Waiting On Wednesday (31st July)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to be published. 


This week mine is a book that doesn't even have a publication date yet,  A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler who's one of my favourite authors. Here is a link to an interview with her.

Teaser Tuesdays (30th July)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

"I'll come to work tonight like nothing's wrong. Then tomorrow morning we'll drive over to Norfolk and catch the ten-thirty train."

19% Spare Change by Bette Lee Crosby


 

Musing Mondays (29th July)

Musing Mondays is run by Should Be Reading and asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My musing:

I'm away on holiday and when thinking about what I needed to pack it made me remember how easy the kindle makes my book choices. I never really know what type of book or genre I'll feel like reading next so always used to take about 5 books even though I would only get around to reading one or two of them. Now all I have to do is pack my kindle which is overflowing with ebooks I haven't read, even my phone charger also charges the kindle so that's one more less thing I have to put in the suitcase.
Now if only it was as simple to decide what clothes to take for the four of us and I would be laughing ;)

Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes

Claudia, a step mother to young twin boys, is pregnant and as her husband James is away a lot with the navy they decide to get a nanny. They employ Zoe, her CV looks good as are her references but as time goes on Claudia isn't sure about her, is she who she claims to be? Meanwhile detective Lorraine, along with her husband Adam, are investigating the murder of a pregnant woman.
Until You're Mine is an excellent psychological thriller complete with the requisite short, fast paced chapters to keep you reading. The story is told from the point of view of the three women and the twist when it comes causes a sharp intake of breath.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Book Blogger Hop (July 26th - August 1st)

 The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer and gives bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog. All you need to do is answer this weeks question on your blog, enter the link to your post here then visit other blogs on the list and comment on their posts. This weeks question is:

 How do you organize your books to be read?

I have a list of unread books and ebooks in the back of my book journal and also on Goodreads. I note if they are Netgalley review copies and check my shelf on their website to see what is going to be archived next. Depending on the type/genre of book I'm in the mood to read next I'll choose one from my TBR list, If I have a Netgalley/review copy from that genre then that tends to be the one I choose but not always.
If there's a new release that I've treated myself to then that usually gets 
read straight away, especially if it's a hardback or full price ebook.

Friday Finds (26th July)

Friday Finds is run by Should Be Reading and is a chance to share the books you've heard about this week and have added to your TBR or wishlist.

 

Here are mine for this week:

 

 

The Honk and the Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts

Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons

 

 

 

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Set in London and Cornwall from World War II to present, The Shell Seekers tells the story of the Keeling family, and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations. The family centers around Penelope, and it is her love, courage, and sense of values that determine the course of all their lives, Deftly shifting back and forth in time, each chapter centers on one of the principal players in the family's history. the unifying thread is an oil painting entitled "The Shell Seekers," done by Penelope's father. It is this painting that symbolizes to Penelope the ties between the generations. But it is the fate of this painting that just may tear the family apart.

The Shell Seekers tells us the story of Penelope Keeling, it is the mid 1980s, she is sixty four,  lives alone and has three grown up children. Her father was an artist and The Shell Seekers is one of his paintings and also one of Penelope's most treasured possessions. When her son reads that his grandfathers paintings are now sought after and very valuable it causes some arguments, the money is of no interest to Penelope, it's the sentimental value that's important to her. I didn't particularly like two of her children but then they are self centered and I don't think you're supposed to.
I enjoy family sagas set during the second world war so this book was ideal for me, there are chapters set during that time as well as the books present day. It's quite a large book but an easy read, a good one to lose yourself in without having to concentrate on it too much.

Waiting On Wednesday (24th July)

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to be published.

This week mine is The Life Beyond (The Other Life #2) by Susanne Winnacker - I read the first one in the series ages ago and finally the second book is due to be published next month.

Sherry’s dad is infected with the rabies mutation and his only chance at survival lies beyond the deadly fence separating the country: the antidote produced in the labs on the other side. And Sherry isn’t the only one who hopes to save a loved one; Joshua wants nothing more than to have his sister back, but after years as a Weeper she might already be beyond saving. Together with Tyler and Rachel, they set out on what might very well be a suicide mission.

Soon they realize that life beyond the fence is nothing like they had hoped it would be. 

Publication date: August 2013

Teaser Tuesdays (23rd July)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

By now in a filthy temper,  for a moment he actually contemplated abandoning ship and taking the escape route normally earmarked for One Star weekends, which was to remember suddenly a pressing engagement in London, make his goodbyes, and head for home.
But this was not possible, because he had gone too far and said too much.


  46% The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Top Ten Tuesday - Words/Topics that make you not pick up a book

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish and each week there's a different topic. As always, even if you can't think of 10, do as many as you can. This week the topic is words/topics that make you NOT pick up a book.

 

Here are mine:

Misery Memoirs - particularly ones about the authors horrific childhood

Erotic Fiction - all those Fifty Shades of Grey type books

Classic books the size of a brick with extremely small print

Funniest - If on the cover it says "this is the funniest book you'll ever read" it has a lot to live up to and invariably it isn't the funniest book I've ever read

Paranormal Romance - I know it's a very popular genre but it just doesn't interest me, perhaps I'm missing out.

Chick Lit - especially if it's about shopping/shoes etc as I'm one of the few females who doesn't enjoy either of these (unless it's shopping for books)

Westerns - I've never read one but they just don't interest me

Political Novels

Satires

Fantasy books - if the characters/places have unusual names then I struggle with them and I've really tried to like them.

Musing Mondays (22nd July)

Musing Mondays is run by Should Be Reading and asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then! 

My Musing:

I tend to write quite short reviews of books, I give a brief description of the story then my thoughts on it, what I liked about it etc but I don't go into too much depth. I also don't want to give too much information incase I then end up giving away spoilers or too many parts of the story.
Sometimes I worry that people will think I don't give enough of my thoughts or details on a book but, when I read reviews, if they are too long then I tend to gloss over them. I can tell from the book description if it's something that will interest me or not,  then I'm just looking for the reviewers overall view to work out if it's worth reading. However, everyone is different and others may prefer long, indepth reviews.

Book Blogger Hop (19th-25th July)

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer and gives bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog. All you need to do is answer this weeks question on your blog, enter the link to your post here then visit other blogs on the list and comment on their posts. This weeks question is:

What is your favourite classic novel:

My favourite has to be Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, it's the only classic book I've read more than once and it's equally as good with each re-read.

A Gift Upon The Shore by M.K. Wren

A Gift Upon The Shore was originally published in 1990 and has been out of print for a while, it has just been released in ebook form and I was given a copy by Netgalley to review:

The novel starts just before Armageddon (a nuclear war followed by a plague type virus) when Mary Hope is travelling along the American coast on a bus that is attacked, she manages to get away but is injured. Rachel Morrow finds Mary and takes her back to her house to look after her and this is the beginning of a long friendship for these two survivors. One of the things they agree on is to preserve books so that future generations will be able to learn from them.

Post apocalyptic fiction is one of my favourite genres and I've always preferred the non zombie tales of which there are so many. This story is an easy read and is told from Mary's point of view with the chapters alternating between the present and the past. Mary is telling her past life story to a teenage boy called Stephen who now lives with her and others in their community.

The downside for me was the anti-christian feeling the book had made it seem preachy and I'm not religious. This started to annoy me and I found it dull and almost gave up halfway through, I'm glad I stuck with it though because although for me it's not among the best post apocalyptic books it's worth a read if you enjoy that genre.

Rating 2.5 out of 5

Friday Finds - 19th July

FRIDAY FINDS is run by Should Be Reading and is a chance to share the books you've heard about this week and have added to your TBR or wishlist.

 

 

 

 This week I've heard about these books and added them to my wishlist:

 

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach

The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown

Until You're Mine by Samantha Hayes

Apocalypse Z The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro

WWW Wednesdays (17th July)

                   

This is a weekly meme by Should Be Reading To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

 

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Here are mine:

Currently reading: 

A Gift Upon The Shore by M.K. Wren
This is a post apocalyptic book that was originally published in 1990 I think, it has just been released as an ebook for the first time and I was lucky enough to get a copy from Netgalley

Recently finished:

The Story of Before by Susan Stairs
I really enjoyed this one and my review is here 

Next read:

Not sure but probably The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher 
It's been on my wishlist for a while and I treated myself to the kindle version recently.
 

The Story of Before by Susan Stairs

"I wonder today how no one else could see the bad thing coming. Not that I knew back then what the bad thing was; and if I had - if I'd known one of us was going to die - would there have been anything I could have done to prevent it? I play it all back in my mind, over and over. The clues were all there."

 The Story of Before is set in Ireland during the 1970s and is told from eleven year old Ruth's point of view. On New Years Eve she's watching it snow with her brother Mel and sister Sandra when she tells them she's sure something bad is going to happen in the coming year. Their baby brother Kevin is born on the day the family move to a new home on a Dublin housing estate.

I read this in just two days, it is very atmospheric and the tension builds throughout the story making it difficult to put down, I thought the descriptions of what it's like to be a child growing up on a housing estate were excellent. I kept trying to work out what the bad thing was but there were a few false alarms and twists which stopped me from getting it right, when everything is revealed it's heartbreaking and not made any less so by the fact you know something awful is going to happen.

A very good debut novel from Susan Stairs and I look forward to reading more by her.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Top Ten Tuesday - Authors Who Deserve More Recognition

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish and each week there's a different topic. As always, even if you can't think of 10, do as many as you can. This week the topic is authors who deserve more recognition:

 Here are mine:

Jenn Ashworth

 

 

 

 

 Diane Janes

 

 

 

Isabel Ashdown





RJ Ellory





Beth Hoffman





Karin Alvtegen





Robert Radcliffe





Elizabeth Strout





James Smythe






Ruth Dugdall