Spell the Month in Books - July 2024

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on or near the first Saturday of each month, so I am quite late this month - and it took some finagling! But here goes:

My February 2023 Reads

It is rare to read two books in the same month that you know will make your "Favorites list" at the end of the year but I thought these two historical novels were exceptional; I recommend both.

Historical Fiction

My January 2023 Reads

Not as much variety in my reading last month as usual.  My favorite book was The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, second in a mystery series set in an upscale retirement community in Britain.

YA Historical Fiction

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016). Three young people, thrown together by fate in East Prussia at the end of WWII, are among the thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek to reach the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that is evacuating civilians from the Russian army.

My December 2022 Reads

This month was noteworthy for finishing a group read of Susan Cooper, joining Liz Dexter's Dean Street December, and reading the new Lacey Flint mystery by Sharon Bolton, which caused me to go back to the beginning of the series, plus listen to her recent standalone, The Split.

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.

The Dark by Sharon Bolton

Title: The Dark
Author: Sharon Bolton
Publication: Orion, paperback, 2022
Genre: Suspense, series
Setting: London

Description: When a baby is kidnapped near Tower Bridge by terrorists, off duty police officer Lacey Flint is in her kayak and manages to rescue the child from the Thames.

My September 2022 Reads

September was a busy month but it is nice being done with my master’s degree so I don’t spend every weekend doing homework. I enjoyed getting back into John Lescroart’s books with their memorable San Francisco settings. Although I rarely read memoirs, I found Funny in Farsi both amusing and poignant. I joined a group read of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence; curled up with a contemporary romance that I thought was well done, The Reunion; and found a juvenile fantasy I thought was long out of print, The Ghost of Opalina. How was your September?

Suspense

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins (2021). When a child disappears in Oxford, her nanny is immediately suspected and questioned.

Favorite Reads of 2015

Here is my Best of 2015 list. Better late than never!

Children’s Books

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (2015)
As some of you know, I love evacuation stories! This is the best one I have read since Back Home by Michelle Magorian in 1984. Here, when Ada and her brother are evacuated to the country during WWII, a whole new world is revealed to Ada, who has never left her family’s apartment due to a twisted foot – and a twisted mother.

Historical Fiction

The King’s Falcon by Stella Riley (2014)
Third in her Civil War series (which has attracted diehard fans), this book follows Ashley Peverell and Francis Langley, minor characters in previous books, who have accompanied Charles II into exile in Paris. Ashley becomes involved with a beautiful actress, Athenais de Galzain, who has a powerful enemy, as if Ashley didn’t already have more trouble than he can handle . . .