July 2026 Reading

My favorite books in July were A Wartime Marriage - also published as Escape from Bucharest, a better title because the book is more of an adventure than a historical romance, and The Wednesday Wars by Gary S. Schmidt, a book set during the traumatic year of 1967-68, which manages to be funny yet also very serious. I think it should have won the Newbery Medal as it reaches readers on many different levels but it was a runner-up.

It’s a Great World! by Emilie Loring #20BOS26-9

Eve Travis has always admired Jeff Kilburn and is worried that his heart is broken when her cousin Moya dumps him for a British peer. After the wedding, she impulsively offers to marry him instead so he is not alone and vulnerable when he leaves for a business trip to South America. Jeff is startled by her suggestion because he has just learned Eve’s guardian has embezzled her $2 million fortune (and imagine how far that would have gone in 1935) and was asked to break the news (why there are no legal proceedings against this guardian is a mystery Loring never addresses) to her. 

Six Degrees of Separation - from The Post-Office Girl to Happy Landings

 It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up.  June’s starting point is The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig (1982).  It’s about a lowly postal worker and Ursula LeGuin described it as “a dark fairytale of Austria in 1926.”

20 Books of Summer – 2026

The 20 Books of Summer is a reading challenge meant to identify books you've been putting off (in a good way) or to make a dent in your TBR pile. Participants make a pledge to read and review a list of 10, 15, or 20 books during the summer months (typically June 1st through August 31st). 

It was created by Cathy of 746 Books, and is now hosted by Annabel of AnnaBookBel. Here are my 20 books, plus an extra:

Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction

Nonfiction November is hosted by several different bloggers and has specific categories for each week. Week 1, Your Year in Nonfiction is probably all I can handle (although it is past Week 1), and I was surprised to find I had read seven nonfiction books, all basically biography/memoir or history and all of which I enjoyed. This is about 3% of my total for the year, which seems typical for me. I do have a few more in mind for November but we shall see.

My March 2023 Reads

I returned to several old but trusted authors in March: Maeve Binchy, Elizabeth Cadell, Agatha Christie, John Grisham, and two Emilie Lorings, after reading her biography, Happy Landings. I was a little disappointed in Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, which was vivid and atmospheric but depressing. However, I enjoyed Jane Austen Cannot Marry, a time travel novel by May McGoldrick, a husband and wife team I have followed since their charming first historical novel, The Thistle and the Rose. That was the first book I bought as an editor at Penguin years ago.

My February 2023 Reads

It is rare to read two books in the same month that you know will make your "Favorites list" at the end of the year but I thought these two historical novels were exceptional; I recommend both.

Historical Fiction

Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom by Patti Bender

Title: Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom
Author: Patti Bender
Publication: City Point Press, hardcover, 2023
Genre: Biography/Literary Criticism
Setting: Massachusetts and Maine

Patti Bender has created a biography of Boston-born writer Emilie Loring that is part labor of love and part interpretive narrative, describing a life story that was rich in friendship, idealism, and dedication to family – all of which were revealed in her books.

WWW Wednesday – January 25, 2023

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?