island
Author: Carol Ryrie Brink
Illustrator: Helen Sewell
Publication: Macmillan, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Juvenile fiction

Description: Twelve-year-old Mary Wallace and her younger sister Jean are on their way to Australia from San Francisco to join their father, who has been managing a ranch there for the past two years. Mary and Jean have long been devoted to other people’s babies and entertain themselves by playing with those on the ship.

Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle

Title: Meet the Austins
Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Publication: Laurel-Leaf paperback, originally published in 1960
Genre: Juvenile
Setting: New England

The original cover

Description: The Austins are a close-knit family of six – John is 15, Vicky, 12, Suzy 9, and sensitive Rob about five – they say grace at meals, Mrs. Austin reads aloud to all four at bedtime, and Dr. Austin is an old-fashioned country doctor with an office in his home as well as at a local hospital. Their lives are disrupted when their courtesy-aunt Elena calls to tell them her husband and his copilot were killed in a plane accident.

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Title: The Phoenix Crown
Authors: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
Narrators: Saskia Maarleveld and Katherine Chin
Publication: HarperCollins, Audiobook, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: San Francisco, 1906; Paris, 1911

Description: Four unusual women meet in San Francisco, just days before the infamous earthquake of 1906 and resulting fire that lasted three days, destroying nearly thirty thousand buildings and killing at least 600.