Spell the Month in Books - July

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews from the Stacks and usually occurs on a Saturday. This edition is brought to you from Trinity College in Dublin where I am spending the night before returning to Boston tomorrow.

J - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1961). A charismatic teacher at a girl’s school in 1930s Edinburgh has made it her mission to introduce them to arts and culture, as well as topics that would horrify their parents. Eventually, the girls turn against her. My book group read this in January and we found it very disturbing.

It’s a Great World! by Emily 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. 

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.

Captain Carlsen has a very unexpected plan: he will help Harry escape back to England if Harry agrees to take Princess Irina of Moldavia with him. The Princess is pro-German and has angered Romanian extremists who are determined to try her for treason. Captain Carlsen admires the Princess and fears for her life when the German army leaves Romania. He asks Harry to agree to marry the Princess on the understanding the marriage would be annulled once she is safe in England. Harry is engaged to Elisabeth, a childhood friend, but once he meets the Princess, who is beautiful, willful, and charming, he agrees to this undertaking.

The escape plan goes wrong from the beginning when someone is waiting for them at their getaway taxi. Harry’s ingenuity gets them to Chitila, then a train to Belgrade. Their journey is difficult and dangerous, as they are pursued by enemies and arouse suspicion, with the Princess posing as a war widow and Harry as a Russian. Her headstrong behavior infuriates Harry but he admires her spirit and determination. Their adventures include a perilous train ride to Zagreb, a kidnapping, another to Trieste. Will they be able to elude their pursuers? Will they make to England? And what about Elisabeth, waiting patiently at home for Harry?

This was a delightful, fast-paced book with appealing characters and several twists. When Croatian rebels try to seize the train going to Zagreb, Harry is forced to improvise and figure out how to drive the train to avoid capture, and the Princess shows her courage when they are attacked by shooting at the rebels, then by helping to fuel the engine:

In her position on the footplate Irena felt like a woman deceived as Harry muttered and fiddled. What was he doing there at all if he couldn’t drive the thing? And what was she doing here with him? She squeezed the trigger of the German rifle in a spasm of disgust. The bullet ricocheted off the rail into the arm of a Croat. That, she thought, was not bad for a shot aimed in temper, and hitting a man’s arm was better than killing him.

It is probably her bravery under attack that makes Harry realize that his feelings have changed from amused tolerance to deep admiration but he is determined to keep as much distance as he can.  The story is romantic but the drama comes from their perilous journey and knowing that capture would likely mean both their deaths.

This was a five-star read for me. I brought this book home from England in 2017. I have a vague recollection of finding it in a bus shelter on a shelf of second hand paperbacks. It bears a sticker from the Oxfordshire Library Service. Mary Jane Staples is a pseudonym used by British author Reginald Thomas Staples (1911-2005). She/he is best known for a long series about a Cockney family.

Title: A Wartime Marriage (also published as Flight From Bucharest)
Author: Mary Jane Staples
Publication: Corgi, paperback, originally published in 1977
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Personal copy

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2026

• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026

I, Spy, an impressive debut by L. M. Kemp

Kendal Carter is at a playground on the outskirts of Zurich with her four-year-old, Rosie, when she notices two men in suits lurking nearby who appear very out of place. She is instantly wary, especially because if the men are a threat, they are between her and the apartment where she has a “go bag.”

June 2026 Reading

I made good progress on my 20 Books of Summer in June: eight read and reviewed, and I am in the middle of the ninth. My favorite books this month were A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick, a historical set in England and Normandy during the 12th century, and I, Spy by L.M. Kemp, about an ex-spy who thought she had escaped from a lifetime of espionage, only to be dragged back in unexpectedly.

Suspense/Mystery

The Double Image by Helen MacInnes #20BOS26-8 and Paris in July

April in Paris, and a sprinkle of rain, a sudden whip of cool breeze, a greying sky to end the bright promise of the evening. John Craig decided that his saunter along Boulevard Sant-Germain might come to a quick end any moment now, and began looking in earnest for a place of retreat.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Include the Word *Summer*

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week the theme is Book Titles That Include the Word (add the word of your choice – and I chose) Summer:

Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow (1937). When Judith is swept off her feet by handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer and slave trader, he builds her a beautiful plantation in Louisiana, where they raise a family, despite joys and sorrows along the way.  Bristow is focused on the development of Louisiana and the role all its people played, affluent whites, poor whites, and slaves, in this compelling historical novel.  My review. 

Six Degrees of Separation – from Yesteryear to A Far-Flung Life

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 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, which has taken the book-reading world by storm. I started this bestseller about a tradwife but disliked the author’s characterization of Harvard and liked the heroine even less, so I gave it to my sister.

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.

Sabriel by Garth Nix #20BOS26-6

There is nothing like an intrepid and self-aware heroine to take us lands away. Sabriel has attended Wyverley College, a boarding school for young ladies in Ancelstierre, since she was five and is now a graduating Sixth Form prefect, having excelled in all the expected coursework along with the less expected subject of magic. Her father is known as the Abhorsen, a powerful necromancer and, unusually, has just failed to appear for a visit to his daughter. 

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 Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman

This historical novel, set in 1952, begins dramatically with a dead or nearly dead body. Honor Wilson, a seemingly respectable widow, inherited a large Victorian house in London after her much-older husband died but little in the way of other assets. She takes in lodgers: George (Georgina), ostensibly studying art but actually posing in the nude as an artist’s model, a shady occupation for Lord Mountford-Owen’s daughter; Robbie, estranged from his wife, living in Honor’s attic; teenage Mina, trying to better herself through elocution and deportment lessons while she works in a Cinema; and Saul, a Holocaust survivor from Romania, who lost his wife and daughter.

Everyone is helping to dig a hole in the garden to bury the most recent addition to the household, Jimmy Sullivan. The question is how did he get there, who killed him, and why?

May 2026 Reading

Two books stood out for me in May: Lady Tremaine, a retelling of Cinderella, which read more like historical fiction than fantasy (probably why I liked it so much); and In Farleigh Field, set in the British countryside during WWII, which featured a heroine working at Bletchley Park (how sad I was born too late to fulfill my codebreaking dream; never mind the fact that I do not possess the right skills).

A Murder in Marylebone by Emily Sullivan #20BOS26-4

Alas, A Murder in Marylebone barely mentions Marylebone and is too obviously written by an American, although it began promisingly. Minerva Harper, a widow with two children, has returned to London after some 15 years in Greece. Her husband, Oliver, was a diplomat but left the British Embassy and retired with his family to Corfu. Minnie remained there after his death, against the wishes of her family, and recently undertook some typing for a mystery writer, Stephen Dorian. 

Grimbold's Other World by Nicholas Stuart Gray #20BOS26-3

The villagers do not know what to make of Muffler, a foundling named after the white scarf he was wrapped in when discovered in a hen’s nest. Brought up by a childless couple, Simon and Meg, he is a goatherd (but not a lonely one), talking to his herd, composing rhymes and telling stories.

The Locker Room Is Not for Sale by Brian White

It takes a lot of confidence in these days of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal to write a book called The Locker Room Is Not for Sale – given many of us are very skeptical indeed of such a claim. However, this book is different: for the past 40 years, Brian White, a former Harvard quarterback I first met when he was in high school, has been coaching at the Division 1 college level at Fordham, Notre Dame, UNLV, Wisconsin (where he coached 1999 Heisman Trophy winner, Ron Dayne), Syracuse, Washington, Florida, Boston College, Colorado State, and is now at Bowling Green (Bowling Green was one of the initial college teams I saw when they played at BU in my first-ever hockey game).

The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman #20BOS26-2

Moira Redmond recently wrote about fortune tellers in her Clothes in Books blog, and that got me thinking about a two-book series by Dorothy Gilman that begins with The Clairvoyant Countess. I couldn’t remember if I had read it so I requested it from the library and included it in my 20 Books of Summer.

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.”

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick #20BOS26-1

Elizabeth Chadwick is an author I have enjoyed in the past but somehow I had not read any of her books since moving back to Boston, so she seemed a good candidate for the 20 Days of Summer. I gather her books about William Marshal are her most acclaimed so I meant to start with one of them but when I checked, it turned out that A Place Beyond Courage is a prequel about William’s father, so needed to come first. John FitzGilbert is a charismatic leader, the marshal to Henry I (1068 – 1135), and just 25 when the story begins.

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:

Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen

An unexpected trip becomes a way to take control of her life 18-year-old Finley in this new book by bestseller Dessen. Finley has just finished high school when her world (at least, her small piece of it) falls apart. One minute she is planning to go to college with her boyfriend, Colin, after a fun trip to Manhattan with her mother, Catherine. Then, instead of New York, Catherine unexpectedly brings her daughter to clear out the family’s beach house, the Woods, vacant since her parents died. Catherine’s sisters, Kasey and Liz, are irritated that for years she hasn’t been around to help, but they welcome Finley, whom they’ve only met twice.

“Change Your Life for €1,” the headline had read . . .

When she was at her lowest emotionally, Skye saw a competition to win a cottage in Greece for one euro, and entered. How she won and how the paperwork was completed quickly and without publicity requires some suspension of disbelief but, why not, every book needs a plot, and apparently this is an actual thing:

WWW Wednesday – May 20

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?

April 2026 Reading

My best reads in April were The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl and three rereads - Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson (the ultimate in comfort reads as April was chilly and reading required a cozy blanket) and The Ivy Tree and Marry in Haste for the 1961 Club.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser - a retelling of Cinderella

Cinderella is one of those stories that everyone knows and accepts the basic premise: cruel stepmother, exploited stepdaughter, bullying stepsisters, a fairy godmother, and a prince to rescue Ella from the ashes. Some modern versions provide a heroine who focuses on self-actualization over marriage as a form of rescue but those are less likely to find favor among little girls who love the Disney princesses. So I was intrigued to hear about this book which tells the Cinderella story from the point of view of the stepmother.

Top Ten Tuesday: May Flowers

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week the theme is May flowers and I immediately thought of Flower Fables (1854),which was Louisa May Alcott’s first published book, written for Ralph Waldo Emerson’s daughter.

River Lodge by Elizabeth Cadell

After inheriting a big house in the country from an uncle but no accompanying funds, Roger and his wife, Ruth, decided to turn it into an expensive guest house, with help from their cousin Brenda, who had worked there for years as the uncle’s household manager. Now the first guests are arriving as a sort of practice run – Roger’s brother Paul, an unemployed actor; his beautiful ex, Felicity, and Martin, the theatrical producer to whom she is now linked; Felicity’s younger sister, Nan, and her three year-old twins; Roger and Brenda’s aunt, Lady Warne, who warns her family not to trade on their relationship in public; Ruth’s uncle and aunt; and Goosey Horder, who was in Roger’s regiment, and brought an artist friend with him.

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

What could be more fun for someone whose first library card came from the Boston Public Library than a book set at its iconic headquarters in Copley Square? When I heard that Kate Quinn was launching The Astral Library at WGBH-Boston where I sometimes volunteer, I offered to help at the event and persuaded my friend Susan to come as well. It was billed as an engaging conversation with the New York Times bestselling author, Quinn, moderated by fellow bestseller and her friend, G.R. Macallister. I was not familiar with Macallister, who has written a bestselling fantasy series called The Five Queendoms, but she seemed congenial.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Wild Dark Shore to Bloody Instructions

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. May’s starting point is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025), an unusual and compelling book in which the main character eventually reveals how a catastrophic wildfire changed her life.

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Memorable Dogs in Fiction

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week has no assigned theme so I decided to write about memorable dogs in fiction:

Lufra, the Baluchistan Hound in Frederica by Georgette Heyer (1965), is not as exotic as he sounds.  Frederica gets into trouble when she takes the family dog for a walk in London and invokes the name of her aristocratic relative to appease those complaining about his behavior. My reviews.

The Harvey Girls in Fiction

Fred Harvey (1835–1901) was an entrepreneur who created the first American restaurant chain, multiple locations that served those traveling on the railroad. Beginning in 1876, he began opening restaurants along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. He hired young women between the ages of 18 and 30, known as “Harvey Girls,” who worked as waitresses, wore attractive uniforms, lived under strict chaperonage, and signed a contract not to marry before a year was up (the imbalance of women in the American southwest during this period meant they were in high demand). 

from CowgirlMagazine.com

Devil Water by Anya Seton

This is an old-fashioned family saga of a historical novel by an author whose gift for creating memorable characters was matched by her painstaking research on the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Rebellions and the families who clung to the dream of the Stuarts regaining the throne. The story begins in 1709, when Charles Radcliffe, barely 16, is getting into trouble with a girl below his station, while he waits for his brother, James, the young Earl of Derwentwater, to return from France.

When Love Speaks by Amelia Elizabeth Walden, for the 1961 Club and Reading the Theatre Month

Walden (1909-2002) was a pioneering young adult author I read frequently as a teen and pre-teen, so in 2010 I was pleased to learn about the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents’ (“ALAN”) Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award.* With some exceptions, her books fell into three categories: girls playing sports, girls/young women involved in theater, or young women drawn into espionage. In the 1940s and 50s when her books were first published, there were very few people writing about girls in sports and there weren’t as many opportunities for girls to play. I was never a good athlete but it was still fun to read about these sporty girls who experienced challenges with teammates, coaches, school, families, and friends. In the 70s, she began writing about young women co-opted into espionage, and these must have been popular because several were published in paperback by Scholastic Book Services.

Marry in Haste, Repent at Leisure! Another 5 star book for the #1961 Club

There is probably a whole fictional sub-genre of governesses-in-jeopardy but few have the immediacy or appeal of Camilla Forest, the intrepid heroine of Marry in Haste. She has been dismissed from her job on a cold spring day and deposited by the side of the road to catch the mail coach to London. 

When a gentleman, passing by in his carriage, thoughtfully stops to tell her the coach is delayed until the following day, night is approaching and she has nowhere to go.

Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary, for the 1961 Club

Beverly Cleary’s only historical novel is about a sensitive girl with big dreams, living on a farm in 1920s Pitchfork, Oregon. The book is based on her own home of Yamhill and childhood experiences. Like Ramona Quimby, Emily Bartlett often gets carried away by her own imagination and (like many of us) is sensitive about being laughed at. 

The Girl in the Cellar by Patricia Wentworth, for the 1961 Club

Most people think of Patricia Wentworth as a Golden Age of Detective Fiction writer whose books fall into the cozy category; however, The Girl in the Cellar opens with a very frightening scene.

The heroine has passed out and wakes up in darkness:

The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart, for the 1961 Club

My first book for the 1961 Club (in which we read books published in a certain year), hosted this week by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, is The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart, an enthralling impersonation story set in Northumberland. Mary Grey, recently arrived from Canada, is sitting against Hadrian’s Wall, contemplating the countryside when she is accosted by a handsome man who thinks she is his cousin Annabel.

March 2026 Reading

The Sea Child, set in early 19th century Cornwall, was my favorite book this month because of the way it blends historical romance, an atmospheric setting, local folklore, and a journey of self-discovery for its determined heroine.  I also enjoyed the final book in Shannon Bowring's trilogy set in Maine, In a Distant Valley.

WWW Wednesday - Special 1961 Edition

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?

This post is a warm-up for Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings’ 1961 Reading Challenge, which begins next week. It is always fun to select my books and see what everyone else has chosen!

Six Degrees of Separation – from The Correspondent to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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. April’s starting point is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025). I enjoyed this book and thought it was an ideal choice for my book group because it was very readable, included serious and lighter topics (Sybil’s surprise when her friends enjoyed Outlander), and there was lots to discuss. My review.

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. 

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie26

In this mystery set on a fictional island in the Caribbean, Miss Marple’s quiet vacation is (surprise!) interrupted by murder. Her nephew Raymond had thoughtfully paid for her to travel to the West Indies to recuperate after a bad bout of pneumonia, and now Miss Marple is doing what she does best: listening. 

Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews, who reveals her Betsy-Tacy fandom

Given the challenges newspapers have experienced, investigative reporter Conley Hawkins is thrilled to have been offered a prestigious job in Washington, DC. Then, during her actual goodbye party, in the sort of nightmare situation that would normally only happen to yours truly, she learns her new employer has gone bankrupt – so no job in DC and her job in Atlanta has already been filled. 

The Sea Child by Linda Wilgus - a dramatic adventure in Cornwall

In this captivating historical novel, a grieving widow is drawn back to Cornwall, the location of her earliest memories, where she expects a quiet life but is drawn into friendship with a gang of smugglers. Impoverished after her naval husband’s death and unexpectedly touched by scandal, Isabel Henley flees London for a rustic cottage in Helston after her husband dies at Trafalgar on the HMS Neptune, leaving nothing but debts. 

Other People's Houses by Clare Mackintosh – Reading Wales 2026

In the third mystery featuring Detective Constable Ffion Morgan in Wales and Detective Sergeant Leo Brady just across the border in England, Ffion is investigating a drowned real estate agent while Leo has been summoned to a ritzy neighborhood in Cheshire, the Hill, regarding a string of burglaries. As I learned when visiting Cornwall several years ago (and it is also true on Cape Cod), housing in areas where tourism is a major industry has become too expensive for traditional residents.