Welcome back to Book Break, and welcome to this month's book haul! We make these
videos every single month where we look back on some of the most exciting titles of the month,
so now we are looking at August. What are some of the books that came out from Pan Macmillan
into the world in August? These videos are always a surprise to me as well as you. I have my email
already in front of me here from Elle, the other half of the Book Break team, who has sent me
some mystery books that we published that I'm going to read about now. So let's dive straight
in. The first book in here is The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett. So this is the paperback,
it's gorgeous. The Evening of the Morning came out last year in hardback. So this is the prequel
to the Kingsbridge series, a mega popular series from Ken Follett, it spans centuries in this town,
it all revolves around the building of a cathedral, and we go through the generations.
The Evening and the Morning takes us all the way back to the beginning
and further back. This was a very very hyped book when it came out in hardback, so if you've been
hanging on in there for the paperback, now is your time. Okay next in here, oh another of my
favourites now out in paperback. This is Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink. So I read this
one when it first came out in hardback, it's all about the comfort and joy of books, and it's just
absolutely delightful. It's Cathy Rentzenbrink’s memoir all told through her journey of reading,
and it's just magical - that any kind of reader, no matter what kinds of books you usually love,
you will see yourself represented in here. It's also just such a beautiful gifty book,
so I feel like you could give this to any book lover in your life. Next, The Rookery by Deborah
Hewitt. Okay this is one a lot of people have been anticipating. It is the second in a series. So the
first book was called Nightjar and in Nightjar we follow a girl called Alice who uncovers
this alternate London, this like secret magical London. She has been seeing visions of birds her
whole life and it turns out that that is a special magical power, and now we finally have a sequel!
I have been hyping you guys up on this one for a while, ever since we knew it was coming, and now's
the time! Fly out there and buy it. I'm sorry that I said that. Okay next up is From Rags to Ricky by
Sid Owen. Okay so I never watched Eastenders, but I know that people who did watch Eastenders
absolutely love Sid Owen. He plays Ricky on the show, who is a very lovable character I am told,
but his real life in his early childhood actually contained a lot of hardship, a lot more drama than
anything his character had to endure on the show. So this is actually a really compelling and moving
story of this actor, he does look very likeable from this cover. Next we have a children's book,
I Am dog by Peter Bently and Chris Chatterton. I have not seen this one before but it is already
making me smile, that is a very cute picture on the cover. So let's read what this one is about!
Have you ever wondered just what goes on in a dog's head? Yes, all the time. Now you can find
out in this funny rhyming story - fantastic. Next, going back to one for the adults: How
to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch by Harry Cliff. So I'm really intrigued to read this one. This is
supposed to be really accessible nonfiction, it is the story of how our universe began, and how
we have discovered so much information that we have about our universe and what mysteries are
still left out there. So many questions I have never so far been able to understand,
so I have high hopes for this book. Next we have a thriller, The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones. You may
recognize that name, this author has written so many really fun beach read thrillers like this.
Just looking at the cover gives you a perfect image of where you want to be when you read this
book, I want to be by that pool. I don't actually know what this book is about yet, so let's have a
look at the description. Three couples are having a weekend getaway together in Portugal. By the end
of the weekend there'll be one dead body and five people with guilty consciences wondering if they
really know each other so well after all, because one of them has to be the killer. That sounds so
much my cup of tea. Next in here is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. This is a memoir. I've
heard so many amazing things about this book. So Michelle Zauner is the frontwoman of the band
Japanese Breakfast. So she's a musician, she is a songwriter, and just in general a very beautiful
writer. This book is a story of grief, it is about how she coped with the death of her mother,
and how she reconnected with memories of her mother through cooking and through food,
specifically through exploring Korean recipes and reconnecting with that side of her identity.
Michelle Zauner did originally write an essay called Crying in HMart that went viral
so you might remember that, it moved a lot of people to tears, and this book is an expansion of
that journey. Then we have a historical fiction, Emily Noble's Disgrace by Mary Paulson-Ellis.
So Mary Paulson-Ellis is the author of The Other Mrs Walker and The Inheritance of
Solomon Farthing. Her speciality is exploring stories of people from the past through looking
at the items and objects that they have left behind. It's a really wonderful thing,
this is her latest: Emily Noble's Disgrace. Let me look up the description of this one.
Okay so this is about a trauma cleaner who is hired to clean up after a death. She makes a
gruesome discovery in the derelict Edinburgh boarding house where she has been sent to clean,
which then brings her into contact with a young policewoman called Emily Noble who has her own
reasons to solve the case. So we're going to go back in time, embark on the journey
back into the heart of some family secrets, bring back their own memories to the surface,
really really absorbing stuff. I know there are a lot of Mary Paulson-Ellis fans out there.
Next we have a children's book, Lightning Falls by Amy Wilson. This looks really sweet. Beyond
the rainbow a city lies waiting. Okay so I'm guessing this is fantasy, very beautiful cover,
let's have a read. Okay so this is described as a fantastical story of ghosts and friendship,
I'm already sold. So Valerie has been living at Lightning Falls nearly all her life. She's
perfectly happy helping Meg and the rest of the family to haunt the guests who come to stay there,
but one night she sees a strange boy, Joe up on the viaduct. There she discovers that beneath
the river is a bridge, one that will take her to the world of Orbis, which Joe claims is
her real home. OK so we've got parallel worlds in here, we've got ghosts, we've got friends,
sounds adorable. Back to an adult thriller: The Hiding Place by Jenny Quintana. So this
is now the paperback release of this book. Jenny Quintana is a very beloved thriller
mystery writer. Her books always have multiple timelines, they're kind of centered on a house,
and we go back through time to see the secrets that that house is holding. I love that kind
of thing. The Hiding Place is one about a woman who discovers that she was abandoned as a baby,
and so she goes back to the house where she was left as a child and rents a flat there to try and
explore the secrets of her past. Then we have the paperback of You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary
South. This is a short story collection unlike any other. These stories are very weird, very twisted,
very exciting and unusual, they're all in some way about technology and how people use technology
to forge relationships, but also how technology can collapse our relationships, so increasingly
relevant in our world! This one is Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich. You may have
heard me talking about this one already. This has been a very exciting book around the office
because this is a forgotten cult classic from Italy, published for the first time in the UK.
I will link below to a couple of videos where I've talked about this book before and talked a little
bit more about the publishing history behind it because it has a very interesting backstory.
The book itself is about a young man who leaves his family and sets off to move to the city and
finds himself unemployed and lost, spending his days in an alcoholic haze, and it's all about this
summer that changed his life. Next in here I have Paradise by Kae Tempest. Okay so this is a play,
this is being put on at the National Theatre. This is a retelling of a Greek legend, it takes the
story of Philoctetes, who was once a celebrated wartime hero, and was then left abandoned on an
island, and this play at the National Theatre has been cast with an all-female cast. Kae Tempest is
really well known and really beloved for their revolutionary retellings of ancient stories.
So this one has already had such amazing reviews. Then we have something very fun-looking here,
I haven't seen this before. Lego City Fire Station, a push pull and slide book,
fantastic. So particularly for children who love Lego (or adults who love Lego),
this is a really interactive book where you can actually bring the fire station to life,
pushing and pulling and sliding all of the tabs. It's a board book, you can open the fire station
doors, you can make the helicopter take off, I want to play! Then we have something a lot
heavier, okay not for children though is about a child. This book looks really really moving. This
is What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad. What I know of this one is that it is about the global
refugee crisis, and is told from the perspective of a child, so already that sounds heartbreaking.
I'm gonna look up a little bit more description about it. Oh gosh. So this book takes place after
another overfilled and ill-equipped ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers,
all desperate to escape untenable lives in their homeland. Only one of them survives the journey,
a nine-year-old Syrian boy called Amir who washes up on the shores of this small island and meets
a teenage girl there, Vanna. They don't speak the same language but Vanna is determined to
do whatever it takes to save him. Already this sounds so emotional. I have one more book left
to discover in here, and that is The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes. Okay I have heard
a little bit about this one. Rian Hughes is also the author of XX which was this massive great book
that played with the forms of writing and graphic design, it was really unique, and this looks
equally unusual. A strange anomaly is uncovered in the new top secret crossroad extension
being built under Buckingham Palace, it's an archaeological puzzle, one that may transform our
understanding of history and the origins of London itself. Interesting, it looks very futuristic,
it looks very dark and mysterious. It says here if our modern world falls,
we may have to turn to the technology of the past in order to save our future. I'm so intrigued. So
that was our August book haul, lots of amazing looking books in there. Do leave a comment below
with which of those books you're most excited to get your hands on. They are all available
for you to go out and buy now. I will also link here to a playlist of all of our previous book
hauls so you can go through and browse some more book recommendations from us. See you next time!