Two by Constance Savery

I have been reading a lot of Constance Savery for a project and her prolific body of work includes a wide variety of juvenile fiction, including a family story and historical novel featured here. While her work was informed by a strict moral code, as I observe below, sometimes her naughty characters are more fun before they are reformed!

Redhead at School (1951)

Charity loved her haphazard life in a Yorkshire rectory, doing lessons with the young men her father tutors.

"New" D.E. Stevensons from Furrowed Middlebrow

Scott at Furrowed Middlebrow published eleven “new” D. E. Stevenson books this month, some of which I had read from the library but a few I had never read at all, including the two below, which is very exciting. Each of these reprints includes an autobiographical essay from 1950 by Stevenson, originally created as promotional material for her novel Music in the Hills (which was also reprinted recently and is one of my favorites).

The Musgraves (1960)

The Musgraves are another DES family consisting of an attractive widow and three daughters, who have enough money for a servant or two but still need to be careful of expenses.

WWW Wednesday – January 26, 2022

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

I just started The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe (2021). This is a young adult novel recommended by uber-high school librarian, Barb Fecteau, in which the daughter of a con artist is taken hostage in a bank heist.

Five Things

Why is it that when I am reading a book while using the weight machines at the gym I get dirty looks yet other people often stare at their phones much longer without moving?

All Her Little Secrets, debut suspense by Wanda M. Morris

Title: All Her Little Secrets
Author: Wanda M. Morris
Publication: William Morrow, trade paperback, 2021
Genre: Suspense
Setting: Present-day Atlanta

Description: Ellie Littlejohn is one of the few black employees at Houghton Transportation and takes pride in her work as a corporate attorney. Yes, she is having an affair with her white, married boss but no one knows, do they?

The Gilded Girl by Alyssa Colman, an alternate version of A Little Princess - with magic

Title: The Gilded Girl
Author: Alyssa Colman
Publication: Farrar Straus Giroux, hardcover, 2021
Genre: Middle-Grade Historical Fantasy
Setting: New York, 1905

Description: Emma Harris is brought to New York by her affluent architect father to attend an exclusive boarding school, Miss Posterity’s Academy for Practical Magic, which teaches well-born twelve-year-olds how to “kindle” or start channeling their magic skills as quasi-adults.

On a Night Like This, a modern Cinderella story by Lindsey Kelk

Title: On a Night Like This
Author: Lindsey Kelk
Publication: Harper Collins, paperback, 2022 (published in 2021 in UK)
Genre: Fiction/Chick Lit
Setting: England and Italy

Description: Francesca Cooper is a temp without a current gig and has a fiancé who has lost interest in her. They have an arrangement that she won’t take out-of-town gigs lest he be tempted to cheat on her – ugh! Let's help her find someone better!

China Trade, a mystery by Edgar-winner S.J. Rozan

Title: China Trade
Author: S. J. Rozan
Publication: St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1994
Genre: Mystery
Setting: New York

Description: Asian-American private investigator Lydia Chin knows Chinatown because she lives there. Despite her no-nonsense demeanor, she still lives at home with her mother, respecting tradition.