Favorite Reads of 2024

Wishing you a Happy New Year and many good books in 2025! I read nearly 200 books in 2024 and quite a few were so compelling I kept recommending them to others or thinking about them myself. These are my top ten:

The Maplin Bird by K.M. Peyton

In this historical novel set in 19th century England, orphaned siblings escape their abusive relatives and try to make a new life for themselves in a coastal fishing village.

After Emily and Toby Garland’s parents die from cholera, they are lucky to have a home with Uncle Gideon and Aunt Mercy, although it’s hardly charity, as Toby (16) is beaten often and works unpaid on his uncle’s boat while Emily (15) slaves away on household chores.

20 Books of Summer 2024

This is my third time participating in the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge, which is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books from June 1 to September 1, and gives me a fun opportunity to prioritize some books for summer and not simply read my library reserves as they come in.  This is a week late but I was busy trying to organize the world, or at least, my particular corner of it (middling success so far). I have enjoyed Cathy’s challenge twice before although last year I just read 11/20.  I added one of those unread books to my list.

Spell the Month in Books – December 2023 and RIP K.M. Peyton

From books I have read this year:

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (2023). Iris is alone after her brother goes to war and her mother dies (orphan alert!). The journalism career – and rivalry with handsome but annoying Roman Kitt – that meant so much to her now seems meaningless, but she uses what she’s learned to get a job as a war correspondent so she can find her missing brother. My review.

Favorite Reads of 2022

Here are my favorite books from the past year:

Best Nonfiction Read of the Year: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (2015) (audio read by talented Scott Brick). I was mesmerized listening to the audio of the Lusitania’s last and tragic voyage in 1915. Larson weaves together stories about the passengers and crew, bringing them all to life.

My July 2022 Reads

My favorite July book was the audio of a book I had read when it first came out, The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.  It was expertly narrated by Hayley Atwell and entertained me on my way back and forth to work for several weeks.

Flambards by K.M. Peyton, one of my favorite orphan stories

Title: Flambards
Author: K.M. Peyton
Illustrator: Victor G. Ambrus
Publication: World Publishing Company, hardcover, 1967
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Setting: England, 1908-1912

Description: In the first of this four book series, orphaned Christina is forced to go live with her Uncle Russell, and his sons, Mark and Will, at their home, Flambards, 40 miles outside London in the countryside. Mark and his father are obsessed with horses while Will is obsessed with machinery and aviation. Christina, just 12, is an heiress but used to be shuttled from relative to relative, all indifferent to her wellbeing.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Life After Life to The Luckiest Girl

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month it’s a wild card – the chain begins with the book that ended our July reading, which means that my starting book is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013).

My Blog's Name in Childhood Favorites

Desperate Reader spelled out the name of her blog from her collection of Virago Modern Classics and Simon from Stuck in a Book used books from his TBR but I thought I would do it from some of my favorite children's books:

Mercury (Book Review)

Title: Exposure
Author: Margot Livesey
Publication: Harper Collins, hardcover, 2016
Genre: Fiction

Plot: Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury—a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past—arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes.

What to Read in a Blizzard or During the Long Winter

My part of Boston got about ten inches of snow yesterday so it's the perfect time to recommend some winter favorites!  These are books that would make you feel the cold even if it were a warm July day.

Children's:

Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik (illustrated by Maurice Sendak) - This is one of the first books I remember, and I can hear my mother's voice reading to me:  It is cold.  See the snow. See the snow come down.  Little Bear said, "Mother Bear, I am cold. See the snow.  I want something to put on."

Snowbound with Betsy by Carolyn Haywood - Several years before I encountered Betsy Ray, I had met this other Betsy, an outgoing girl with pigtails and (later in the series) a little sister named Star.  I read every book by Haywood several times and even named my Teddy Bear after a minor character.  In this book, a storm cancels school the week before Christmas and some travelers are stranded at Betsy's home.   

Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink - A father and two daughters, down on their luck, appropriate a Wisconsin summer cottage when their car breaks down.  The father tries to repair their fortunes by entering contests while teenage Minty yearns for a permanent home.  Along with Two are Better Than One, this is my favorite Brink.