Tag: Five Favourite

I read eleven books in June including one five-star read and several that came close.  You can find details of my five favourite of the books I read last month below.  Click on the book title to view the book description on Goodreads.

You can keep up to date with all my reading in 2019 here with links to my reviews.  If we’re not already friends on Goodreads, send me a friend request or follow my reviews.

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My first choice is historical novel Fled by Meg Keneally.  Based on a true story, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought  Jenny (and her real life counterpart, Mary Bryant) a remarkable character brought convincingly to life by the author.  Read my full review here.

Next up is The Playground Murders by Lesley Thomson.  Although the seventh in the author’s ‘The Detective’s Daughter’ series, it’s the first of the books I’ve read.  That didn’t stop me enjoying this compelling crime mystery that switches back and forth in time from the present day to 1980, the location of the murder of the title.  You can read my full review here.

My next choice is non-fiction – Monopoli Blues by Tim Clark & Nick Cook.  It’s the remarkable story of Tim Clark’s search for the story of his parents’ wartime service in the SOE.  I described it as ‘a touching portrait of a loving relationship, a compelling account of wartime bravery and a fitting commemoration of…perfectly ordinary people who did extraordinary things’ but you can read my full review here.

Back to crime now but historical crime.  I loved S.W. Perry’s first book, The Angel’s Mark, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed its sequel, The Serpent’s Mark, just as much. Set in Elizabethan London, its intriguing premise and the twists and turns of the plot kept me turning the pages right to the end.  You can read my full review here.

My final choice is a psychological thriller with a distinctly literary feel – The Body Lies by Jo Baker – in which life starts to imitate art in an unsettling way for the main character.  Read my full review here.

What were some of your favourite books you read in June?  Have you read any of my picks?

Rather surprising myself, I managed to read fifteen books in May. You can find details of my five favourite of the books I read last month below.  Click on the book title to view the book description on Goodreads.

You can keep up to date with all my reading in 2019 here with links to my reviews.  If we’re not already friends on Goodreads, send me a friend request or follow my reviews.

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First up is memoir Where the Hornbeam Grows by Beth Lynch.  Subtitled A Journey in Search of a Garden, the book describes the author’s move to Switzerland and her struggles to make a life – and a garden – in a new country.

Next up it’s historical fiction in the form of Storm of Steel by Matthew Harffy.  The book is the sixth in his ‘Bernicia Chronicles’ series set in 7^th century Anglo-Saxon Britain.  I described it as ‘action-packed, dramatic and realistic: historical fiction at its best’ but you can read my full review here.

Staying with historical fiction but with more of a romantic feel, my next pick is Stealing Roses by Heather Cooper.  Set in 1862, in the seaside town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, its heroine is Eveline Stanhope whom I described as ‘independent-minded, intelligent, bookish and with a little bit of a rebellious streak’.  Eveline rebels against the social expectations that seem to limit her life finding romance and a ‘different sort of freedom’ along the way.  Read my full review here.

Past and present combine in my next pick, The Lost Shrine by Nicola Ford, the second in the author’s ‘Hills & Barbrook’ series. With its mixture of archaeology and crime mystery, I playfully described it as the intriguing love child of TV’s Midsomer Murders and Time Team. Read my full review to find out why.

Finally, and perhaps fittingly on the day we commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the D-Day landings, there’s The Long Take by Robin Robertson.  One of the books shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2019, it tells the story of Walker, a young Canadian recently demobilised after active service, including at the Normandy landings. A novel in verse, it’s haunting and atmospheric (and I wouldn’t be surprised if it scooped the prize).

What were some of your favourite books you read in May?  Have you read any of my picks?