A couple of years ago, I decided to try the reading challenge on Goodreads: pick a random number of books to try to read during a year. Last year I picked 60, which is five a month, and came out well ahead of that. So, I decided to go for 60 books again in 2025. I was much farther along at this time last year—although I am still three books ahead of schedule. These are three books I've finished in the last month:
The Pretender by Jo Harkin is a fascinating historical imagining of the life of Lambert Simnel, one of the "pretenders" to the throne of Henry VII. While I was more familiar with the pretender Perkin Warbeck, I found myself drawn to Lambert—who starts out his life as John Collan, a peasant, brought to Oxford and then to Margaret of Burgundy's court to be educated as Edward, Earl of Warwick. Lambert—or John—is naive enough to believe that he'd been switched with a fake Edward, who is being held in the Tower of London. Harkin tells us John/Lambert/Edward's story with a delightful narrative, although sometimes just a little too bawdy. Lambert is a teenager in much of the book, so he's feeling rather randy most of the time, but everyone is making a lot of references to men's "pintles" and it felt a bit heavy handed at times. Other than that minor quibble, I was drawn into Harkin's writing style, and was swept along with the story. I know quite a bit about this period of British history, but anyone who isn't as familiar might feel like taking a deep dive into the Plantagenets and Tudors either before or after.
A friend raved about Daniel Mason's
North Woods, and we usually agree on books, so I was compelled to check it out. The book is centered on one piece of property and house in western Massachusetts and weaves the story from the time the first settlers arrived through to present day. The first story is of a young couple fleeing the Puritan community and who build a cabin and start farming. The story then moves swiftly through the decades with other inhabitants until we meet Charles Osgood, who start tan apple orchard. He has two daughters, Mary and Alice, and their story, long after Charles is gone, becomes rather murderous and a bit horror-like. Other inhabitants are an artist, who has an affair with a writer, and a sportsman, who wants to turn the property into a hunting lodge. His efforts are thwarted by the ghosts of the artist and writer, and one of the most memorable chapters is when he brings in the psychic Anastasia for a seance. I firmly believe that Anastasia needs her own book, as that chapter really brought the book alive for me. In the end, all of the stories seem to come together, but it felt a little overloaded to me, like he was trying to shove too many stories into one book when he probably could have eliminated some and it would have been a stronger narrative. There are a lot of ghosts and magic and apples and murder. It's a fascinating look at one piece of property and the changes it undergoes through the years.
I listened to Marie Bostwick's
The Book Club for Troublesome Women on audio over several days while on my daily walks. Set in 1963, it delves into the lives of four women—Margaret, Charlotte, Viv, and Betsy—who form a book club to discuss Betty Friedan's
The Feminine Mystique. The four women are different—Margaret is married with three small children; Charlotte has a teenage daughter and two younger children; Viv is a former wartime nurse with six children and expecting her seventh; Bitsy is the youngest, having dropped out of college to marry an older man. Margaret has dreams of being a writer and manages to land a monthly column in a women's magazine; Charlotte is an aspiring artist. Bitsy wants to go to veterinary school but is held back because her male professors won't recommend her since she's a woman. Viv wants to go back to nursing, but is pregnant again. There is a lot about women's rights—or the lack thereof—during the early 1960s and how Friedan's book "spoke" to them at a time when the country was changing. The narrative is smooth, and while Margaret is the main narrator, we see all the women's lives clearly. I really enjoyed this one and will look for more of Bostwick's books.
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