Weekly Wrap Up (August 14)

Life in Jersey has continued apace over the last week with plenty of work, a mixture of weather and our very special Battle of Flowers which is like entering a bygone era and yet is an endearing event where we try to hold onto a tradition, that appears at best quaint. I have only once attended the daytime parade but have gone to the moonlight parade a few times which is finished off by a firework display but according to the BBC local news 13,000 people watched the floats decorated in flowers, the dancers, the bands and other similar attractions parade their splendour down the avenue this year.

Picture courtesy of Travel Jersey

Aside from that excitement, this time next week I will have seen my beautiful daughter get married and at the same time I will acquire the new moniker of mother-in-law #WatchingTheWeather so we are full pelt in the final preparations.

Last Week on the Blog

My week started with a review of a book featuring my ongoing obsession with poisoners, specifically historical ones, with Kate Colquhoun’s book about Florence Maybrick, Did She Kill Him?

On Tuesday my first paragraph post came from You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz which tells the story of Grace Sach’s a marriage counsellor who writes a book advising women to be aware of their instincts and not marry the wrong man. Just before publication her husband isn’t where he says he was and a whole chain of events is started.

Wednesday’s post, as usual featured the books I’m reading this week which included Lie In Wait by G.J. Minett

Thursday was a big day for me as Cleopatra Loves Books blog was three and I treated you all to another Book Spine Poetry effort!! Thank you all for the huge number of lovely comments which even included a poem, I was overwhelmed and if I haven’t replied yet, please don’t think I haven’t read the comment, tweet or Facebook message – I have, and I loved them all.

Friday saw me publish my review of the aforesaid Lie In Wait which I loved. The main protagonist really got under my skin and it’s one of those books that I haven’t quite got out of my head yet.

Stacking the Shelves

Somehow despite not having a moment to myself the books keep flowing in and this week I have added the following:

Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst, author of How I Lost You is out on 25 August 2016 and the synopsis sounds suitably intriguing for me to want to know more!

Blurb

If you don’t know who is walking through the door, how do you know if you should let them in?
Karen is meant to be the one who fixes problems.
It’s her job, as a psychiatrist – and it’s always been her role as a friend.
But Jessica is different. She should be the patient, the one that Karen helps.
But she knows things about Karen. Her friends, her personal life. Things no patient should know.
And Karen is starting to wonder if she should have let her in . . . NetGalley

I haven’t read anything by Val McDermid so her standalone novel Out of Bounds which is due to be published on 25 August 2016 caught my eye.

Blurb

‘There were a lot of things that ran in families, but murder wasn’t one of them . . .’
When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car, a routine DNA test could be the key to unlocking the mystery of a twenty-year-old murder inquiry. Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is an expert at solving the unsolvable. With each cold case closed, justice is served. So, finding the answer should be straightforward, but it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself.
Meanwhile, Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to another case, one that she has no business investigating. And as she pieces together decades-old evidence, Karen discovers the most dangerous kind of secrets. Secrets that someone is willing to kill for . . . NetGalley

and I have a copy of the hotly marketed My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood

Blurb

Kate Rafter is a high-flying war reporter. She’s the strong one. The one who escaped their father. Her sister Sally didn’t. Instead, she drinks.
But when their mother dies, Kate is forced to return to the old family home. And on her very first night she is woken by a terrifying scream. At first she tells herself it’s just a nightmare, a legacy of her time in Syria.
But then she hears it again.
What secret is lurking in her mother’s garden? And can Kate get to the truth…before someone gets to her NetGalley

TBR WATCH
Since my last post I have read 3 books, and gained 3 so the total is unsurprisingly exactly the same standing at 174 books!
85 physical books
68 e-books
21 books on NetGalley

What have you found to read this week?