It has been what can only be described as a strange old week. It started well with some wonderful book post and some very good reasons to be happy and thankful. Then Thursday happened, and I don‘t mind admitting that the passing of Queen Elizabeth made me feel far more emotional than I thought it would. She has been around my entire life, mostly on the periphery, not someone I thought much of other than in passing and the occaisional look up when passing Buckingham Palace to see if the flag was up and Queenie may be at home. She is on our currency, our postage stamps, and She was the one thing, other than the Beatles, that anyone in the world would associate with Britain. Well, the one positive thing anyway …
I am far from what anyone could call a Monarchist. Not exactly a Republican either – we have had the capacity to vote for and elect our own Government and vote on major decisions for years, and look at the succession of complete numpties and life changing messes that has left us with! But love or loathe the Monarchy, I think that all can agree, Queen Elizabeth brought something to the country, and all of our lives, that cannot be adequately defined, no matter how many words like duty, service, dedication etc are bandied about. The absence of that something will be felt for some time to come. I can only wish King Charles the very best of luck. It is not a job I envy, no matter what privilege he may have been gifted, or how long he has served his apprenticeship for.
RIP Your Maj. LLTK.
So, aside from watching the many hours of coverage of HRH’s life, I did manage to do a little bit of reading over the week. Not a lot – one book took all week as it was just one of those books. Good but occasionally mind-boggling so I really had to concentrate. I did have some absolutely awesome book post though, and treated myself to some absolutely fabulous books too. Mostly pre-order, some I can mention, others less so (no official reveal yet, I just found them on an Amazon trawl). But it was a very good week for books and I feel very fortunate.
Book post wise I received no less that 5 books. I Don’t Talk To Dead Bodies sent by Dr Rhonda Morrison ahead of the blog tour; Exiles by Jane Harper, sent by Macmillan; a competition win with Scotland Yard CSI on Twitter, The Real Prime Suspect by Jackie Walton; Wolf Pack by Will Dean courtesy of Point Blank Books and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett from the lovely folk at Viper Books. So spoilt.
One new NetGalley book – The Dilemma by Julia Roberts ready for the blog tour. I also decided to increase my Wordsworth Classic collection with the addition of Dracula and Jekyll and Hyde. We won’t all have the gift of living to the ripe old age of 96 – you just have to enjoy what you have while you have it, right? Of the pre-orders placed that I can take about, one very exciting addition is The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty. I love the author’s work and this is one of the new Orenda Books titles I am REALLY looking forward to.
Books I have read
Psalms For The End Of The World by Cole Haddon
It’s 1962 and physics student Grace Pulansky believes she has met the man of her dreams, Robert Jones, while serving up slices of pecan pie at the local diner. But then the FBI shows up, with their fedoras and off-the-rack business suits, and accuses him of being a bomb-planting mass-murderer.
Finding herself on the run with Jones across America’s Southwest, the discoveries awaiting Gracie will undermine everything she knows about the universe. Her story will reveal how scores of lives – an identity-swapping rock star, a mourning lover in ancient China, Nazi hunters in pursuit of a terrible secret, a crazed artist in pre-revolutionary France, an astronaut struggling with a turbulent interplanetary future, and many more – are interconnected across space and time by love, grief, and quantum entanglement.
Spanning continents, centuries, and dimensions, this exquisitely crafted and madly inventive novel – a triple-disk, concept-album of a book – is a profound yet propulsive enquiry into the nature of reality – the perfect immersive read for fans of David Mitchell, Emily St. John Mandel, Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood.
The Moose Paradox by Antti Tuomainen
Insurance mathematician Henri has his life under control, when a man from the past appears and a shady trio take over the adventure park’s equipment supply company … Things are messier than ever in the absurdly funny, heart-stoppingly tense second instalment in Antti Tuomainen’s bestselling series…
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Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen has finally restored order both to his life and to YouMeFun, the adventure park he now owns, when a man from the past appears – and turns everything upside down again. More problems arise when the park’s equipment supplier is taken over by a shady trio, with confusing demands. Why won’t Toy of Finland Ltd sell the new Moose Chute to Henri when he needs it as the park’s main attraction?
Meanwhile, Henri’s relationship with artist Laura has reached breaking point, and, in order to survive this new chaotic world, he must push every calculation to its limits, before it’s too late…
Absurdly funny, heart-stoppingly poignant and full of nail-biting suspense, The Moose Paradox is the second instalment in the critically acclaimed, pitch-perfect Rabbit Factor Trilogy and things are messier than ever…
Two books finished but I did start a third. I’ll take that this week. And, for once, I’m all up to date with reviews. Been a while since that happened. Go me. Busy enough week on the blog though – recap below:
#Review – Small Deaths – Rijula Das
#Review – The Last Girl To Die – Helen Fields
#Review – Murder In The Library – Katie Gayle
#Review – The Bleeding – Johana Gustawsson, trans David Warriner
#Review – Harm – Sólveig Pálsdóttir
Another full week of reviews ahead, a bit less pressure on the blog tour front this week though! Still, two tours, starting today with The Mensch by Leopold Borstinski, and tomorrow I have a review of The Santa Killer by Ross Greenwood. Yes, Santa – in September. Don’t shoot the reviewer 😂
That is my lot. It’s been quite a week, one that will stay in the memory for a very long time. Less for the books read than for the moment of history that we have all witnessed.
Have a wonderful, if thoughtful, week all.
Jen x
Jen Med's Book Reviews 