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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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 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.

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.