The New Neighbor by Leah Stewart

Ninety-year old Margaret Riley is a cantankerous old lady living alone with her memories. Her one pleasure is the weekly trip to the library where she always checks out five mysteries, tolerating the gossipy librarian, Sue. When she sits down outside with her library book, she notices the empty house on the other side of the pond has a new tenant, a blonde woman, also sitting outside. Margaret is very curious about her new neighbor but, instead of bringing banana bread or a friendly welcome, she stops at the woman’s mailbox to snoop at her mail and learn her name, which is Jennifer Young.

Bird's Eye View by Elinor Florence - 20BOS26-14

For those of us who enjoy historical fiction, especially when set during WWII, it is a pleasure to encounter a book that reveals a new aspect of the war. Rose is a recent high school graduate, living on the family farm in Saskatchewan, and longing for the adventure of war overseas.  In the meantime, she has finagled a job as a reporter/photographer/Girl Friday at the local newspaper, The Touchwood Times. 

August 2026 Reading

I squeezed in quite a few books in August, thanks in part to several days off in Cape Cod at a lovely house my sister rented (I accidentally left behind one Boston Library book which she had to take back to NYC with her - oh well, the BPL eventually got it back and, ironically, neither of us liked it so stopped reading after a few pages). I enjoyed rereading Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series, after visiting Galway, where they are set.

Stateless by Elizabeth Wein - 20BOS26–13

Few books could be as intense or memorable as Wein’s award-winning Code Name Verity (2012), set in Gestapo headquarters in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. If I created my Top 10 Books of the 21st Century (there’s an idea), it would certainly be included. Stateless also features a feisty young heroine who is an aviator but it is set six years earlier in 1937.

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

I am usually wary of books everyone promises I will love but when my friend Susan told me to read This Book Made Me Think of You, I immediately put it on hold at the library, somewhat surprised at how many people were ahead of me, and finally read it this week. Heroine works in book publishing – check; lives in London – check; features charming bookstore with quirky staff – check; angst eventually overcome by characters through bookstore and/or love of books – check, check, check! 

The Chinese Shawl by Patricia Wentworth: A Miss Silver Mystery

If one has to be an orphan, it is helpful to be an heiress, however modest, and be reasonably attractive. Laura Fane has “white skin, dark hair, and the grey-green eyes which were her real beauty.” She lost her parents when she was just five, after her father’s decision to jilt his cousin Agnes when he met and fell for Laura’s mother caused a family rift. Now 21, she has come to London to meet with a lawyer about her inheritance. She currently receives £400/year, mostly from renting her father’s home, the Priory, to her Cousin Agnes, and she works as a secretary at a convalescent home for soldiers.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Founding Mothers to The Little Wartime Library

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. This month Kate suggested we start with our book group’s current selection, which for me is Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (2004). My friend Carrie chose this with the recent 250th celebration in mind, and she made our meeting very festive with Chicken Pot Pie as the entrée and red, white, and blue (or purple) gelato and little bags of red, white, and blue Hershey’s Kisses.

The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny & Mellissa Fung

I became a huge fan of Louise Penny, not after reading book 1, Still Life, in her Three Pines series but while listening to book 2, A Fatal Grace, as I drove home from Quebec in 2019. Maybe it was partly due to the charm of narrator, Ralph Cosham! A pity I was driving more or less past Three Pines before I knew one could stop in Knowlton, where there are now tours of places inspired by the books and, recently, an actual café! In addition to producing a Gamache book every year, Penny has recently been collaborating with other luminaries on suspense fiction.