Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I've Read So Far This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish and each week there's a different topic. As always, even if you can't think of 10, do as many as you can. 

  Here's my list (in no particular order) of the top ten books that I've read so far this year

 

Wake by Anna Hope

Wake is set in London during five days in November 1920 when the body of the unknown soldier is being brought home to England from France. It is also about three women who are linked in some way to each other, have all been affected by and are struggling to get over loss following World War I. This is a book you pick up to read just a few more pages only to find an hour later that you haven't managed to put it down.  Parts of the story are heartbreaking and it gets across very well what life must have been like during and after The Great War and what people had to contend with.

The View On The Way Down by Rebecca Wait

Emma used to have two older brothers, but Kit died five years ago and after his funeral Jamie left home and she hasn't seen him since. This is a beautifully written debut novel that deals with the difficult subjects of depression and bereavement exceptionally well. It's emotional but I never found it heavy going.

 

Famous by Blake Crouch 

Lance looks just like actor James Jansen. He's saved lots of money while living at home with his parents and after losing his job decides to go to New York to impersonate the famous Hollywood star.

Ghost On Black Mountain by Ann Hite

Nellie Clay marries Hobbs Pritchard against her Mama's wishes at the tender age of only seventeen.
"she saw my future in her tea leaves: death."
He is eight years older than her and they move to the Appalachia Black Mountain to live. Nellie should have listened to her Mama's wise words, Hobbs isn't a nice man, as his new bride gradually realises. Set during the depression and told from the point of view of five different women.

Jam by Jake Wallis Simons

A novel set during a traffic jam on the M25 may not sound very interesting but it had me gripped all the way through. As time passes and there's no sign of the traffic moving, or even confirmation of what has caused the hold up people are getting more and more stressed.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Lighthouse keeper Tom lives with his wife Isabel on the isolated Island called Janus Rock.  Isabel is happy with their life apart from one thing; she wants to have a child, and after three miscarriages this isn't looking like it will ever happen. Then one day a boat is washed up and in it a dead man and a small crying baby. They both make a decision that will change their lives, and others', forever. 

 

Keep Your Friends Close by Paula Daly

Natty and Sean Wainwright are married; as far as she's concerned happily, and work together running their successful hotel in the Lake District. They've been together since they were teenagers and have two daughters. When friend Eve stays to help after one of their daughters falls ill abroad she turns Natty's world upside down. An excellent psychological thriller.

No Harm Can Come To A Good Man by James Smythe

ClearVista is used by everyone and can predict anything. It's a daily lifesaver, predicting weather to traffic to who you should befriend. Laurence Walker wants to be the next President of the United States. ClearVista will predict his chances. It will predict whether he's the right man for the job. It will predict that his son can only survive for 102 seconds underwater. It will predict that Laurence's life is about to collapse in the most unimaginable way. Love all this author's books and think this is his best yet.

Road Ends by Mary Lawson

The story of a family unravelling in the aftermath of tragedy: Edward Cartwright, struggling to escape the legacy of a violent past; Emily, his wife, cloistered in her room with yet another new baby, increasingly unaware of events outside the bedroom door; Tom, their eldest son, twenty-five years old but home again, unable to come to terms with the death of a friend; and capable, formidable Megan, the sole daughter in a household of eight sons, who for years held the family together but has finally broken free and gone to England, to try to make a life of her own.    

The Shock Of The Fall by Nathan Filer

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’  This novel is about Matthew and his battle with mental illness.