Choose My Next Read: Round 2

It’s that time of the month again–time to plan next month’s TBR! And, like last month (and basically every month), I have too many choices. Please help me choose! Below are five books from my own shelves that fall under a common category. I do plan to read them all eventually, but these are five choices that I’m specifically considering for July, and I’ll leave the choice of selection up to your vote.

The category: Historical Fiction.

The books:

1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. A Lithuanian girl and several of her family members are taken by Soviets to a cold Siberian labor camp in 1941, where they must fight for survival. The girl is an artist who wants to use her drawings to convey her story to her father, who has been separated from the family and taken to another prison camp. (YA)
2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Three women with disparate histories become unlikely friends in 1962 Mississippi. The three embark on a difficult and controversial project that promises to help them break the barriers of their town and era.
3. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Two sisters convene in France as the second world war strikes and one woman’s husband is sent off to fight. The two women must stand together through the frightening challenges of life in the 1940s, resisting the horrors of the war and learning anew the meaning of family.
4. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. In late 17th century Amsterdam, a newly wedded woman is presented with a miniature version of her new house as a wedding gift–which she must furnish with the help of an artist who portrays unexpected truths in his tiny versions of the real-life setting at the unwelcoming home.
5. Mischling by Affinity Konar. Twin sisters arrive at Auschwitz in 1944. As part of the Mengele’s Zoo experiment which holds special privileges and horrors for twins, the girls struggle to keep their bond and find companionship among the other child duos. Their separation marks the beginning of a hopeful but terrifying quest for the sister left behind.

The rules: please vote by commenting below for one of these five titles that you’d like to see me review in the upcoming month. All votes will count until Friday, June 23rd, 10 pm US Central Time. (This month, however, if I end up with a tie, I will be dropping the competing titles into a cup and choosing one winner randomly from the tied choices with the most votes.)

The purpose: I have a weakness for borrowing books even though I have plenty of unread titles on my own shelves. Although I am making a dent this year, I’m an indecisive creature and the choices are becoming overwhelming. I’m trying to eliminate unread books from my shelves, but I hardly know where to start at this point. Also, I’d love some input from you, my readers, concerning the types and titles of books that you’re interested in seeing me review. Choosing a category I feel in the mood to read helps dispel the chaos, but I’m at a loss to figure out how to narrow the choices further because they all just sound so darn good. I’d be happy to read any of these choices in July, and with your help, I will actually be reading one of them rather than staring at them indecisively! To anyone who has ever been unable to choose which book to read next, please, I beg you, vote below…

May the best title win!

Sincerely,

The Literary Elephant