Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read 2014

Five suggestions this time and for the first time ever 4 of them are non-fiction, but they are all such startling stories, I'm sure you'll have difficulty choosing your favourite. 
As always, to vote, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up, the title of the most popular book will be posted on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read for 2014

Angel in the Rubble By Genelle Guzman-McMillan

(Non fiction) A true account of the miraculous rescue of the last person to be brought out alive from the rubble of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. Genelle is trapped for 27 hours in what she describes as a “...sealed coffin of concrete and steel.” Unable to get out and aware of the likelihood of her approaching death, she has time to reflect on the life she’s lived and how she’s drifted from the faith she once knew. It is only when she remembers the miraculous recovery of her aunt in Trinidad that Genelle starts to have the hope ... just maybe ... God has a miracle for her as well.

Summer by Bill Bryson

(Non fiction) A compelling account covering the happenings of the summer of 1927, the year Linbergh flew from New York to Paris and Al Capone was arrested.

Priscilla by Nicholas Shakespeare

(Non fiction – Nicholas Shakespeare is Priscilla’s nephew) A fascinating account of his aunt’s adventures, including her arrest and internment by the Gestapo, liaisons with high ranking German Officers and two marriages: to a French nobleman and an English mushroom farmer no less.

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

(Non fiction) A magnificent and brilliantly written account by Vera Brittain, of how she was about to go up to Oxford when WW1 broke out. Four years later her life – and the lives of her whole generation – has irretrievably changed. A brilliant suggestion for this Centenary year. (If you liked Crimson Field – this is the real thing and infinitely better)

The Collector of Dying Breaths by M J Rose

A novel of suspense and intrigue set in Florence, Italy – 1533. An orphan, plucked from poverty becomes Catherine de Medici’s perfumer, and brings with him secret recipes not only for exotic fragrances and potent medicines, but also  covert poisons and a formula said to reanimate the dead. Yet he little knows the tragic and personal consequences for which his lethal potions will be responsible.

(The image is by Robert Delunay)