Planning a Heat-Wave Reading Marathon!

 Anyone who knows anything at all about me knows that I thrive in the coldest of winters, and that I suffocate--heart, body, and soul--in an oppressive summer heat wave. I always survive, barely:), but life would not be possible in these conditions without loads of books by my side. Not one, not two, but many. 

Coupled with the heat wave or heat dome, this is the absolutely most touristed time in my town of the entire year. It would be insane to go anywhere! For some reason that I can't possibly fathom, the first two weeks of July are madness. We have learned the hard way to pile up the food and other essentials way ahead of time and pray we haven't forgotten anything that would necessitate a trip into bedlam. Thank goodness for Wimbledon, as a diversion from reading too many books! 

So! I'm still reading The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan, and am still reading and loving!!! Whistler. The latter was not on my 20 Books of Summer List, but it sure is now. I'm in way, way deep!  

I have a number of other books on my agenda in the coming days, and I do hope I will be able to post regularly. Like often. 

Other reading possibilities on the horizon:  Departures by Julian Barnes, Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt, and....I Must Confess that before I fall asleep at night, I've been reading The Lord of the Far Island by Victoria Holt--talk about a blast from the past!

I hope any heat coming your way will inspire you to reading your way out of it! 

 

 

 

 

The Pretender by Jo Harkin: Inside Early Tudor England

I enjoyed Jo Harkin's The Pretender, which was on the short list for the Sir Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize this year. The novel begins in the late 1400s, and Henry of Breton, or Henry Tudor (later to become Henry VII), is plotting and planning desperately to become King of England after King Richard's death. That's the back action. The story primarily revolves around a young boy living a humble life on a farm whose world is transformed when strangers come to take him to a new life, because he is the Yorkist heir to the throne, and is truly, Edward, the Earl of Warwick. This review from The Guardian is a good one. The novel is 475 pages.

I have now read about 100 pages of a 2024 novel by J. Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs, which is the fifth book I'm tackling from my 20 Books of Summer List. The link will take you to an NPR interview with the author about this book. The novel revolves around a once-abandoned old manse on the Maine coast, and the lives of women who have lived there and those who have coveted it from afar. 

 

I'm a little concerned about the future of my summer reading, because my workload has increased and it seems as though I may not have quite as much time for reading as I'd hoped. Still, I'm sure lots of hot and humid weather is on the way, so all is not lost!  

 

 

 

 

The Things We Never Say

I read The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout over a period of 10 days. I read it slowly, with deliberation. I must say that I was deeply affected by Artie's story. How I wish I knew others who have read it, because I'm longing to discuss it. I feel lonely not being able to talk about it, actually. I will say that the novel was the most moving book I've read in a very long time. I was deeply affected by Artie's increasing closeness with his son--that was a wonderful part of the book. The things he never said haunted me.

The only other book I've read by Strout is Olive Kitteridge, which I liked and admired. But The Things We Never Say was a much deeper reading experience. 

Do you have other books by Strout that you would particularly recommend?  

The past week was a particularly exhausting one, so just a brief post today.  

 

 

A Late May Read AND My First Book for 20 Books of Summer

In late May I read Rachel Seiffert's historical novel, Once the Deed is Done. It's set in northern Germany, during the final two months of World War II and in the immediate post-war period. For two months before the surrender, the British have advanced and have come to occupy a small town. 

This town, once the site of a German (Nazi) labor camp/factory, whose forced laborers had been mostly deported from Poland and Ukraine, is now the site of a DP (Displaced Persons) camp. The story focuses on the activities and viewpoints of a woman who's a Red Cross worker from Britain, three German children who spend the summer of 1945 renovating a shepard's hut high in the hills of the town, a German couple who are hiding a very young Polish child who was abandoned in their barn, British military staff, and various characters who are living in the DP Camp. There is a mystery, too. What happened one frigid month in March 1945 when dozens of women deportees from the factory vanished?

 

I thought this novel was exceptionally well-done. I have an intense interest in 1945 Germany and the early post-war era and have read many histories on the subject. I can say that Seiffert did a tremendous amount of research for this novel. It was short-listed for the 2026 Sir Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize. Seiffert has been on the short-list for the Booker Prize at least once. I loved her handling of the multiple viewpoints. 

This summer I also plan to read another book that's on the Scott shortlist. That's The Pretender by Jo Harkin.   

I read my first book for my 20 Books of Summer this past week.  I galloped through At Midnight Comes the Cry, the 10th and most recent book in the Claire Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series.  It seems that this installment has been announced as the final book in the series. I have read them all, starting with my favorite, the first book, In the Bleak Midwinter. Well worth reading! 

 

Although this latest entry in the series received very high ratings on Goodreads, it was one of my least favorites. There's a great deal of action, and I found it chaotic. The premise was difficult for me, too: A white supremacist group in the Adirondacks is on the verge of wreaking havoc. I found the themes difficult to read, especially because we're dealing with these issues all the time in real life in our country.  I hope that other readers have thought differently about this book and I hope you will share your thoughts here. 

I'm also reading The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout and have started The Black Death by Thomas Asbridge, a work of history. 

 

 

 

The 20 Books of Summer

Truth to tell, I've been plotting, and agonizing, over my 20 Books of Summer List for at least 10 days. I know there will be a few substitutions along the way, but most of the books on the list I intend to read this summer. My moods are unpredictable, so I suppose it's also true to say that anything can happen. 

Summer is my happiest reading time! The heat and humidity drive me to distraction, so having good books to retreat to, inside a cool home, is truly a sublime escape! Good books distract me from what is for me, the misery of an overheated season. I'm a winter lover, I'm afraid.  

Thanks to Anna of AnnaBookBel.net for hosting this summer's 20 Books of Summer.

My list: 

20 Books of Summer  2026

1.      The Pretender by Jo Harkin (2025)

2.      The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (2026)

3.      We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson

4.      Ghost Stories: A Memoir by Siri Hustvedt (2026)

5.      A Candle in Her Room by Ruth M. Arthur (1966)

6.      At Midnight Comes the Cry  Julia Spencer-Fleming (2025)

7.      The Loneliness of Sonia and Sonny  by Kiran Desai (2025)

8.      Land by Maggie O’Farrell (2026)

9.      Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards (2025)

10.  Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 by Ian Buruma   (2026)

11.  Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (2023)

12.  The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George (2018)

13.  John of John by Douglas Stuart  (2026)

14.  The Murder Club by Richard Osman (2020)  TBR

15.  The Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett (2014)   TBR

16.  Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore (1993) TBR 

17.  The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (2024)  TBR

18.  The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan  (2024) TBR

19.  The Black Death: A Global History by Thomas Asbridge (2026)

20.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak   (2006)  TBR

Alternates: Night Objects by Eli Raphael

 As of today, something is seriously wrong with this blog. Only today's post is showing and none of my previous posts. I checked "Settings" and I have it set to show 9 posts in all, so it's not that. Until this is fixed, you can click on "Older Posts" below to see earlier blog entries.