Hearthstone Book Club: Midsummer

'The Book of Days' by Francesca Kay

Jun 16, 2025

“All our days are measured in our prayers, our years in the feasts and the seasons.”
Francesca Kay, The Book of Days

Welcome! Whether you’re a longtime friend or a new kindred spirit here (I recommend visiting the Village Green to get your bearings), I’m delighted to be a companion to you through the liturgical year.

I’m so thrilled to be entering into a new season of book club with you - feel free to peek back through our previous book selections & discussions, which are always such fun.

Pax+bonum, Kristin.

Our Midsummer book selection is one of those captivating treasures that instantly transports you to another time and place: Francesca Kay’s lush historical fiction The Book of Days, set during the tumultuous period of the English reformation.

I first read this book last summer, and I was so enthralled by it that I wanted to start a book club right then & there so that I could discuss it with friends.

So, Hearthstone Book Club was born - and here we are, after months of wonderful books, discussions, & author visits, ready to start the book that inspired our gatherings! (For some reason, I felt like The Book of Days needed to be read in the summertime, so I’ve waited patiently until now to open it back up with all of my lovely kindred spirits here.)

Francesca makes this period of history feel living and active, immersing us in the diary of Alice: a young woman mourning the loss of her infant, and now married to the lord of the manor. As her husband’s health declines, Alice also witnesses the shifting atmosphere of religion & ritual during this pivotal time in English history.

Alice’s diary is framed by the feasts & fasts of the Church…her days - and all their myriad of joys and sorrows - measured by the candles on St. Lucy’s day or the bonfires lit for St. John’s tide.

Francesca’s process of research & writing was both thoughtful and thorough, with a great deal of inspiration being borne from Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars (for more on this, visit her wonderful interview over at Church Times!)

So, I’m delighted to share that Francesca will be joining us for a book club discussion this summer!

Francesca Kay grew up in Southeast Asia and India, and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and now lives in Oxford. Her first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, and her second novel, The Translation of the Bones, was longlisted for the 2012 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Long Room, was published in 2016; The Book of Days is her fourth.
via Swift Press

GATHERINGS

Everyone is invited to join in Book Club! All subscribers can share their questions and thoughts in the HF Chat and in the comments thread here.

Additionally, paid members can join in on live online gatherings - including our chat with the author!

Midsummer Book Club Gatherings:

LIVE VIDEOS
For paid members.
Details and a Google Meet link will be sent the week of each discussion, and a reminder (with link) will be posted in Chat. If you can’t make it to these gatherings live, no worries; they’ll be recorded and posted for you to watch on the re-play.
Friday, July 25 at 4 pm Pacific Time
Just an informal gathering to start our discussions
Saturday, August 23 at 10 am Pacific Time - WITH THE AUTHOR!
Author Francesca Kay will be joining us to discuss her book!