Hello! Happy Sunday!! Time for me to share how my bookish week has looked – more for my benefit than anything else as I’m always losing track of what I’ve read, what’s new on my shelves and what I’m currently reading! Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels like that?! If I can find an excuse to make a list – and buy another notebook! – then I will!
So it’s been a very good reading book and I have the crappy weather to thank for that, and reading multiple books at a time helps! Managed to finish 7 books this week – astonishing! If only every week could be like that… it still wouldn’t make dent on the TBR pile I’m sure!
And I’ve been fairly restrained on the NetGalley front with just 2 new additions, 2 new additions from the library and 2 books from publishers for review! That’s a lot of 2’s!!
BOOKS FINISHED
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides – 5 stars
Excellent twisty and dark thriller
I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella – 3 stars
A fun, if a little infuriating, read!
The Potter’s Daughter by Jackie Ladbury – 4 stars
A lovely historical/romance read!
Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan – 4 stars
Another fabulous story from one of my favourite authors
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce – 4 stars
Shocking and twisty thriller!
The Storm Keeper’s Island by Catherine Doyle – 4 stars
Fab YA adventure with the next in the series out later this year!
Just For The Holidays by Sue Moorcroft – 3 stars
A nice easy read! Perfect to escape the wintry weather!
BOOKHAUL
The Honey Bus by Meredith May via Netgalley
The Honey Bus: A Girl Raised by Bees is a memoir about a girl’s journey into the heart of a beehive to find herself.
When Meredith May is abandoned by both parents, she ends up learning life lessons about family, generosity and resilience from a rather unexpected source: the honeybees her grandfather keeps in Big Sur.
In a converted WWII military bus marooned in the backyard, Grandpa shows her the nuances of harvesting honey while the bees become a guiding force in her life, bonding her to the natural world and modeling a successful community that thrives on industry, democratic decision-making and loyalty.
The exquisite relationship between insect and girl becomes a sanctuary from her lonely childhood, but when her increasingly despondent mother turns violent, she must leave her grandfather’s side and strike out alone with only his hive lessons to help her.
THE LIGHT KEEPER by COLE MORETON via Netgalley
Sarah stands on the brink, arms open wide as if to let the wind carry her away.
Her husband Jack is desperate to find her before it is too late. But Sarah does not want to be found. She’s run away to be alone, to face a moment of truth that will mean life or death.
And there’s someone else seeking answers up here on the high cliffs where the seabirds soar . . . A man known only as the Keeper, living in an old lighthouse right on the cusp of a four hundred foot drop, who is discovering that sometimes love takes you to the edge.
‘Cole writes with human warmth and bittersweet emotion. I loved this.’ – Matt Haig, number one best-selling author of The Humans, Reasons To Stay Alive and Notes On A Nervous Plane
ENDLESS BEACH by JENNY COLGAN – from the library
Dreams start here…
On the quayside next to the Endless Beach sits the Summer Seaside Kitchen. It’s a haven for tourists and locals alike, who all come to eat the freshest local produce on the island and catch up with the gossip. Flora, who runs the cafe, feels safe and content – unless she thinks too hard about her relationship with Joel, her gorgeous but emotionally (and physically) distant boyfriend.
While Flora is in turmoil about her relationship. her best friend Lorna is pining after the local doctor. Saif came to the island as a refugee, having lost all of his family. But he’s about to get some shocking news which will change everything for him.
As cold winter nights shift to long summer days, can Flora find her happy-ever-after with Joel?
THE HAUNTING OF HENRY TWIST by REBECCA F.JOHN – from the library
London, 1926: Henry Twist’s heavily pregnant wife leaves home to meet a friend. On the way, she is hit by a bus and killed, though miraculously, the baby survives. Henry is left with nothing but his new daughter – a single father in a world without single fathers. He hurries the baby home, terrified that she’ll be taken from him. Racked with guilt and fear, he stays away from prying eyes; walking her through the streets at night, under cover of darkness.
But one evening, a strange man materialises from the shadows and addresses Henry by name. The man says that he has lost his memory, but that his name is Jack. Henry is both afraid of and drawn to Jack, and the more time they spend together, the more Henry sees that this man has echoes of his dead wife. His mannerisms, some things he says … And so Henry wonders, has his wife returned to him? Has he conjured Jack himself from thin air? Or is he in the grip of a sophisticated con man? Who really sent him?
Set in a London recovering from the First World War, where life is enjoying a vibrancy again, The Haunting of Henry Twist is a novel about the limits and potential of love and of grief. It is about the lengths we will go to to hold on to what is precious to us, what we will forgive of those we love, and what we will sacrifice for the sake of our own happiness.
MR ONE NIGHT STAND by RACHAEL STEWART – from Mills & Boon. Out 21st February
One night only.
Just think of the possibilities…
The second she sees Mr. Oh-So-Delicious, Jennifer Hayes knows she needs one night of crazy. No names, no strings, no rules. Except that Jennifer’s naughty one-nighter is actually Marcus Wright—her new business partner! Now they’re mixing business with all kinds of pleasure. But when it comes to falling in love, her sexy Mr. Wright is either Mr. Wrong or the best mistake of her life…
THE FRIENDSHIP CURE by KATE LEAVER – from Duckworth . Out March 7th 2019
Our best friends, Twitter followers, gal-pals, bromances, Facebook friends, and long distance buddies define us in ways we rarely openly acknowledge. But as a society, we are simultaneously terrified of being alone and already desperately lonely. We move through life in packs and friendship circles and yet, in the most interconnected age, we are stuck in the greatest loneliness epidemic of our time. It’s killing us, making us miserable and causing a public health crisis. Increasingly, we don’t just die alone; we die because we are alone. What if meaningful friendships are the solution?
Journalist Kate Leaver believes that friendship is the essential cure for the modern malaise of solitude, ill health, and anxiety and that, if we only treated camaraderie as a social priority, it could affect everything from our physical health and emotional well being. Her much-anticipated manifesto, The Friendship Cure, looks at what friendship means, how it can survive, why we need it, and what we can do to get the most from it. Why do some friendships last a lifetime, while others are only temporary? How do you “break up” with a toxic friend? How do you make friends as an adult? Can men and women really be platonic? What are the curative qualities of friendship, and how we can deploy friendship to actually live longer, better lives?
From behavioral scientists to besties, Kate draws upon the extraordinary research from academics, scientists, and psychotherapists, and stories from friends of friends, strangers from the Internet, and her “squad” to get to the bottom of these and other facets of friendship. For readers of Susan Cain’s Quietand Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, The Friendship Cure is a fascinating blend of accessible “smart thinking,” investigative journalism, pop culture, and memoir for anyone trying to navigate this lonely world, written with the wit, charm, and bite of a fresh voice.
CURRENTLY READING
Finding Joy by Morven-May MacCallum
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And relax……so now it’s time to get back to the books! Hope your week has been a good one and hope the week ahead is even better!
HAPPY READING
Crazy In Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop by Annie Darling
The Wedding Diary by Margaret James
Books and Me! 