Hi Lume readers,
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas! As this difficult year draws to a close, we’re looking back at our most popular books of 2020 – a great selection of reads that have hopefully provided an escape during these unprecedented times.
There’s a book for every taste below, so top up your Christmas present haul (or put those gift cards to good use!) with the books that have had readers raving this year.
Five Windows by D. E. Stevenson
In this captivating novel, we follow David Kirke as he makes his way in the world from his sheltered childhood in the Scottish Border hills to a house in Edinburgh, a dingy London boarding house and his own attic flat above a Covent Garden bookshop. We watch over his family, friends and tentative romances, and see how his open friendliness and innate decency prevail through testing times. But it’s only when provided with his fifth window that he finally finds his place in the world…
The Perfect Gentleman by June Rose
James Barry was one of the most outstanding doctors of the 19th century. But throughout a long and distinguished career, an air of secrecy always clung to Barry, and it was only after the doctor’s death in 1865 that the incredible truth came to light: Dr. James Barry was a woman.
In this vivid and meticulous biography, June Rose pieces together the clues in the Barry mystery, providing a rare insight into the extraordinary life of a remarkable woman.
To So Few by Russell Sullman
It is the Summer of 1940, and France has fallen to the might of Nazi Germany, when Pilot Officer Harry Rose, fresh from training and eager to prove himself, is posted to a Hawker Hurricane fighter unit based in southern England.
In the coming weeks and months of that fateful summer, as the outnumbered RAF battle grimly with the Luftwaffe in the skies above Britain, Rose will come to know what it is to love, and will experience both the glorious euphoria of success and the desperate bitterness of loss.
Dog in the Dark by Gerald Hammond
Ex-army Captain John Cunningham is making the transition back into civilian life by investing in Three Oaks Farm, a kennel for breeding and training gun dogs. But the dog breeding world proves to be a ruthlessly competitive business, where enemies are easily made. Especially when a rival breeder is murdered, and Cunningham is framed for the crime…
A Time For Trumpets by Charles B MacDonald
On December 16, 1944, half a million German soldiers attacked U.S. forces in the Ardennes, and 600,000 American soldiers found themselves facing Hitler’s last desperate efforts with no warning. The brutal confrontation that ensued became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the greatest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army.
This is the definitive account of the dramatic victory, told by one of America’s most respected military historians, who also had firsthand experience commanding a rifle company in the conflict.
Something’s Alive on the Titanic by Robert J Serling
Something is alive on the Titanic — something powerful and malevolent that protects the once-great ocean liner from the rapacious intentions of those who would desecrate her grave. And when a group of scientists, adventurers, and the United States Navy penetrate deep into the hull in an attempt to recover millions of dollars in gold, becoming the first people to see the interior in 81 years, they find they are not alone…
Atlantic Nightmare by Richard Freeman
No other battle of the Second World War lasted longer than the 2,075 days of the Battle of the Atlantic. But how seriously did each side take the battle? How far were they able to innovate their way out of problems they encountered? Who made the crucial decisions on how the battle should be fought? How was the crucial battle for intelligence won?
Atlantic Nightmare identifies seven pivotal areas of the conflict to answer these questions.
A Talent For Revenge by John Cutter
Jack Sullivan is a mercenary with a talent for revenge. He is no kill-crazy psychopath – he works for a cause, and for what he believes in. And when Julia Penn asks for his help in tracking down an African dictator that tortured her, Sullivan finds himself unable to resist…
