Recommended Readings for 2025:

H is for Hawk: , by Helen Macdonald

Story of adopting and raising a vicious predator, a goshawk named Mabel as a way to grieve after her father’s unexpected death and to drop out of society where the author had taught at Cambridge University for three years. We feel her nature observations of the relationship between predator and man and her release. Plus, she quotes Marianne Moore that “the cure for loneliness is solitude” and shows how she does it.

Symphony of Secrets: , a novel By Brendan Slocum

The story is set in the current time about a wealthy family who will do everything to hide secrets, crimes and maintain their wealth and positions of themselves in society. It feels like a true detective story in which the rich and distinguished composer Fred Delaney will perform “Red”. We find out on page 5 that he had fewer than 16 hours to live, and he kills himself because his critics hated it. The initials of Josephine Reed, a poor Black woman in the Depression era, is central to the tension and hidden lives.

The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War by historian Giles Milton

Averell Harriman, the fourth richest man in the U.S. at the start of WW II, serves as a liaison between FDR and Churchill and creates the Harriman Mission supplying aid to Stalin after Hitler launched the largest attack on the Soviet Union. The attack was called Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, and showed German troops failed to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign. History shows Churchill realized this defeat opened a crucial turning point in the war.

The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women’s Movementaroom

England had pioneering women in 1750 to 1800 who created famous salons to change the rights of women and their perceptions by society. Elizabeth Montau and her younger sister Sarah Scott had very different marriages and lives but were both part of the London and Bath zeitgeist coined The Bluestockings that opened the eyes of many. Each chapter highlights a particular woman and at times when friendships fizzled, became stronger or helped others to overcome difficulties.

In 1928, Virginia Woolf gave lectures at Cambridge on the topic “women and fiction”. She spoke of the history of female writers and believed the rise of the original Bluestockings was one of the most important movements in history. These lectures were printed under the title A Room of One’s Own, a fascinating story of these almost forgotten women.