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. 

The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton by Jennifer N. Brown (Guest Review)

“Dual timeline” novels are quite popular these days, but The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton adds another twist. Jennifer Brown alternates a past-tense narrative set in the 16th century with a present-tense story in which, yes, a historian is searching for a lost book – but also is involved in a classic thriller, with eight people in an old, isolated manor house amid increasing menace. Both parts are well done and make for a compelling read.

A Deceptive Devotion by Iona Wishaw - 20BOS26-12

It’s been six years since I visited Lane Winslow and her neighbors in King’s Cove, British Columbia, where she settled after WWII, hoping to find a peaceful place to rebuild her life. She has been partially successful: she is living in a shining white, old-fashioned house nestled on a dappled, sunlit green lawn, which she is extremely fond of; moreover, she has made numerous new friends and, in the previous book, became engaged to Frederick Darling, a former bomber pilot, who served in the RAF, now a police inspector in his native Canada.

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.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier - 20BOS26-11

Tracy Chevalier is best known for her book about Vermeer, Girl with the Pearl Earring, but her skill - whether writing about a 17th century Dutch servant or a Quaker newly arrived in pre-Civil War America - is her ability to transport the reader to that exact time and place. And being jilted at any time is painful but clearly even worse in a small Quaker community, which has happened to Honor. 

Iris in Winter by Elizabeth Cadell - 20BOS26-10

Iris longs to be a reporter, and she got a job at a well-regarded newspaper and has a nice apartment in Knightsbridge but is stuck sketching hats and writing meaningless columns – far from serious journalism. When her unpleasant boss (who only gave Iris a job because he has a crush on her sister, Caroline) finally comes up with a news assignment for her – to investigate an incident that happened at a boys’ school – conveniently located in High Ambo, where Iris is about to go visit her sister, she realizes this is her big chance.

County Cavan and Dublin, Ireland 2026

The main event of my trip was Regina and Sam’s wedding at the Virginia Park Lodge in County Cavan. Back on Saturday, upon arrival at the airport back, the Customs Officer asked the purpose of my trip, and I said I was there for a wedding and sight-seeing. He asked where and then told me he was also going to a wedding at the Virginia Park Lodge two months later! Quite the coincidence!

credit: Wonder and Magic

The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson

Caroline Lash, a native Manhattanite who works in publishing, is burnt out at 28 and eager to get away from the shadow of her prima donna mother, a bestselling author. On the strength of having published one story in the New Yorker, she secures a writing fellowship and heads to Boston’s North Shore for a year. On the way to fictional Greenhead, she meets Van Whittaker, who works at the Hammond Castle Museum, and soon they are a couple, and she is included if not welcomed by his high school friend group:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I was Reading on This Day Over the Last Ten Years

The Artsy Reader Girl's assignment topic for August 11th is the books we were reading on this day over the last ten years. This was a really fun exercise! I started keeping a reading log in 2001 (although I did not get as much reading done when I was in law school - my book group gave me a beautiful bookmark from Tiffany's, expecting not to see me again, but I turned up quite often, although never on time, due to evening classes) and joined Goodreads several years later so it is relatively easy to figure out what I was reading and when. What is more interesting (at least to me) is how well I remember most of these books.

Galway, Ireland 2026

I was determined to visit Galway, which is described as Ireland’s “bohemian cultural heart, famous for its vibrant street music, medieval history, and lively pub scene,” and because the Galway races take place during the last week in July, I chose to go the week before. Now that we knew our way around Cork, it took only a few minutes to reach the bus stop for a three hour trip that was fairly scenic.

Arms of the Martin family, one of the Tribes of Galway (1641)

The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan

The Rúin is a dark, suspenseful debut set in Galway, first in a series. It follows Detective Cormac Reilly as he relocates from Dublin with his girlfriend, and (somewhat mysteriously) is treated with hostility by his new police department, which assigns him to cold cases (some of which are not just cold but wet - he thinks his colleagues are deliberately spilling coffee on the case files to show their contempt of him), despite an impressive 20-year career. When Jack Blake commits suicide by jumping in the River Corrib, his fiancee and sister are devastated and argue there are circumstances regarding his death that make murder more likely.

Cork, Ireland 2026

On Monday, we took an 8 am bus to Cork, the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland (my cousin Sabrina had given us good advice about a bus stop closer to our B&B but I didn’t relax until the bus actually stopped and let us buy tickets on board)(everyone kept warning us that having a ticket in advance guarantees you a seat but if you have a ticket for bus and miss it, you are out of luck). We only had one day in Cork so we wanted to get an early start. 

St. Fin Barre Cathedral

Six Degrees of Separation – from Land to Into the Fire

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. July’s starting point is Land by Maggie O’Farrell (2026). Land is about an Irish family in the 19th century, and is described as a spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery, and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of 1840s famine. It’s set on an unnamed, fictitious peninsula on the west coast of Ireland.