The House at Mermaid's Cove by Lindsay Jayne Ashford - a WWII historical set in Cornwall

Sometimes a book is so annoying one cannot sit back and enjoy the setting, even when it turns out to have been inspired by a place one has visited. I don’t think my friend Cath recommended this historical novel set in 1943 Cornwall but I wish she had read it so we could critique it together. The heroine, Alice, is an Irish nun, sent back in disgrace from the Belgian Congo because she became too attached to orphaned twins whose lives she saved. I suppose that is plausible but surely her superior, Sister Clare, knew that the war made traveling dangerous? So, surprise, Alice’s ship to Ireland is torpedoed in the English Channel and she washes up on shore where she is found by a TDS*.

Ode to My Two Torn Blouses

 Last week, I was looking for something at the back of my closet.  I did not find it but I did come across two shirts I had been very fond of and forgotten I had.  One was white with flowers and the other was blue, a gift from my sister Andrea.  Pleased to have something "new" to wear, I wore the blue one to work with a cardigan and when I got home I saw the shirt had split under the arm (luckily, my office is so cold I had not removed my sweater).  Undaunted, I put on the other shirt the next morning and it tore before I even left the house!  Neither seems very fixable, which made me sad, although I guess they were at least ten years old.  I thought about writing an ode to my two torn blouses, then I wondered if that's the sort of thing ChatGBT does.  Yes, it is - how crazy!  As a joke, I found the website and entered a longish sentence about the items, and see what happened:  

September 2025 Reading

September was a varied month beginning with a long but absorbing read with The Spring of the Ram, second in Dorothy Dunnett’s Niccolò series. I loved Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and enjoyed the movie a few weeks later (not as good as the book – surprise!). I also really enjoyed Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure, which was full of great characters.

Miss P arrives for a job

The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer, for the 1925 Club

Madge Bettany, just 24, and her twin, Dick, have been responsible for their younger sister, Joey, since their parents died. Dick is home on furlough but works in Forestry in India, so Madge has come up with a scheme that will support her and Joey – she tells her brother she wants to establish a school in the Austrian Tyrol, where they once spent a summer, about an hour from Innsbruck:

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.

The Dower House by Patricia Wentworth, for the #1925Club

Amabel Grey, a young widow living on a tiny income, is anguished when her daughter Daphne demands £200 so she can travel with friends to Egypt. She simply doesn’t have it. But when she visits her lawyer, she overhears an old acquaintance, Mr. George Forsham, complaining that three sets of tenants have left the Dower House he owns, claiming it was haunted. He asks the lawyer to find a caretaker who will stay for six months and, after he storms out, Amabel takes on the assignment, securing payment in advance.

Greenery Street by Dennis Mackail, for the #1925Club

Greenery Street is a gentle comedy of manners about an upper middle class British couple enjoying their first year of marriage on an idyllic street in London. Ian Foster is an infatuated young man, with a low-level job at an insurance company that pays £250/year, and his new wife, Felicity Hamilton, is an indulged younger daughter with no sense of money management (he realizes early on this is not going to improve but accepts it – it may not be so winsome in five years).

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 3

Breakfast in the Banquet Hall followed my quick trip to Mass at St. Peters and Paul Catholic Church (this is not Tacy’s church, which I attended on previous visits but the timing worked out better) with my friend Ethel. I was registered to go on the First Presbyterian Church Christian Endeavor tour, service, and Welsh snacks but had not slept well and somehow stayed to do Pub Trivia led by Michelle Giorlando instead. Our team, the Ladybugs, consisted of Deb, Ethel, and me, and we were in the middle of the pack in skill, alas.

The Blue Earth County Courthouse
where Mr. Hart worked when County Treasurer

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 2

Breakfast on Saturday was back in the Convention Center and there were muffins. I had brought two books from home for the book exchange and placed Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson on the table (don’t worry, it was a duplicate copy). I was delighted to run into Cindy Jett and her daughter Shelley, and my respect for Shelley increased when she insisted her mother would like Madensky Square and took it for her. I don’t think Cindy is the sentimental type but you can’t go wrong with Ibbotson!

Betsy's telephone (more or less)

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2025, Part 1

On Friday, I flew to Minnesota for a literary convention – a gathering of nearly 200 Betsy-Tacy fans! I think it was my fifth time visiting Deep Valley, legally known as Mankato, Minnesota. The Betsy-Tacy books are based on Maud Hart Lovelace’s childhood and adolescence, and fans have purchased her home and that of her best friend who lived across the street and turned them into living history museums. While it is great to see these houses and to observe whatever enhancements have taken place since one’s last visit, I now primarily attend these events to see friends from all over the country (I don’t think there were any international participants this time but usually there is at least one Canadian and we’re always hoping Sonja from Germany will make it, as she is a favorite listserv member).

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

I have enjoyed Tess Gerritsen’s current series, The Martini Club, about retired CIA agents trying to escape their pasts in Maine, so decided to go hear her speak recently at a local library. A former physician, she is best known for her medical thrillers – her books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide – including the Rizzoli & Isles books that became a hit TV show.

Top Ten Tuesday: Satisfying Book Series

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Satisfying Book Series and it was hard to pick just ten.

Six Degrees of Separation – from I Want Everything to Camino Island

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’s starting point is I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena, which is about an elderly Australian novelist who was once accused of plagiarism.

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen

Ellie Endicott is stunned when her husband of 30 years tells her he wants a divorce to marry a “smart, pleasant,” much younger colleague. Once she has recovered from her shock and humiliation, she admits – to herself, at least – that she didn’t love him. As Ellie wonders what is next for her, Mavis, her cleaning lady, persuades her to consult a solicitor: