I’m pausing midyear to reflect on the BEST 6 books I’ve read in 6 months. Can you list your top six books?

Six in Six is a meme created by Jo at The Book Jotter (visit the link to see her categories). At the end of June, we are halfway through the year,  so the idea is to share the books we have read in these first six months.

In the true spirit of the 6 in 6 meme, we are asked to share 6 books in 6 categories. Coming up with 36 books will take more brain power than I have available right now, so I will share 6 of the best books I’ve read so far this year. All five-star (or rounded to 5 Star) reads. Five out of six are histfic. No Surprise! There’s so much to admire about the amount of research histfic authors do as part of their writing process.

Can you identify your best 6 books in 6 months?

Best 6 Books in 6 Months

***This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

(In no particular order)

James by Percival Everett

James is a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn told from Jim’s point of view. Huck is running from his abusive father and enslaved Jim is running to avoid being sold and separated from his family. Those who have read Huck Finn are aware of the many harrowing adventures Huck and Jim experience, the mishaps they survive, and the colorful characters they encounter. James includes some of these events, but it’s truly a story of Jim’s intelligence, observations, and pursuit of freedom that compel us to turn the pages until we reach the riveting conclusion.

I have created a FREE Book Club Kit for your book club here.

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Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly

Andrée Geulen and Ida Sterno risk their lives to secretly defy the Nazis in Belgium and take action to hide as many Jewish children as possible from the Gestapo. This story is based on two real-life heroes.

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The Forgotten Names by Mario Escobar

Inspired by true events and real people, The Forgotten Names is the story of Jewish children who were smuggled out of Nazi-occupied France during WWII. The contemporary timeline shares the story of real-life law student, Valérie Portheret, as she attempts to track down these children from the list of 108 to hear their stories and provide them with any available birthright heritage from 1942. It took her twenty-five years.

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Never Closer by Margot Shepherd

In 2017, Jo purchases a vintage handbag among other items. Inside the handbag she discovers a journal dated 1940-1942. She also receives a call that her eighteen-year-old daughter, Jessie, is seriously ill. A course of antibiotics is her only hope. Jo spends long hours at the hospital and starts to read the journal written by seventeen-year-old Alice. It turns out that Alice is one of the “penicillin girls” who worked in a lab to grow and harvest penicillin so that the doctors could manufacture the very first antibiotics. Penicillin and antibiotics were difficult to manufacture in 1940, and the author provides detailed descriptions of the process and the urgency. Will the scientific work in 1940 save the life of a girl in 2017?

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By Her Own Design by Piper Huguley

By Her Own Design is the fictionalized biography of fashion designer, Anne Lowe, an incredible woman forgotten by history. Until now. Taught to sew by her mother and grandmother, Anne demonstrated an interest in fashion design from a young age. As a youngster, her special talent involved making fabric flowers (which she turned into a little business). In an effort to grow up quickly and be taken seriously by her family, she married at twelve. Sadly, this was an abusive marriage and Anne along with her baby left and ended up in Florida as a result of significant encouragement from a chance meeting with a wealthy white woman. In Florida,, Anne sewed for the family and gained a reputation with the wealthy society ladies. The story follows Anne’s professional and personal life through many ups and downs as she persevered through a few difficult circumstances and setbacks. Anne was “society’s best kept secret” but this also meant that she didn’t receive the recognition or financial rewards that she deserved. Even designing Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress didn’t bring the notoriety she yearned for or expected. Anne’s faith in God sustained her, and designing dresses brought her immense pleasure and filled her heart with joy. It’s tragic that she didn’t receive the recognition she deserved in her lifetime because of the color of her skin.

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Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

For a change of pace and a lighthearted, unique read consider Sipsworth:
An eighty-three-year-old woman finds a mouse in her house and one thing leads to another. In the course of one week, Helen Cartwright finds a new purpose in life and makes a few new friends.

Helen has returned to the small village in which she grew up to live out her remaining years. Everyone from her past has moved on. Helen is widowed and grieves the loss of her husband and grown son, and she establishes a quiet life for herself holding fast to her routines. She’s lonely but resigned. One day, she finds a mouse in her house and in the spirit of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, this discovery and her reactions change her life.

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I’m also linking up today with the 2024 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight. 

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QOTD:

Have you created a “6 in 6” list?
I can enthusiastically recommend every book on my list! Have you read any of them?

You might also enjoy my recent post: 10 Books For Your Beach or Pool Bag

Last year’s best 6 in 6 post here.

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Happy Reading Book Friends!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.” ~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.” ~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.” ~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

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***Blog posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price.

All books I review are purchased or borrowed from the library unless explicitly stated that the book is free (arc).

Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website receives all credit for book covers and author photos.

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