There are a number of reading events taking place this month including Reading Scotland and Novellas in November, so either numbers 11, 18 or 20 would be great because that would kill two birds with one stone. And number 6 would be appropriate for the upcoming festive season.
If this was your list, which book would you be hoping for – or dreading?
Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed?
When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: ‘For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite’. The famous playwright sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and imprisonment. From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace and an early death.
But what if he had simply ignored the insult?
Rather than dying impoverished in Paris at forty-six, what if he had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes at the start of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as celebrated, dramatic and tumultuous as the first?
Winter Song by Rebeca Lee Morales (The Borough Press via NetGalley)
It is 1986, deep winter, in the hinterlands of Minnesota, a place so remote that the world beyond its borders barely registers. Two men face each other down across this frozen landscape: Byron Lugo, just released from prison for a hit-and-run he swears he didn’t commit, and Gordon Trent, the weary police chief who brought him in.
As Byron struggles to claw back his old life in a town convinced of his guilt, his determination forces Trent to assess his judgement, his choices, and ultimately his legacy.
Winter Song is a snow globe of a novel, a light in the dark: a reminder of our humanity, even in the harshest of places.
Inspector Henry Tibbett is taking a much-needed holiday from his job at Scotland Yard with his wife Emmy. Headed for a spot of skiing in the Italian Dolomites and some first-class people-watching, Tibbett’s worries blissfully melt away.
That is, until a fellow guest who boards the ski lift alive at the top of the mountain is found dead when the lift touches the bottom. Another dead body turns up, and then another, and it becomes clear that murder has come to the mountain.
It’s 1946, and Evie is back on stage where she belongs, her voice ready to soar in the theatres of Scotland.
One question shadows every note she sings: Is the brilliant young trumpet player who stole her heart under the Indian sun still part of her future?
Myles has dreams of his own, bold and uncompromising, and Evie dares to believe she can build a life where love, family, and a glittering career all shine together. Yet the climb toward “having it all” is steeper than she imagined; as Evie’s star rises, she seizes bright, shining moments of opportunity that strain the fragile balance between career and home, and when life delivers an unexpected miracle, she learns how deep the unbreakable bonds of love really are.
Her journey in the spotlight carries her across the world, taking her far from her beloved Glasgow, bringing moments of breathtaking joy and quiet heartbreak; Evie strives for love, whilst never turning her back on the extraordinary gift that has been given to her – her voice.
Inspired by a true story, The Singer far from Love Loan celebrates the resilience of a woman who refuses to give up on her dreams, and the fierce, enduring love that ultimately defines her legacy. This is a story for anyone who has ever reached for that bigger, brighter star, and refused to let go.
Billy Mercer is fourteen years old and tired of being laughed at.
At school, the other boys mock his cheap clothes and the holes in his trainers. At home, his mother works herself to exhaustion just to keep food on the table. Money is always short. Respect is even harder to come by.
So when someone notices him, Billy is pulled into a world of manipulation, intimidation and empty promises. What begins with subtle threats soon becomes something far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Meanwhile, on the Ashbourne estate, Terry Foster watches helplessly as strangers slowly take over his flat, his routine and what remains of his life.
It is 1963 and in north Wales the Jones family are being forcibly ejected from the land they have farmed for generations. Their valley is to be drowned, turned into a reservoir for the people of Liverpool.
While her husband Dai is grief-stricken, Olwen Jones privately sees it as a blessing, an unforeseen chance to escape the narrow confines of the valley. But for her teenage son Emyr, Liverpool’s careless arrogance is proof that Wales will never be free to decide its own future until, like Ireland, it breaks the shackles of English imperialism.
Based on true events, Adder Stone is an exploration of personal identity and the possibilities and limits of love. How far will we go for our child or for our country? Who are we when we lose the places and the people that define us? And how much, in the end, is it possible to forgive?
In 1969, the Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened for the first time: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that symbolised Afghans’ hopes for a more prosperous future.
In the decades since, its staff have kept working through multiple coups, a Soviet occupation, the US-led invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban. The Inter-Con has never closed its doors.
Here, Lyse Doucet offers a vividly human history of modern Afghanistan through the lives of the people who have kept the Inter-Con running.
It is the story of a hotel, and the story of a people.
