As summer and the season of summer reading comes to a close, here are four books I gave five stars in the month of August. What have you read and enjoyed lately?

The Postcard by Anne Berest, Tina Kover (Translator) –  such a beautiful, heart wrenching book. This is the story of WWII unlike any other I have read before. Here we have a Jewish family who receives an anonymous postcard in January 2003 that lists the names of four family members who were murdered at Auschwitz. No other text or explanation accompanies the names. Why would someone send something like this to the family? So begins the author’s search to uncover the sender of the postcard and the past of her family. The story travels back and forth in time and the present day is written in almost a conversational tone. The language is beautiful and moving and I couldn’t put it down. It’s heavy but worth the read.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe – Whoa. I listened to this in about a week and it was impossible to put down. It is both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It’s nonfiction that is thoroughly researched and doesn’t read like a textbook, but instead like a page-turning story. I knew nothing about the Sackler family and am glad I picked this up.

The Enemy at Home by Kevin O’Brien – I could not turn the pages of this book fast enough but had to put it away before bed because it is creepy! Books set on the homefront during WWII are fascinating as so much of what I’ve read about WWII is set abroad. The details are rich and the suspense had my heart rate up the whole time. I was fooled by the red herrings and I’m pretty sure my jaw was on the ground when I reached the conclusion.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon – Calling all mystery lovers and fans of intergenerational stories! Get your hands on this (publishes Sept 5th), I adored it! This was such a great whodunnit novel featuring a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter trio investigating a murder that pretty much happened right outside their window! The setting of Monterey Bay adds much to the mystery and was a little armchair travel for this reader. This was suspenseful, thoughtful, tender and funny. That’s a lot to get in one debut (!) book and Nina does this beautifully.