WWW Wednesday (July 16)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Remember Me This Way by Sabine Durrant which I’ve nearly finished. I knew I would love this one from the very first page.

Blurb

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.
A year after her husband Zach’s death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.
As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.
At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.
Lizzie loved Zach. She really did.
But she’s starting to realise she didn’t really know him.
Or what he was capable of . . . Goodreads

I have just finished Another Night, Another Day by Sarah Rayner which explores mental health issues through three main characters.
Click on the book cover to read my review

Next I am going to read Little Lies by Liane Moriarty which after The Husband’s Secret and What Alice Forgot I’m really looking forward to reading.

Blurb

She could hear men and women shouting. Angry hollers crashed through the soft humid salty summer night. It was somehow hurtful for Mrs Ponder to hear, as if all that rage was directed at her . . . then she heard the wail of a siren in the distance, at the same time as a woman still inside the building began to scream and scream . . .
When a harmless quiz night ends with an act of shocking violence, the parents of Pirriwee Public School can’t seem to stop their secrets from finally spilling out. Rumours ripple through the small town, as truth and lies blur to muddy the story of what really happened on that fateful night . . . NetGalley

What are you reading this week?

Another Night, Another Day – Sarah Rayner

Contemporary Fiction
3*’s

Sarah Rayner’s novel, One Moment, One Morning chief protagonist was Karen whose husband died suddenly on a train one morning. I was drawn into this story and sympathised greatly with Karen in her loss so I was thrilled to find out that Karen was one of the main characters in Another Night, Another Day.

In this book, also set in Brighton, she is attending Moreland’s Psychiatric Clinic and we are introduced to a wider cast of characters who are all at the clinic for mental health issues. Alongside Karen we follow Michael and Abby’s stories as they are all treated at the clinic.

This is a sympathetically written book which opens with two therapists at Moreland’s discussing the death of the patient. From then on each chapter focusses on each of the character’s lives, starting with their lives prior to entering the clinic. We see Michael struggling financially whilst hiding the details from his family, Karen trying to support her mother with her father’s illness and Abby who is overwhelmed with the imminent separation from her husband and who faces daily disapproval from others when out with her son, Callum, who is autistic.

The most interesting section of the book for me was the part set in the clinic where the reader gets an insight into the techniques used by the therapists to help the patients. At this point we are introduced to more of the patients, notably, Lilli a TV star, Colin and Rita with the interaction between the patients uplifting what could have been quite a depressing read.

Although I think many people are much more sympathetic than in previous times, to those suffering from mental health issues, this still needs improving and if a book like this can give others an insight into the different ways these illnesses affect sufferers then that can only be a good thing. I think the author managed to stay just about on the right side of the line between informing and preaching about the issues and the state of the NHS, although anyone who has a family member entering a NHS unit would be concerned reading the contrast between the cosy atmosphere in Moreland’s and the far more dangerous one in the NHS hospital.

This isn’t a plot or character driven book, it is more of a fictional accounts of problems that are suffered by many along with the wider families and because of this the pace is quite sedate despite the amount of issues covered. Despite that it is a very readable book which had me rooting for each and every one of the characters.

I’d like to thank the publishers Pan Macmillan for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for this honest review ahead of the publication date of 17 July 2014.