Are you looking for your next great read? Why not try out the books from across the pond? Despite from what governments say, books are essential and are needed now, more than ever. So if you are need of a variety and want to read diverse stories, then I suggest you try out some British and Irish titles!
We may have left 2021 behind, but the pain and struggles of last year are still being faced, especially independent bookstores. Continue to support indie bookstores by shopping on Bookshop.org and Hive.co.uk.
You can buy these titles from BookDepository.com, a subsidiary of Amazon. They provide free international delivery, although this is being affected right now due to the pandemic. You can also try with the British bookstore, Blackwell’s, also with Wordery.com. Now on with the recommendations!
Featured Books of the Month:
Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild and Untamed
DRAGON. TIGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO.
For centuries past, and all across the world there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles fire up our blood; words that tell a story.
In this blazing cauldron of a book, fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time. (Credit: Little, Brown Book Group)
Spilt Milk by Amy Beashel
What if you said the worst thing a mother could say?
What if your husband found out about it in the national press?
And what if after all that, you didn’t regret it…?
‘My life is a tight knot I would like to undo. And, yes, there’s no use crying over spilt milk but, the truth is, I’d rather die than spill any more…’
Bea has a husband and daughter. Bea also has an appointment for a termination. Her first child changed everything – her life, her relationship, her identity. Now she has a pregnancy test and a decision to face.
This is a story about the women we (think we) know, the choices we make, the friends who stand by us and how the secrets we keep and the words left unsaid can be more dangerous than any lie we tell… (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
The Institution by Helen Fields
They’re locked up for your safety.
Now, you’re locked in with them.
Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.
On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse’s body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.
Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the girl – before it’s too late.
But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her? (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
The Sad Ghost Club Volume 3: Find Your Kindred Spirits by Lize Meddings
When one sad ghost, alone at a crowded party, spies another sad ghost across the room, what happens next changes everything. Because that night, they leave the party and start the The Sad Ghost Club – a secret society for the anxious and alone, a club for people who think they don’t belong.
Follow the Sad Ghost Club as they navigate the joys and complexities of opening up their community – and their hearts – to new members.
Stunningly illustrated, this is Volume 3 in the beloved graphic novel series perfect for fans of Heartstopper and for anyone who’s ever felt invisible. (Credit: Hachette Children’s Group)
Ellie Pillai is (Almost) in Love by Christine Pillainayagam
Everyone’s favourite confused heroine Ellie Pillai is back in the perfect summer romance!
Note to self: what is falling in love, and am I really sure I want to do it? Ever since Ellie and Ash got together, Ellie Pillai has been discovering kissing and . . . questions . . . so . . . many . . . questions.
When Ellie goes to New York, she has to say goodbye to sexy Ash after only having just got together with him. As Ash’s text messages get more and more cryptic and annoying, Ellie meets Dirty-Blond stranger, a boy from school who wants her to join his band.
And suddenly everything feels a bit more complicated as well as more exciting – because what happens if you’re on cloud nine, but not actually sure who you should be falling in love with? (Credit: Faber & Faber)
Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie
An all-new collection of spring-themed mysteries from the master of the genre.
The days are growing warmer and the nights are growing shorter… It’s the perfect time to relax in the garden with this spring-themed collection from legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie.
Blossoming flowers and countryside strolls may sound innocent enough, but not when there’s murder in the air. Beware of secluded cottages, stolen treasure and fatal revenge schemes. This compendium of short stories, some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect gift for mystery lovers. (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh
If you eat the bread, you’ll die, he said. The statement made no sense, but it filled me with an electric dread.’
Elodie is the baker’s wife. A plain, unremarkable person, largely ignored by her husband and everyone else, she burns with the secret hunger to be extraordinary, to be desired, to be seen. One day a charismatic new couple appear in town – the ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife, Violet – and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets: inviting herself into their home, trying to decipher their coded conversations, longing to possess them at any cost.
Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field, laid out neatly on the ground like an offering. Widows see their lost husbands walking up the river in the night, coming back to claim them. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop. (Credit: Penguin Books Ltd)
Lady MacBethad by Isabelle Schuler
Power. History. Love. Hate. Vengeance. She will be Queen. Whatever it takes…
Daughter of an ousted king, descendant of ancient druids, as a child it is prophesied that one day Gruoch will be queen of Alba. When she is betrothed to Duncan, heir elect, this appears to confirm the prophecy. She leaves behind her home, her family and her close friend MacBethad, and travels to the royal seat at Scone to embrace her new position. But nothing is as Gruoch anticipates.
Duncan’s court is filled with sly words and unfriendly faces, women desperate to usurp her position, and others whose motives are shrouded in mystery. As her coronation approaches, a deadly turn of events forces Gruoch to flee Duncan and the capital, finding herself alone, vulnerable and at the mercy of an old enemy. Her hope of becoming Queen all but lost, Gruoch does what she must to survive, vowing that one day she will fulfill her destiny and take up the future owed to her. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing UK)
The Ugly Truth by L.C. North
Expected Publication Date: March 16
Melanie Lange has disappeared.
Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.
Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.
The media will say whichever gets them the most views.
But whose side are you on?
#SaveMelanie
#HelpPeter (Credit: Transworld Publishers Ltd)
HappyHead by Josh Silver
Expected Publication Date: March 16
We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness.
…
Friends, here is the good news: HappyHead has the answer.
When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape… (Credit: Oneworld Publications)
The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life by Clare Carlisle
Expected Publication Date: March 23
When she was in her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot – an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes – writer, philosopher and married father of three. After ‘eloping’ to Berlin in 1854 they lived together for twenty-four years: Eliot asked people to call her ‘Mrs Lewes’ and dedicated each novel to her ‘Husband’. Though they could not legally marry, she felt herself initiated into the ‘great experience’ of marriage – ‘this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength’. The relationship scandalized her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Living at once inside and outside marriage, Eliot could experience this form of life – so familiar yet also so perplexing – from both sides.
In The Marriage Question Clare Carlisle reveals Eliot to be not only a great artist but a brilliant philosopher who probes the tensions and complexities of a shared life. Through the immense ambition and dark marriage plots of her novels we see Eliot wrestling – in art and in life – with themes of desire and sacrifice, motherhood and creativity, trust and disillusion, destiny and chance. Reading them afresh, Carlisle’s searching new biography explores how marriage questions grow and change, and joins Eliot in her struggle to marry thought and feeling. (Credit: Penguin Books UK)
The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison by J.T. Williams and illustrated by Simone Douglas
Expected Publication Date: March 30
Agents of history. Partners in Mystery. Sisters in solving crime.
Twelve-year-olds Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle are from different worlds – Lizzie lives in Westminster in her dad’s tea shop, while Belle is an heiress being brought up by her aunt and uncle at grand Kenwood House – but they both share a love of solving mysteries. And after saving Lizzie’s father from attempted murder surely there is no threat too dangerous for the detective duo?
It’s the summer of 1777, the night of the grand unveiling of the Sancho-Mansfields family portrait – a groundbreaking step towards representing friendship, family, and freedom. But soon enough things take a chaotic turn – the painting has been stolen! This theft is only the start, revealing a much bigger, more terrifying secret that haunts the cobbled streets of London. A conspiracy is underway, one that has links to the kidnapping of Lizzie’s friend Mercury, and leads all the way to a series of attempted poisonings, all at the hands of an ominous organisation pulling the strings from the shadows. These villains lurk everywhere, even in the very homes they call safe. And their desire for power is only growing.
When anyone could be involved in this Brotherhood of Masters, who can Lizzie and Belle trust? Once again it is up to the two girls to unveil the truth and put an end to the corruption that plagues the city.
A Pen Dipped in Poison by J.M. Hall
Expected Publication Date: March 30
Retired schoolteachers Liz, Pat and Thelma are back at their usual table at the Thirsk Garden Centre cafe with a brand-new mystery to solve…
Curious white envelopes have been delivered to friends and neighbours. Inside are letters revealing the deepest secrets they have tried to hide.
As one by one, careers are ended, marriages destroyed and no one is beyond suspicion, the three friends decide enough is enough. They must take matters into their own hands before more damage is done.
But as they work to uncover the truth, they begin to wonder just how far someone will go to silence this poison pen…
Could a murderer be in their midst once again? (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
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