It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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 didn't get as much reading done this week as I would have liked. I was at work Monday and Tuesday then had a cough and cold for the rest of the week which left me feeling grotty and tired. I did finish The Secret Life Of Bees though which I enjoyed and I'm still half way through Carve Her Name With Pride. I know the story quite well already from the film and as I'm not a big fan of non fiction this is probably one I'll dip in and out of between other books.

 

 

 

I'm now reading Her by Harriet Lane which is also my Mailbox Monday post for today.

 

 

Mailbox Monday

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 Her by Harriet Lane which I won in a Twitter competition from Orion Publishing.

Book Description:

 

Would you be friends with her?

Two different women; two different worlds. Nina is sophisticated, moneyed and damaged. Emma is a struggling young mother who has put her life on hold. After Nina meets Emma by chance, she begins to draw Emma into her privileged world.

But this isn't the first time the women have crossed paths. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did. But what did Emma do? How far will Nina go to punish her? And when will Emma realise that her new friend is a disturbing face from the past?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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 If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel (great title!) and my review is here . I'm now reading The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I've had this on my Kindle for a little while, at the time of writing this post I'm 20% in and it's very good so far.

 

If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

It is the summer of 1972, and Katie has just turned eighteen. Katie and her town, Elephant Beach, are both on the verge: Katie of adulthood, and Elephant Beach of gentrification. But not yet: Elephant Beach is still gritty, working-class, close-knit. And Katie spends her time smoking and drinking with her friends, dreaming about a boy just back from Vietnam who’s still fighting a battle Katie can’t understand.  Impeccably crafted and hugely affectionate, this novel in stories is a vivid portrait of a place whose conflicts—between mothers and daughters, men and women, haves and have-nots— reverberate to our own time. 

 

 

This novel isn't published by Tinder Press until 30th October and I've been hearing good things about it for a while. Each chapter, narrated by Katie, is almost like a short story in it's own right and they don't follow on from each other. Perhaps this is the reason it took me a while to get into it; there's a lot of characters introduced early on and I struggled to remember who was who. For me the book improved in the second half and there were chapters that I loved. It is beautifully well written and I can see in parts why this author has been compared to Anne Tyler. Sadly though the story and characters haven't stayed with me in the way that Tyler's do. When I finished it I was almost straight onto my next read without giving it too much thought.

 

I don't want to come across as overly negative because as I mentioned previously it is beautifully written and as this is the author's debut it is probably unfair for her to have been compared to Tyler, which increased my expectations. After all the hype I was expecting it to be a 5 star read that would be in my top ten of the year and that isn't the case. A good debut though and I look forward to seeing what the future novels from Judy Chicurel bring.

Thanks to Georgina at Headline for a copy of this book in return for an honest review

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 

This Week's Bargains

I took advantage of some excellent bargains for my Kindle this week. The price of The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North dropped to only £1.49, I've had this on my wishlist for a while. I also downloaded the following Kindle books for free:

 

The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke

The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow

Across The Mersey by Annie Groves

Someone To Watch Over Me by Madeleine Reiss 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Beginnings On Fridays (If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go)

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.

 

If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

 

So she says to me, 'Young man, you got maniacs hanging around your store,' and I tell her, 'You're right, lady, you're a hundred percent right. I got maniacs outside my store, I got them inside my store, I got maniacs on the roof,' I tell her.

 

 

 

Book Description:

 

It is the summer of 1972, and Katie has just turned eighteen. Katie and her town, Elephant Beach, are both on the verge: Katie of adulthood, and Elephant Beach of gentrification. But not yet: Elephant Beach is still gritty, working-class, close-knit. And Katie spends her time smoking and drinking with her friends, dreaming about a boy just back from Vietnam who’s still fighting a battle Katie can’t understand.  Impeccably crafted and hugely affectionate, this novel in stories is a vivid portrait of a place whose conflicts—between mothers and daughters, men and women, haves and have-nots— reverberate to our own time.

 

Published by Tinder Press on 30th October 2014  

 

 

 

 

 

Book Blogger Hop (20th - 26th June)

 

 

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer and this week's question is:

 

Do you prefer Nook, Kindle, other reader or paper book?

I find it doesn't strain my eyes as much to read on my Kindle compared with a paper book and I also read quicker on it as well. It's much more convenient to take to work or when I go out than a large hardback book for example. Then again if I read more than 2 ebooks in a row I miss holding a paper book and I still borrow a lot of them from the library. I always buy the latest Stephen King in hardback rather than the ebook version as I like to see them on my shelf. Although I think I slightly prefer the Kindle because of the convenience of it I'll never be able to give up on paper books. It's more exciting going into a bookshop for a browse and coming home with something to add to my tbr pile rather than just downloading a digital version. I do love the Kindle daily deals though and you can often get some very good ebooks for only £0.99p.