4 books to read this month

Use these reviews to help decide which books should be on your bedside table

The Moth: This Is a True Story edited by Catherine Burns (Profile Books, R300)

Rating: 3/5

I'm a big fan of The Moth podcasts of true stories told by amateur and professional storytellers. Uplifting, neatly edited and well told, these first-person accounts provide moving insight into the lives of others. Fifty of these slices of life are now gathered into a book. But how well do the stories translate from the spoken word to the page? Surprisingly well: like the podcasts, they can become rather "samey" if you consume too many in one sitting, but when spread out, savoured and dipped into, they are a lovely sampling of the rich diversity of human experience. - Kate Sidley (@KateSidley)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Fourth Estate, R275)

Rating:4/5

The multi-layered plot follows several characters through World War 2, focusing mainly on Marie-Laure, a blind girl living in Paris, and Werner, a German orphan. Before war breaks out, Marie-Laure's loving father builds her a mini replica of their neighbourhood to help her learn to navigate, while Werner's aptitude for engineering wins him a spot at a military academy - where he struggles with the violence but feels he must comply. Doerr skilfully pulls together several threads in this engrossing book. His writing is both expansive and meticulously detailed. - Lindsay Callaghan (@lindsaycal)

Flying Shoes by Lisa Howorth (Bloomsbury, R290)

Rating: 4/5

This is a fictionalised account of the author seeking resolution over her nine-year-old brother's unsolved murder. Howorth writes herself as Mary Byrd Thornton, an eccentric woman living in Mississippi whose life choices are determined by guilt: she was 15, making out with her boyfriend in a car when her brother was killed. Now, 48 years later, the police have a new lead and she reluctantly has to remember what happened. The beauty in the writing is in Mary Byrd's ramblings on her day-to-day life in the US South, distracting herself from her memories. - Jennifer Platt (@Jenniferdplatt)

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill (HarperCollins, R250)

This book was reviewed by members of The Good Book Appreciation Society (GBAS), a well-hidden corner of Facebook. To join GBAS, write to books@sundaytimes.co.za

Hill is the niece of the leader of the organisation who took over after L Ron Hubbard. It's shocking and fascinating. It's taking me ages to read because I keep going to read more about Scientology on the internet. - Heidi Greenberg Brauer

I did much the same. There were times her story just didn't seem real. - Penny Marek

I also enjoyed Love, Sex, Fleas, God by Bruce Clark (about being raised in Scientology in Joburg). It deals with the issue of a difficult childhood and also how he learns to grow up and love himself through parenting his own kids. - Emily Buchanan

All of these books are also available for download on kobobooks.com