My June TBR #bookblogger #TBR

I have a plan!!! It may be very hopeful, but it’s a start!!  And with the start of the 20 Books Of Summer I seem to have a lot of reading that needs to be done in the month ahead!!  Alongside Blog Tour books, the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project book of the month and the Persephone Readathon I’m taking part in – I don’t think I’ll be sleeping this month as every minute is precious in the quest to READ MORE BOOKS!   Any bets the reading slump fairy will strike me down in the next few days?!!!

So here’s a look at the books that I NEED to be reading in the month ahead, mainly for Blog Tours!

MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT by ELIZABETH TAYLOR

for the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project group on  GoodReads

On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs. Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies—boredom and the Grim Reaper. Then one day Mrs. Palfrey strikes up an unexpected friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer, and learns that even the old can fall in love.

FLUSH by VIRGINIA WOOLF (Persephone Readathon)

This story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush, enchants right from the opening pages. Although Flush has adventures of his own with bullying dogs, horrid maids, and robbers, he also provides the reader with a glimpse into Browning’s life. Introduction by Trekkie Ritchie.

THE FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER by R.C.SHERRIFF (persephone readathon)

The Fortnight in September embodies the kind of mundane normality the men in the dug-out longed for – domestic life at 22 Corunna Road in Dulwich, the train journey via Clapham Junction to the south coast, the two weeks living in lodgings and going to the beach every day. The family’s only regret is leaving their garden where, we can imagine, because it is September the dahlias are at their fiery best: as they flash past in the train they get a glimpse of their back garden, where ‘a shaft of sunlight fell through the side passage and lit up the clump of white asters by the apple tree.’ This was what the First World War soldiers longed for; this, he imagined, was what he was fighting for and would return to (as in fact Sherriff did).

THE SPACE BETWEEN TIME by CHARLIE LAIDLAW (for Blog Tour)

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth…

Emma Maria Rossini appears to be the luckiest girl in the world. She’s the daughter of a beautiful and loving mother, and her father is one of the most famous film actors of his generation. She’s also the granddaughter of a rather eccentric and obscure Italian astrophysicist.

But as her seemingly charmed life begins to unravel, and Emma experiences love and tragedy, she ultimately finds solace in her once-derided grandfather’s Theorem on the universe.

The Space Between Time is humorous and poignant and offers the metaphor that we are all connected, even to those we have loved and not quite lost.

THE SERPENT’S MARK by S.W.PERRY (for Blog Tour)

Treason sleeps for no man…

London, 1591. Nicholas Shelby, physician and reluctant spy, returns to his old haunts on London’s lawless Bankside. But, when the queen’s spymaster Robert Cecil asks him to investigate the dubious practices of a mysterious doctor from Switzerland, Nicholas is soon embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not just the life of an innocent young patient, but the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth herself.

With fellow healer and mistress of the Jackdaw tavern, Bianca Merton, again at his side, Nicholas is drawn into a dangerous world of zealots, charlatans and fanatics. As their own lives become increasingly at risk, they find themselves confronting the greatest treason of all: the spectre of a bloody war between the faiths…

CONFETTI AT THE LITTLE DUCK POND CAFE by ROSIE GREEN (for blog tour)

With Ellie and Zak’s Big Day on the horizon, the sun is shining brightly on the Little Duck Pond Café community. But as dark clouds begin to roll in, threatening more than one close relationship, will the wedding of the year take place at all? 

NEEDLEMOUSE by JANE O’CONNOR (for blog tour)

Time to come out of hibernation…

Sylvia Penton has been hibernating for years, it’s no wonder she’s a little prickly…

Sylvia lives alone, dedicating herself to her job at the local university. On weekends, she helps out at a local hedgehog sanctuary because it gives her something to talk about on Mondays – and it makes people think she’s nicer than she is.

Only Sylvia has a secret: she’s been in love with her boss, Professor Lomax, for over a decade now, and she’s sure he’s just waiting for the right time to leave his wife. Meanwhile she stores every crumb of his affection and covertly makes trouble for anyone she feels gets in his way.

But when a bright new PhD candidate catches the Professor’s eye, Sylvia’s dreams of the fairy tale ending she has craved for so long, are soon in tatters, driving her to increasingly desperate measures and an uncertain future.

Sylvia might have been sleep walking through her life but things are about to change now she’s woken up…

A quirky, charming uplifting novel perfect for fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Sarah Haywood’s The Cactus. The feelgood bestseller about unrequited love, loneliness and the redemptive qualities of hedgehogs featuring the most unlikely heroine of 2019.

SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR by RICHARD ROPER (for blog tour)

Sometimes you have to risk everything to find your something…

Andrew works with death for a living. Searching for people’s next of kin and attending the funerals if they don’t have anyone, he’s desperate to avoid the same fate for himself. Which is fine, because he has the perfect wife and 2.4 children waiting at home for him after a long day. At least, that’s what he’s told people.

The truth is, his life isn’t exactly as people think and the little white lie he once told is about to catch up with him.

Because in all Andrew’s efforts to fit in, he’s forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it’s about time for him to start.

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Looks a pretty nice month ahead IF it was just these books to be read!  But I’m really looking forward to June and hope a few of these will stick in my mind for years to come! Hope your June TBR is one to make you smile!

HAPPY READING!

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My May TBR…. #bookblogger

Aarrggghh – how is it May already?! Only seemed like yesterday the Christmas tree was up!!  And I still don’t feel very organised on the reading front despite my best efforts!  Compiling these lists is helping ‘a little’ as it’s making me more focused (at least in the ‘making lists’ part!!) so another busy month ahead it seems despite having already started on the May Blog Tour books – and having a little bit of a splurge on the book buying front recently means I need to start reading the books I’m buying a little more!!

Here’s what I’m hoping to get to this month…

THE WEDDING GROUP by ELIZABETH TAYLOR

as part of the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project group on GoodReads

Cressy has grown up in a world of women, presided over by her eccentric, artistic grandfather Harry Bretton. Rebelling against the wholesome, organic values of her home life, Cressy decides to leave home in search of more ephemeral pleasures. Taking a job in an antiques shop, she meets David, a self-satisfied journalist, also looking for means of fleeing the family nest. But as Cressy cannot fend for herself and David is securely tied to his mother’s apron strings, this act of escape for both of them proves a powerful form of bondage. This quietly ironic exploration of the invisible shackles that tie children to parents is one of Elizabeth Taylor’s most ambitious novels.

A BAKERY AT THE LITTLE DUCK POND CAFE by ROSIE GREEN

ahead of the Blog Tour

Ellie’s dreams of opening a bakery in Sunnybrook are coming true and best friends Fen and Jaz are happily rallying round, helping her to plan a fabulous grand opening day. Everything in their garden seems to be rosy – until the arrival of a newcomer brings chaos to the village and tests relationships to the limit. Can the bakery succeed in the face of such upheaval? And more importantly, can firm friendships survive?

PINK ICE CREAMS by JO WOOLASTON

ahead of the Blog Tour

Intent on fixing her broken marriage and the alcohol-fuelled catastrophe that is her life, Kay Harris arrives at her grim and grey holiday let, ready to lay to rest the tragedy that has governed her entire adulthood – the disappearance of her little brother, Adam.

But the road to recovery is pitted with the pot-holes of her own poor choices, and it isn’t long before Kay is forced to accept that maybe she doesn’t deserve the retribution she seeks. Will the intervention of strangers help her find the answers she needs to move on from her past, or will she always be stuck on the hard shoulder with no clear view ahead and a glove box full of empties?

Pink Ice Creams is a tale of loss, self-destruction, and clinging on to the scraps of the long-lost when everyone else has given up hope.

THE WRONG DIRECTION by LIZ TREACHER

ahead of the blog tour

A charming romantic comedy, set in 1920, ‘The Wrong Direction’ is the sequel to’ The Wrong Envelope’. 

When Bernard Cavalier, a flamboyant London artist, marries Evie Brunton, a beautiful Devon post lady, everyone expects a happy ending. But Evie misses cycling down country lanes, delivering the mail, and is finding it hard to adapt to her new life among Mayfair’s high society. Meanwhile Bernard, now a well-known artist, is struggling to give up his bachelor ways.

‘The Wrong Direction’ is as light and witty as ‘The Wrong Envelope’, with racy characters and a fast-paced plot. Wild parties, flirtatious models, jealous friends – Bernard and Evie must negotiate many twists and turns if they are to hold on to each other…

THE SEWING ROOM GIRL by SUSANNA BAVIN

ahead of a Blog Tour

Born into service, sixteen-year-old Juliet Harper has always idolized her mother, Agnes. But Agnes is haunted by what could have been, and the glamorous life she might have lived if she stayed in Manchester rather than settling down in the Lancashire moorland with her husband.

Life takes another unexpected turn when Juliet’s father suddenly dies. Agnes’s reputation as a seamstress leads to her being taken on by local landowners the Drysdales, where she is proud to work. But it will be a bumpy road for both of them as they settle in to their new lives. Will Juliet ever be able to choose her own path? And what will become of them when Agnes falls ill?

THE GARDEN OF LOST AND FOUND by HARRIET EVANS

Nightingale House, 1919. Liddy Horner discovers her husband, the world-famous artist Sir Edward Horner, burning his best-known painting The Garden of Lost and Found days before his sudden death.

Nightingale House was the Horner family’s beloved home – a gem of design created to inspire happiness – and it was here Ned painted ‘The Garden of Lost and Found’, capturing his children on a perfect day, playing in the rambling Eden he and Liddy made for them.

One magical moment. Before it all came tumbling down…

When Ned and Liddy’s great-granddaughter Juliet is sent the key to Nightingale House, she opens the door onto a forgotten world. The house holds its mysteries close but she is in search of answers. For who would choose to destroy what they love most? Whether Ned’s masterpiece – or, in Juliet’s case, her own children’s happiness.

Something shattered this corner of paradise. But what?

THE WESTERN WIND by SAMANTHA HARVEY

15th century Oakham, in Somerset; a tiny village cut off by a big river with no bridge. When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can’t?

Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman’s death, the story is related by Reve – an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.

HAVERSCROFT by S.A.HARRIS

Kate Keeling leaves all she knows and moves to Haverscroft House in an attempt to salvage her marriage. Little does she realise, Haverscroft’s dark secrets will drive her to question her sanity, her husband and fatally engulf her family unless she can stop the past repeating itself. Can Kate keep her children safe and escape Haverscroft in time, even if it will end her marriage?

Haverscroft is a gripping and chilling dark tale, a modern ghost story that will keep you turning its pages late into the night.

A GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER by BEV THOMAS

The hardest lies to spot are the ones we tell ourselves.

Dr Ruth Hartland rises to difficult tasks. She is the director of a highly respected trauma therapy unit. She is confident, capable and excellent at her job. Today she is preoccupied by her son Tom’s disappearance.

So when a new patient arrives at the unit – a young man who looks shockingly like Tom – she is floored.

As a therapist, Ruth knows exactly what she should do in the best interests of her client, but as a mother she makes a very different choice – a decision that will have profound consequences.

FROM THE WRECK by JANE RAWSON

When George Hills was pulled from the wreck of the steamship Admella, he carried with him memories of a disaster that claimed the lives of almost every other soul on board. Almost every other soul.

Because as he clung onto the wreck, George wasn’t alone: someone else – or something else – kept George warm and bound him to life. Why didn’t he die, as so many others did, half-submerged in the freezing Southern Ocean? And what happened to his fellow survivor, the woman who seemed to vanish into thin air?

George will live out the rest of his life obsessed with finding the answers to these questions. He will marry, father children, but never quite let go of the feeling that something else came out of the ocean that day, something that has been watching him ever since. The question of what this creature might want from him – his life? His first-born? To simply return home? – will pursue him, and call him back to the ocean again.

Blending genres, perspectives and worlds, Jane Rawson’s From the Wreck – winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel- is a chilling and tender story about how fiercely we cling to life, and how no-one can survive on their own.

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So what do you make of that little lot then?! These are my ‘priority’ reads so hopefully I can get through all of them and still have time for a few little random picks too this month…..

HAPPY READING!!

#BookReview A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

About the book

Harriet and Vesey meet when they are teenagers, and their love is as intense and instantaneous as it is innocent. But they are young. All life still lies ahead. Vesey heads off hopefully to pursue a career as an actor. Harriet marries and has a child, becoming a settled member of suburban society. And then Vesey returns, the worse for wear, and with him the love whose memory they have both sentimentally cherished, and even after so much has happened it cannot be denied. But things are not at all as they used to be. Love, it seems, is hardly designed to survive life.
      One of the finest twentieth-century English novelists, Elizabeth Taylor, like her contemporaries Graham Greene, Richard Yates, and Michelangelo Antonioni, was a connoisseur of the modern world’s forsaken zones. Her characters are real, people caught out by their own desires and decisions, and they demand our attention. The be-stilled suburban backwaters she sets out to explore shimmer in her books with the punishing clarity of a desert mirage.

Published by Virago

MY REVIEW

This was the December pick for the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project book club on GoodReads.

I found this to be a book of two halves! The first half was very slow and featured two characters in Harriet and Vesey who proved themselves to be very unlikeable people in their attitudes and behaviour towards other. But the second half, when you’d got used to their traits and self-centredness!, was typical Elizabeth Taylor as she used their situation to her benefit in showing off how times change people and their attitudes and how they’re often left regretting things they’d done.

Harriet and Vesey grew up together, and Harriet became infatuated by him but their lives went separate ways and she ended up married to Charles – a much older but safer, kinder man – but her thoughts always seemed to come back to Vesey and when they meet up again years later, those thoughts resurface. Despite Charles doing all he could for his wife, he never seemed to be good enough and he was the character I had the most sympathy for!

There was very little drama in this story, and it felt like the author was unsure of what path to send the main characters on – should they get their happy ending despite their selfish behaviour, or should they be punished and suffer! I know which outcome I would prefer them to face!

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My bookish weekly wrap up – week 43 2018

Hello all and Happy November! Where has 2018 gone?!! Very scary that I’m now having to consider what everyone wants for christmas so that I can avoid the stress of shopping in December – I think Gift Vouchers may be the way forward!!

Been a mixed week for me as haven’t been feeling too well, but did get out in the sunshine to see a local Wood Fest and got to meet the rather gorgeous Roy who is a working Suffolk Punch horse.  He was a total star showing off his skills and loved all the fuss we gave him too!

On the bookish front it’s been an okay kind of week! I don’t feel like I’ve been in a big reading mood, or been reading very quickly but have still managed to get 4 books finished – slacking on the writing of reviews front though!  Must do better on that score!  I’ve been well behaved on NetGalley and requested 0 books, and was good and only treated myself to 2 new additions for my bookshelves!

So here’s a look back at my week! Click on the titles for links to the GoodReads pages!

BOOKS FINISHED

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult  – 4 stars

Read this via The Pigeonhole app and it was a stunning story told very creatively. Lots to think about

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield – 4 stars

Another Blog Tour read and another goodie! A true storyteller!! 

The Merest Loss by Steven Neil – 4 stars

Read this for a Blog Tour later this month, and loved the mix of history and politics. Harriet Howard, who the book is based on, is such a fascinating character.

 A Daughter’s Christmas Wish by Victoria Cornwall  –  4 stars

A lovely novella set just after the War

BOOK HAUL

I thought I deserved some treats this week so started online at Belgravia Books where they had a limited edition hardback edition of this – it comes with a signed print and some rather extraordinary postcards! Will be framing those!

LITTLE by EDWARD CAREY

The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud.

In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do.

In the tradition of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Edward Carey’s Little is a darkly endearing cavalcade of a novel–a story of art, class, determination, and how we hold on to what we love. 

And it was also time for me to choose my next book from Alma Books as part of their Year of Reading Subscription so I chose this one!

ISABEL’S SKIN by PETER BENSON

David Morris lives the quiet life of a book-valuer for a London auction house, travelling every day by omnibus to his office in the Strand. When he is asked to make a trip to rural Somerset to value the library of the recently deceased Lord Buff-Orpington, the sense of trepidation he feels as he heads into the country is confirmed the moment he reaches his destination, the dark and impoverished village of Ashbrittle. These feelings turn to dread when he meets the enigmatic Professor Richard Hunt and catches a glimpse of a screaming woman he keeps prisoner in his house.

CURRENTLY READING

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor

the November choice for the GoodReads Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project group

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how has your reading week been? Hope it’s been a good one!

HAPPY READING!

#bookreview A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor #bookblogger

About the book

An unforgettable picture of love, loss and the keeping up of appearances. Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.

In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for – and in on – each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is painfully involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory’s best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good.

Published by  Virago Press

Purchase Links

hive.co.uk

Book Depository

waterstones

MY REVIEW

This was the October choice for the Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project – a group I belong to on GoodReads.

To be fair, I was a little overwhelmed when first reading this as the number of characters introduced in this little community was a little confusing and I often found myself turning back the pages to try and work out who was who again, but once I had a clear picture in my mind of the relationships and characteristics, I found this to be a slow but really engaging book that follows a variety of characters, not all pleasant, in a sleepy village. But their antics are far from sleepy and were an insightful look at the behaviour of people, friends and acquaintances, and how we treat people of different ages.

There isn’t much that happens throughout the book, but that is where the author works her magic as you begin to understand the characters, and the way she picks up little quirks in their ways, and how often things are happening right under your nose which makes it too difficult to see. Or maybe you do see it and you just don’t want to believe it?

At times the treatment of some characters felt quite harsh in how they were being treated by others, but by the end it became quite touching in how a community rallied round those in need, as well as the touches of humour throughout that really light up the story. 

 Very glad I got to read it – and the cover is a stunner too!

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My August TBR list!

TBR Someone, could well be me!, has decided  she needs to be a little extra organised for the month of August as she has just looked at her schedule for Blog Tours, The 20 Books of Summer challenge and online Book Clubs,  alongside the books she has been sent to review and ones she’s bought herself, and she may have cried a little at the amount!! Trying to remain calm is NOT an option!  HELP ME!!! So  being organised it is then! I’ve just sorted out a small pile to begin with – as to not overwhelm myself! – so this is just a little taste of the books I have ahead of me in August! Bagpuss and Elmo helped put this collection together…so it’s their fault if it all goes wrong!!

AT MRS LIPPINCOTE’S by ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Invited by the lovely Karen to join her group on GoodReads – The Elizabeth Taylor Reading Project – and this is the first of 12 books by Elizabeth Taylor (no, not that one!!) that we’re set to read over the course of a year! Can’t wait!

The debut novel from Elizabeth Taylor – shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Mrs Lippincote’s house, with its mahogany furniture and yellowing photographs, stands as a reminder of all the certainties that have vanished with the advent of war. Temporarily, this is home for Julia, who has joined her husband Roddy at the behest of the RAF. Although she can accept the pomposities of service life, Julia’s honesty and sense of humour prevent her from taking her role as seriously as her husband, that leader of men, might wish; for Roddy, merely love cannot suffice – he needs homage as well as admiration. And Julia, while she may be a most unsatisfactory officer’s wife, is certainly no hypocrite.

The Lion Tamer who Lost by Louise Beech

Ahead of a Blog Tour this has really got me excited after so many wonderful reviews!

Long ago Andrew made a childhood wish. One he has always kept in a silver box with a too-big lid that falls off. When it finally comes true, he wishes it hadn’t…

Long ago Ben dreamed of going to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally goes there, it isn’t for the reasons he imagined…

Ben and Andrew keep meeting where they least expect. Some collisions are by design, but are they for a reason? Ben’s father would disown him for his relationship with Andrew, so they must hide their love. Andrew is determined to make it work, but secrets from his past threaten to ruin everything.

Ben escapes to Zimbabwe to finally fulfil his lifelong ambition. But will he ever return to England? To Andrew? To the truth?

A dark and poignant drama, The Lion Tamer Who Lost is also a mesmerisingly beautiful love story, with a tragic heart.

The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers

This is the book club choice of The Ninja Book Box Book Club – a fab and fun little online club that chooses an indie book to read each month! Very excited to read this one!

An England divided. From his remote moorland home, David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.

They are the Cragg Vale Coiners and their business is ‘clipping’ – the forging of coins, a treasonous offence punishable by death.

A charismatic leader, Hartley cares for the poor and uses violence and intimidation against his opponents. He is also prone to self-delusion and strange visions of mythical creatures.

When excise officer William Deighton vows to bring down the Coiners and one of their own becomes turncoat, Hartley’s empire begins to crumble. With the industrial age set to change the face of England forever, the fate of his empire is under threat.

Forensically assembled from historical accounts and legal documents, The Gallows Pole is a true story of resistance that combines poetry, landscape, crime and historical fiction, whose themes continue to resonate. Here is a rarely-told alternative history of the North.

The Summer House by Philip Teir

Won a copy of this from the publisher, Serpents Tail, and it seems the perfect month to read it!

The light greenery of the early summer is trembling around Erik and Julia as they shove their children into the car and start the drive towards the house by the sea on the west coast of Finland where they will spend the summer. From the outside they are a happy young family looking forward to a long holiday together.

But look under the surface, and their happiness shows signs of not lasting the summer. On the eve of the holiday, Erik lost his job, but hasn’t yet told the family. And the arrival of Julia’s childhood friend Marika – along with her charismatic husband Chris, the leader of a group of environmental activists that have given up hope for planet Earth and are returning to a primitive lifestyle – deepens the hairline cracks that had so far remained invisible.

Around these people, over the course of one summer, Philip Teir weaves a finely-tuned story about life choices and lies, about childhood and adulthood. How do we live if we know that the world is about to end?

The Librarian by Salley Vickers

A recent purchase after reading so many glowing reviews! 

A charmingly subversive novel about a library in 1950s England, by the acclaimed author of The Cleaner of Chartres

Sylvia Blackwell, a young woman in her twenties, moves to East Mole, a quaint market town in middle England, to start a new job as a children’s librarian. But the apparently pleasant town is not all it seems. Sylvia falls in love with an older man – but it’s her connection to his precocious young daughter and her neighbours’ son which will change her life and put them, the library and her job under threat.

How does the library alter the young children’s lives and how do the children fare as a result of the books Sylvia introduces them to?

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

Treated myself to a signed copy of this a couple of months’ ago and it is now on the Man Booker long list so that has bumped it up my TBR pile!

Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter. This is the story of Grace, Lia, and Sky kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them – three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake.

Hypnotic and compulsive, The Water Cure is a fever dream, a blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood, and transformation

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Add to that lot I need to fit in 9 more books to complete my #20booksofsummer challenge, which I had hoped would be made up from my overstocked NetGalley shelves – there may be some cheating going on and you might end up seeing some of these books added to my challenge!!

Do you set yourself TBR’s for the month ahead?! Does it help?! Would love to hear your thoughts – and if you’ve read any of these I’d love to know if they got your seal of approval!

HAPPY READING!!