August and September Abridged

After having August away from blogging I didn’t do a round up of my reading that month as I only read but didn’t review. I did however post my reviews from August in September as well as my September reads. So, I have decided to choose my top three from each month in one post. So here are my choices.

August

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara has to be one of the best books I have read in along time, and one I had been looking forward to reading.  The plot follows four friends who meet at college, into adulthood and all that entails.  We are spectators to their ups and downs, their loves and losses.  Jude is the cement to their friendship, and one of the most damaged characters I have ever met; a character I will never forget.  In my opinion it should have won the Booker Prize in 2105, with Yanagihara’s beautiful prose and her skill at writing some harrowing and dark story lines in such a lyrical way.  This book has stayed with me and it I one I will go back to at some point (and I don’t re read many books except from the classics).  This is a book everyone should read at some point in their life.

 

 

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale is a book that took me out of my comfort zone as fantasy isn’t a genre I usually read.  This combines historical fiction, magic, fantasy and romance, to make this wonderful, captivating read.  Cathy finds her way to the Emporium, an amazing toy shop where the toys come to life, after running away from home, and enters the lives of Papa Jack and his sons Kaspar and Emil.  Her arrival is a catalyst for change and family problems within the Emporium.  This is both heartbreaking and beautiful, dark and yet magical and lets face it we all need a bit of magic in our lives.  This would make the prefect Christmas gift for the bookworm in your family.

 

 

 

Origin by Dan Brown.  I know Dan Brown is a bit of a marmite author, but I love his books and admit I do have a bit of crush on Robert Langdon.  In this book Robert Langdon finds himself and the director of the Guggenheim, Ambra Vidal on a quest to make sure the world sees the new theory on Evolution after their friend Edmond Kirsch is murdered before he can share his research.  This research sets religion agains science in that old question ‘where do we come from’ and ‘where are we going’.   There mission takes them to Barcelona and takes in the wonderful of Guadí, as they try to escape; The Regent’ who wants the research destroyed.  This is an action packed, tense and intelligent read, maybe not his best book but its still fabulous.

 

 

 

 

 

September

 

The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker.  I chose to read this book after seeing that Sky had made it into a drama.  The book is set in the small town of Somerset, in the present day and in 1975.  In the present famous author Harry Quebert has been arrested for the murder of Nola Kellergan, who went missing in 1975.  The plot follows the investigation in the present day where author Marcus Goldman, friend and former pupil of Harry, tries to find out the truth and prove Harry’s innocence.  In the past we see the relationship between Nola and Harry in the run up to her going missing.  Secrets, lies, small town mentality and gossip keep you guessing the truth until the last page.  I found this to be an intelligent, crime thriller, with an intricate plot, and fascinating characters and some humour thrown in for good measure.

 

 

The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton is a beautiful book in all senses; the writing, the plot the characters and the atmosphere. Birchwood Manor is the place that anchors the characters and their different stories over time, from 1862 until 2017.  At the centre of this book is Edward Julius Radcliffe, who buys the house and invites his fellow artists from the Magenta Brotherhood to stay for the summer. The idyllic summer comes to a shocking close with the theft of a family heirloom  and a death.  In the present Elodie finds a notebook from Radcliffe and sees a drawing of Birchwood Manor and feels a familiarity with the place. Throughout time the house is like a beacon to those who need help and who have suffered some sort of loss.  This is a sublime read and reinforces the reason why Kate Morton is on my list of Top Ten Contemporary Fiction Authors.

 

The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham.  There is a killer at large flaying their victims alive to steal their tattoos. For DI Frances Sullivan this is his first case as a newly promoted DI.  But as well as trying to solve the case he has to deal with his second in command DS Rory MacKay trying to undermine him at every opportunity and a boss who has no faith in him.  Help is at hand from Marni Mullins, a tattoo artist who finds the first body, but has secrets of her own and a distrust of the police.  This is a dynamic, thrilling read with a dark and disturbing plot line and multi faceted characters, each with their own agenda.

 

 

 

My full reviews of all these books and others read are available on my blog. I hope I have inspires some of you to add one of these books to your ever growing tar pile.I am very excited by my reads for October and maybe into November as several of my favourite authors have new releases; CJ Sansom, Barbara Kingsolver, Lucinda Riley and Karen Swan.