Update

After what seems like ages I've finally got the reading bug again. For the last six weeks or so the only thing I've managed to read is a couple of short stories, this has happened before but never for this long. There's no point me starting a book when I'm in this mood as it will feel like a chore and I'll be unable to finish it.
This afternoon I suddenly missed not having a book on the go so I downloaded Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon to my Kindle. It has been on my wishlist for a while and I'm already a quarter of the way into it.
Does anyone else ever struggle to read? If so is there anything you do to help or do you just wait until your reading mojo returns? 

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Dry

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.

 

This week my book beginning is The Dry by Jane Harper.  I received a copy from Netgalley and it is due to be published by Little Brown on 17th January 2017. 

 

It wasn't as though the farm hadn't seen death before, and the blowflies didn't discriminate. To them there was no difference between a carcass and a corpse. 

 

 

 

Description

I just can't understand how someone like him could do something like that.

Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn't rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.

Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke's death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend's crime.

 

All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan

 

Melody Shee is pregnant and now alone, her husband left when she told him the child she was carrying wasn't his. The father is a seventeen year old traveller called Martin Toppy that Melody has been teaching to read. When Melody goes to the site Martin was living on she meets Mary Crothery and the two women become friends.

 

Donal Ryan's novels may be short but he manages to pack so much into them and creates believable characters. All We Shall Know is no exception to this, Melody isn't a likeable person but I loved her Dad and found the story about Breedie, Melody's friend at school, particularly heartbreaking.

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Thanks to Transworld Publishers and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.

 

You can read my reviews of Donal Ryan's previous two novels here:

The Spinning Heart 

The Thing About December

 

 

Book Beginnings on Fridays - I'm Travelling Alone

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.

 

This week my book is one that I only got in the post just over one hour ago and started reading straight way. I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork was published in 2013 in Norway and will be published in the UK in December 2016 in paperback, for those that can't wait until then it is available in hardback or eBook formats now.

 

Walter Henriksen took a seat at the kitchen table and made a desperate attempt to force down a little of the breakfast his wife had prepared for him. Bacon and eggs. Herring, salami and freshly baked bread. A cup of tea brewed from herbs from their very own garden. 

 

 

 

Book Description 

 

When a six-year-old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads 'I'm travelling alone'.

One divorced detective estranged from his only child. The other with no family to speak of, determined to take her own life. An unexpected pairing. A brilliant team. 

Book Beginnings on Fridays - #ReadWithoutPrejudice

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.

 

This week my choice is intriguing, I don't know the title of the book, what it's about or even who the author is. It's due to be published by Hodder & Stoughton on 1st October 2016 and they have an online campaign called #readwithoutprejudice. I've only just been approved for a copy on Netgalley and will start reading it in a minute, I cannot wait to see what it's like.

 

The miracle happened on West Seventy-fourth Street, in the home where Mama worked. It was a big brownstone encircled by a wrought iron fence, and overlooking either side of the ornate door were gargoyles, their granite faces carved from my nightmares.

 

 

Book Description:

 

There are two points in life when we are all equal: at the moment of birth and at the moment of death. It is how we live in between that defines us.

Delicately balanced.

Perfectly crafted.

Beautifully written.

We want you to immerse yourself in this dazzling novel, free from any preconceptions that a cover, title or author can bring.

We ask you simply to #readwithoutprejudice.

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

 

I got two kindle eBooks this week and both were only £0.99 each.

 

The Railway Man's Wife by Ashley Hay 

 

In a small town on the land's edge, in the strange space at a war's end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story.

In Thirroul, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway's library. Anikka Lachlan searches for solace after her life is destroyed by a single random act. Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, has lost his words and his hope. Frank McKinnon is trapped by the guilt of those his treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle with the same question: how now to be alive.

Written in clear, shining prose and with an eloquent understanding of the human heart, The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can be sometimes to tell them apart. It's a story of life, loss and what comes after; of connection and separation, longing and acceptance. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.

A story that will break your heart with hope. 

 

 

The Silent Hours by Cesca Major

An epic, sweeping tale of love and loss inspired by heartrending true events in the Unoccupied Zone of wartime France.

The Silent Hours follows three people whose lives are bound together, before war tears them apart:

Adeline, a mute who takes refuge in a convent, haunted by memories of her past;

Sebastian, a young Jewish banker whose love for the beautiful Isabelle will change the course of his life dramatically;

Tristin, a nine-year-old boy, whose family moves from Paris to settle in a village that is seemingly untouched by war.

Beautifully wrought, utterly compelling and with a shocking true story at its core, The Silent Hours is an unforgettable portrayal of love and loss.

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Fireman

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 Fireman. At the time of writing this post I'm almost a third of a way into the book, I love apocalyptic fiction and I'm thoroughly enjoying the latest Joe Hill novel. My copy is an ARC from Netgalley and Orion Publishing and it's published in the UK on 7th June.

Harper Grayson had seen lots of people burn on TV, everyone had, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school. 

 

 

Book Description

 

 Nobody knew where the virus came from.
FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s.
MSNBC said sources indicated it might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation.
CNN reported both sides.
While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.
Pregnant school nurse, HARPER GRAYSON, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school.
With the epic scope of THE PASSAGE and the emotional impact of THE ROAD, this is one woman's story of survival at the end of the world.