Happy Saturday!! And the sunshine seems to have remembered how to stay out!! Yay! Making the most of it as I’m sure the rain clouds will return soon! Nice to see the butterflies about again too! And the sunshine seems to have made me read more!! Managed to finish 6 books this week, have added 1newbie to my Netgalley shelf and was lucky to win a book via Twitter/X! Here’s my look back!
Hello and Happy Saturday!! I am now another year older so please bare with me!! My reflexes are slower and I want to go to bed even earlier than before lol!! Had a lovely birthday, spent bookshopping and eating cake!! The perfect combination!!
So my bookhaul is looking ‘healthy’ this week, and I’ve managed to read 2 books off my TBR pile so that pace needs to pick up! 1 newbie has been added to my Netgalley shelf too! Here’s my look back! Click on the book titles for more info!
Hello! Happy Saturday! It’s bluebell time of year so I’m happy! Distracts me too from the fact that I’m going to be another year older in the coming week…. can I just be 21 again please?!
And on the book front this week it’s been a very slow one for me and I’m not sure why! Just 2 books finished and only 1 new addition on Netgalley! So here’s my very quick look back! Click on the book title for more info!
Hello! Happy Saturday and HAPPY EASTER!! May the easter bunny bring you lots of chocolate!!
On the book front it’s been another good week of reading! Managed to finish 4 books this week, received 1 book in the post for review and was tempted by 1 book at Netgalley! So a nice balance… for a change!! Here’s my look back! click on the book title for more info on each book!
Hello! Happy Saturday!! It’s feeling more springlike here, after a soggy start to the week, so I’m hoping the sunshine and warmth continues!!
And I’ve been in the reading mood this week, with 5 books finished, and only 1 newbie added to my netgalley shelf! Better control from me for a change!! Here’s my look back! click on the book title for more info on each book!
Hello! Happy Saturday!! Hope you’re doing what I’m doing and avoiding the real world and keeping in book world! It’s a much happier place to be!
And this week has been an ok reading week – 3 books finished, 1 new Netgalley addition and 3 books in the post for review! That TBR mountain is never going to stop growing is it?! Here’s my look back! click on the book title for more info….
Hello and Happy March to you all! The days are getting longer, the flowers are waking up in the garden…. and there’s chocolate galore in all the shops! All is good!!
And all is good when there are books around! Just the 3 finished this week but they were all great reads so you can’t ask for more! And just 3 new additions to my TBR mountain as well – 2 from Netgalley and 1 for reviewing ahead of the Dylan Thomas Prize coming up this month! Here’s my look back!
Hello! Happy Saturday!! What a week it’s been…. of rain!! So blooming miserable out there!! But the signs of Spring keep on appearing so I’m keeping all crossed that the blue skies soon follow!
On to reading, and my speed of reading has slowed a little so just managed to finish 3 books this week! My speed of acquiring books though has spiralled out of control, thanks to 4 newbies courtesy of Netgalley, and a bumper bookpost delivered today of 8 books for reviewing….. my postie hates me! Another big book declutter may now be required! Here’s my look back! Click on the headings for book blurbs!
Following the BATC 2024 Showcase event from Monday night… I received this lovely parcel of goodies this morning!
And then from the lovely team at Penguin, came this little bundle of books to tie in with a new release from Gabriel Garcia Marquez…. now I’ve never read any of his work (shame on me!) but that’s about to change it seems!
Hello and Happy Saturday!! Having a few computer issues at the moment so they’re ruining my calm!! Oh to be a tech wizard to fix it all yourself!
on to books – those I understand! – and it’s been a good reading week again with another 4 off the TBR pile! I also managed to stay away from Netgalley, and had 1 lovely book in the post for review! here’s my look back!
On the jagged Cork coast the Ballycotton lighthouse stands tall, protecting ships from its rocks. Four women are waiting there for their husbands to return from watch duty. Four women who swear never to reveal the truth about what happened while they were away. Decades later, Mollie, the granddaughter of one of those women, receives an anonymous letter. Family secrets never stay buried. Only Mollie’s grandmother is still alive of the four – and she’s not well enough to tell. But someone knows the truth and is threatening to reveal it all… Tracing a story of betrayal, friendship, loyalty and love, The Keepers’ Wives sweeps us into the heart of a small coastal community in the 1950s, a young girl desperate for a bigger life – and an event that comes back to haunt the descendants many years later.
Happy Saturday!! And there’s blossom beginning to bloom so we’re getting there!! Just wish the sunshine would return as the rain is blooming miserable!
On to happier things – books! And it’s been another good reading week with 5 books finished! 1 book caught my eye over at Netgalley and i’ve also received 2 lovely books in the post for review! Definitely need to keep up the reading pace to keep on top of things!! here’s my look back!
From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
And I also received some lovely BookPost too…
THE FURIES by ELIZABETH FLOCK
Three women. Three blazing stories of violent resistance. Three complicated paths to justice.
Brittany Smith, a young Alabama woman, killed a man she said raped her in her home, but was denied a self-defense claim.
Angoori Dahariya led a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse.
Cicek Mustafa Zibo fought in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria.
Each woman has been criticised for their actions by those who believe that violence is never the answer; yet each has transmuted a story of pain into a story of power.
In this intimate, shocking and rigorous investigation, award-winning journalist Elizabeth Flock examines the lives of three women who chose to use lethal force to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them – government, police, courts – utterly failed to do so. In luminous prose, Flock asks searching questions about cultures in which violence seems like the only means of survival, where deeply ingrained ideas about masculinity have helped breed the unsafe conditions that women face.
Can women’s acts of vengeance help to create lasting change in misogynistic and paternalistic systems, or will they ultimately hurt their cause? The novelistic accounts of these three women offer profound insights into the quest for understanding what a society where women have real power might look like.
THE LONG DELIRIOUS BURNING BLUE by SHARON BLACKIE
publication date – 11th April 2024
THE FIRST NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF WORD-OF-MOUTH BESTSELLER IF WOMEN ROSE ROOTED’You and me against the world, you used to sing. In the days before it became you and me against each other.’Cat Munro – who has never taken a day off in her working life – quits her corporate job and starts flying lessons in a small plane over the Arizona desert, confronting her fear not only of death, but of life. Her mother, Laura, moves back to the Scottish village where she spent the first years of her marriage to Cat’s abusive father. Though they are apart, the past connects mother and daughter, haunts them, binds them. From the excoriating heat of the Arizona desert to the misty flow of a Highland sea-loch, Sharon Blackie’s soaring first novel presents us with the transformative power of landscape, and of storytelling, in women’s lives. Above all, The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a story of courage, endurance and redemption.