#TopTenTuesday Ten Books from Independent Publishers

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Indie/Self-Published Books, a topic suggested by Nicole at BookWyrm Knits. My list is made up of books from three of my favourite independent publishers. If you have time, do browse their websites and view their full catalogue. Links from the book titles will take you to my full review. My thanks to the publishers for providing me with review copies.

époque press

  • El Hacho by Luis Carrasco – Set in the stark beauty of the Andalusian mountains, it tells the story of Curro, an olive farmer determined to honour his family tradition in the face of drought, deluge and the lucrative temptations of a rapidly modernising Spain.
  • Seek the Singing Fish by Roma Wells – Growing up in the lagoon town of Batticaloa, a young girl, with an unquenchable curiosity and love of the natural world, is entangled in the trauma and turmoil of the Sri Lankan civil war.
  • Three Gifts by Mark A. Radcliffe – If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop?

Gallic Books

  • Lean on Me by Serge Joncour, trans. by Jane Aitken & Louise Rogers Lalaurie – the unlikely love story of two lonely people in present-day Paris
  • The Bone Flower by Charles Lambert – A deliciously Gothic ghost story in which the wrongs of the past are not easily forgotten, and the boundary between the living and the dead begins to thin…
  • Devils and Saints by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, trans. by Sam Taylor – A teenage boy sent to a religious orphanage plots his escape from his cruel and unforgiving reality.
  • Little by Edward Carey – Based on the incredible life story of the world’s most famous wax sculptor, Marie Tussaud.

Handheld Press

  • Blitz Writing: Night Shift & It Was Different at the Time by Inez Holden – Emerging out of the 1940–1941 London Blitz, these two short works – a novel and a memoir – depict the courage and endurance of ordinary people in the factories, streets and lodging houses of a city under bombardment.
  • Jane’s Country Year by Malcom Saville – A classic novel from 1946 about eleven-year old Jane’s discovery of nature and country life during a year spent convalescing on her uncle’s farm, after having been dangerously ill in post-war London.
  • Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant – First published in 1921, a novel about the lives and choices of four women determined to use their new freedoms, and treading a fine line between independence and disaster.

 


#6Degrees of Separation From Born to Run to Death of a Gossip

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.


Born To RunThis month’s starting book is a memoir, Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen. I’ve not read it but I am familiar with Springsteen’s music.

I’ve taken as inspiration for my first link the third line of the lyrics of ‘Born To Run’ – ‘Sprung from cages out on highway nine’.  Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is the first in her ‘Highway 59’ thriller series.

Sticking with American highways and thrillers, Poor Boy Road by James L. Weaver sees former mob enforcer Jake Caldwell hunting down a ruthless drug lord in Missouri.

Jake’s best friend is the local sheriff, known as Bear. A bear (this time one named Aloysius) is the companion of Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

Sebastian’s younger sister is called Cordelia which is also the name of a character in Shakespeare’s King Lear. Learwife by JR Thorp imagines the life of Lear’s Queen following her banishment to an abbey.

Another reimagining of the life of a female character from one of Shakespeare’s plays is Lady MacBethad by Isabelle Schuler.

And on a slightly lighter note, Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton is the first in her series of crime novels featuring Scottish village cop, Hamish Macbeth.

My chain has taken me from America to Scotland. Where did your chain take you?

#6Degrees of Separation Apr