It's a dead heat:  Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry and La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith.  You can choose to read either or both, discussions will start 3 September.

 Annie Dunne.  The central character in Sebastian Barry's novel Annie Dunne is a woman who has been pushed to the margins, a woman whom life has given few chances of happiness and fulfillment. Unmarried, she spends years as housekeeper for her brother-in-law because her sister is too ill to manage. Her sister dies, her brother-in-law remarries, and Annie Dunne is homeless. Invited by her cousin Sarah, she moves to a small farm in a remote part of Wicklow. As the novel opens, the two cousins share their lives and the work on the farm. It is the late 1950s and rural Ireland is changing around them. Annie's nephew heads for London in search of work and leaves his young children with their great-aunt. Content with her life with Sarah, Annie also finds a new capacity for love in her feelings for the two children. Yet even the small pleasures that Annie finds in her life are threatened. An unlikely suitor pays court to Sarah, and Annie's love for the children opens her up to pain almost as much as to happiness.

 La’s Orchestra Saves the World. Alexander McCall Smith.   It is 1939. Lavender–La to her friends–decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. The peace and solitude of the small town she settles in are therapeutic . . . at least at first. As the war drags on, in need of some diversion and to boost the town’s morale, La organizes an amateur orchestra, drawing musicians from the village and the local RAF base. Among the strays she corrals is Feliks, a shy, proper Polish refugee who becomes her prized recruit–and the object of feelings she thought she’d put away forever. Does La’s orchestra save the world? The people who come to hear it think so. But what will become of it after the war is over? And what will become of La herself? And of La’s heart?

Ooh, need to think about this one, none on TBR but have read the first one

I've gone for La's Orchestra, mainly cos it's already on my TBR, but also I love AMS, and I haven't read any of his for aaaaagggggesss, lol!

Nat

Went for La's Orchestra as I have been to book launches of AMS and i could listen to him all day.He is absolutely wonderful!

eightlegs:

Ooh, need to think about this one, none on TBR but have read the first one

Snap.

I've gone for Annie Dunne as I have it on my Kindle, have read it but could stand up to reading again.

21/7  and now have La's Orchestra Saves the World, so I'm set up with the 2 front runners!

I haven't read Breath by Tim Winton, but it sounds very familiar...  It actually sounds very similar to The Boy and the Sea by Kirsty Gunn, a young adult (but easily crossover) novel...

natsplatt:

I've gone for La's Orchestra

Me too... strangely I had a swap recently and that was it!! so fingers crossed.

 Looks as though it's LA's Orchestra Saves the World then?  Only 2 days to go so if you haven't voted yet.....

 It's neck and neck!  If you have not yet voted for August's read, there are two with the same score....... I will close this thread at noon, so - up to you really!

A dead heat so you can choose to read either Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry or La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith or bothe if you are feeling ambitious! Discussions start from 3 September.