#Unboxing Bookishly September Classic Crate – The Jungle Book Edition!

Hello!  More things bookish today and that involves me sharing an unboxing of a fabulous #classicbookcrate that I recently treated myself to!  The lovely people at Bookishly have put together another wonderful box of goodies all centred around the classic THE JUNGLE BOOK by RUDYARD KIPLING. How could I  NOT treat myself when I saw details of this! So here’s a look at what I received this week – and if you click on the Bookishly link above I think they still have a few left now if you want to treat yourself or know of somebody who would love it!

It arrives beautifully parcelled up!! Time to delve in…                                                                                                                                                                                

Goodies galore!!  

                               

Beautiful print!

                   

                                                     I do love a mug!!

the book itself with a stunning exclusively designed cover! 

 Another fab print

                                            

                                                           Postcards and tea!! Two of my favourite things!

 

         

Stunning calendar full of lovely images and quotes throughout!!

🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯

Huge thanks again to Bookishly for creating yet another great set of products and another stunning book to add to my bookhselves! Really looking forward to seeing what other Classics get the Bookishly treatment in their monthly Classic Crates…. and wondering if my bookshelves have room for a few new additions …….😉

Advertisement

#unboxing Bookishly Classics & A Cuppa Tea

Hello! Just thought I would share another unboxing with you all – as I know how nosey we all are as bookish folk!

I’ve recently signed up for 3 months with Bookishly  for their Classics & A Cuppa subscription package.  So each month for 3 months you are sent 3 books from the Penguin’s Little Black Classics books, alongside a fabulous bookmark and a packet of yummy tea or coffee to suit your needs!  I’ve found this to be a fabulous way of adding to my bookshelves and discovering some new classics that I’ve shamefully not heard of or read!!

They arrive beautifully packaged up so you can pretend it’s your birthday when they arrive!!

And here’s what books I received this month…

 

Stancliffe’s Hotel by Charlotte Bronte

‘Reader, if you’re ready, so am I.’

These witty vignettes, set in Charlotte Brontë’s imaginary world of Angria, feature debauched aristocrats, high-society courtesans and the rakish, brooding hero Zamorna, and offer a fascinating insight into Brontë’s early writing.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics’ huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries – including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Matilda by Mary Shelley

‘I gained his secret and we were both lost for ever’.

Mary Shelley’s dark story of a bereaved man’s disturbing passion for his daughter was suppressed by her own father, and not published for over a century.

The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen

‘She has many rare and charming qualities, but Sobriety is not one of them.’

A selection of Austen’s dark and hilarious early writings – featuring murder, drunkenness, perjury, theft, poisoning, women breaking out of prison, men forging wills and babies biting off their mothers’ fingers…

And from Jenier World of Teas there is a sample of..

Fruit & Blossoms Rooibos in pyramid tea bags is a great way to enjoy this refreshing mix of luxury Rooibos tea, fruits and herbs including rosehips, dried red and black currants, lavender and rose petals. The taste is fruity and flavoursome with wonderful floral notes.

🍵🍵🍵

Very happy again this month with the books, tea and bookmark I received! Roll on next month!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up!

Greetings from a very grey and drizzly corner of Essex!  The perfect kind of day for hibernating and ‘trying’ to get organised on the bookish front!! Which probably means that I’ll end up playing Fishdom and searching for new books to buy online!!  Just think of all the spare time we must have had before the internet was invented!!!  How did we pass the time??!!

Hope you’ve all had good weeks!  Been a pretty quiet one here but I have picked up the pace on the Christmas shopping front! Am determined to have it all done before the shops get crazy mad – if only certain members of my family knew what they wanted! Bookshop vouchers for all I’m thinking!!! 😉

Been another productive bookish week for me – 3 books finished and a few more added to the shelves!!  I started watching some book decluttering videos on YouTube the other day, and it has got me thinking about why I keep so many books!  And I know I want to read ALL THE BOOKS, but that is impossible so I really need to rethink the way I buy books and then what to do with read books – do you keep all yours?!  Interested to know how you manage your ‘book collections’ as I constantly find myself wandering around the house trying to fit in another bookcase or two, and that isn’t proving to be the best solution!

So, on with what I’ve read this week, books I’ve been sent, books I’ve bought and what I’m currently reading!

BOOKS FINISHED

Sex Object by Jessica Valenti  –  2 stars

Read this for Non-Fiction November and didn’t really get on very well with it!  Found the most powerful part of the book was the endnotes which got her point across far better than the rest of the book!

Made in Japan by S.J. Parks   

Read this for part of an upcoming Blog Tour of which I’m taking part in, and I found this to be a really interesting read – review to follow on the blog tour!!

Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker  –  5 stars

One of those books that I’d had in my possession for an absolute age, but it was only when I started to listen to the Audio Version that I became enthralled with the story!  Highly recommended!!  But not if you don’t like sweary books!!

BOOK POST

Poor Posties have been suffering this week so I think I might need to treat them to extra sweeties at Christmas!  

A MAP OF THE DARK by KAREN ELLIS   –  out January 2018

A girl, missing
A woman, searching
A killer, planning…

A thrilling new FBI series for fans of Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter.

FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.
She knows how it feels to be lost…

Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.

With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa’s skin. Everything she has buried – her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother’s death – threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.

In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself…and return to the darkness she’s been hiding from for years.

 

 THE HOMECOMING by ROSIE HOWARD  –  out February 2018

Maddy fled the idyllic market town of Havenbury Magna three years ago, the scene of a traumatic incident she revisits most clearly in her dreams. Even so, when she is called back to help at the Havenbury Arms when her godfather Patrick suffers a heart attack, she is unprepared for the welter of emotions her return provokes. Psychologist and ex-army officer Ben is sure he can help Maddy to resolve her fears, until he finds himself falling for her, and struggling with a recently uncovered family secret of which Maddy is blissfully unaware. Then Maddy’s mother, Helen, arrives and Patrick himself must confront a few uncomfortable truths about his history and the pub’s future.

And then there has been some lovely post from Bookishly  – I subscribe to their fabulous monthly Tea and Book Club and this is the rather fantastic parcel of goodies that arrived today!

And then they also sell classics with covers that they design themselves.  My plan is to read more classics in 2018 so how could I resist these gorgeous covers..

THE BOY MADE OF SNOW by CHLOE MAYER

In 1944, in a sleepy English village, Daniel and his emotionally-distant mother, Annabel, remain at home while his father is off fighting a war that seems both omnipresent and very, very far away.

When mother and son befriend Hans, a German PoW working on a nearby farm, their lives are suddenly filled with excitement – though the prisoner comes to mean very different things to each of them. To Annabel, he is an awakening from the darkness that has engulfed her since Daniel’s birth. To her son, a solitary boy caught up in the mythical world of fairy-tales, he is perhaps a prince in disguise or a magical woodchopper. But Daniel often struggles to tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and Hans has plans to spin a special sort of web to entrap mother and son for his own needs.

This was a Kindle purchase – how could I not at 99p! Have heard so many good things via Twitter and Blogs about this that I’m itching to start it soon!

CURRENTLY READING

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

Reading this one for Non-fiction November, and am loving it! So many authors I’d never heard of and so many fascinating stories behind their success – and subsequent fall from grace.

House of Christmas Secrets by Lynda Stacey

The festive reading has begun!!  Think I need to start this genre early so I can get through all the ones I want to read before 25th December! I loved The House of Secrets so can’t wait to revisit the characters!

So, there we have it!  Hope your weeks have been as productive!  My plan now is to spend the rest of the weekend reading so hoping to make another big dent on the TBR pile before I’m faced with the decision of having to chuck a load out!!

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up!

She sells seashells on the seashore…….

Hello all!!  It isn’t summer without a little trip to the seaside and thankfully the rain has stayed away long enough to enjoy some sand, seashells and a cuppa or 6!! No ice-creams though this time so that’s for my next visit!  Watch it rain for the next 40 days and 40 nights now!

Hope you are all well and happy in your bookish worlds!  Been exhausted here this week so have had to take it a little easy – which is good news as resting = extra reading time!!  So another 5 books have been knocked off the TBR pile and that is always a good thing!! And even better news is that I haven’t added another 5 to take their place.. it was 3!! oooppsss!!

On to what I’ve been reading this week!  Please click on the book title if you’d like to read my GoodReads review!

BOOKS FINISHED

The Cosy Canal Boat Dream by Christie Barlow  – 4 stars

Flutter by Olivia Evans  –  3 stars

The Scandal by Fredrik Backman  –  5 stars

Yesterday by Felicia Yap  –  3 stars

Seeing Red by Lina Meruane    –  4 stars

A good week of good books! What more can a reader ask for?!  Free cake and chocolate supplies would help too I guess! 😉

BOOK POST

The urge to buy any new books has passed me by this week which has its’ good and bad points!  But I have been lucky to have received some lovely bookish post!  3 books for review and also another lovely monthly tea and book subscription parcel from the fab Bookishly which always puts a smile on my face!

I know very little of Village School by Miss Read, but it sounds utterly delightful so I’m hoping to get to this very soon! And while reading it I’m sure I’ll enjoy the ClanWilliam Rooibos Teabags that came too!

Yellow Room by Shelan Rodger

Haunted by a tragic childhood accident, Chala’s whole life has been moulded by guilt and secrets. After the death of the stepfather she adored, Chala is thrown into turmoil once again.

Volunteering in Kenya seems to offer an escape, and a way of re-evaluating her adult relationships, although violence and hardship simmer alongside its richness and beauty.

The secrets of the Yellow Room are still with her and she can’t run away forever…

Amazon UK

Set to be released in October from Dome Press and I’m on the Blog Tour so watch out for my thoughts in October!

SAVING BABY AMY BY ANNIE CLAYDON

Brought together…and bound forever!

Fiercely independent orthopaedic doctor Chloe Delancourt will do anything for her teenage sister Hannah and little niece Amy. So when Amy falls ill, and Hannah runs away, Chloe steps in, with the help of gorgeous paediatrician Jon Lambert…igniting an unexpected attraction!

Saving baby Amy brings Jon closer than he ever wanted to get to another woman after his disastrous marriage. But Chloe’s determination and unwavering loyalty remind Jon of what a real family should be…and that this could be his chance to have everything—with Chloe!

Amazon UK

I’ve recently become a Mills & Boon insider, and I remember loving reading copies of the books my Nan used to have so I’m looking forward to re-acquanting myself with Mills & Boon.

The Brazilian by Rosie Millard

Following a sensational scandal at one of London’s most desired post codes, Jane and Patrick decide to escape the gossip with a family holiday to Ibiza, their eight-year-old George in tow. Also on the island that week is a TV reality show involving an eccentric artist, a horny It Girl, a Brazilian soccer player, and a famous musician. As hapless celebrities are picked off one by one, Jane is desperate to be on the program, leaving childcare in the not so capable hands of a teenager. One lesbian escapade and an explosive row over hair removal later, the contestants of Ibiza or Bust leave the island with more than sand in places they never knew existed.

Amazon UK

Was asked to review this and I’m in desperate need of funny books right now, so this looks perfect! Looking forward to escaping into this crazy sounding world soon!

CURRENTLY READING

Still have Wesley the very cute owl on my bedside table and am enjoying his story!  Hands up who wants a pet owl?!!!  🙋

Amazon UK

Death Plays A Part by Vivian Conroy

Being drawn to a nice little cosy mystery book and am really enjoying what I’ve read so far.  And guess who now wants a pet dachsund…. 🙋  Books are a very bad influence!!

Amazon UK

And that wraps up my bookish week! I hope you have all had a fabulous week and have a fabulous weekend ahead! 

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up!

Greetings all! Guess where I’ll be sitting later…. hopefully!! That’s if I can fight my way through the rather luscious greenery that has gone a little rampant over the past week!  I’m going for the ‘natural’ and ‘wild’ look in the garden this season – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!!!!!

Hope we have all had a good week – been a little stressful here  but then watching things that have unfolded on the news this week has helped put my little problems into perspective!   And another good reason to turn to books to make reality disappear for a while.

Been a very good week on the book reading front again for me!  Ill health and Insomnia has its’ benefits!!  7 books finished this week, although 1 was a bit of a cheat as it was only a few pages long – a very short novella! – but I’m counting it so there!!

BOOKS FINISHED

Please click on the book title for a link to my GoodReads reviews if you care to find out a little more about each book!

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams  4 stars

Finding Secrets by Lauren Westwood  – 4 stars

The World of Shadow by Kate Hamer   – 3 stars

Laura Lake and the Hipster Weddings by Wendy Holden  – 2 stars

The Good Women of China by Xinran  – 5 stars

Fell by Jenn Ashworth  –  4 stars

A Thousand Paper Birds by Tor Udall   –    5 stars

How’s that for a mix of books this week?! A little bit of everything and hopefully something new for you to discover!  I always used to stick to one genre when I read a few years ago, but can’t imagine doing that now as I’d have missed out on so many wonderful stories!!

BOOK HAUL

And still I haven’t bought any books!!  This has now reached critical stage as it just feels wrong but my sensible head seems to have taken over and is happy for me to work through the TBR mountain I had amassed until some gaps appear and maybe then it will let me loose again in a bookshop or online…. i’m hoping!!

But there has been books arriving for the sake of reviewing and forthcoming blog tours, as well as another fabulous parcel from Bookishly and the Urbane Publications Book Club!  Here’s a peek!

Every Secret Thing by Rachel Crowther – Blog Tour in July

Can you ever bury the past?

She’d recognised in him something of herself: that sense of not belonging, of secrets fiercely kept . . .

Five friends, newly graduated, travel together to the Lake District. Young and ambitious, they little imagine the events that will overtake them that fateful summer, tearing their fragile group apart.

Twenty years later, they return to the same spot, summoned by a mysterious bequest. It’s not long before old friendships – and old romances – are re-kindled. But soon, too, rivalries begin to re-emerge and wounds are painfully reopened . . .

How long does it take for past sins to be forgiven? And can the things they destroy ever really be recovered?

This Beautiful Life by Katie Marsh   –  received a copy for review. Paperback out in July

The addictive and emotive new novel from Katie Marsh, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Jodi Picoult.

‘I lived over half my life before I met you both, and I hope with all my heart to live many years more. You two are the reason why. Always, always the reason why.’

Abi Cooper is living her happy ending. She’s in remission and is ready to make the most of her second chance. But during Abi’s illness her family has fallen apart. Her husband John has made decisions that are about to come back to haunt him, while her teenage son Seb is battling with a secret of his own.

Set to the songs on Abi’s survival playlist, This Beautiful Life is the moving and uplifting story of what happens as Abi tries to put her family back together – and of why life, and love, are worth fighting for

Don’t Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon –  received a copy from Readers First to review

A gripping novel of psychological suspense centered on two sisters whose lives have taken them apart, and the shocking family secrets that bind them together.

Twin sisters Robin and Sarah haven’t spoken in years.

Robin can’t leave her house. A complete shut-in, she spends her days spying on her neighbors, subtly meddling in their lives. But she can’t keep her demons out forever. Someone from her past has returned, and is desperate to get inside.

Sarah can’t go home. Her husband has kicked her out, forcibly denying her access to their toddler. Sarah will do anything to get her daughter back, but she’s unraveling under the mounting pressure of concealing the dark secrets of her past. And her lies are catching up to her.

The novel takes readers back in time to witness the complex family dynamics that formed Robin and Sarah into the emotionally damaged, estranged young women they’ve become. As the gripping and intricate layers of their shared past are slowly peeled away, the shocks and twists will keep readers breathless long after the final page.

Bookishly

I subscribe to the wonderful Bookishly monthly tea and book club so received another fabulous parcel in the post this week containing some gorgeous goodies – bookmark, notebook, peppermint tea and another fab Penguin book to add to my collection!

 

 

And then there’s another fabulous bundle of books from Urbane Publications as part of their yearly book club of which I am a member!!  Sign up and for £99.99 you get a copy of EVERY book they publish throughout the year!  What bookworm could ever turn that offer down?!  Here’s a look at some of the May releases that I’ve just taken delivery of and looking forward to settling down with! Click on each title for a link to their GoodReads page!

Spanish Crossings by John Simmons

Blue Gold by David Barker

Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong by Gina Kirkham

Sod the Bitches! by Steven Berkoff

Death’s Silent Judgement by Anne Coates

Ghost and Ragman Roll by Pete Adams

 

 

CURRENTLY READING

 

Girl Reading by Katie Ward

Seven portraits. Seven artists. Seven girls and women reading. Each chapter of this richly textured debut takes us into a perfectly imagined tale of how each portrait came to be, and as the connections accumulate, the narrative leads us into the present and beyond.

 

 

Mist and Whispers by C. M. Lucas

 

Imagine a world in eternal darkness. A world where skeletal beasts lurk in the forest. Where the women are missing, and the men are in need of salvation…

In the West-English town of Little Wolf Green, Scott’s bookshop is about to close down. Convinced the bookshop holds the key to her mother’s identity, sixteen year old Anya Piddling vows to save Scott’s, whatever the cost.
When four books of magic and myth take the world by storm, Anya begins a journey to discover the truth about the author, known only as the Weaver. Followed closely by her friends, and one surly, bitter ex-boyfriend, Anya soon realises a whole new world awaits: a world gone very wrong, with maddening whispers in the forest, magical winged Kings and a dragon-boy that understands her, inside and out. But this world needs a saviour… and everyone is looking at her.

So, there we have it!! Another week done and dusted!  How has your reading week gone? Any goodies to share with me?!  And a sunny weekend is forecast so that should lend itself nicely to more time spent on my garden bench with an ice lolly or two to pass away the time – well, it will be too hot to do anything else so we should spend our time wisely by sitting and reading!! You have my permission!!

HAPPY READING!!

Book Subscription Services – May treats!

 I know you will all agree that there is nothing better than a day which brings ‘bookpost’ your way! Whether it be a lovely ARC copy sent by a publisher, some books that you’ve ordered yourself – because you deserved it!! – or one of the lovely Book Subscription services boxes arriving each month/bi-monthly – it is a day worth celebrating!  Although maybe at times your local Postman is cursing your name everytime he has to stop by!!

Well, today was a double treat day and much needed as I’ve been feeling pretty poorly, as both my Moth Box parcel arrived, along with my Bookishly monthly ‘tea and book’ subscription parcel!!  A simple way to put a smile on my face – it doesn’t take much does it!!

So I thought I’d share what goodies I’ve got along with links to the sites in case you are tempted to take a peek for yourself and treat yourself!!!  You know you want to…… 😉

MOTHBOX

This is a fairly recent addition to the Book Subscription market and is run by the lovely Mercedes – book vlogger on Youtube, and can also be found on Twitter at @MercysMusings.  She knows her books and this is a great service of finding lesser known books from independant publishers and I’m yet to have a box from her that I haven’t enjoyed!  It is normally sent out every 2 months but I’m not sure if she is looking to change this as it has proved so popular.  Check out the website at MothBoxBooks for  more information as I can highly recommed it as a great treat for all bookish folk!

 

 

The 2 books arrived beatifully packaged with free bookmarks that have a quote relating to the books inside on each which is a lovely touch.

 And the May books were these two….

Star-Shot by Mary-ann Constantine

Part fable, part mystery, Star-Shot is a stylish debut novel set in and around Cardiff’s National Museum in a time that is almost, but not quite, our own. As their paths cross in a circumscribed world of benches, parks and galleries, a handful of characters reveal their stories of obsession, loss and recovery, creating a fragile network of relationships which will help to resist the inexorable channels of silence eating into the city.

A brittle young woman sits on a bench in Gorsedd park, conscious of the powerful building behind her; a tall man carries a box full of a strange organic substance up the entrance steps; a young father explains the formation of stars to his tiny son. As university researchers try to map and understand the destructive silence snaking around them, it becomes clear that the linked lives of these and other marginal characters offer ways of countering its effects. Poignant and humorous, Star-Shot is an exploration of how objects and images can focus our grief and desire; it is also a meditation on the regenerative power of garden ponds, and the cosmic significance of frogs.

Beautifully illustrated with woodcut-style motifs by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, this is a subtle urban novel with a supernatural twist.

Ties by Domenico Starnone

 

Luminously translated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, Ties is the searing new novel by bestselling Italian novelist Domenico Starnone.

Ties is the story of a marriage. Like many marriages, this one has been subject to strain, to attrition, to the burden of routine. Yet it has survived intact. Or so things appear. The rupture in Vanda and Aldo’s marriage lies years in the past, but if one looks closely enough, the fissures and fault lines are evident. Their marriage is a cracked vase that may shatter at the slightest touch. Or perhaps it has already shattered, and nobody is willing to acknowledge the fact.

Domenico Starnone’s thirteenth work of fiction is a powerful short novel about relationships, family, love, and the ineluctable consequences of one’s actions. Known as a consummate stylist and beloved as a talented storyteller, Domenico Starnone is the winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary award The Strega.

Winner of The Bridge Prize for Best Novel 2015

BOOKISHLY

And then there is Bookishly!  I’m a recent convert to their Tea and Book Club, where they send you a different variety of tea each month alongside a fabulous vintage book and some rather gorgeous stationery which includes cards, bookmarks, notebooks etc…. Now what bookish fan doesn’t love the mix of books, tea and stationery??!! 

They also run a Coffee and Book Club for those of you who aren’t a fan of Tea – what is wrong with you people?! – and they also have an amazing website full of wonderful book related gifts that are well worth checking out if you are looking to find a present that is a little something different than you’d find in a shop!

This months parcel included some rather gorgeous sounding  Sunshine Orange Rooibos Tea, a gorgeous Peter Pan quote bookmark, 2 lovely greetings card and a Penguin copy of The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc.

Considered by Belloc himself, and by most critics, his greatest work, this classic book is the delightful story of the pilgrimage Belloc made on foot to Rome in order to fulfill a vow he had made to “…see all Europe which the Christian Faith has saved…” In his Life of Hilaire Belloc, Robert Speaight states: “More than any other book he ever wrote, The Path to Rome made Belloc’s name; more than any other, it has been lovelingly thumbed and pondered… The book is a classic, born of something far deeper than the physical experience it records.”

Do any of you subscribe to any of the book subcription services?  Do you have a favourite? Or one to avoid?! Would love to hear about anymore out there to check out!

HAPPY READING!!

Bookish Weekly Wrap up – Easter special

Hello!!! And Happy Easter from myself and Archie the bunny who is busy on his own kind of Egg hunt in the garden – tracking down my favourite plants and nibbling them before I can stop him!!  Wonder if there are rabbit obedience classes I can sign him up for?!

I hope everyone will be able to put the Easter holidays to good use on the reading front! I have a confession to make this week – it has been an extremely poor week for me on the reading front!  The reading slump has struck and even though I have a ton of wonderful books to get through, my brain has decided to go on strike and creating obstacles for me to do anything and everything BUT read!  Help!!! So I am hoping that a couple of quiet days at home, and some extra chocolate rations, will help inspire me to knuckle down and get my reading groove back on!!

BUT it has been a rather wonderful week for obtaining books and winning stuff!!!  First to the winning stuff part!!  I don’t know if you are aware of the wonderful people at Bookishly who have a wonderful site full of wonderful literary gifts. They also run some wonderful book subscription boxes so I’d highly recommend checking them out, especially if you are looking for literary gifts that are a little bit different.  This month they had an Alice in Wonderland crate which was jam packed with Alice goodies and a lovely edition of Alice in Wonderland.  And in one of the crates they were hiding a white chocolate rabbit and if you were lucky enough to win it then the prize was £150 worth of goodies of your choice from their website….. 

 ooh look who found a white chocolate rabbit!!!!  squeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

so once I’d finished squealing over my breakfast and emailing the company my news, I got to enjoy all the lovely goodies that were in the Alice crate!  Made my day I can tell you!!  Alice will now always be even more special to me!!

Books Read

The Body In the Ice by A.J. Mackenzie

This was a really enjoyable read which is part of a series so I’m looking forward to going back and reading the first in the series and to the next due out soonish!

Book Post

The art of obtaining books never seems to be a problem for me and this week has proved that!  First up was  a treat to myself from Big Green Bookshop who had a signing with Scarlett Thomas as she launched her new childrens’ book – any mention of a dragon is enough for me so am really looking forward to this one! Click on the book titles for a link to the GoodReads pages!

 Dragon’s Green by Scarlett Thomas 

  

 And then this 6 lovely beasts arrived as part of my latest batch of books as part of the Urbane Publications Book Club where they send out every book they publish throughout the year for £99.99.  

The Knowing by David Graham

Electric Souk by Rose McGinty

Imperfection by Ray Clark

Marching on Together by PJ Whiteley

A Monster by Violet by Laura Wake

An Actor’s Life For Me? by Zoe Sullivan

 

 And the postie was cursing me today with the arrival of 3 books from the publishers for reviewing, all out early May 2017

The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins

 

 

 

Mr Gandy’s Grand Tour by Alan Titchmarsh

Amnesia by Michael Ridpath

It seems I may have a little bit of reading to do eh!!!  Oops!!  So the plan now is to spend the rest of the weekend under a blanket, with numerous cups of tea and the odd bar of chocolate and make a start on some of these and finally get a couple finished that have been loitering on my bedside table  for a while!!  

HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY READING!!