Monday 29 September 2014

Mondays Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I received a book proof copy of A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale. It's due to be published by Tinder Press in March 2015:

 

A Place Called WinterIn the golden 1900s, Harry Cane, a shy, eligible gentleman of leisure is drawn from a life of quiet routine into courting and marrying Winnie, eldest daughter of the fatherless Wells clan, who are not quite as respectable as they would appear. They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all. When a chance encounter awakens scandalous desires never acknowledged until now, however, Harry is forced to forsake the land and people he loves for a harsh new life as a homesteader on the newly colonized Canadian prairies. There, in a place called Winter, he will come to find a deep love within an alternative family, a love imperiled by war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism.

 

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

ThinnerThis week I finished Thinner by Stephen King. This was the second time I'd read it but couldn't remember much about it, he's one of my favourite authors and I often re-read his novels. I'm now onto A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale, details for which are above.

 

Friday 26 September 2014

Book Beginnings On Fridays (A Place Called Winter)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale. It is due to be published in March 2015 by Tinder Press and Georgina Moore was kind enough to send me a book proof. How can you read these first few sentences and not want to continue?


The attendants came for him as a pair, as always. Some of them were kind and meant well. Some were frightened and, like first timers at a steer-branding, hid their fear in swearing and brutality. But this pair was of the most unsettling kind, the sort that ignored him. 

 

A Place Called Winter 

 

Book Description:

In the golden 1900s, Harry Cane, a shy, eligible gentleman of leisure is drawn from a life of quiet routine into courting and marrying Winnie, eldest daughter of the fatherless Wells clan, who are not quite as respectable as they would appear. They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all. When a chance encounter awakens scandalous desires never acknowledged until now, however, Harry is forced to forsake the land and people he loves for a harsh new life as a homesteader on the newly colonized Canadian prairies. There, in a place called Winter, he will come to find a deep love within an alternative family, a love imperiled by war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism.

Monday 22 September 2014

Monday Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I downloaded the ebook of The Woods by Harlan Coben:

 

The WoodsTwenty years ago, four teenagers at summer camp walked into the woods at night. Two were found murdered, and the others were never seen again. Four families had their lives changed forever. Now, two decades later, they are about to change again. For Paul Copeland, the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey, mourning the loss of his sister has only recently begun to subside. Cope, as he is known, is now dealing with raising his six-year-old daughter as a single father after his wife has died of cancer. Balancing family life and a rapidly ascending career as a prosecutor distracts him from his past traumas, but only for so long. When a homicide victim is found with evidence linking him to Cope, the well-buried secrets of the prosecutor's family are threatened. Is this homicide victim one of the campers who disappeared with his sister? Could his sister be alive? Cope has to confront so much he left behind that summer twenty years ago: his first love, Lucy; his mother, who abandoned the family; and the secrets that his Russian parents might have been hiding even from their own children. Cope must decide what is better left hidden in the dark and what truths can be brought to the light.

 

 

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

ThinnerThis week I gave up on a review book that I really wasn't enjoying  despite it starting well, No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill.  I did finish a very good one though and my review for The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins is here

I'm now reading Thinner by Stephen King for the second time but as the first time was many years ago I can't remember much about it.

Saturday 20 September 2014

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins



To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. 

Just goes to show.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together.

Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn't have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself.

Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there.

 

My Thoughts:

 

The story is told through the voices of three women; Rachel, Anna and Megan. Rachel travels on the train every day, looking out of the window at the house she once shared with her ex husband Tom. He now lives there with second wife Anna and their young daughter, living the life Rachel always wanted, but hers is now a mess. A few doors away lives Megan, who Rachel often sees from the train out on her terrace. Rachel invents a life and name for Megan but when the latter goes missing Rachel becomes heavily involved in trying to find out the truth.

 

I read a lot of psychological thrillers, it's a genre that I love and The Girl On The Train is one of the best I've read in a while. This book isn't published until January but is already receiving a lot of hype and I'm pleased to say that it more than lives up to and deserves all the attention it is receiving. The twists and turns and facts gradually revealed about all the characters lives made it difficult to put the book down. I was tightly gripping hold of the book for the last fifty pages as the suspense had built up to such a level that I couldn't wait to find out what would happen in the end. I'm pleased to say that the ending kept me guessing. 


 I can't see this book being anything other than a big success, and Paula Hawkins is an author whose future publications I shall now always look out for.

 

Rating: 5 out of 5

 

Thank you to Alison Barrow at Transworld for a copy of this novel.

 

Friday 19 September 2014

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The Girl On the Train)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. It's published in January 2015 and I'm reading a book proof from Transworld Publishers. There's a lot of hype surrounding this book and I have to say so far it's living up to it.

 

There is a pile of clothing on the side of the train tracks. Light-blue cloth - a shirt, perhaps - jumbled up with something dirty white. It's probably rubbish, part of a load fly-tipped into the scrubby little wood up the bank. It could have been left behind by the engineers who work this part of the track, they're here often enough. Or it could be something else.

 


 

 


Book Description


To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists.

Just goes to show.


Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together.

Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn't have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself.

Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 15 September 2014

Monday Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

Only one for me this week but it's a good one. The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins isn't published until January 15th next year but Transworld publishers have kindly sent me a proof copy.

 

To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. 

Just goes to show.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together.

Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn't have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself.

Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there.

 

 

 

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

This week I finished The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I thought it was a great book, I had to force myself to put it down and go to work, sleep etc. I'm now reading No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill, a horror novel which is due to be published on 23rd October, just in time for Halloween. 

 

The Paying Guests  

 

Friday 12 September 2014

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The Paying Guests)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning this week is The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, I've now finished it and it was very, very good.

 

The Barbers had said they would arrive by three. It was like waiting to begin a journey, Frances thought. She and her mother had spent the morning watching the clock, unable to relax.

 

 

The Paying Guests  

Book Description

It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.
 

Monday 8 September 2014

Monday Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.

It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I got two books for my Kindle. The End Is Nigh is a collection of apocalyptic short stories and I also downloaded Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I managed to get Annihilation when it was free, it's been on my wishlist ever since I saw a tweet by Stephen King praising the series.

   

The End is NighFamine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.

But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will tell their stories.

Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse.

THE END IS NIGH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Ford, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Ken Liu, and many others.




AnnihilationIf J.J. Abrams and Margaret Atwood collaborated on a novel, it might look something like ‘Annihilation’, the first in an extraordinary trilogy.

For thirty years, Area X, monitored by the secret agency known as the Southern Reach, has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border– an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. Eleven expeditions have been sent in to investigate; even for those that have made it out alive, there have been terrible consequences.

‘Annihilation’ is the story of the twelfth expedition and is told by its nameless biologist. Introverted but highly intelligent, the biologist brings her own secrets with her. She is accompanied by a psychologist, an anthropologist and a surveyor, their stated mission: to chart the land, take samples and expand the Southern Reach’s understanding of Area X.

But they soon find out that they are being manipulated by forces both strange and all too familiar. An unmapped tunnel is not as it first appears. An inexplicable moaning calls in the distance at dusk. And while each member of the expedition has surrendered to the authority of the Southern Reach, the power of Area X is far more difficult to resist.



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Its Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

This week I finished The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell and you can read my review here. I've also read half of The End Is Nigh (see Mailbox Monday above) and will go back to finish it after my current read, The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

 

The Paying GuestsThe Girl Next Door

 

 

 


 

Wednesday 3 September 2014

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell

The Girl Next Door

 

Book Description: 


When the bones of two severed hands are discovered in a box, an investigation into a long buried crime of passion begins. And a group of friends, who played together as children, begin to question their past.

Before the advent of the Second World War, beneath the green meadows of Loughton, Essex, a dark network of tunnels has been dug. A group of children discover them. They play there. It becomes their secret place.
Seventy years on, the world has changed. Developers have altered the rural landscape. Friends from a half-remembered world have married, died, grown sick, moved on or disappeared.
Work on a new house called Warlock uncovers a grisly secret, buried a lifetime ago, and a weary detective, more preoccupied with current crimes, must investigate a possible case of murder.

 

 

My Thoughts:

 

The book description makes this sound like a detective/whodunnit story which it isn't; the murderer and victims are revealed to us early on. I wasn't bothered by this and to be honest I didn't really expect it be that type of book. I have long been a fan of Ruth Rendell's stand alone novels, a lot more so than her Wexford series. I love the way the tension in them gradually builds, secrets are revealed and you are constantly wondering what will happen next.

 

It started well and the part set in the past around the time of the murders had me gripped. After this the story moved on to the lives of the children as adults in their seventies. A lot of people were introduced and it was difficult for me to remember who was who away from the main characters. I found the novel became less interesting in its last quarter, when it became apparent to me that the twists, turns and shocks weren't going to happen, or at least not to the level I was hoping for. However I did enjoy the book despite it not being one of the author's best. It is more a story about the lives of the friends and how the gruesome discovery affects them so if you're hoping for a crime novel then this may not be for you. If you've not read anything by Ruth Rendell before then I suggest you start with one of her earlier novels (and there are plenty to choose from); fans of her work should enjoy this though.


Rating: 3 out of 5



Monday 1 September 2014

Monday Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.

It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

 

This week I received a copy of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel from the publishers Picador. It's published on September 10th and I've been hearing good things about it for a while.

 

DAY ONE
The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb.News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

WEEK TWO

Civilization has crumbled.

YEAR TWENTY
A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe.But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

STATION ELEVEN

Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.Thrilling, unique and deeply moving, this is a beautiful novel that asks questions about art and fame and about the relationships that sustain us through anything - even the end of the world


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Its Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

I started Red Rising by Pierce Brown but unfortunately gave up on it just over half way through. The first part was great and had me gripped but it changed direction in the second and I quickly lost interest. It's been getting plenty of good reviews though so think it's not a bad book just isn't for me. I'm now reading the latest by Ruth Rendell, I love her stand alone novels and I'm thoroughly enjoying The Girl Next Door.

 

Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy, #1) The Girl Next Door