Hello, readers! It is Monday again! As it is Monday, welcome to another #5OnMyTBR update. The rule is relatively simple. I must pick five books from my to-be-read piles that fit the week’s theme.

This week’s theme: Gift

5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook where you chose five books from your to-be-read pile that fit that week’s theme. If you’d like more info, head over to the announcement post!

Title: The Spellbinder’s Gift
Author: Og Mandino
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Publishing Date: August 1996
No. of Pages: 197

Synopsis: 

Retired from his long, successful career as an agent to many of the most famous and dynamic motivational speakers in the world, Bart Manning was happily enjoying his newfound freedom with his lovely wife, Mary. So why, one morning, did he find himself headed back tot the little office that he had never give up? He didn’t know. But as he sat at his dusty desk, he decided to go back into business. If God had sent him there, Bart told himself, he would wait for His plan to unfold.

Then, at the crowded convention, he found his answer in the person of a handsome young man named Patrick Donne, whose deep, commanding voice spoke words of profound wisdom that electrified the audience. With the thrill of discovery, Bart recognized Donne’s short speech as the best inspirational talk he had ever heard. Bat was soon caught up in the extraordinary realm that was Patrick’s ordinary world, where even tragedy and sorrow became transforming experiences and remarkable things happened…

Title: The Last Gift
Author: Abdulrazak Gurnah
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publishing Date: May 2012
No. of Pages: 279

Synopsis: 

Abbas has never told anyone about his past – before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to.

Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world, yet while they were both born in England, they cannot shake a sense of apartness. When Abbas falls ill, they return home reluctantly to confront the dark silences of their father and the secret he has been hiding from them all.

Title: The Girl with All the Gifts
Author: M.R. Carey
Publisher: Orbit
Publishing Date: April 2015
No. of Pages: 403

Synopsis: 

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite. But they don’t laugh.

Title: The Gift of Rain
Author: Tan Twan Eng

Synopsis: 

Set in Penang, 1939, this book presents a story of betrayal, barbaric cruelty, steadfast courage and enduring love.

The recipient of extraordinary acclaim from critics and the bookselling community, Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel casts a powerful spell. Set during the tumult of World War II, on the lush Malayan island of Penang, The Gift of Rain tells a riveting and poignant tale about a young man caught in the tangle of wartime loyalties and deceits. (Source: Goodreads)