Hasn't the weather been glorious? A little too hot for some perhaps? However, there is nothing nicer than finding a shady spot, a long cool drink and settling back with a good book.
There are some exciting new releases coming out next month. Here are just ten that have caught my eye.
With Her Own Hands by Nicole Nehrig
A rich and intimate exploration of how women have used textile work to create meaningful lives, from ancient mythology to our current moment.
Knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting—throughout history, these and other forms of textile work have often been dismissed as merely “women’s work” and attached to ideas of domesticity and obedience. Yet, as psychologist and avid knitter Nicole Nehrig wonderfully explores in this captivating book, textile work has often been a way for women to exercise power. When their voices were silenced and other avenues were closed off to them, women used the tools they had—often a needle and thread—to seek freedom within the restrictive societies they lived in.
Spanning continents and centuries, With Her Own Hands brings together remarkable stories of women who have used textiles as a means of liberation, from an eighteenth-century Quaker boarding school that used embroidered samplers to teach girls math and geography to the Quechua weavers working to preserve and revive Incan traditions today, and from the Miao women of southern China who, in the absence of a written language, pass down their histories in elaborate “story cloths” to a midcentury British women’s postal art exchange. Textiles have been a way for women to explore their intellectual capacities, seek economic independence, create community, process traumas, and convey powerful messages of self-expression and political protest.
Heartfelt and deeply moving, With Her Own Hands is a celebration of women who have woven their own stories—and a testament to their resilience.
Preorder Link - Bookshop.org
Wedding Bells for the East End Library Girls by Patricia McBride
The library girls are determined to keep their community’s spirits high.
With their beloved library damaged by bombing, they’ve found a temporary home in the local school, but they long to return to the place they love.
Mavis’s wedding should be a time of joy, but beneath the celebrations, she carries a secret. Determined to stay strong, she refuses to dampen the happiness of those around her.
Jane is finally stepping into the life she deserves. After years of self-doubt, she is beginning to find her confidence and – with the support of her two best friends – perhaps even an opportunity she never thought possible.
And for Cordelia, hope is also on the horizon. As the war winds down, her partner Robert may finally return from Africa. For the first time in a long time she is looking forward to a future filled with love and joy. But dare she dream of more wedding bells?
Preorder Link - Amazon UK
Cuckoo in the Nest by Diane Saxon
What secrets lie within?
I've moved into a shared house. My three new housemates aren't just reserved, there's a distinct chill in the air, an unspoken tension that makes me uneasy.
I'm not here to make friends, though.
I have my own secrets.
Nikki is like a sister to me and I'm here to find out what happened to her.
Where is she?
I'm convinced someone knows more than they're letting on. Is she simply missing? Or has something far more sinister occurred within these walls?
I'm not leaving until I find out if Nikki is alive or dead.
Preorder Link - Amazon
The Girl From the War Room by Catherine Law
Through the trees in St James's Park she spotted the white facades of the Whitehall offices, and her stomach contracted. But it wasn’t nerves. Fortitude, yes, and a kind of hell-bent willingness. An understanding of the importance of her work; to do something, however small, to help. A privilege.
1941: A world away from idyllic childhood summers spent in Devon, Cassie Marsh steps through the sandbagged entrance to the War Room, determined to do her part for the war effort.
The air crackling with tension, the urgency of whispered conversations, the weight of secrets – nothing in her quiet upbringing has prepared her for this. Here, women like her are expected to work tirelessly, remain composed, even as their homes – and lives – are devastated by the Blitz.
But Cassie’s heart is already divided between love and duty. She dreams of rich summers at Greenaways from a lifetime ago, before her world was torn apart. She dreams of one person… the one she cannot – but must – forget.
And as her family begs her to return to safety, to the soothing, reassuring walls of the country house, Cassie must decide where her heart really lies. In times of war, can you ever afford to question your loyalty?
Preorder Link - Amazon
Snowflakes Over Starr's Fall by Kate Hewitt
As the stars twinkle and the snow drifts over the town… someone’s about to find the magic she didn’t even know she’d been missing…
Jenna has lived in Starr’s Fall for most of her life, and has run the general store for over ten years. Secretly she might dream of love and romance, but she’s happy as she is. Really.
That is, until Starr’s Fall’s newest resident—ex-New Yorker, millionaire investment banker—Jack Wexler breezes into Jenna’s store, seemingly furious they don’t stock smoked salmon. Jenna is as amused as she is annoyed. Who is this ridiculous guy, and doesn’t he realize he’s not in Manhattan anymore?
Jack meanwhile can’t believe he lost it in public. But ever since being forced to leave his high-flying career to focus on his health, he’s not been himself. What’s more, the last person he’d expected to be attracted to is the shrew of a storekeeper he’s just encountered… which he might have called Jenna, in a moment of temper…
Neither of Jenna or Jack’s ideal of romance includes these sorts of furious sparks flying. But when they’re both roped in to organizing the town’s Winter Wonderland parade, they’re forced to work together. And as Christmas approaches – will two opposites merely attract? Or, in magical Starr’s Fall, could they fall in love for keeps?
Preorder Link - Amazon
Daughter of the Tarot by Clare Marchant
Two women, linked by the cards, unravel a secret spanning the decades...
1644: Portia is living in London, having escaped an abusive man in Italy, with just baby Vittoria and the clothes on their backs. Making her living reading tarot cards, she starts to realise there are other women like her – who need help. As she delivers the Devil card to their door, each has the chance to escape… But to what future? Because Portia is a woman with secrets. And they are about to come back to haunt her.
Now: After her mother’s death and father’s hasty plans to remarry, Beatrice has left home to open a tarot shop in London. But when she’s unpacking, she finds a set of cards she’s never seen before, one that’s evidently been handed down through generations of her family. It’s a set that is missing a card though… the Devil’s Card. She begins to search for the lost card, but she also starts to hear rumours of that very card being linked to a series of murders of women in 17th century London…
Will she find the truth… or will she only see the illusions the cards are suggesting?
Preorder Link - Amazon
If Not for My Baby by Kate Golden
Clementine Clark isn't looking for love. She's a talented singer, but she's set her dreams of stardom - and romance - aside to care for her ailing mother.
And then her best friend calls her with a life-changing opportunity: join Irish megastar Halloran on his first US tour as a backing vocalist. Clementine wants to reject the offer, but the pay would change her and her mom's life. Overnight, Clementine goes from serving enchiladas at the Happy Tortilla to belting high notes before a cheering crowd.
But the whiplash of trading small-town Texas for sold-out stadiums is nothing compared to the rush of performing with the enigmatic Thomas Patrick Halloran. Poet, introvert, and lyrical genius, Halloran quickly gets under Clementine's skin. The two couldn't see the world more differently. And yet, over the course of the next eight weeks on tour, the romantic rockstar might just strike an unforgettable chord in Clementine. But will it be enough for an encore?
Preorder Link - Bookshop.org
The Secret Librarian by Soraya M. Lane
New York, 1942: Avery is engaged to be married. Longing for adventure instead, she jumps at an unexpected offer to trade her library job for undercover intelligence-gathering in Portugal. But her new life in Lisbon, known as the Capital of Espionage, challenges everything she thought she knew about herself.
Local bookshop owner Camille, a French widow with access to the enemy newspapers and magazines Avery needs, befriends her. But are the rumours that swirl around Camille true—does she really have a Nazi boyfriend? And what secrets did she bring with her when she fled France? Avery must decide—fast—if she can fully trust Camille. Millions of lives depend on it.
As Avery discovers more about Camille’s world, she realises that living in a city of spies will take all her courage. With suspicions growing, they are both playing a terrifyingly dangerous game. And not everyone will live to tell their story. Can Avery and Camille stay far enough ahead of their enemies to survive?
Threaded through with daring, sacrifice and love, this is the inspirational story of two women prepared to risk everything to help others survive the horrors of World War II.
Preorder Link - Bookshop.org
Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler
For the Alterman family, Fania and Arnold, and their children Sonja and Moses, the universe has been fractured.
In 1938 Sonja is lifted onto a Kindertransport train that will take her from Nazi-occupied Austria to London. She is the only member of her family to survive.
In 1966 Fania works as a massage therapist in Montreal, a place that has provided her safe haven after she lost her entire family in the war.
In 2016 Arnold lives out the last of his days and the last memories he has of his family in the city he has always called home.
And in 2000, Moses awaits the birth of his grandson, unaware that the strings that tie him to his past are being drawn tighter and tighter.
Surely none of these realities co-exist, and yet they seem to be drawing closer . . .
Moving between Vienna and Prague, London and Montreal, New York and Miami, Stuart Nadler's Rooms for Vanishing is a spellbinding exploration of what might happen when grief and hope collide.
Preorder Link - Bookshop.org
In Berlin by Eric Silberstein
Software engineer Anna Werner lives at a rapid clip, relishing her work and adopted city as much as her early morning runs. All comes undone on a sweaty August evening when, in the course of a 20-minute commute, Anna goes from worrying vaguely over a sore shoulder to staggering her way into an ambulance. She has suffered a spinal stroke. Over the coming months, her parents join the insurance man in telling her to get ready for life in a group home.
The only person who recognizes what Anna is still capable of is Batul al-Jaberi, a recent Syrian immigrant who meets Anna while doing her rounds as a janitor at the hospital. Batul is applying to medical school, where she hopes to regain control of a life hijacked by her family's flight from persecution in the early days of the Arab Spring.
At first the friendship is what Anna and Batul each need to regain mobility. But as their relationship deepens, Batul finds she must choose between her family and Anna-a choice that will force both women to rewrite their notions of loyalty.
In Berlin is a work of empathetic precision, exploring both the unpredictable nature by which geopolitics and scientific breakthroughs touch our lives, and the brave, bold, and sometimes quiet ways in which people reassert agency in the face of loss. Most of all, it taps a throughline of emotion that binds characters and readers alike across geographies, cultures, and ambitions.
(all opinions are my own)
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