There’s something about May. Gentle breezes warm the air and all shades of green decorate trees, lawns, and fields. It’s no wonder Elizabethan dramatist Thomas Dekker wrote about “The Merry Month of May” in 1599.

Side note: I learned from Farmer Gary the other day that the red dots in the field next to our house are Crimson Clover.

From Capote to Coward, during May I tried to keep my book choices as merry as possible.

Week 1: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Although I hadn’t yet seen the movie based on this book, the soundtrack’s hit song “Jean” from 1969 was always an earworm.

It took some getting used to the narrative skipping back and forth in time, but this story about private girls-school teacher Miss Jean Brodie – in her prime, of course – is compelling. The coming-of-age story moves along briskly as the school girls grow up and stay in touch with Miss Brodie. This is all much to the consternation of their headmistress, of course. The movie version stars Dame Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar for her performance.

Week 2: The Cream of Noel Coward by Noel Coward

What a perfect way to tell the story of Noel Coward’s life and career – with excerpts of his plays and songs sprinkled throughout his timeline.

The British playwright, composer, actor, singer, director, and all around bon vivant’s story is told – with accompanying selections of his work – from the time Coward was a child actor, through his heyday and the war years, until he left this world in 1973.

Week 3: Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

Who is this little Moomintroll character?

The cuddly little fellow who looks like a cartoon hippo is the main character in a series of children’s books. Translated from the original Swedish, these adventure stories would be great for reading aloud to a grade schooler. I was hoping to find this book charming, but didn’t quite get there.

Week 4: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Here’s another example of a great movie that should not overshadow the book on which it was (loosely) based.

This novella by Truman Capote goes far deeper than the movie, with Holiday “Holly” Golightly’s character even more intriguing. Capote later said Golightly was his favorite character of all he’d created. He also said he’d written her story with Marilyn Monroe in mind.

Week 5: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I must admit it took me a while to get hooked. But A Tale of Two Cities became a stay-up-late page-turner as all the characters’ stories became as tangled together as Madame Defarge’s knitting.

In the early chapters, as Dickens sets up all the characters and situations, we see the despicable disparity between French aristocrats and pretty much everyone else. Tensions climax following decades of population growth without a corresponding increase in jobs and agricultural output.

As the poor rise up and storm the Bastille, A Tale of Two Cities takes off with the speed of a sharpened guillotine blade. There are twists in the characters and unexpected heroic actions as we approach the closing proclamation that “It is a far, far better thing …”

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