Hello November! It's so lovely to see you again with your crispy brown leaves and warm indoor fires.
Here is my list of ten books that I hope to read this month.
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
I've been following her for the past few days.
I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works.
I don't know the colour of her eyes or what they look like when they're scared. But I will.
Mia Dennett can't resist a one-night stand with the enigmatic stranger she meets in a bar. But going home with him might turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life…
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him too.
When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him to the front. Ellwood and Gaunt find love in the trenches – but just as war brought them together, it can tear them apart…
An epic, unforgettable love story between two soldiers in the First World War, In Memoriam is a breath-taking debut.
The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn by Helene Harrison
Mistress. Queen. Reformer. Traitor. Icon.
This book is not like any others you might have read on Anne Boleyn.
It is not a biography of the life of Henry VIII’s second wife and queen.
What this book does is to examine Anne Boleyn through images and perceptions of her.
Through documents, letters, images, propaganda, films, novels and historical biographies, this book explores Anne Boleyn through more than 500 years of history.
Explore how perceptions of her have changed and developed over time.
Whether she is seen as a mistress, a queen, a mother, a reformer, a traitor, or a tragic heroine, Anne Boleyn continues to inspire so much exploration and even new discoveries today.
See Anne through the eyes of people who knew her, loved her, hated her, and studied her.
In the present day, Anne Boleyn has quite a devoted scholarship, honed through perceptions built over the last half a millennium.
Her life, reign, and tragic death at the hands of the man who tore England apart to be with her have made Anne Boleyn one of the most divisive and exciting figures in English history.
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams
Spitalfields, 1840.
A murderer nicknamed The Man of Crows.
A heroine with a mysterious past and a vivid imagination.
Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London's East End. When a murderer strikes, ripping open the chests of young girls and stuffing hair into their mouths to resemble a crow's beak, Catherine is fascinated, and devours news of his exploits.
As the murders cause panic throughout the city, she comes to believe she can channel the voices of his victims and that they will lead her to The Man himself. But she's already far closer than she realises - and lurking behind the lies she's been told about her past are secrets more deadly and devastating than anything her imagination can conjure.
The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason
Christmas Wishes at the Station Bookshop by Margaret Amatt
After one toxic relationship too many and more failed jobs than she can count, spirited Scarlett Finch has lost her sparkle and doesn’t think she can face this year’s festive season. The last thing she expects is to land a Christmas job at Glenbriar’s Little Station Bookshop, especially not thanks to a slightly unhinged older woman with a parrot, a pug, a wild imagination, and some crackpot ideas for displays – not to mention a flair for making unexpected decisions, like hiring Scarlett without telling the owner.
Widowed dad-of-three Lloyd Miller is just trying to keep life on track. Between moving house, juggling his day job, and preparing to take over the bookshop from his retired mum, the chaos inside the shop is the last thing he needs, particularly when it includes Scarlett, the woman he shared a no-strings summer fling with… and hasn’t stopped thinking about since.
While Glenbriar twinkles with Christmas lights, both Scarlett and Lloyd are haunted by their pasts, drawn together in their present, and uncertain of their future.
A bookshop full of anonymous wishes might just give them the courage to make their own – but with neither convinced they deserve a second chance, it’ll take more than festive magic to open the book on a new romance. They can’t change the past – but they can still choose how the story goes.
Queen Esther by John Irving
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board a ship from Bremerhaven to Portland, Maine, and anti-Semites murder her mother in Portland. In the orphanage at St. Cloud’s, it’s clear to Dr Larch, the physician and director of the orphanage, that the abandoned child not only knows she’s Jewish, but she’s familiar with the biblical Queen Esther she was named for. Dr Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; he doubts he’ll find any family to adopt her.
When Esther is fourteen, soon to become a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic family with a history of providing for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they detest anti-Semitism and similar prejudice. Esther’s gratitude to the Winslows is unending. As she retraces her steps to her birth city, Esther keeps loving and protecting the Winslows – even in Vienna.
The final chapter of this historical novel is set in Jerusalem in 1981, when Esther is seventy-six.
A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft
Can the happiest time of year heal the most broken of hearts?
Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine’s struggled to make ends meet.
To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistant, Georgine’s grateful for the help. But there’s something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?
Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of friends old and new make this a Christmas to remember after all?
Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Two disparate people—lost in their own way—find an unexpected healing connection in a poignant novel about redemption and chosen family by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.
An army veteran with a career as a beat cop behind her, security guard Addie Finch is tough—on the outside. Internally, she’s in crisis mode. She’s lonely, introverted, struggling through AA, estranged from her son, and, at sixty-two years old, questioning her role as a protector. She also has a soft spot for the underdog that’s about to change her life.
Addie finds Jonathan, a homeless teenager abandoned by his mother, holed up in a warehouse and vulnerable to the elements and to predators. Touched by the boy’s gentle nature and a wisdom beyond his years, Addie offers him temporary shelter in her garden shed in exchange for maintaining the sprawling property. It’s an act of kindness and purpose that means the world to Jonathan. But when Addie faces a situation that sends her internal world tumbling, the emotional connection with Jonathan, once the unlikeliest of strangers, becomes her lifeline as well.
As both process past traumas, Addie and Jonathan forge a surrogate grandmother-grandson bond—a chosen family that could restore trust and heal hearts they thought were broken forever.
The Bestest Big Brother, Ever by Ben Mantle
Nano loves his big brother, Felix, but sometimes Felix gets annoyed and frustrated – he wants some SPACE; he's fed up of Nano following him around. Feeling hurt and sad after Felix bans him from the garden treehouse, Nano decides he can make his own fun. He doesn't need anyone else. But when his game in the garden goes wrong, and he ends up feeling even worse than he already did, there's only one person who knows exactly how to cheer him up. Can you guess who that is?
Writing from his own fraternal experience, as well as being a dad to two little boys himself, Ben Mantle captures all the little (and big) ups and downs, laughs and tears (and sometimes shouts!), of sibling relationships that will give children the confidence to try and sort out their own differences through patience, imaginative play and making compromises.
