Book recommendations. Six Great Stories - Six Fine Authors

I love books! Do you?

I have the pleasure of meeting many fine authors on the Scribbler and reading their stories. I get tremendous enjoyment from sharing them with you.

This week, I want to tell you about six more that should be on any readers list. I'm hoping to make this a regular feature on the Scribbler every couple of months. 

The first six were featured here -  September, 2018

The next six were highlighted here - June, 2019

Check them out.


#1 - The Afrikaner by Arianna Dagnino.

I discovered this book online and was captivated by the excellent cover. I was not disappointed by this story. An excellent debut fiction novel by Dagnino. This is one I'll read many times. 

When a car-jacking in Johannesburg leads to the death of her colleague and lover, Zoe du Plessis, a palaeontologist of Afrikaner origin, is suddenly confronted with her family’s secret, wrapped in an old Xhosa’s curse. As she heads for the Kalahari Desert in search of early human fossils, Zoe embarks on an inner journey into the sense of guilt haunting her people. Meaningful encounters with an aged Bushman, a legendary but troubled writer author and her ancestors’ diaries will reshape her sense of identity. (Source: Goodreads)

Arianna was a guest on the Scribbler with a 4Q Interview and an excerpt from her novel. Go HERE

#2 True Identity by Gisele Bourgeois.

I found out about this novel online as well and knew it was a story I wanted to read. This is a book you can't put down. Intelligent, well written and a joy to read.


Adrienne Blanchard can't believe what she is seeing through a café window in Amsterdam. It's Michel, a boy from home who disappeared twenty years ago. She knows the story of why he left without a trace and now she must bring him home. Compassionate, confident, and bold, she will finish what her father started, regardless of the consequences.

Michel Bourgeois is a dreamer and a loner who has never had much of a chance in life. But when the time comes to make a decision, he is not passive. He runs desperately for his freedom.

Xavier Aramburu is a brilliant and devastatingly handsome Basque millionaire. All is privilege. Everything is easy. However, his name and history are not acceptable to some and he is an outcast in his own country. Despite his success and wealth, his life is disconnected and lonely.

Set in the 1980s in such diametrically opposed places as New Brunswick, Canada, and Bilbao, Spain, True Identity is an intense love story within a tale of exile and return. Rich in cultural and historical anecdote, this entertaining novel offers a glimpse of lives defined by the languages and landscapes of childhood. Adrienne Blanchard can't believe what she is seeing through a café window in Amsterdam. It's Michel, a boy from home who disappeared twenty years ago. She knows the story of why he left without a trace and now she must bring him home. Compassionate, confident, and bold, she will finish what her father started, regardless of the consequences.

Michel Bourgeois is a dreamer and a loner who has never had much of a chance in life. But when the time comes to make a decision, he is not passive. He runs desperately for his freedom.

Xavier Aramburu is a brilliant and devastatingly handsome Basque millionaire. All is privilege. Everything is easy. However, his name and history are not acceptable to some and he is an outcast in his own country. Despite his success and wealth, his life is disconnected and lonely.

Set in the 1980s in such diametrically opposed places as New Brunswick, Canada, and Bilbao, Spain, True Identity is an intense love story within a tale of exile and return. Rich in cultural and historical anecdote, this entertaining novel offers a glimpse of lives defined by the languages and landscapes of childhood. Adrienne Blanchard can't believe what she is seeing through a café window in Amsterdam. It's Michel, a boy from home who disappeared twenty years ago. She knows the story of why he left without a trace and now she must bring him home. Compassionate, confident, and bold, she will finish what her father started, regardless of the consequences.

Michel Bourgeois is a dreamer and a loner who has never had much of a chance in life. But when the time comes to make a decision, he is not passive. He runs desperately for his freedom.

Xavier Aramburu is a brilliant and devastatingly handsome Basque millionaire. All is privilege. Everything is easy. However, his name and history are not acceptable to some and he is an outcast in his own country. Despite his success and wealth, his life is disconnected and lonely.

Set in the 1980s in such diametrically opposed places as New Brunswick, Canada, and Bilbao, Spain, True Identity is an intense love story within a tale of exile and return. Rich in cultural and historical anecdote, this entertaining novel offers a glimpse of lives defined by the languages and landscapes of childhood. Adrienne Blanchard can't believe what she is seeing through a café window in Amsterdam. It's Michel, a boy from home who disappeared twenty years ago. She knows the story of why he left without a trace and now she must bring him home. Compassionate, confident, and bold, she will finish what her father started, regardless of the consequences.

Michel Bourgeois is a dreamer and a loner who has never had much of a chance in life. But when the time comes to make a decision, he is not passive. He runs desperately for his freedom.

Xavier Aramburu is a brilliant and devastatingly handsome Basque millionaire. All is privilege. Everything is easy. However, his name and history are not acceptable to some and he is an outcast in his own country. Despite his success and wealth, his life is disconnected and lonely.

Set in the 1980s in such diametrically opposed places as New Brunswick, Canada, and Bilbao, Spain, True Identity is an intense love story within a tale of exile and return. Rich in cultural and historical anecdote, this entertaining novel offers a glimpse of lives defined by the languages and landscapes of childhood.

Adrienne Blanchard can’t believe what she is seeing through a café window in Amsterdam. It’s Michel, a boy from home who disappeared twenty years ago. She knows the story of why he left without a trace and now she must bring him home. Compassionate, confident, and bold, she will finish what her father started, regardless of the consequences.

Michel Bourgeois is a dreamer and a loner who has never had much of a chance in life. But when the time comes to make a decision, he is not passive. He runs desperately for his freedom.

Xavier Aramburu is a brilliant and devastatingly handsome Basque millionaire. All is privilege. Everything is easy. However, his name and history are not acceptable to some and he is an outcast in his own country. Despite his success and wealth, his life is disconnected and lonely.

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Set in the 1980’s in such diametrically opposed places as New Brunswick, Canada, and Bilbao, Spain, True Identity is an intense love story within a tale of exile and return. Rich in cultural and historical anecdote, this entertaining novel offers a glimpse of lives defined by the languages and landscapes of childhood. (Source: www.giselebourgeois.com )

Read Gisele's 4Q Interview and an excerpt from her novel when she was a guest on the Scribbler. GO HERE

#3 Sunflowers Under Fire by Diana Stevan

Another great novel from this talented author. Based on stories from her ancestors, Stevan brings the pain and sorrow and endurance of the First World War through the eyes of her maternal grandmother. An exceptional story.

n this family saga, love and loss are bound together by a country always at war.

In 1915, Lukia Mazurets, a Ukrainian farmwife, delivers her eighth child while her husband is serving in the Tsar’s army. Soon after, she and her children are forced to flee the invading Germans. Over the next fourteen years, Lukia must rely on her wits and faith to survive life in a refugee camp, the ravages of a typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution, unimaginable losses, and one daughter’s forbidden love.

Sunflowers Under Fire is a heartbreakingly intimate novel that illuminates the strength of the human spirit. Based on the true stories of her grandmother’s ordeals, author Diana Stevan captures the voices of those who had little say in a country that is still being fought over.

Sunflowers Under Fire has been shortlisted for a 2019 Whistler Independent Book Award in the fiction category.

In 1915, Lukia Mazurets, a Ukrainian farmwife, delivers her eighth child while her husband’s in the Tsar’s army. Soon after, she and her children are forced to flee the invading Germans.

Over the next fourteen years, Lukia uses her wits and faith to survive life in a refugee camp, a typhus epidemic, the Bolshevik revolution and one daughter’s forbidden love. In this family saga, love and loss are bound together by a country always at war.

Based on her grandmother’s life, Diana Stevan captures the voices of those who had little say in a country that is still being fought over. (Source: www.dianastevan.com )

Diana has been a guest twice on the Scribbler. A charming and interesting lady. Read a 4Q Interview and an excerpt from Sunflowers Under Fire  GO HERE

Her first visit GO HERE

#4. Last Summer's Evil by MJ LaBeff

I met MJ online through a mutual author friend. A friendly and amusing author, she writes captivating thrillers and this one will keep you up turning the pages. She is a tremendous supporter for other authors.

A fearful city lies in wait. Summer is here. The solstice is near. Each time the serial killer strikes there are two more victims. One woman has already disappeared. It’s only a matter of time before another woman is murdered.

Homicide Detective Rachel Hood, a psychic empath, feels every ounce of a victim’s pain but is powerless to save her.

Psychic FBI Agent Nick Draven is a skilled profiler, specializing in occult crimes. Together, they must race against the clock to capture the psychopath terrorizing Snug Harbor, Ohio. Only one victim has escaped, but she can’t ID her attacker. What they do know is the sick signature the killer leaves behind. A handmade ragdoll crafted out of the previous victim’s clothes is found in the clutches of the deceased women.

Rachel’s obsession with the case deepens, and she devises a rogue plan to outsmart the killer. The risky plot puts her life in jeopardy. The serial killer has had years to master the crime. Nick only has hours to track down the killer and rescue Rachel before she dies in a ritualistic sacrifice at the hand of a knife wielding, blood thirsty murderer. (Source: www.mjlabeff.com )

MJ has been a guest on the Scribbler as well. Read her 4Q Interview and read an excerpt. GO HERE

#5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Photo Credit : Author's website.

I discovered this book on Goodreads and knew instantly it was a story I wanted to read. I purchased it online and it's brilliant. I've recently purchased her newest novel - Cilka's Journey - and can't wait to read it.

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions. (Source: Amazon.com )

#6 Rise by Cara Brookins.

I picked up one of Cara Brookin's novels several years ago and enjoyed her storytelling. Since then I've read other novels by her and was anxiously awaiting this memoir she was working on. A brave lady tells the tale of escaping an abusive relationship and rebuilding a family - by building their own house. I highly recommend this novel. Word has it that it will soon be a major motion picture. Congratulations Cara.

After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara Brookins had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible.

Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan and a mile-wide stubborn streak, Cara built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children.

It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two story, five bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family.

This must-read memoir traces one family’s rise from battered victims to stronger, better versions of themselves, all through one extraordinary do-it-yourself project.

Cara has been one of the Scribbler's most popular guests. A 4Q Interview.  GO HERE

I hope that you'll check out these great authors. I trust you will enjoy their stories.

 Thanks for visiting and don't forget to leave a comment. 

By the way, Check this story out too!

Shattered Figurine by Allan Hudson.

Check it out HERE