Weekly Wrap Up (December 10)

This Week on the Blog

A busy week on the blog this week that started with my favourite post of the year Reading Bingo 2017 Edition – if you want to join in with your own choices, I’d be thrilled to see what they are.

I followed that up with my extract post which came from Faking Friends by Jane Fallon which will be published in January 2018

My This Week in Books featured the authors Helen Garner, Jenny Quintana and G.J. Minett.

All of that excitement meant it wasn’t until Thursday that I posted my first review of the week which was for One Bad Turn by Sinéad Crowley, the third, and fastest paced novel in the DS Claire Boyle series which is set in Dublin.

My next review was for the fabulous Good Friday by Lynda La Plante which takes us back to Covent Garden in 1975 when the IRA were active. I loved this and questioned how I’d missed out on this author for so many years.

My last review was for Poison Panic by Helen Barrell which examines arsenic deaths in Essex in the 1840s. A fascinating and well researched non-fiction book.

 

This Time Last Year…

I was reading the amazing, the fabulous and one of those books that once read, is not forgotten in a hurry; Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre. Despite my wariness at the death of a young child in the care of nanny Sophie Duguet; his nanny, and the somewhat graphic violent scenes this book gripped hard and would not let me know. In short Sophie Duguet who suffered with memory problems goes on the run as we follow weakly in her wake we learn more.

You can read my full review here or click on the book cover.

Blurb

Sophie is haunted by the things she can’t remember – and visions from the past she will never forget.

One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her.
Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online.
But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets . . .
For fans of Gone Girl and Lemaitre’s own internationally bestselling Alex, Blood Wedding is a compelling psychological thriller with a formidable female protagonist. Amazon

Stacking the Shelves

You’ll all be delighted to hear that my vow not to acquire any books in December has got off to a roaring success with only 6 books being added to my shelf since last Sunday!

In my defence, there have been some absolute brilliant books added to NetGalley this week – here a few to whet your appetite (I’m saving the other half for next week when obviously I won’t have any new books to show you!))

First up is from a series I have followed (in order, no less) since the beginning. The Killing House by Claire McGowan, the sixth in the Paula McGuire series set on the boarder between Northern and Southern Ireland where her speciality is missing persons. The Killing House will be published in the UK on 5 April 2018.

Blurb

When a puzzling missing persons’ case opens up in her hometown, forensic psychologist Paula Maguire can’t help but return once more.

Renovations at an abandoned farm have uncovered two bodies: a man known to be an IRA member missing since the nineties, and a young girl whose identity remains a mystery.

As Paula attempts to discover who the girl is and why no one is looking for her, an anonymous tip-off claims that her own long-lost mother is also buried on the farm.

When another girl is kidnapped, Paula must find the person responsible before more lives are destroyed. But there are explosive secrets still to surface. And even Paula can’t predict that the investigation will strike at the heart of all she holds dear. NetGalley

I was also lucky enough to be approved to the latest by a now favourite author of mine, Louise Candlish. Our House will also be published on 5 April 2018 in the UK.

Blurb

On a bright January morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought in Trinity Avenue.
Nothing strange about that. Except it is your house. And you didn’t sell it.

For better, for worse.

When Fi arrives home to find a removals van outside her house, she is completely blind-sided. Trinity Avenue has been her family’s home for years. Where are all her belongings? How could this have happened? Desperately calling her ex-husband, Bram, who owns the house with her, Fi discovers he has disappeared.

For richer, for poorer.

The more Fi uncovers, the more she realises their lives have been turned upside by a nightmare of their own making. A devastating crime has been committed, but who exactly is the guilty party? What has Bram hidden from her – and what has she hidden from him?

Till death us do part. NetGalley

And finally from NetGalley I had my fingers firmly crossed for a copy of this book ever since I first heard about it and I have to confess I’ve already read the first chapter which is just as delightful as I hoped it would be. Bookworm A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan is one of those books that firmly should be shelved under the library classification ‘for booklovers’ and it will be published on 1 March 2018.

Blurb

The Cat in the Hat? Barbar? The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Whoever it was for you, it’s very hard to forget the vivid intensity of your first encounter with a book.

As a bespectacled young bookworm, Lucy Mangan devoured books: from early picture books, to Swallows and Amazons, Enid Blyton to Little Women, and from trashy teen romances to her first proper ‘grown-up’ novels. In Bookworm, she revisits this early enthusiasm; celebrating the enduring classics, and disinterring some forgotten treasures.

This is a love letter to the joys of childhood reading, full of enthusiasm and wit, telling the colourful story of our best-loved children’s books, the extraordinary people who created them, and the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. It also comes packed with brilliant recommendations to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.

This impassioned book will bring the unforgettable characters of our collective childhoods back to life – prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate. It will also act as an invaluable guide to anyone looking to build a children’s library and wondering where to start, or where to go next. NetGalley

A recent acquisition which hasn’t yet been featured but I assure you all was purchased before 1 December is Sanctum by Denise Mina, an author who I have a huge admiration for.

Blurb

When Dr Susie Harriot is convicted of the brutal murder of Andrew Gow, a serial killer in her care, it looks certain that she will be given a life sentence, depriving her of her home, her family and her two-year-old daughter.

Susie’s husband, Lachlan, is convinced his wife is innocent, and is determined to find evidence to support an appeal. Every night he sits in Susie’s study and goes through her papers – her case notes, her interviews with Gow, and the press cuttings from the trial.

But the more Lachlan uncovers, the more questions arise, leaving him wondering about the secrets his wife was hiding… Amazon

Since my last post I have read 3 books and appear to have gained 6 so my TBR now stands at a magnificent 186
Physical Books – 108
Kindle Books – 56
NetGalley Books –22