Books and Other Impressions
Caroline Lash, a native Manhattanite who works in publishing, is burnt out at 28 and eager to get away from the shadow of her prima donna mother, a bestselling author. On the strength of having published one story in the New Yorker, she secures a writing fellowship and heads to Boston’s North Shore for a year. On the way to fictional Greenhead, she meets Van Whittaker, who works at the Hammond…
The Artsy Reader Girl 's assignment topic for August 11th is the books we were reading on this day over the last ten years. This was a really fun exercise! I started keeping a reading log in 2001 (although I did not get as much reading done when I was in law school - my book group gave me a beautiful bookmark from Tiffany's, expecting not to see me again, but I turned up quite often, although…
I was determined to visit Galway, which is described as Ireland’s “bohemian cultural heart, famous for its vibrant street music, medieval history, and lively pub scene,” and because the Galway races take place during the last week in July, I chose to go the week before. Now that we knew our way around Cork, it took only a few minutes to reach the bus stop for a three hour trip that was fairly…
The Rúin is a dark, suspenseful debut set in Galway, first in a series. It follows Detective Cormac Reilly as he relocates from Dublin with his girlfriend, and (somewhat mysteriously) is treated with hostility by his new police department, which assigns him to cold cases (some of which are not just cold but wet - he thinks his colleagues are deliberately spilling coffee on the case files to show…
On Monday, we took an 8 am bus to Cork, the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland (my cousin Sabrina had given us good advice about a bus stop closer to our B&B but I didn’t relax until the bus actually stopped and let us buy tickets on board)(everyone kept warning us that having a ticket in advance guarantees you a seat but if you have a ticket for bus and miss it, you are out of luck).…
It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best . We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. July’s starting point is Land by Maggie O’Farrell (2026). Land is about an Irish family in the 19th century, and is described as a spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery, and survival as a family makes a new home in…
A quick look at some of the highlights of my trip to Ireland, beginning in Waterford – several of us were invited to the wedding of our friends, Duncan (who I met when I was 5 - very Betsy-Tacyish) and Marlene’s daughter, Regina, in County Cavan. Having only had a 24-hour layover in Dublin many years ago, I decided I wanted to see more of the country and persuaded my college classmate, Susan, to…
Suzette operates a street cart selling crêpes all over Paris. She begins by making the batter, shops for fruit, and then begins her travels from the Left Bank to the Eiffel Tower and places in between. Read more »
Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews from the Stacks and usually occurs on a Saturday. This edition is brought to you from Trinity College in Dublin where I am spending the night before returning to Boston tomorrow. J - The Prime of Miss J ean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1961). A charismatic teacher at a girl’s school in 1930s Edinburgh has made it her mission to introduce a selected group to…
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…
Captain Harry Phillips, a British officer, is a prisoner of war in a German-controlled hospital in Romania. It’s 1918 and while Germany has gone from near-victory to an unsuccessful Spring Offensive on the Western Front leading to eventual defeat, its army and military intelligence are still feared. Harry is recovering from being shot in the thigh but has been treated well, so is not worried when…
Kendal Carter is at a playground on the outskirts of Zurich with her four-year-old, Rosie, when she notices two men in suits lurking nearby who appear very out of place. She is instantly wary, especially because if the men are a threat, they are between her and the apartment where she has a “go bag.” Read more »
I made good progress on my 20 Books of Summer in June: eight read and reviewed, and I am in the middle of the ninth. My favorite books this month were A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick, a historical set in England and Normandy during the 12th century, and I, Spy by L.M. Kemp, about an ex-spy who thought she had escaped from a lifetime of espionage, only to be dragged back in…
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. Read more »
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl . This week the theme is Book Titles That Include the Word (add the word of your choice – and I chose) Summer : Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow (1937). When Judith is swept off her feet by handsome Philip Larne, an adventurer and slave trader, he builds her a beautiful plantation in Louisiana, where they raise…
It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best . We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. June’s starting point is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, which has taken the book-reading world by storm . I started this bestseller about a tradwife but disliked the author’s characterization of Harvard and liked the heroine even…
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…
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,…
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. Read more »
This historical novel, set in 1952, begins dramatically with a dead or nearly dead body. Honor Wilson, a seemingly respectable widow, inherited a large Victorian house in London after her much-older husband died but little in the way of other assets. She takes in lodgers: George (Georgina), ostensibly studying art but actually posing in the nude as an artist’s model, a shady occupation for Lord…
Two books stood out for me in May: Lady Tremaine , a retelling of Cinderella, which read more like historical fiction than fantasy (probably why I liked it so much); and In Farleigh Field , set in the British countryside during WWII, which featured a heroine working at Bletchley Park (how sad I was born too late to fulfill my codebreaking dream; never mind the fact that I do not possess the right…
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…
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. Read more »
It takes a lot of confidence in these days of NIL and the NCAA transfer portal to write a book called The Locker Room Is Not for Sale – given many of us are very skeptical indeed of such a claim. However, this book is different: for the past 40 years, Brian White, a former Harvard quarterback I first met when he was in high school, has been coaching at the Division 1 college level at Fordham,…
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 . Read more »