My featured Persephone title for March is One Afternoon (1975), by Welsh author Siân James. How I LOVED this book! From the Persephone blog: One Afternoon is precisely what we want a Persephone book to be: intensely readable and unputdownable but about many, many...


romance
January Tea and a Book: Young Anne by Dorothy Whipple
Just before Christmas, Steve and I spent some time in Bath, and I was excited to finally visit the shop for Persephone Books. Here's an introduction from the website: Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly...
July Tea and a Book: The Wild Hunt, by Emma Seckel
For July's "Tea and a Book" I'm recommending The Wild Hunt, published in August 2022 by Tin House. Author Emma Seckel is a Canadian photographer and writer who has studied at St. Andrews and Cambridge. (No slouch, this one! Check out her website.) Seckel's debut novel...
May Tea and a Book: The White Hare by Jane Johnson
Here I am again at the last minute with May's horror reading recommendation. Continuing with last month’s theme of folk horror, I offer a mysterious and romantic tale set in Cornwall shortly after World War II. Check out this synopsis from the publisher: In a Cornish...
Holiday-themed Novellas
I love stories set during Christmas! However, it can be difficult to settle into a cozy holiday novel when you're looking at a seemingly endless Christmas to-do list. With this in mind, I'm offering a list of highly recommended Christmas novellas, three of...
October Tea and a Book: The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle
The Uninvited -- originally known in the UK as Uneasy Freehold -- was published in 1942 by Irish author Dorothy Macardle and was adapted to the screen by Dodie Smith in 1944. Go here for my post about the film starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey. I'm pleased to say...
September Tea & a Book: The Enchanted April & Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Several years ago I enjoyed film adaptations of these novels written by women in the early 20th century. For September's post I decided to finally READ the novels. What a delight! I began with The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. (published 1922) The...
July Tea and a Book (a bit delayed): The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Continuing with women's fiction from the early 20th century, today I'm pleased to share Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Making of a Marchioness in a gorgeous paperback edition from Persephone that includes its sequel. The publisher has this to say: "Little Lord...
Valentine’s Tea and a Book
ALERT: there's a GIVEAWAY at the end of this post! The other day I was making a mental list of the most romantic novels I've ever read. "This needs to be a blog post!" I thought. Interestingly enough, on this blog I only have ONE previous post related to Valentine's...
Swoonworthy Reads
To celebrate Valentine's Day here on the blog I searched my bookshelves and Goodreads reading list for stories that struck me as delightfully romantic. I'm leaving out category romance and trying only to include books that feature a pairing or a moment that really...
TV Tuesday: Kurt Seyit & Sura
Recently I discovered Willow & Thatch, a blog that recommends period films and television series. That discovery alone was worth a blog post, but one of their recommendations particularly caught my fancy -- a Turkish historical romance (with subtitles) about...