Miranda’s favorite books – September 2023

The last one at the party
By @beth_writes_stuff

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟(5/5)

I can’t remember when I picked this one up.
But I was intrigued by the plot.
The world has been wiped out by a virus called 6DM (6 days maximum), the longest you have before your body disintegrates.
Everyone dies.
But in London, one woman is still alive and beating the dying odds.
All her life she has spent adapting, pleasing, changing to be the person her family, her friends, her husband wanted her to be.
She is completely ill equipped to survive in this post pandemic world, but together with and abandoned retriever she sets out to to discover if she really is the only survivor and gets to know herself and her power along the way.
I found this book to be very funny and entertaining despite the dark and horrible setting. I didn’t think one could elaborate so much and in such an entertaining way about the world ending.
The main (and only) character is described and maintained throughout the book without any boring passages.
I couldn’t wait to find out what happens in the end. And I can only say it’s not what I expected.
After the 2020 pandemic this story builds into a next level possibility which now seems very believable.
I was thoroughly entertained and can highly recommend!

Love and other human erorrs
By @beth_writes_stuff

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟(5/5)

After reading The last one at the party, I was delighted to discover that the author had written another book.
This one is also set in the future (2030) but has a less catastrophic backdrop.
Indiana has developed a program that allows you to find your one and only true soulmate. She is a geek and a loner and keeps people at a distance so she can enjoy her well organised life with no drama or surprises.
Lina works at the company that wants to buy the program. She is a mess but tries to keep up appearances in order to make a career.
Jack also works there, even though he doesn’t really do much work and has put up a facade of smiles and seems to float through life after he lost his wife.
All three (and some more delightful characters) are thrown together in a whirlwind of a story trying to find out what love is.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the different points of view and how they interconnected.
I found it easy to identify with many of the struggles of each of them and enjoyed the humor a lot!

Can’t wait for @beth_writes_stuff to write another book!!!!!

Die Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Sotry

By Michael Ende

✨✨✨✨ (5/5 stars)

I have lately had quite a few hints and pushes towards my childhood. Remembering the me I was as a girl roaming around in nature and reading ferociously.
This morning I read an article about someone for whom this book was the first real absorbing book.
It was the same for me: this book opened so many doors in my head. I was amazed at what was possible with words, how they can trigger the imagination of the reader and transport you into a different world and let you forget your own.
What a ride that was.
I decided to pick up my old copy and read it again.

🦋 Which childhood book stood out for you and why? 🦋

American Dirt
By @jeaninecummins

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5/5)

American Dirt tells the story of Lydia, who runs a bookstore in Acapulco, whose husband is a journalist and whose 8 year old son loves to soak up geographical facts.
This is the Acapulco that is starting to loose its glory due to the growing violence of the drug cartels.
When charming Javier enters her bookstore and wants to buy some of Lydia’s favorite books, a friendship emerges.
It isn’t until Lydia’s husband is about to publish a tell-all profile about the jefe of the newest drug cartel, that she finds out the true identity of Javier.
Mayhem ensues and Lydia has to flee with her son Luca to get as far away from her comfortable life as possible. They become migrants and hop on cargo trains to go north trying to reach the USA.
This book gripped me from the start. In every drama there is humanity and both seep out of the pages of this book.
Love love!

The crooked branch
By @jeaninecummins

🌟🌟🌟🌟(4/5)

This was my second book by the author and I was glad to find the same writing style which I loved so much in American Dirt.
This is again a story of hardship:
Ginny Doyle, an Irish mother is trying to keep her family alive during the potato famine.
Majella, recently became a mother and has moved into her ancestral home where she finds Ginny’s diary and is shocked to read about a murder.

It’s a story about family, love and hardship and what we do to survive.
It’s a story about mothers and their difficult task to keep things afloat.
It’s a story about friends who show up when we need them.
I enjoyed this book a lot although I found Ginny’s storyline much more entertaining than Majella’s.

I have read a few books by @agnesledig by now and none of them ever disappoint.

She is so gifted at turning the every day lives of people into a story you cannot put down. You get attached to the personalities, understand their hardships and reasons for doing things.
You also get to love nature and French villages.
And while exploring the human nature connections start popping up.
This is the story of Adrien, who after a mission in Malinowski works with his dog to sniff out disasters.
In comes Capucine and her personal disaster at the train station.
A short meeting that should not have had a follow up we’re it not for their mutual psychotherapists.
And so the stories start unfolding…

I am always enchanted by @agnesledig stories.

A Man Called Ove
by @backmansk

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5/5 stars)

I couldn’t wait to finish it and I also didn’t want it to end.
Ove grew on me. Like most characters in Backman’s books grow on you.
I really wanted to read it before seeing the movie. I can totally see Tom Hanks as being the perfect candidate to play him.
I’ve also is in many ways like my dad. Convinced that his way is the best, trying to convince others that his way is the best, a rule follower and getting upset with people who don’t follow those rules, fixing things before buying new, always had one of these so why would I change brands, stingy, always finds himself helping out others, funny is his ways…😂
Ove also made me think a bit about Forrest Gump in his simple way of life and being.
I love this book and recommend you read it before the movie.
Because Ove came first !

Beartown
By @backmansk

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5/5 stars)

This book has been appearing left, right and center for me until I finally succumbed and bought it. I’m not always a fan of following mass-adored books (I have yet to read a Colleen Hoover book for example).

I finally finished last night. And oh boy!
Not since TROIS from @valerieperrin_ have I been this attached to a book and its characters.

The entire town, the hockey life, the competition (on and off ice), the secrets, the neighbors and what they might think, the difficulties, the forest, the cold (inside and out), the wrong and right side of town, the money which can buy almost everything, the boys who turn into men, the girls who become young women, the parents who try to protect them, the coaches who help raise them, the difficulty to talk, the coffee and the alcohol that replaces the talks, the bruises and the hiding of them, the loyalty, the worst and the best happening on the same day,….
It has all delighted me so so much!
As the sequel is out of print, I have ordered the Kindle version and am starting tonight!

If you haven’t read it yet, clear your calendar and enjoy!

The sequels are equally entertaining:

Us against you

The winners

The Great Alone
by @kristinhannahauthor

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(5/5)

Is a compelling story about a dysfunctional family moving to the harsh life of a remote Alaskan village.

It’s the coming of age story of Leni, her Vietnam veteran, drinking and volatile Dad and her mother who loves him and accepts when she should really leave.

The Alaskan landscape and life out there are as harsh as Leni’s family life and the author manages to capture both so well in a continuous dance of beauty and terror, of survival and love.
The characters come to life and make all this drama bearable and even almost desirable.
I really enjoyed being pulled into this story and highly recommended reading it.

I am usually not into crime novels much, but @carahunterauthor has written a series that is so gripping that I am having to set time aside because I cannot put them down once I start.

So start one and you’ll be spending hours locked away reading! 😂

Great characters, amazing plot, unexpected twists and turns. All ingredients are there.

HAMNET
By Maggie O’Farrell

🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4/5)

It took me while to decide if I liked this book or not.
It’s the fictional story (based on historic facts) of Shakespeare’s family, and the death of his son Hamlet/Hamnet.
A lot of the writing is from the view of Hamnet’s mother, Agnes and I felt the book could have been called Agnes.
I love her character and her special gifts.
The other characters are very alive as well.
I think where it lost a star for me was in the style: the book does not have a lot of dialogue. And although the descriptions are beautiful, I found myself skimming or skipping a lot of them
I felt the book most alive in the storyline of Agnes.
The end though makes it all good again and so it deserves 4 stars.

The Murders at Fleat House
By @lucindarileybooks

🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4/5)

Since my first book from the author I have devoured all her books.
Unfortunately she has passed away npw and so it was a surprise to see a new book come out, a crime novel on top of that, when her usual genre is more historical fiction.
Riley wrote many books that were never published and this one was edited by her son. So maybe we might see more books in the future?

The plot:
A private boarding school. A dead boy.
At first it looks like an accident, but then things start accelerating and it becomes clear this was murder.

Jazz, a talented detective inspector, who left London and Scotland Yard to forget her divorce, gets riled back in to solve the case in Norfolk.

The story switches from one of the many characters to another and at the beginning I had a bit of trouble remembering who was who. But eventually they all came to life and together created a story that had me guessing until the end.

Jazz is a strong woman who would have made a great DI for a series of future books and I loved the author’s venture into the crime scene world.

4 stars because I still prefer her historical fiction books…

Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe
By @benjamin.alire.saenz

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5/5)

It took me a while to get to this coming of age bestseller. I enjoy young adult books as they allow me to escape down memory lane.
Aristotle and Dante, the main protagonists are, despite their unusual names, normal teenage boys. They are quite opposite characters. Where Dante is extrovert and seems to know what he wants, Ari (Aristotle) is quiet and doesn’t even know how to swim.
But they are both Mexican and full of questions about the world and a friendship starts evolving.
Life, love, the discovery of self, the discomfort of growing up with developing bodies and minds in a world that they try to fit into.
Then something happens.
And their parents become friends.
And they discover the secrets of the Universe
Hah!
The book is funny and sad, philosophical and sober, very special and pretty normal.
How is that possible? I guess you have to read it.
I can’t wait to read the second book!

From Sand and Ash
@amy.harmon.author

🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4/5)

I have by now read a few of Amy Harmon’s books and can confirm that she never disappoints. Her historical fiction is always a treat. So is this one.

Eva Rossi and Angelo Bianco grew up as brother and sister but we’re decided by family and religion from the start.
As they grow up, they start falling in love but Angelo is drawn to the church and chooses priesthood.

Then World War II makes Italy a dangerous place for Jewish Eva and Angelo hides Eva in a catholic convent where she is sheltered with other Jews.
But Eva feels she needs to do something and help, which puts her in a very risky position….

As usual, the author’s fiction is based on historical events and I always enjoy learning and getting new points of view.

The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is because I found the story moving slowly at times (which is due to the richly developed characters and scenes) and because I might have read a few too many WWII books recently 😂

If you enjoy historical fiction, WWII stories and meandering story, then this is the perfect read for you.

The Mercies
@kiran_mh
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

I discovered this author through The Dance Tree (another 5 star read – see earlier post).

The Mercies is equally beautiful (love the cover by @katietookedesign) and tells an powerful story about strong women in difficult times.

In winter 1617, a deadly storm kills all the men on a the remote Norwegian island of Vardo.
The women have to fend for themselves to survive.
18 months later a sinister commissioner, Absalom Cornet, arrives to put things in order. His shy wife Ursa travels with him and discovers something she has never seen: independent women.

While Ursa makes friends with young Maren and other women of the island, her husband sees only ungodly activities he must banish.

I got pulled into this story and the hard lives of these women who had to overcome demanding and ruling men, harsh nature, the church, the weather, other jealous women and ancient beliefs of witchcraft.

The author manages again to weave an amazing story from a historical event. The strong characters make you part of their lives for a while and you learn much about Norway and the Sami and lives in the 17th century.

The Reading List
@saranishaadamsbooks
🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Teenager Aleisha works in a library. She doesn’t do a great job. It’s a job. Her brother worked there. She couldn’t care less. Her mom seems to have checked out of life and Aleisha has lost touch with her friends.
Then she finds a faded list. Of books it seems.
And when an old man (Mukesh Patel, or Mr P) walks in for a recommendation she suggest the first book on the list.
Mr P doesn’t read. But his wife always had her nose in a book. His wife died and Mr P is lost. His daughters are worried and seem to suffocate him with their concern. So he starts reading.
And slowly a connection between the teenager and the old man starts growing.
They share their lives with the unlikely friend. And slowly their lives and that of library friends intertwine through the books on the reading list that Aleisha found.

I absolutely devoured this book.
It contains everything I love.
Books, love, family relations, different points of views and cultures, mystery, heartbreak and community.
The author manages to weave several well known novels right into this story in a very original way.

I can highly recommend