"The Trumpeter of Krakow" -Eric P. Kelly

Way back when...I got a list of all the Newbery and Caldecott winners and decided to read my way through them. (Must've been 2003 when The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein came out; my favorite Caldecott book!) I've done pretty well, picture books go much faster, of course, but novels aren't exactly textbook dry. Somehow The Trumpeter of Krakow didn't look appealing until I came across it this summer (Guilty: I always judge books by their covers) while helping Tarzan do inventory at work.

And it was good. The tale the book builds upon is very moving: a trumpeter sounds a trumpet each hour in each of the 4 compass directions from the tower of a church in Krakow, Poland. When the city is attacked by Tartars, the trumpeter sounds the trumpet but is killed mid-hymn. In memoriam, the hymn is cut short purposefully. From this, the book is about a boy who sounds the trumpet but continues the song as a warning of danger, rather than ending it. The book was lauded for its introduction of Polish history to young readers and for the author's sensitivity to detail and culture.

Read Also:

If you'd care for a history of the time period, Harold Lamb's The March of Muscovy (and indeed, Harold Lamb in general) is a good account of Ivan the Terrible's Russia.

Margaretha Shemin's The Little Riders

And any Newbery book is recommendation on its own.

"The Seduction of the Crimson Rose" -Lauren Willig

As a lover of the Scarlet Pimpernel books and a sucker for a romance, I was on top of a recommendation to read The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. History, romance, swashbuckling, hunky guys: my kind of book. So much so that I recommended the book to someone else ere I ever cracked the cover. Oops. Before we met up again, I read the book and was a little shocked at the sex. I wasn't prepared for a Harlequin romance, if only because I expected more story. She was slightly scandalized that I had ever read a book like this. I held off reading the 2nd book but the story was good:

Plot: doctoral student in England studying spies of the Napoleonic era discovers proof of her theory of a Pink Carnation spy, equable to the Scarlet Pimpernel and Purple Gentian. The tales of the student and her research are told simultaneously through the series.

So I kept reading and each book had less sex. Well, here I made it to The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, the 4th book in the Pink Carnation series (yes, they all use flowers in the titles), and it had negligible sex in it. Not sure what Willig's goal is but the stories got better and the romances kept up. So now I feel justified in recommending the series.

Read Also:

I tend to lean towards Christian romance so a wonderful historical romance was Bodie and Brock Thoene's The Galway Chronicles (4 books) set in Ireland under the oppression of England.

A similar writer, though I don't actually recommend her writing, just her subject matter, is Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady.

And of course, Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel!

"Dog Loves Books" -Louise Yates

Dog Loves Books is another fun picture book about adventures found while reading. Dog opens a bookstore and while he waits for people to come in, he reads, jumping from adventure to adventure.

I make it a point to read any picture book that takes place in a library.

Read Also:

Toni Buzzeo's No T. Rex in the library

Lois Grambling's Can I Bring Woolley to the library, Ms. Reeder?

Joanne Wills' Delilah D. at the Library.

"Mr. Churchill's Secretary" -Susan Elia MacNeal

So I read this book to justify the last post...

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal was a fun suspense novel set during WWII in England. It was enjoyable, fast-paced, with interesting characters. My favorite parts of historical novels are finding out how much is actual history. There's only a short historical note at the end but it mentions a couple biographies of secretaries who worked with Churchill from which she pulled certain facts.

Read Also:

No books to speak of but I felt like I was reading a PBS/BBC mini-series like Foyle's War or Call the Midwife.

There are 2 more in the trilogy so up next: Princess Elizabeth's Spy and His Majesty's Hope!

"The First Wave" -James R. Benn

Billy Boyle is a crass, selfish detective from Boston who doesn't want to be in the army, doesn't want to be in Europe, and doesn't want to be fighting a war; frankly, he's not too likeable, which is exactly what makes him realistic. This is the second installment in a series of World War II mysteries in which Boyle finds himself solving a murder in a time of war, never failing to mention the irony.

The First Wave takes place in North Africa with the Vichy French alliance up for grabs. It was slow getting started but once the murder took place, it picked up in both mystery and history. The first book in the series was much more of a typical British murder mystery. This one is a weaker mystery but more historically rich. Take your pick...

Read Also:

I haven't yet read Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series, Mr. Churchill's Secretary but it is a suspense novel which takes place during WWII. Yes, I realize this is soooo specific but whatever.

I'd also recommend Lori Wick's Every Storm, your perfect, and...

Pam Jenoff's The Kommandant's Girl, your less than perfect look at WWII.

"Chopsticks" -Amy Krouse Rosenthal

One of the best things about working in a library is the number of picture books one can unabashedly read...for work, no less! Nothing boosts one's confidence than reading a dozen books in a day...

I've read Rosenthal's Spoon and while this is "not exactly a sequel to Spoon, more like a change in place setting," it was just as darling of a book. As utensils in the kitchen go about their designated purpose, sometimes life causes them to check out other options. Honestly, Rosenthal is just a great children's author. Original stories with fairly common place characters.

Read Also:

Similar in tone, I recommend Peter H. Reynolds' I'm Here, The North Star, and Sky Color for illustrations and simple, thought-provoking stories.