Hello!! Managed to tear myself away from the sunshine for a while so I can can catch up with what’s been going on in my bookish world this week – and there’s been a lot so make yourselves comfy!!
I’ve finished reading 5 books this week which would be good, but a total of 9 new books ( 5 physical books, 4 Netgalley!) have made their way into my world so I’m failing miserably on keeping some balance!! Maybe next week….
BOOKS FINISHED
This Census-Taker by China Mieville – 3 stars
Quirky and unsettling!
Mr Godley’s Phantom by Mal Peet – 4 stars
Enjoyable and ghostly goings on, with dark undertones!
Escape to Giddywell Grange by Kim Nash – 5 stars
Loved this one! all the feels!!
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – 4 stars
Such a powerful little novel!
Bone China by Laura Purcell – 5 stars
Just wonderful! Dark, atmospheric, gothic – all I love in a book!
BOOKHAUL
Shall we start at Netgalley….
Ten Things My Cat Hates About You by Lottie Lucas
publication date – November 2019
This funny, warm-hearted rom com is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Mhairi McFarlane!
Not everyone gets nine lives…
So he better be the love of a lifetime!
When Clara’s ginger cat Casper chases yet another romantic prospect out the door she’s ready to give up on love altogether. But then the fussy feline causes two meet cutes in the space of a day and suddenly Clara has two gorgeous men driving her to distraction.
But who is in control of happy ever after? Clara, fate…or the cat who started it all?
Finding Henry Applebee by Celia Reynolds
publication date – October 2019
Harold Fry meets Brief Encounters in this charming and poignant debut.
‘She’s why you’re going to Edinburgh, isn’t she? I knew there must be a reason why you had to be on this train!’
Henry blinked. He hoped he hadn’t come across from the outset as some sort of eccentric old fool.
He took a breath. Felt the words gathering inside him. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘it’s all part of the story. A small story, perhaps, but it’s my story. One that’s shaped my world for the last sixty-five years.’
Henry Applebee isn’t as young as he used to be. He’s also alone, and in love. After decades of searching, he boards a train from London to Edinburgh to find the woman he can’t forget, the woman he spent a fleeting weekend with sixty-five years before.
His objective is simple: to make amends for a terrible mistake…
But when Henry crosses paths with Ariel, a teenager from Wales, also bound to Edinburgh to fulfil her mother’s dying wish, his well-meaning quest takes an unexpected turn.
So Lucky by Dawn O’Porter
Publication Date – October 2019
I’M A MOTHERI feel like I’m failing every day I HAVE A CAREERI have to shout to make myself heard I’VE GOT THE BEST FRIENDS Sometimes I feel so alone I LOVE MY BODY I don’t know who I am beyond it Sometimes it looks like everyone is living their best life.Everyone, except you. But no life is perfect, everyone is fighting a private battle of their own – it’s just a struggle to say it out loud.Fearless, frank and for every woman who’s ever doubted herself, So Lucky is the straight-talking new novel from the Sunday Times bestseller.
Actually, you’re pretty f****** lucky to be you.
The Women at Hitler’s Table by Rosella Postorino
Publication Date – November 2019
Inspired by the powerful true story of Margot Wölk, this is a heartbreaking and gripping historical novel for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Beekeeper of AleppoEast Prussia, 1943. Hitler hides away in the Wolfsshanze – his hidden headquarters. The tide is turning in the war and his enemies circle ever closer.Ten women are chosen.Ten women to taste his food and protect him from poison.Twenty-six-year-old Rosa has lost everything to this war. Her parents are dead. Her husband is fighting on the front line. Alone and scared, she faces the SS with nothing but the knowledge every bite might be her last.Caught on the wrong side of history, how far is Rosa willing to go to survive?
BOOKPOST
Foxfire, Wolfskin and other stories of shapeshifting women by Sharon Blackie
ahead of Blog Tour
Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe – from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia – Sharon Blackie brings to life women’s remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness – and wilderness – within. Beautifully illustrated by Helen Nicholson, Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women is her first collection of short stories. All are either reimaginings of older tales, or contain characters, beings and motifs which appear in older tales.
The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves
due out 2020
A lifetime together. Six months of silence. One last chance.
Frank hasn’t spoken to his wife Maggie for six months.
For weeks they have lived under the same roof, slept in the same bed and eaten at the same table – all without words.
Maggie has plenty of ideas as to why her husband has gone quiet.
But it will take another heartbreaking turn of events before Frank finally starts to unravel the secrets that have silenced him.
Is this where their story ends?
Or is it where it begins?
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
copy for review
In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.
Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.
Fuck Yeah Video Games by Daniel Hardcastle
copy for review ahead of blog tour
As Daniel Hardcastle careers towards thirty, he looks back on what has really made him happy in life: the friends, the romances… the video games. Told through encounters with the most remarkable – and the most mind-boggling – games of the last thirty-odd years, Fuck Yeah, Video Games is also a love letter to the greatest hobby in the world.
From God of War to Tomb Raider, Pokémon to The Sims, Daniel relives each game with countless in-jokes, obscure references and his signature wit, as well as intricate, original illustrations by Rebecca Maughan. Alongside this march of merriment are chapters dedicated to the hardware behind the games: a veritable history of Sony, Nintendo, Sega and Atari consoles.
Joyous, absurd, personal and at times sweary, Daniel’s memoir is a celebration of the sheer brilliance of video games.
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
This was picked for me by Nudge Magazine as part of my year long subscription package
Not all secrets are meant to be found.
If Indiana Jones lived in the X-Files era, he might bear at least a passing resemblance to Nolan Moore — a rogue archaeologist hosting a documentary series derisively dismissed by the “real” experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists.
Nolan sets out to retrace the steps of an explorer from 1909 who claimed to have discovered a mysterious cavern high up in the ancient rock of the Grand Canyon. And, for once, he may have actually found what he seeks. Then the trip takes a nasty turn, and the cave begins turning against them in mysterious ways.
Nolan’s story becomes one of survival against seemingly impossible odds. The only way out is to answer a series of intriguing questions: What is this strange cave? How has it remained hidden for so long? And what secret does it conceal that made its last visitors attempt to seal it forever?
CURRENTLY READING
After The End by Clare Mackintosh
This is the September pick for the facebook reading group Elsie’s Attic Book Club and I managed to find a perfect hardback copy in a local charity shop for £1!
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How has your week been bookwise?! Any books to recommend!?! Always happy to hear your thoughts!!
HAPPY READING!
Books and Me! 
Oooh I really like the look of Henry Applebee!
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so have you gone to netgalley yet?! haha! sorry!!
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No thanks for reminding me! lol
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