Arts & Culture

The Book-It-List August

It’s hot. Some would say too hot. What better way to avoid getting overheated than to sit in a paddling pool in the shade reading your new book whilst drinking an ice-cold piña colada. Just be careful you don’t get your pages wet.

by Andrew Hirst

Escape

by James Patterson & David Ellis

Another month, another James Patterson novel. What can I say about someone who is arguably the best selling author over the past decade. He has more books accredited to his name than I’ve had jam doughnuts… and I love a doughnut!

This latest thriller sees Chicago PD Detective Billy Harney leading an investigation to find five teenage girls whom have been abducted.

Harney and his partner, Carla, follow a lead to a remote house, only to find themselves caught in a deadly trap. A huge explosion rips through the building, killing Carla and allowing the kidnapper to escape. With the loss of his partner fuelling him, Harney strengthens his resolve to find her killer – and to make sure the body count ends there.

A nail biting page turner.

We were never here

by Andrea Bartz

Meg. Maggie. Melody. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything. The Lies I Tell is a twisted domestic thriller that dives deep into the psyches and motivations of two women and their unwavering quest to seek justice for the past and rewrite the future.

The Yellow Kitchen

by Margaux Vialleron

This is warm read all about food, friendship, and love. Claude, Giulia and Sophie are three women who live in London and the story is centred around the yellow kitchen in Claude’s flat where she bakes them all food whilst sharing their lives. When a trip to Lisbon causes Claude and Sophie to explore their attraction to each other, the three friends’ dynamic is changed, set against a tempestuous year in politics. You will quickly be Absorbed in to the lives of these very real and complex young women. 

Girl, forgotten

by Karin Slaughter

A small town hides a big secret…Who killed Emily Vaughn? Prom Night. Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn dresses carefully for what’s supposed to be the highlight of any high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the night, because of that secret, she will be dead. Nearly forty years later, Andrea Oliver, newly qualified as a US Marshal, receives her first assignment, but Andrea’s real focus is Emily Vaughn. Nobody was ever convicted, so the killer is still out there. But now Andrea has a chance to find out what really happened…

The Museum of Ordinary People

by Mike Gayle

This is one of my favourite books I have read so far this year and is well worth adding to your to-read-pile.

Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she’s ever done; empty her childhood home so that it can be sold. Inspired by a box of mementos found abandoned in a skip following a house clearance, The Museum of Ordinary People is a thought-provoking and poignant story of memory, grief, loss and the things we leave behind.

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