What I Read Last Month (May & June 2024)
A bumper crop of books!
So, this whole monthly reading round up thing…I guess I just skipped May?
Oops.
If you’ve been following along with my Latest London Dispatches, you’ll know that The Gentleman and I have made a house move at the end of May. And while that is 100% to blame for why you didn’t get a What I Read Last Month for May, it did not derail my reading as much as I thought it would.
Result!
Please indulge me then for a bumper crop of titles.
May at a glance
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
I started off the month of May strong with the excellent audiobook version of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. I really enjoyed Cosimano’s voice in this story about a divorced mother and romantic suspense author who is mistaken for a contract killer. Bonus points for the camaraderie between Finlay and Vero.
Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver
I had to good luck to read Locked in Pursuit, the fourth Electra McDonnell mystery, before it released this spring, and I’m so glad I did. This is a historical mystery set in World War 2 London, and it features a safe cracker turned government agent. Ashley Weaver was actually my first Ask an Author guest here on Substack, so be sure to read her interview about the book!
Ask an Author with Ashley Weaver
Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehman by Harriet Baker
Changing pace a bit, I picked up Harriet Baker’s biography of three significant British writers on the recommendation of my mother. The focus of the book is tight, honing in on the period of time in Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehman’s lives that they spent in the countryside and how that affected their writing lives. I found the sections on Warner particularly interesting, and now I’m thinking about going back and reading works by both her and Lehman.
I always enjoy an Emily Henry novel, and I was happy that I kept this one as my “break glass in case of emergency” book for that period right after we’d moved and I was thoroughly exhausted. I found this book charming and, always, enjoyed watching the characters grow as they confronted not only their changing relationship but their own underlying issues.
June at a glance
Spy School (Spy School #1) by Stuart Gibbs
June started with a delightful change of pace! I picked up Spy School, a middle grade novel about a boy who is recruited as a student at a secret government school to train the next generation of spies. But when someone seems intent on killing him, he realizes that he may be suffering from the world’s worst case of mistaken identity. I highly recommend this one for readers young and old.
Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939-1945 by Neill Lochery
This book is on this list purely for research reasons, however, I also found the topic fascinating. Lisbon was a hotbed of espionage during World War 2, even as Portugal struggled to walk a fine line and remain neutral during the war. Keep an eye out for little nuggets of research popping up in a future book of mine!
New Grub Street by George Gissing
If you have ever labored under the misapprehension that being a working writer is a glamorous thing, let me introduce you to New Grub Street. I should make it very clear, I loved this book and its cynical take on the writing and publishing of popular fiction at the end of the 19th century. So many of the conversations about the tension between art and business ring true today. It also features one of my favorite Victorian novel tropes: the young woman who suddenly comes into money and has to fend off unscrupulous suitors.
Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie
I was at Daunt Books for the launch of my dear friend Dr. Mary S. Shannon’s Billy Waters Is Dancing, and I picked this book up on a whim. It’s billed as in the tradition of English folklore horror and it’s…weird? I’m still deciding what I think of it, but I will say that I found it completely compelling and flew through it.
Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier by Patrick Grant and William Collins
What have you recently read and enjoyed? Leave a comment and let me know!
Hand down my favorite title this year.