My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 2nd March 2019

Hello! A new month is here and I’m already exhausted!  If anyone has seen my get up and go then could you please kindly return it – I need it ASAP!

It’s been a fairly quiet week on the bookish front! Managed to finish 4 books this week – one of which was The Ruin of Kings which was over 500 pages so that’s probably what took away my energy! It’s been a quiet week on Netgalley too with just 1 new arrival, and it was quiet on the bookpost front too, until this morning when 2 new arrivals showed up ahead of Blog Tours! Time to rearrange the bookshelves again!

So here’s my look back at the week just gone!

BOOKS READ

The Truth about Love and Dogs by Lilly Bartlett  – 4 stars

If you love crazy dogs and romance, this is the book for you! Really enjoyed it! full review to follow

 It’s My Birthday by Hannah Pearl – 4 stars

Another really enjoyable read – full review to follow!

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons – 4 stars

An epic fantasy tale and the start of a very promising new series! Can’t wait for more!

Paul O’Grady’s Country Life by Paul O’Grady – 5 stars #LibaryLoveChallenge

Loved this book! Wonderful tales from Paul about his life in the country and the animals he cares for

BOOKHAUL

The Daughters of Ironbridge by Mollie Watson (Rebecca Mascull) – from Netgalley

Publication Date – 18th April 2019

1830s Shropshire. Anny Woodvine’s family has worked at the ironworks for as long as she can remember. The brightest child in her road and the first in her family to learn to read, Anny has big dreams. So, when she is asked to run messages for the King family, she grabs the opportunity with both hands.Margaret King is surrounded by privilege and wealth. But behind closed doors, nothing is what it seems. When Anny arrives, Margaret finds her first ally and friend. Together they plan to change their lives.But as disaster looms over the ironworks, Margaret and Anny find themselves surrounded by secrets and betrayal. Can they hold true to each other and overcome their fate? Or are they destined to repeat the mistakes of the past?

The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola – bought from Alma Books Book Club

Encapsulating in luxurious detail the phenomenon of consumer society − obsessed with image, fashion and instant gratification − The Ladies’ Paradise vividly depicts the workings of a new commercial entity, the department store. The novel centres around the story of Denise, a young shopgirl from the provinces, and Octave Mouret, the dashing young director of a shopping emporium, who find themselves torn between the conflicting forces of love, loyalty and ambition.

Set in the heart of the city, Zola’s novel – the eleventh in his Rougon-Macquart series – evokes the giddy pace of Paris’s transition into a modern city and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place during the second half of the nineteenth century.

THE STRAWBERRY THIEF by JOANNE HARRIS – proof copy ahead of Blog Tour

Publication date – 4th April 2019

The compelling new novel from the author of the bestselling Chocolat.

Vianne Rocher has settled down. Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, the place that once rejected her, has finally become her home. With Rosette, her ‘special’ child, she runs her chocolate shop in the square, talks to her friends on the river, is part of the community. Even Reynaud, the priest, has become a friend.

But when old Narcisse, the florist, dies, leaving a parcel of land to Rosette and a written confession to Reynaud, the life of the sleepy village is once more thrown into disarray. The arrival of Narcisse’s relatives, the departure of an old friend and the opening of a mysterious new shop in the place of the florist’s across the square – one that mirrors the chocolaterie, and has a strange appeal of its own – all seem to herald some kind of change: a confrontation, a turbulence – even, perhaps, a murder…

THE WILD REMEDY by EMMA MITCHELL – proof copy ahead of Blog Tour

Emma Mitchell has suffered with depression – or as she calls it, ‘the grey slug’ – for twenty-five years. In 2003, she moved from the city to the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens and began to take walks in the countryside around her new home, photographing, collecting and drawing as she went. Each walk lifted her mood, proving to be as medicinal as any talking therapy or pharmaceutical.
In Emma’s hand-illustrated diary, she takes us with her as she follows the paths and trails around her cottage and further afield, sharing her nature finds and tracking the lives of local flora and fauna over the course of a year. Reflecting on how these encounters impact her mood, Emma’s moving and candid account of her own struggles is a powerful testament to how reconnecting with nature may offer some answers to today’s mental health epidemic. While charting her own seasonal highs and lows, she also explains the science behind such changes, calling on new research into such areas as forest bathing and the ways in which our bodies and minds respond to plants and wildlife when we venture outdoors.
Written with Emma’s characteristic wit and frankness, and filled with her beautiful drawings, paintings and photography, this is a truly unique book for anyone who has ever felt drawn to nature and wondered about its influence over us

CURRENTLY READING

The Silver Road by Stina Jackson via The Pigeonhole

Three years ago, Lelle’s daughter went missing in a remote part of Northern Sweden. Lelle has spent the intervening summers driving the Silver Road under the midnight sun, frantically searching for his lost daughter, for himself and for redemption.

Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Meja arrives in town hoping for a fresh start. She is the same age as Lelle’s daughter was – a girl on the brink of adulthood. But for Meja, there are dangers to be found in this isolated place.

As autumn’s darkness slowly creeps in, Lelle and Meja’s lives are intertwined in ways, both haunting and tragic, that they could never have imagined.

IN A SUMMER SEASON by Elizabeth Taylor

In a Summer Season is one of Elizabeth Taylor’s finest novels in which, in a moving and powerful climax, she reveals love to be the thing it is: beautiful, often funny, and sometimes tragic.

‘You taste of rain’, he said, kissing her. ‘People say I married her for her money’, he thought contentedly, and for the moment was full of the self-respect that loving her had given him.

Kate Heron is a wealthy, charming widow who marries, much to the disapproval of friends and neighbours, a man ten years her junior: the attractive, feckless Dermot. Then comes the return of Kate’s old friend Charles – intelligent, kind and now widowed, with his beautiful young daughter. Kate watches happily as their two families are drawn together, finding his presence reassuringly familiar, but slowly she becomes aware of subtle undercurrents that begin to disturb the calm surface of their friendship. Before long, even she cannot ignore the gathering storm . . .

💮💮💮💮💮

I hope your bookish week has been a productive one!   I’m off now to spend the afternoon sulking about football results (I’m a Southend United fan and we’re losing!) and hopefully getting another book off the TBR mountain!

HAPPY READING!!

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