Weekly Wrap Up (November 13)

An exciting week here in Jersey – I got a new bookshelf, one that I had been campaigning for over a period of months – there were books piled up all over the place, but I hadn’t got (quite) as far as under the duvet as one friend suggested, although it was a close call!

So I introduce the new 5 shelf bookcase

This of course meant that the other three needed rearranging and so as not to feel left out here are two of them. So now I have many more of my TBR books on display so I can’t forget about them and there are a few spaces… not many, but a few!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also completed my Goodreads Challenge for 2016 having read and reviewed 130 books!
 

This Week on the Blog

Well disaster was nearly averted as I managed to get my dates wrong not only on the weekly posts but also schedule them for the wrong days – so for any of you who were confused, I’m sorry – it won’t happen again!

Following my TBR Book Tag of last week, Ian Hobbs of the Devon Book Club @BookDevon wrote his answers to the tag, but not having a blog asked me to post them on his behalf – his TBR isn’t quite as out of control as mine but I generously agreed, although I did give him the wrong name until he pointed it out – sorry Ian, I should have checked everything else at this point!

My review of The Museum of You by Carys Bray went up, I gave this five stars, a beautiful and yet not a saccharine read about a girl who creates a museum inspired display about her mother who she has never known.

My weekly post on Tuesday (which had the wrong date) was an excerpt from Another Day Gone by Eliza Graham, a book that starts with a bomb (literally) in Coventry in 1939 and combines this with a story following the terrorist attacks in London in 2005. My review will follow soon!

On Wednesday my This Week in Books post which went out on Tuesday only to be taken down and reposted on Wednesday featured amongst others my upcoming read of In Her Wake by Amanda Jennings.

My review of Manipulated Lives by H.A. Leuschel, a collection of five novellas all with a manipulator at their heart was published on Thursday. This selection featured a wide range of characters and situations for the manipulator to operate in.

On Friday I published my review of While You Were Sleeping, the latest psychological thriller from Kathryn Croft which starts with a woman in bed with a dead man, who is not her husband – she has no idea what happened!

Yesterday my fourth review of the week was for Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, a book that is already sparking fierce debate before it is published. I really loved the comments I got for this review – if the book hadn’t given me enough to think about already, these did.

A Side Note

Now in addition to the scheduling issues over the last couple of weeks I’ve also started recalibrating my rating system. I’ve always gone with gut feel on finishing a book and chosen the number of stars that way, hoping that the words would guide the reader. However on reflection a wide range of books in terms of enjoyment, ended up in my four star pile, it was time for a change. I’ve always stated that my blog is for other readers and I felt I was perhaps tending towards the every book is excellent in terms of rating even if not in the content of the of reviews.

So from here on in I will be tougher – not meaner, but perhaps a little more discerning. As always I welcome your thoughts!

This Time Last Year…

I was reading The Silent Dead by Claire McGowan one of the strong writers that has her crimes set in Ireland, this book concentrates on Missing People on both sides of the border, a book that I felt skilfully portrayed the reality of a community torn apart by violence in this book that poses a big moral question. See my review here

Blurb

Victim: Male. Mid-thirties. 5’7″.

Cause of death: Hanging. Initial impression – murder.

ID: Mickey Doyle. Suspected terrorist and member of the Mayday Five.

The officers at the crime scene know exactly who the victim is.

Doyle was one of five suspected bombers who caused the deaths of sixteen people.

The remaining four are also missing and when a second body is found, decapitated, it’s clear they are being killed by the same methods their victims suffered.

Forensic psychologist Paula Maguire is assigned the case but she is up against the clock – both personally and professionally.

With moral boundaries blurred between victim and perpetrator, will be Paula be able to find those responsible? After all, even killers deserve justice, don’t they? Goodreads

Stacking the Shelves

A truly tiny stack this week of just one book! Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you I am (a little bit) determined to drive the TBR in the downward direction…

You know me, I simply can’t resist the hyped psychological thrillers, I loved Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train and The Widow and so when I heard about the new name for 2017, of course I had to read it – so I have a copy of Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough which will be published on 26 January 2017.

Blurb

Love at first sight can be blinding…

It’s said that the only people who really know what goes on in a marriage are the couple themselves. But what if even they don’t know the truth?

David and Adele seem like the ideal pair. He’s a successful psychiatrist, she is his picture-perfect wife who adores him. But why is he so controlling? And why is she keeping things hidden?

Louise, David’s new secretary, is intrigued and drawn into their orbit. But as Louise gets closer to each of them, instead of finding answers she uncovers more puzzling questions. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise can’t guess how wrong – and how far a person might go to protect a marriage’s secrets. Goodreads

In a bid to reduce the TBR I was invited by Guy Savage of His Futile Preoccupations who had read of its woeful state although it is fair to say that some of the books only are on the TBR because of his fabulous reviews!

Guy has invited you to join the Goodreads group “Mount TBR 2017″.
Guy says, ” Just in case you’re interested”
To accept the invitation, please follow the link

So I’ve signed up to the Mount Vancouver which means I have to read 36 books that are on my bookshelf on 1 January 2017 by 31 December 2017. So of course instead of reading I have been transferring books from the trusty spreadsheet to Goodreads so that I don’t fall foul of the rules!

TBR WATCH

Since my last post I have read 3 books, DNF 1, and managed to gain just 1 and so my TBR is standing at 178 books!

94 physical books
67 e-books
17 books on NetGalley

What have you found to read this week?