From the Bookshelf of Around the Year in 52 Books

Light a Penny Candle
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Why we're reading this
1974 - Supermom

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What Members Thought

Kathryn
May 12, 2013 rated it really liked it
Wow. This was…not what I expected from Maeve Binchy’s debut novel. I have read and enjoyed many Maeve Binchy’s works before this (I just counted - looks like I’ve read 15!), and I enjoyed most of this one, but was slightly disappointed by the ending. It felt like a rather more dark work than I was anticipating.

It was quite long - over 800 pages - but an easy read, chronicling the lives of 2 young girls as they grow up together during the war, turn into young women on opposite sides of the Irish
...more
Ruth
Nov 13, 2013 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
I read this book years ago, in the summertime of the year I finished school.
Set in Ireland amongst a set of friends, it tells of their ups and downs through life. I really enjoyed back in the day and am always thinking of re-reading it. I really must do it.
Maeve Binchy is chicklit for grown ups.
Penny
Sep 25, 2020 rated it liked it
Shelves: 2020
Disappointing. The basic story was fine - young girl evacuated to Ireland in WWII becomes lifelong friends with the daughter of the family she stays with. And the Irish family (a friend of her mother's) is fine. But Elizabeth's own family is a mess. Remote father, nervy mother. Her boyfriend is a cad, or if not quite that, self-centred and selfish to the extreme, and Elizabeth just buys into that. Some redeeming characters in England are her boss and her mother's second husband. But it's too dep ...more
Sarah Lewis
Oct 08, 2007 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Awallens
Nov 03, 2008 marked it as to-read
Debbie
Jan 06, 2009 rated it liked it
Shelves: 2008
Jess
Mar 05, 2012 marked it as to-read
Shelves: chick-lit, at-library
Susan
Sep 18, 2012 marked it as to-read
Shelves: world-war-two
Joan
Feb 27, 2013 rated it really liked it
Gloria
Sep 13, 2013 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Shelves: i-own
Kirsty
Dec 28, 2014 marked it as to-read
Melissa
Aug 16, 2015 rated it really liked it
Shelves: 1990s
Becky
Feb 03, 2016 rated it really liked it
Barbara
Aug 21, 2016 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Katt Hansen
Aug 11, 2017 marked it as to-read
Colleen Scidmore
Oct 11, 2017 marked it as to-read
Shelves: tbd
Shirley J
May 20, 2018 rated it really liked it
Graceann
Feb 13, 2019 marked it as to-read
Shelves: ebooks-tbr
Misty
Aug 26, 2022 marked it as to-read
Shelves: women-authors