My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 28th January 2023

Hello!! Happy Saturday!! We’ve almost made it to the end of January… will it ever end?!  I’m hoping the cold weather will come to an end but I have a fear February might keep us chilly for a while longer!

But that could be good for reading time!! And it’s been a good past week with 4 books finished! But then I may have been naughty and added 2 books to the Netgalley shelf and treated myself to 2 more books from the Waterstones sale….. it’s their fault!!

Here’s my look back!

BOOKS FINISHED

EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by HEATHER FAWCETT – 3.5 STARS

ASHES AND STONES by ALLYSON SHAW – 5 STARS

SLOW by BROOKE McALARY (audiobook) – 4 STARS

KATE AND CLARA’S CURIOUS CORNISH CRAFT SHOP by ALI McNAMARA – 3.5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

We shall start at Netgalley…

VITA AND THE BIRDS by POLLY CROSBY 

publication date – July 2023

A haunting mystery for fans of Eve Chase, Kate Morton and Kate Mosse.
1938: Lady Vita Goldsborough lives in the shadow of her controlling older brother, Aubrey. Trapped and isolated on the East Anglian coast, Vita takes solace in watching the birds that fly over the marshes. But then she meets local artist Dodie Blakeney. The two women form a close bond, and Vita finally glimpses a chance to escape Aubrey’s grasp and be as free as the birds she loves.

1997: Decades later and in the wake of her mother’s death, Eve Blakeney returns to the coast where she spent childhood summers with her beloved grandmother, Dodie. Eve hopes the visit will help make sense of her grief. The last thing she expects to find is a bundle of letters that hint at the heart-breaking story of Dodie’s relationship with a woman named Vita.

Eve and Vita’s stories are linked by a shattering secret that echoes through the decades, and when Eve discovers the truth, it will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family – and change her life forever.

THE FURY OF KINGS by  R.S.MOULE

publication date May 2023

No Cover Available… yet!!

In the shadow of Eryispek—a mountain said to have no summit—a dark power is stirring. Storms rage in the frozen heights. Unexplained disappearances shake the kingdom below. And old enemies are sharpening their swords…

Andrick the Barrelbreaker first led an army at sixteen.

His victories secured the throne of Erland for his brother and shattered the rebellious noble houses in the West. Decades later, a fragile peace still holds.

But when the king’s only son is murdered, Erland is plunged into crisis. The new heir will stop at nothing to secure his claim. The king, maddened by grief, stalks the halls and hidden passages of his keep, growing more unpredictable by the day.

As war and magical disaster loom, Andrick must decide between protecting his family and marching out to serve a brother he barely recognizes.

His children must also choose their destinies.

Training in the practice yard every day, Orsian dreams of fighting beside his father. Now, for the first time, he faces the brutal reality of battle.

And Pherri is haunted by very different dreams—of figures struggling up the mountain, of a voice more chilling than the wind, of blood on the snow. Only she can resist the darkness that waits on the slopes above…

Race through the pages of an epic new series and enter a world of intrigue, battles and destiny that will leave you breathless. The Erland Saga is a classic fantasy adventure, perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin, John Gwynne and Raymond E. Feist.

And then Waterstones led me astray… again!!

ANTHEM by NOAH HAWLEY (signed copy)

From the visionary bestselling author of Before the Fall and The Good Father, an epic literary thriller set where America is right now . . . and the world will be tomorrow.

America spins into chaos as the last remnants of political consensus break apart. Against a background of environmental disaster and opioid addiction, debate descends into violence and militias roam the streets – while teenagers across the world seem driven to self-destruction, communicating by memes only they can understand.

Yet the markets still tick up and the super-rich, like Ty Oliver, fly above the flames in private jets.

After the death of his daughter, Ty dispatches his son Simon to an Anxiety Abatement Center. There he encounters another boy called the Prophet. And the Prophet wants him to join a quest.

Before long, Simon is on the road with a crew of new comrades on a rescue mission as urgent as it is enigmatic. Suddenly heroes of their own story, they are crossing the country in search of a young woman held in a billionaire’s retreat – and, just possibly, the only hope of escape from the apocalypse bequeathed to them by their parents’ generation.

Noah Hawley’s epic literary thriller, full of unforgettably vivid characters, finds unquenchable lights in the darkest corners. Uncannily topical and yet as timeless as a Grimm’s fairy tale, this is a novel of excoriating power, raw emotion and narrative verve, confirming Hawley as one of the most essential writers of our time.

AMY & LAN by SADIE JONES

This is the story of how we came to Frith. And we’re never, ever, ever leaving.’

Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood, growing up on a West Country farm – three families, a couple of lodgers, goats, dogs and an orphaned calf called Gabriella Christmas.

The parents are best friends too. Originally from the city, they’re learning about farming: growing their own vegetables, milking the goats, slaughtering chickens and scything the hay–

‘Mind your eyes! Don’t break your neck! Careful!’

The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on Amy and Lan, and Amy and Lan would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to – adult things, like betrayal – that threaten to bring the whole fragile idyll tumbling down…

And then there is this months’ book from Goldsboro Books.. and it looks beautiful!

THE THINGS WE DO TO OUR FRIENDS by HEATHER DARWENT

She’s an outsider desperate to belong, but the cost of entry might be her darkest secret in this intoxicating debut of literary suspense following a clique of dangerously ambitious students at the University of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh, Scotland: a moody city of labyrinthine alleyways, oppressive fog, and buried history; the ultimate destination for someone with something to hide. Perfect for Clare, then, who arrives utterly alone and yearning to reinvent herself. And what better place to conceal the dark secrets in her past than at the university in the heart of the fabled, cobblestoned Old Town?

When Clare meets Tabitha, a charismatic, beautiful, and intimidatingly rich girl from her art history class, she knows she’s destined to be friends with her and her exclusive circle: raffish Samuel; shrewd Ava; and pragmatic Imogen. Clare is immediately drawn into their libertine world of sophisticated dinner parties and summers in France. The new life she always envisioned for herself has seemingly begun.

And then Tabitha reveals a little project she’s been working on, one that she needs Clare’s help with. Even though it goes against everything Clare has tried to repent for. Even though their intimacy begins to darken into codependence. But as Clare starts to realize just what her friends are capable of, it’s already too late. Because they’ve taken the plunge. They’re so close to attaining the things they want. And there’s no going back.

What is the cost of an extraordinary life if others have to pay? Reimagining the classic themes of obsession and striving with an original and sinister edge, The Things We Do to Our Friends is a seductive thriller about the toxic battle between those who have, and those who covet–between the desire to truly belong, and the danger of being truly known.

CURRENTLY READING

A MARRIAGE OF FORTUNE by ANNE O’BRIEN

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 20th January 2023

Hello! Happy Saturday!!  Been a rather chilly week here, lots of frosty days but beautiful sunshine! And no snow for us! We missed out on the fun again! AT least it beats the grey, rainy weather!

And on the book front it’s been a very good week!! Managed to finish 6 books this week which pleased me greatly!!  Just 1 new addition to the Netgalley shelves too, along with 1 physical book for review!

Here’s my look back!

BOOKS FINISHED

ONCE UPON A TOME by OLIVER DARKSHIRE – 4 STARS

HORTUS CURIOUS by MICHAEL PERRY – 4 STARS

RECIPE FOR MR PERFECT by ANNI ROSE -5 STARS

THE TOLL HOUSE by CARLY REAGON – 4 STARS

THE DARLINGS OF THE ASYLUM by NOEL O’REILLY – 4 STARS

NEW BEGINNING FOR THE SURPLUS GIRLS by POLLY HERON – 5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

One temptation at Netgalley this week….

HOMECOMING by KATE MORTON

publication date – April 2023

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tumbeela becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Stella, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

Stella has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young beyond her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused; it’s even more alarming to hear from Stella’s housekeeper that Stella had been distracted in the weeks before her accident, and that she fell on the steps to the attic – the one place Jess was forbidden from playing when she was small.

At a loose end in Stella’s house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Stella’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find . . .

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.

And in the post I was very thankful to receive this book for review…

1989 by VAL McDERMAID

publication date – February 2nd 2023

It’s 1989 and Allie Burns is back.Older and maybe wiser, she’s running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media.But there’s plenty to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service to the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction.The world of newspapers is undergoing a revolution, there’s skulduggery in the medical research labs and there are seismic rumblings behind the Iron Curtain. When kidnap and murder are added to this potent mix, Allie is forced to question all her old certainties.

CURRENTLY READING

EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by HEATHER FAWCETT

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 14th January 2023

 Hello! Happy Saturday!!  Another mostly wet and blustery week here…. I really hope some better weather is on the way! I have a very soggy garden!!

But the crappy weather has meant it’s been another steady week on the book front! 4 books finished, 1 newbie to read on Netgalley, and 1 from a publisher!  Let’s hope this keeps up!!

Here’s my look back!

BOOKS FINISHED

THE IT GIRL by RUTH WARE (audiobook) – 4 STARS

WINTER FLOWERS by ANGELIQUE VILLENEUVE – 5 STARS

THE ENGLISH FUHRER by RORY CLEMENTS – 5 STARS

DAISY’S VINTAGE CORNISH CAMPER VAN by ALI MCNAMARA – 4 STARS

BOOKHAUL

I was invited to read this one via Netgalley… so it’s not my fault! 😉

THE LADY OF THE LOCH  by ELENA COLLINS

publication date – February 2023

‘Although I believe I will die here in this castle, my spirit will never be silent.’

Ravenscraig Castle, Scotland. 1307

When the castle she works in is sacked by the army of Prince Edward of England, kitchen maid Agnes Fitzgerald manages to escape north of Inverness to throw herself at the mercy of the Lord and Lady at Ravenscraig Castle. Although safe for now, the people of Scotland are fighting hard for their independence, and the threat of the English hangs heavy over the land.  But when Agnes spies Cam Buchanan swimming in the loch, her mind turns away from war and towards love.  Agnes even dares to dream of a happy future, until she learns that Cam must go and fight alongside Robert de Brus.

Present day

Twins Leah and Zoe need a change, so caretaking at Ravenscraig Castle is the perfect opportunity to get away from it all. Surrounded by rugged Highland countryside, and bordered by a loch, the picturesque setting is everything they dreamed of. But the locals are reluctant to visit Ravenscraig, and there are whispers of ghosts and lost souls. The sisters quickly dismiss such superstition, but soon the overwhelming sadness they feel coming from the tower grows too hard to ignore.

Can the sisters finally right the wrongs of seven hundred years of heartbreak, seven hundred years of betrayal…

And I received this from Gallic Press for review…

BIRTHRIGHT by CHARLES LAMBERT
publication date – March 2023

A sublime psychological thriller from Polari Prize-shortlisted Charles Lambert.

Sixteen-year-old Fiona inhabits a privileged world of English affluence, though her relationship with her widowed mother is strained. When she discovers an old newspaper clipping of a woman and her daughter – the little girl a mirror image of her own younger self – she becomes convinced she has a true family elsewhere. Four years later, with the help of charming fraudster Patrick, Fiona drops everything to seek out her doppelgänger in Italy.

Fiona arrives in Rome to find Maddy living hand to mouth with her alcoholic mother. Spooked by the appearance of this strange girl wearing her face and stalking her every move, Maddy wants nothing to do with her. Caught in a surreal push-and-pull, the two are both fascinated and repulsed by the oddly familiar other, each coveting a different life. But they aren’t the only ones trying to control their fate, and the two women will soon learn that people aren’t always what they seem – though blood may still prove thicker than water.

Birthright is a dark, gripping literary thriller for fans of Ian McEwan, Rupert Thomson and Edward St Aubyn

CURRENTLY READING

LAPVONA by OTTESSA MOSHFEGH (audiobook)

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – Xmas Eve 2022

Hello! Merry Christmas Eve!!  Hope you’ve got the treats out ready for Santa when he drops off all your bookish gifts in the morning!! I have!!  Just hope he got my list!!

And talking of books, it’s been a good bookish week as I’ve been trying to catch up on some unfinished books to clear the backlog!  So 6 books got finished this week, 4 new books arrived in the post – so it’s all go on the book front! Isn’t it always?!  But 0 on the Netgalley front so that’s good!

Here’s my look back…

BOOKS FINISHED

THE GREAT CHRISTMAS COOK OFF by HELEN BUCKLEY – 5 STARS

RECIPE FOR MR PERFECT by ANNI ROSE -5 STARS

CAPTURED BY A SCOTTISH LORD by MARIE LAVAL – 5 STARS

RECIPE FOR MR SUPER by ANNI ROSE – 5 STARS

A LITTLE CHRISTMAS PANTO by ANGELA BRITNELL – 5 STARS

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE by JACKIE LADBURY – 5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Had a little spend up at Galley Beggar Press and got a lovely Tote bag as a free extra! Ooh I do love a Tote!

INSIGNIFICANCE by JAMES CLAMMER

JOSEPH is trying to focus on a plumbing job he is doing for his wife’s friend, but is distracted by the terrible things that have been happening within his family.

Joseph believes that his son has tried to kill his wife.

Joseph is afraid his son will try again.

Joseph is also terrified that his wife is going to leave him. And that he himself may not get through the day.

Insignificance, James Clammer’s first novel for adults, unfurls over the course of a single day. Placing the reader right inside the head of its struggling narrator, it works double time, both as an act of empathy – a taste of the uncertainty and awkwardness of one vulnerable man, and his relationship with the world – and also as a tense, emotional and gripping drama.

Exploring the burdens of mental health as well as family life, as well as a particular illness called Capgras Syndrome (a condition in which someone comes to believe that a person close to them has been replaced by an imposter) – Insignificance is a deeply human story, a novel that portrays the thoughts of one working man on his own terms, without artifice or condescension… and a novel that takes us ever closer to the edge.

AFTER SAPPHO by SELBY WYNN SCHWARTZ

“What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.”

IT’S 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her – and who she has also been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name; and her life, alongside it.

1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted… But she is sure she can sell a painting – and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.

… In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller – and fuller.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho is Selby Wynn Schwartz’s joyous reimagining of the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th century as they battle for control over their lives; for liberation and for justice.

Sarah Bernhard – Colette – Eleanora Duse – Lina Poletti – Josephine Baker – Virginia Woolf… these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic; furious and funny; in After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz has created a novel that celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past – and also offers hope for our present, and our futures.

ENGLISH MAGIC by USCHI  GATWARD

English Magic moves through fields and parklands, urban estates and empty beaches, upmarket art galleries, scuffed corner shops. It lands at Heathrow Airport, takes a taxi to the suburbs, finds emptiness and oppression. It strikes out for the countryside on May Day to where there are maypoles and fire blazing haybales, and where blessings sound like threats. It takes a train to the sea. The rain powers down. The beach is damp. Balloons pop. It in a flat, drags itself out of half sleep… and there something tapping behind the gas fire. Scraping and flurrying. What is it? In her debut collection of short stories, the prize winning author Uschi Gatward takes us on a tour of an England simultaneously domestic and wild, familiar and strange, real and imagined. Coupling the past and the present, merging the surreal and the mundane, English Magic is a collection full of humour and warmth, subversion and intoxication a and announcing the arrival of a shining new talent.

THE PERCEPTION OF DOLLS by ANTHONY CROIX

And from Fahrenheit Press Book Subscription is this newbie

“It’s almost as if history is trying to erase the whole affair.” – Anthony Croix

The triple murder and failed suicide that took place at 37 Fantoccini Street in 2001, raised little media interest at the time. In a week heavy with global news, a ‘domestic tragedy’ warranted few column inches. The case was open and shut, the inquest was brief and the ‘Doll Murders’ – little more than a footnote in the ledgers of Britain’s true crime enthusiasts – were largely forgotten.

Nevertheless, investigations were made, police files generated, testimonies recorded, and conclusions reached. The reports are there, a matter of public record, for those with a mind to look.

The details of what took place in Fantoccini Street in the years that followed are less accessible. The people involved in the field trips to number 37 are often unwilling, or unable, to talk about what they witnessed. The hours of audio recordings, video tapes, written accounts, photographs, drawings, and even online postings are elusive, almost furtive.

In fact, were it not for a chance encounter between the late Anthony Croix and an obsessive collector of Gothic dolls, the Fantoccini Street Reports might well have been lost forever.

CURRENTLY READING

WRONG SORT OF GIRL by HELEN BRIDGETT

HAPPY CHRISTMAS READING!!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 17th December 2022

Hello! Happy Saturday!! It’s been the week we had some snow! And it’s been blooming freezing!!  Hopefully warmer days are on the way now!!

On the book front it’s been fairly steady!  Just 2 books finished – I need to pick the pace up again! – and 4 newbies added to the Netgalley shelves! Maybe 2023 is the year I get to clear my NG shelves… yeah right!!

Here’s my look back!

BOOKS FINISHED

HOPE, MISTLETOE AND A CHRISTMAS PROMISE by JULIET ARCHER – 5 STARS

THE VIRAGO BOOK OF WITCHES by SHAHRUKH HUSAIN – 4 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Too many lovely books on Netgalley for me to add this week!

A MARRIAGE OF FORTUNE by ANNE O’BRIEN 

publication date – January 2023

England, 1469. As the War of the Roses rages on, Margaret Paston knows that there is only one way to survive the loss of the Paston’s family seat, Caister Castle: a fortunate marriage for one of her unruly daughters. A favourable match will change the future of her family overnight but a scandal will ruin the Paston name forever…

INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE by EMMA TORZS

publication date  – July 2023

Joanna Kalotay lives alone in the woods of Vermont, the sole protector of a collection of rare books; books that will allow someone to walk through walls or turn water into wine. Books of magic.

Her estranged older sister Esther moves between countries and jobs, constantly changing, never staying anywhere longer than a year, desperate to avoid the deadly magic that killed her mother. Currently working on a research base in Antarctica, she has found love and perhaps a sort of happiness.

But when she finds spots of blood on the mirrors in the research base, she knows someone is coming for her, and that Joanna and her collection are in danger.

If they are to survive, she and Joanna must unravel the secrets their parents kept hidden from them – secrets that span centuries and continents, and could cost them their lives

THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX by HOLLY SMALE

publication date – May 2023

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit.She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn’t (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order. Until now.She’s just been dumped.
She’s just been fired.
Her local café has run out of banana muffins.Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past.Now, Cassie should be able to find a way to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. And with time on her side, how hard can it be…?

IN A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS by CECILIA AHERN

publication date – April 2023

Alice sees the worst in people.

She also sees the best.
She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling.
Every. Single. Day.

But it’s the dark thoughts.
The sadness. The rage.
These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her.

Where will the journey to find herself begin?

CURRENTLY READING

                           THE GREAT CHRISTMAS COOK OFF by HELEN BUCKLEY

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 10th December 2022

Hello! Happy Saturday!! Boy it’s chilly!! Finally we get blue skies and frosty gardens!! no snow… yet!!

And the cold seems to have slowed down my reading speed! Only 2 books finished this week and a slight lack of apathy about what to pick up next to read!  There has been 1 new addition to my Netgalley shelves, and also a couple of real books thanks to book subscriptions I have!  

Here’s my look back.

BOOKS FINISHED

THE SUMMER OF SERENDIPITY by ALI MCNAMARA – 4 STARS

BAD BLOOD by SADIE RYAN – 5 STARS

BOOKHAUL

To Netgalley we go…..

A SCOTTISH COUNTRY ESCAPE by JULIE SHACKMAN

publication date – March 2023

Determined to overcome a family tragedy, Elle Cassidy decides to reopen her late mother’s ailing newsagent as a stationery shop in the quiet Scottish town of Fir Haven.

But when the arrogant yet handsome crime writer Dexter Grayling almost runs over Elle in his beast of a sports car, the town is thrown into a tailspin – especially when Dexter claims that local resident Linda Carlucci has put a curse on him and he is no longer able to write.

Can Elle put aside her dislike for the self-absorbed writer and help Dexter uncover what is really going on with the Carlucci family? And in the process will Elle realise that there’s a lot more to her beloved Fir Haven than she first thought…

And on the Subscription Book front I have these….

HISTORY.A MESS by SIGRUN PALSDOTTIR

Peirene Press

publication date – 2023

A young PhD student has spent six long months transcribing the diary of the seventeenth-century artist ‘S.B.’. Then, hidden between mundane descriptions of the artists’ daily routine, she makes a profound discovery: a single passage revealing that S.B. is a woman. Believing she has identified the first professional female artist in Britain, she maps out her entire thesis, right down to the dedication. Fizzing with ideas she sees her career, and her life, blossoming in front of her. However, she has made a simple mistake – one that she won’t acknowledge until it’s far too late to turn back. As she goes to ever greater lengths to protect her work from the truth, she begins to lose her grip on her thesis, her life and then her sanity. What follows is a remarkable exploration of intellectual integrity and denial, and a poignant, funny portrait of academic ambition.

And from Renard Press..

INSIDE THE WHALE by GEORGE ORWELL

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership.

Inside the Whale, the eighth in the Orwell’s Essays series, discusses Henry Miller’s controversial Tropic of Cancer, and considers the driving power behind the great books of the 1930s. Comparing Miller with other literary giants, Orwell lambasts the notion that all literature is good, forcing the reader to think for themselves, with his final words ringing in their ears: ‘five thousand novels are published in England every year and four thousand nine hundred of them are tripe.’

ON READING by GEORGE ORWELL

George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership.

On Reading, the seventh in the Orwell’s Essays series, collects together Orwell’s short essays on books – ‘Bookshop Memories’, ‘Good Bad Books’, ‘Nonsense Poetry’, ‘Books vs. Cigarettes’ and ‘Confessions of a Book Reviewer’ – giving a rounded view of the great writer’s opinions on the literature of his day, and the vessels in which it was sold.

CURRENTLY READING

A MIRACLE ON HOPE STREET by EMMA HEATHERINGTON

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 3rd December 2022

Hello and Happy December!! The shops are full on festive now, the radio stations are full of Christmas songs – I bailed out of Whamageddon 2022 on Day 1 thanks to a cafe I was visiting playing Last Christmas as I walked in 😢 – and I still can’t get in the festive mood!!  But I do have advent calendars so that’s a positive!!

On to books – and it’s been another successful week with 5 books finished! And only 1 new Netgalley addition so yay me!!

Here’s my look back

BOOKS FINISHED

NORWAY by CLAUDIA MARTIN – 5 STARS

JAPAN by MELANIE CLEGG – 5 STARS

CUDDY by BENJAMIN MYERS – 4 STARS

CLARA’S CHRISTMAS MAGIC by ROSIE GREEN – 5 STARS

THE BOOKSHOP OF SECOND CHANCES by JACKIE FRASER – 4 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Just one over at Netgalley this week….

THE MINISCULE MANSION OF MYRA MALONE by AUDREY BURGES

publication date  – January 2023

A woman learns to expand the boundaries of her small world and let love inside it in this sparkling and unforgettable novel by Audrey Burges.

From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.

Across the country, Alex Rakes, the scion of a custom furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room. The pair show him the Minuscule Mansion, and Alex is shocked to recognize a reflection of his own life mirrored back to him in minute scale. The room is his own bedroom, and the Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds—big and small—and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.

CURRENTLY READING

THE SUMMER OF SERENDIPITY by ALI McNAMARA

HAPPY READING!!

BINGO!!! #NetgalleyNovember 2022 @NeverEndingNG

So we have made it to the end of November and I’m very happy to report I can now shout  – BINGO!!! I made it!! Completed my Netgalley board for November thanks to the wonderful challenge set up by NeverEndingNetgalley over on Twitter! It’s set up to help you get your NG shelves under control a little and I need lots of help on that front! And this past month has helped…. if only I could stop then adding new titles to the shelves! Whoops!!

So here’s my look back at the titles I got to read!! Click on the title for a link to my reviews…

NEWEST APPROVAL

THE GOLDEN MOLE by KATHERINE RUNDELL – 5 STARS

MOST ANTICIPATED 

THE WHISPERING MUSE by LAURA PURCELL – 5 STARS

TITLE BEGINNING WITH N

NOW SHE IS WITCH by KIRSTY LOGAN – 4 STARS

PUBLISHED THIS YEAR

ISAAC AND THE EGG by BOBBY PALMER – 4 STARS

BUDDY  CUDDY READ

CUDDY by BENJAMIN MYERS – 4 STARS

ONE YOU’VE BEEN PUTTING OFF

THE WINTER GUEST by W.C.RYAN – 4 STARS

NEW TO YOU AUTHOR

THE SLOW LANE WALKERS CLUB by ROSA TEMPLE – 4 STARS

GREEN COVER

THE GREEN MAN OF ESHWOOD HALL by JACOB KERR – 3 STARS

OLDEST APPROVAL

WHO DO YOU LOVE by JENNIFER WEINER – 3 STARS

So there we have it! Always happy to complete a challenge and it does feel good to clear some older titles off my Netgalley shelves, so now I need to keep being good and keep that up!!! Wish me luck haha!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 19th November 2022

Hello and Happy Saturday! It’s been a foggy, wet and windy week here so I’m missing those sunny days of Summer!

And the miserable weather seems to have affected my reading mo-jo!   I’ve hit a reading slump and that is not good as the books keep piling up LOL!! So just 1 book  finished this week and that was an audiobook!  But did that stop me visiting Netgalley!? Of course not!! 4 new additions to the shelves there  – oops!!

Here’s my round up!

BOOK FINISHED

DRIFT by CARYL LEWIS (audiobook) – 4 STARS

BOOK HAUL

Netgalley… evilness!!

THE ENGLISH FUHRER by RORY CLEMENTS

publication date – JANUARY 2023

Autumn 1945 – Off the east coast of England, a Japanese sub surfaces, unloads its mysterious cargo, then blows itself to pieces.

Former spy Professor Tom Wilde is enjoying peacetime in Cambridge, settling back into teaching and family life. Until a call from senior MI5 boss Lord Templeman brings him out of retirement.

A nearby village has been locked down by the military, its residents blighted by a deadly illness. No one is allowed in or out.

There are rumours the Nazi machine is still operational, with links to Unit 731, a notorious Japanese biological warfare research laboratory. But how could they possibly be plotting on British soil – and why?

What’s more, Wilde and Templeman’s names are discovered on a Gestapo kill list. And after a series of assassinations an unthinkable question emerges: could an Englishman be behind the plot?

OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY by C.E.MCGILL

publication date – MAY 2023

A gothic adventure story, a classic tale with a feminist twist, a story of ambition and obsession, forbidden love and sabotage…

‘It is not the monster you have to fear, but the monster it makes of men.’

Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn’t know why or how. She and her husband are trying to make a name for themselves as paleontologists but, in 1850s’ London, scientific success requires wealth and connections – neither of which they possess. But then Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the truth behind her great-uncle’s past, of his attempts to create a living being and the creature that ultimately killed him. Perhaps this idea will prove to be their salvation… Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland and to a game of cat and mouse with a rival who is out to steal their secret.

Our Hideous Progeny is a sumptuous tale of ambition and obsession, of forbidden love and sabotage; an adventure story that blends classic, immersive storytelling with contemporary themes.

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW by HANNA  JAMESON

publication date – February 2023

At a New York City wedding, on a sweltering summer night, four people are trying to be happy.

Yun has everything he ever wanted, but somehow it’s never enough.
Emory is finally making her mark, but feels the shame more than the success.
Andrew is trying to be honest, but has lied to himself his whole life.
Fin can’t resist falling in love, but can’t help wrecking it all either.

And then the world begins to end. The four of them watch as one of the wedding guests sits down and refuses to get back up. Soon it’s happening across the world. Is it a choice or an illness?

Because how can anyone be happy in a world where the only choice is to feel everything – or nothing at all?

An intensely compulsive novel for anyone who has ever felt hopeful and helpless in one breath, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW is about how you keep living when the world is on fire. Perfect for fans of Emily John St. Mandel’s Station Eleven, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Patricia Lockwood’s Nobody is Talking About This and Naomi Alderman’s The Power.

THE WITCH AND THE TSAR by OLEYSA SALNIKOVA  GILMORE

In this stunning debut novel, the maligned and immortal witch of legend known as Baba Yaga will risk all to save her country and her people from Tsar Ivan the Terrible—and the dangerous gods who seek to drive the twisted hearts of men.

As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumors about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar, and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s. Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves.

As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan—soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore weaves a rich tapestry of mythology and Russian history, reclaiming and reinventing the infamous Baba Yaga, and bringing to life a vibrant and tumultuous Russia, where old gods and new tyrants vie for power. This fierce and compelling novel draws from the timeless lore to create a heroine for the modern day, fighting to save her country and those she loves from oppression while also finding her true purpose as a goddess, a witch, and a woman.

CURRENTLY READING

ISAAC AND THE EGG by BOBBY PALMER

HAPPY READING!!

My Bookish Weekly Wrap Up – 12th November 2022

Hello and Happy Saturday!! We’re running out of them fast for 2022 eh! Christmas is everywhere you look now… and I’ve started making a list of books I want to buy with any gift vouchers I may get from Santa this year haha!!

And on to books…. It’s been an okayish week for books although looking at my GoodReads target I seem to be way behind other years numbers and I don’t know why!!  I managed to finish 4 books this past week, got 2 newbies from Netgalley and got some lovely bookpost too!! Here’s my look back!

BOOKS FINISHED

THAILAND by NARISA CHAKRABONGSE – 5 STARS

DEVILS AND SAINTS by JEAN-BAPTISTE ANDREA – 4 STARS

HIDDEN PLACES by CLAUDIA MARTIN – 5 STARS

THE SLOW LANE WALKERS CLUB by ROSA TEMPLE – 4 STARS

BOOKHAUL

Just a couple to tempt me at Netgalley this week….

THE GOLDEN OLDIES BOOK CLUB by JUDY LEIGH

publication date – December 2022

Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.

THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE by ROSHANI CHOKSI

publication – February 2023

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

And in the post…..

a lovely Christmas card and book from @Sara-Jade and the Team BATC crew

Set in a charming little Scottish town, The Bookshop of Second Chances is an uplifting story of fresh starts and new beginnings by a hugely talented debut author.
 
Thea’s having a bad month. Not only has she been made redundant, she’s also discovered her husband of nearly twenty years is sleeping with one of her friends. And he’s not sorry – he’s leaving.
 
Bewildered and lost, Thea doesn’t know what to do. But, when she learns the great-uncle she barely knew has died and left her his huge collection of second-hand books and a house in the Scottish Lowlands, she seems to have been offered a second chance.
 
Running away to a little town where no one knows her seems like exactly what Thea needs. But when she meets the aristocratic Maltravers brothers – grumpy bookshop owner Edward and his estranged brother Charles, Lord Hollinshaw – her new life quickly becomes just as complicated as the life she was running from…
 
An enchanting story of Scottish lords, second-hand books, new beginnings and second chances perfect for fans of Cressida McLaughlin, Veronica Henry, Rachel Lucas and Jenny Colgan.

And these 2 lovelies from the Fahrenheit Press subscription…

CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME by ROB GITTINS

Morrissey Jarrett is fresh out of prison and back on the streets of his hometown Cardiff.

During his enforced absence the city has been re-developed to within an inch of its life and a disoriented Morrissey falls back into old habits as he scams, schemes, and steals whatever he needs to survive.

Morrissey has big dreams though. Dreams of making one last huge score, dreams of leaving his life of crime behind, dreams of reuniting with the love of his life and dreams of walking off into the sunset with her. Happy. Ever. After.

All he needs is a plan.

Luckily, the circles Morrissey frequents provide ample opportunities for ill-gotten gains and soon the perfect job literally falls into his hands.

And so, along with a hastily assembled crew of misfits, Morrissey embarks on planning the perfect heist. With all their eyes fixed steadily on a payday that could change their stars forever –  all they have to do is keep their heads down, play it cool, and follow the plan to the letter. 

What could possibly go wrong?

FIRST DEAD BODY by TONY R.COX

For cub-reporter Simon Jardine the sight of his first dead body marks the beginning of his working partnership with the hardened, hard-drinking, hard-grilling crime hack Dave Green.

At the scene of the crime Green realises he knows the victim and instinctively feels that something doesn’t quite add up.

Aided by private investigator Tom Freeman, Green and Jardine set out to find out what really happened, but as their investigation probes deeper they find themselves drawn into a murky world of criminality and corruption that reaches right into the very heart of the establishment.

Can they uncover the truth about why a young man with a bright future was found lying dead in an alleyway and still manage to keep themselves out of harm’s way?

CURRENTLY READING

THE WINTER GUEST by W.C.RYAN

HAPPY READING!!