Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery, for the #1925Club

When I was about 13, my family went to Martha’s Vineyard to spend part of a weekend with my father’s law partner. His children were younger so I begged to be taken to the local library (What, you say, you needed an excuse?). And what do you think I found on a discard table near the Chilmark Library door but a three-book series I’d never heard of by the author of Anne of Green Gables - also set on Prince Edward Island but about a different orphan. They were first edition hardcovers; unfortunately falling apart, but I have cherished them anyway. All three are delightful page-turners.

Mrs. Lorimer's Quiet Summer by Molly Clavering #DeanStreetDecember24

As the introduction by Elizabeth Crawford to this new edition points out, after serving as a Wren in WWII, Molly Clavering settled in Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway, in the Scottish Borders. She was already acquainted with another writer, D.E. Stevenson, who had moved to Moffat with her husband James after the bombing of Glasgow in the early 1940s. This is the story of two writer friends during one full summer, inspired by the real life friendship of Molly and Dorothy.

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry – 16/20 of Books of Summer

When a former colleague, Deb Englander, mentioned this book early in 2024, the subtitle – Investigations Into A Forgotten Mystery Author – immediately caught my attention and I asked the Boston Public Library to order a copy.

Long Island by Colm Tóibín – 15/20 Books of Summer

In Brooklyn (2009), Eilis Lacey was encouraged by her sister Rose to leave her small town in Ireland for better employment prospects in New York. She finds a job in a department store and takes bookkeeping classes at night but is lonely. Eventually, she began attending Friday night dances with a friend and meets an Italian-American plumber. When she gets bad news from home that Rose has died, Tony persuades her to get married secretly before she returns to Ireland to be with her mother.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane – 12/20 Books of Summer

Mary Pat Fennessy lives in public housing in South Boston, working as a health aide at a nursing home, trying to pay her bills and worrying about her children. Her son died of a drug overdose after coming back from Vietnam. Her daughter Jules is going into her senior year of high school, hanging out all night with teens her mother distrusts.

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Title: Becoming Madam Secretary
Author: Stephanie Dray
Publication: Berkley, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: United States

Description: This fascinating historical novel about Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, begins in 1933 when FDR asks her to join his Cabinet and she presents him with a list of ground-breaking goals she would need him to support – get rid of child labor laws, limit working hours, create a minimum wage . . .  .

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Title: The Diamond Eye
Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: HarperAudio, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Soviet Union and United States

Description: When Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko is sent to the United States during WWII to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s international student conference, Stalin’s goal is to showcase a military sniper whose skill has earned her the nickname Lady Death, hoping she and the rest of Russian delegation can generate American support on the Eastern Front.

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, for the #1937Club

Title: Baby Island
Author: Carol Ryrie Brink
Illustrator: Helen Sewell
Publication: Macmillan, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Juvenile fiction

Description: Twelve-year-old Mary Wallace and her younger sister Jean are on their way to Australia from San Francisco to join their father, who has been managing a ranch there for the past two years. Mary and Jean have long been devoted to other people’s babies and entertain themselves by playing with those on the ship.

Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle

Title: Meet the Austins
Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Publication: Laurel-Leaf paperback, originally published in 1960
Genre: Juvenile
Setting: New England

The original cover

Description: The Austins are a close-knit family of six – John is 15, Vicky, 12, Suzy 9, and sensitive Rob about five – they say grace at meals, Mrs. Austin reads aloud to all four at bedtime, and Dr. Austin is an old-fashioned country doctor with an office in his home as well as at a local hospital. Their lives are disrupted when their courtesy-aunt Elena calls to tell them her husband and his copilot were killed in a plane accident.

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Title: The Phoenix Crown
Authors: Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
Narrators: Saskia Maarleveld and Katherine Chin
Publication: HarperCollins, Audiobook, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: San Francisco, 1906; Paris, 1911

Description: Four unusual women meet in San Francisco, just days before the infamous earthquake of 1906 and resulting fire that lasted three days, destroying nearly thirty thousand buildings and killing at least 600.

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Title: The Women
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publication: St. Martin’s, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: United States and Vietnam

Description: Frances “Frankie” McGrath has grown up in a conservative Catholic home near San Diego that reveres military service. When her beloved older brother graduates from the Naval Academy and leaves to fight in Vietnam, Frankie accelerates her nursing degree and enlists with the army herself.

Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam - historical fiction set in 1920s Edinburgh

Title: Hazardous Spirits
Author: Anbara Salam
Publication: Tin House Books, trade paperback, 2023
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 1920s Scotland

Description: Although Evelyn’s family experienced difficult times when she was younger, she has now been comfortably married for five years to Robert Hazard, a respectable and reasonably prosperous accountant in Edinburgh. Everything changes when he tells her he can communicate with spirits.

Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson

Charlotte is the relatively new headmistress at St. Elizabeth’s, a well-regarded girls’ boarding school she attended before Oxford - she wore a dowdy hat at her interview so her male interviewers wouldn’t think she was too young. She takes pride in her work and in knowing the girls but she is lonely because befriending the staff would create jealousy. New girl Tessa MacRynne breaks through Charlotte's reserve when her parents get divorced and she tries to run away back to Scotland.  Charlotte identifies with Tessa, having gone through a

Mine for Keeps by Jean Little #1962Club

Title: Mine for Keeps
Author: Jean Little (1932-2020)
Publication: Little, Brown & Co., hardcover, 1962
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Setting: 20th century Ontario

This week, Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings are hosting the 1962 Club, where bloggers read and write about books published in a chosen year.

Bel Lamington by D.E. Stevenson

Title: Bel Lamington
Author: D.E. Stevenson
Publication: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, hardcover, 1961
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Great Britain

Description: After Bel’s aunt dies, she is on her own and leaves Sussex for a tiny flat in London and a secretarial job at an import/export firm. She finds the work interesting but is lonely and the other office staff resent that her industry is recognized when she is promoted to work for a young partner, Ellis Brownlee.

Foster by Claire Keegan

Title: Foster
Author: Claire Keegan
Publication: Grove Press, hardcover, originally published in 2010
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Ireland

Description: One summer, a young girl is brought by her father to stay with relatives on a farm while her mother is pregnant. She arrives dusty and timid but the Kinsellas make her welcome and slowly she gains confidence.

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Title: Seventeenth Summer
Author: Maureen Daly
Publication: Simon & Schuster, paperback, originally published in 1942
Genre: Young Adult
Setting: Small town, Wisconsin, 20th century

Description: Angie Morrow has just finished her senior year at a girls’ school and is looking forward to college in the fall when she meets and starts dating Jack Duluth, star of the local high school’s basketball team.

A Game of Snakes and Ladders by Doris Langley Moore

Title: A Game of Snakes and Ladders
Author: Doris Langley Moore
Publication: Dean Street Press, paperback, originally published in 1938
Genre: Fiction
Setting: 20th century Egypt and London, between the wars

Description: Lucy Kendon was the second lead in a second-rate theatrical company touring overseas, now in Egypt. With help from kind-hearted Lucy, Daisy Joy joined the company in Australia when a cast member dropped out.

Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Title: Capital Kaleidoscope: The Story of a Washington Hostess
Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885–1970)
Publication: Harper & Brothers, hardcover, 1937
Genre: Memoir
Setting: Washington, DC

Description: Keyes, who became a bestselling author in the first half of the 20th century, was married to a New England politician 22 years her senior. He served in New Hampshire as Selectman, Representative, Senator, and on several state commissions before being elected Governor of New Hampshire from 1917-19, then was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican for three terms from 1919-37. FPK was very conscious of the expense of public service, which she felt ordinary people did not appreciate: the cost for senators of maintaining two homes as well as entertaining and being entertained while raising a family.

The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson

Title: The Star That Also Stays
Author: Anna Rose Johnson
Publication: Holiday House, hardcover, 2022
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 1914 Michigan

Description: Norvia Nelson is proud of her heritage, Chippewa on her mother’s side and Swedish on her father’s. If only her parents cared enough about their five children to stop arguing!