Summer at Fairacre

A visit to Fairacre is always a welcome trip, particularly in the village's lovely summer months. And while a trip to cozy Fairacre is always to be cherished, it is particularly nice to see Miss Read finally get the upper hand with the curmudgeonly Mrs. Pringle. It was also nice to see Miss Read's much-tested friend Amy from Bent finally get a bit of her own back against her philandering husband James. I was figuratively cheering for them at the book's end.

After a long winter the folks of Fairacre cannot wait for sunshine and roses. No one is more anxious for warmer weather than schoolteacher Miss Read. She is looking forward to a long list of many projects. They do not include the unwanted attentions of Henry Mawne while his wife is out of town. Any woman could relate. If a married man brought another woman flowers, or brought her books, invited her to lectures or a sherry party, or mailed her postcards signed with love, all while his wife was away for whatever reason, people would talk. But Henry Mawne isn't Miss Read's only problem. She has issues with the woman who cleans the school and her house. Miss Read spends most of the book fretting about who will clean these places while Mrs. show more Pringle is ill. I have to admit it is a little curious how Mrs. Pringle can string Miss Read along.
One of the best things about Miss Read is how real her character was throughout the story. How fiercely protective she was of her private time. The episode when she had a twitch in her eye that led her to wonder if she was going blind was so apropos. How many of us have felt a pang and instantly wondered if we had an incurable disease? Despite Miss Read's wonderful personality, I loved friend Amy even more. She was hysterical. show less

This is another in one of fave series of village tales. The stories are just nice, about ordinary people in the small English villages. Miss Read is one of the teachers at Fairacre school, a rural school in a rural village. Readers will find no sex, violence, or profanity here in these plot-driven novels. The characters have conflicts, and life is not all smooth. However, things always seem to work out in the end. The characters seem like friends and neighbors, whom we get to know in reading the books. I read all the books in the Thrush Green, Caxley, and Fairacre series, and this is my second time through them. I am also glad to see them in e-book format too.

Lovely, gentle, sweet- I'm running out of clever things to say about the Fairacre series. Fortunately, I'm nearly at the end- but that's not to say they are all the same, or all boring, or anything bad. I love these books precisely for their gentleness, their civility, their quietness.

My first Miss Read book and my first "gentle read" as they call these. I loved the characters in the book - Mrs Pringle the school janitoress, the students, the village people, the scenery and all the stories that go with a village school teacher's life.

From the first page, I fell in love with the world Miss Read lives in. So gentle and unassuming. Some great humour in here too.

4 Stars