A reference point for books read and reviewed:
January:
1. These Vintage Years by Margot Benary-Isbert (1965)
2. Alpenrose by Madeline Charlton (1972)
3. Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash (2023)
4. The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson (1960)
5. The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn (2024)
6. A Modest Independence by Mimi Matthews (2019)
7. Fair as a Star by Mimi Matthews (2020)
8. The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton (1956)
9. The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters: Volume Five, 1960 edited by Rupert Hart-Davis (1983)
10. The Stage Kiss by Amelia Jones (2024)
11. Cole and Laila Are Just Friends by Bethany Turner (2024)
12. Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish by Bethany Turner (2020)
13. Bound to Please by Michael Dirda (2005)
14. A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman (1896)
15. Moscow X by David McCloskey (2023)
16. Mother Knows Best by Edna Ferber (1927)
17. The Fourth Wall by A.A. Milne (1928)
18. Always Remember by Mary Balogh (2024)
19. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (2003)
20. Through All the Years by Essie Summers (1974)
21. The Outsider by Jane Casey (2023)
February:
22. The Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews (2024)
23. Getting Married in Buffalo Jump by Susan Haley (1987)
24. The King’s Equal by Katherine Paterson (1992)
25. Empress of the Nile by Lynne Olson (2023)
26. A Distance Too Grand by Regina Scott (2019)
27. Red Sauce Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake (2022)
28. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (1989)
29. My Name is Million, published anonymously by Lucy Zoe Girling Zajdler (1940)
30. Say You’ll Be Mine by Naina Kumar (2024)
31. The Maverick by Thomas Harding (2023)
32. The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams (2021)
33. Futureproof by Kevin Roose (2021)
34. With Love, from Cold World by Alicia Thompson (2023)
35. The Wicked Enchantment by Margot Benary-Isbert, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1953)
36. The House on Gregor’s Brae by Essie Summers (1971)
37. Love from Sandy by Elwynne Berger (1953)
38. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
39. At First Spite by Olivia Dade (2024)
40. Simply the Best by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (2024)
41. Cheerfulness by Garrison Keillor (2023)
42. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (1939)
March:
43. Grievance by K.C. Constantine (2000)
44. The Lieutenant’s Lady by Bess Streeter Aldrich (1942)
45. The Perfect Passion Company by Alexander McCall Smith (2024)
46. The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley (2013)
47. Trouble in Paradise by Portia MacIntosh (2024)
48. Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (2024)
49. American Ulysses by Ronald C. White (2016)
50. Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge (1935)
51. Ready or Not by Cara Bastone (2024)
52. Summer Moon by Jill Marie Landis (2001)
53. The General and Julia by Jon Clinch (2023)
54. The Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey (2024)
55. The Twenty by Marianne C. Bohr (2023)
56. Just Date and See by Portia MacIntosh (2022)
57. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman (2003)
58. Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber (1912)
59. Sun on Snow by Alexandra Raife (1999)
60. Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston (1992)
61. Readings by Michael Dirda (2000)
62. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun (1958)
63. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (1993)
64. Gap Year Girl by Marianna C. Bohr (2015)
65. A Kind of Magic by Betty Neels (1991)
66. The Awakened Heart by Betty Neels (1993)
67. How Not to Be a Politician by Rory Stewart (2023)
April:
68. A Commonplace Book by Alec Guinness (2001)
69. Right on Cue by Falon Ballard (2024)
70. Blue Mystery by Margot Benary-Isbert, translated by Richard and Clara Winston (1951)
71. George Lyttelton’s Commonplace Book edited by James Ramsden (2002)
72. Mrs Lorimer’s Quiet Summer by Molly Clavering (1953)
73. How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner (2023)
74. Goodness, How Sad! by Robert Morley (1937)
75. And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat (1979)
76. Library for the War-Wounded by Monika Helfer, translated by Gillian Davidson (2021)
77. At Odds with Love by Betty Neels (1993)
78. A Time to Love by Margot Benary-Isbert, translated by Joyce Emerson and Margot Benary-Isbert (1953)
79. The Larach by Alexandra Raife (1997)
80. Polly by Betty Neels (1984)
81. The South Horizon Man by Essie Summers (1995)
82. God is an Englishman by R.F. Delderfield (1970)
83. Theirs Was the Kingdom by R.F. Delderfield (1971)
84. Wish with the Candles by Betty Neels (1972)
85. A Gem of a Girl by Betty Neels (1976)
86. An Open Book by Michael Dirda (2003)
May:
87. Roses for Christmas by Betty Neels (1975)