The first book is one that I acquired from my reading group.
I read it over two days. It was an excellent read and I highly recommend it.
“Eleanor leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, sometimes, everything. . . . .”
When I started reading I thought Eleanor was just a bit of a loner with no friends and no social life but as the story progressed I found there was so much more to it. There was the constant need to find our what had happened in her past and why her mother was calling once a week. We don’t really find out until the very end of the story and that is what keeps you reading. It is a funny, sad and uplifting story and it is a gentle reminder that we all need a little bit of kindness in our lives.
Do read it, you will not be disappointed.
My second book is completely different with a fair bit of violence within the story.
From this novel I learned something I never knew: that Ireland had sheltered high level Nazis after WWII and that some Bretons of the French province of Breton (Brittany,) had aligned themselves with the Germans after being promised that they would be given autonomy when the Germans won. The Ratlines are the escape routes set up by the Nazis.
In 1963 in Ireland, just before President Kennedy is due to visit, someone is killing off the Nazis that have escaped to Ireland after the war. The main character, Ryan, is ordered to investigate the killings but at the same time protect one of Hitler’s commandos who is now living in Ireland. There is double crossing within the plot and plenty of action.
Gippsland Granny 
I’ll look out for those, thanks.