Anybody else think that this year is disappearing far too quickly already? How are we nearly at the end of January? It has passed in a virtual blur. Weather has made any meaningful interaction with the outside world a challenge, other than for work, of course. I did manage to get a haircut on my day off – my first in 18 months – but other than the grocery shop and a few laps of the nearby playing field during my lunch breaks, I’ve been slovenly and inactive. Can’t even say I’ve been productive on the reading front as work remains a drain on my energy, and reading Monday to Friday, keeping my eyes open at least, is a really hard slog no matter how addictive the books are. Poor me, huh? Well, on the plus side, I am still sticking to my diet, although I appear to have broken my exercise bike. After 13+ years of faithful service, it’s probably time it was mended with a new one anyway …
Picture shows my two cats curled up together on my blanket and feet.
It’s been a busy book buy week this week. My two orders, Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy and Black Lake Manor by Guy Morpuss arrived, as did my Orenda Books subscription from Bert’s Books. This month it was Ronnie Turner’s So Pretty, and Dirt by Sarah Sultoon. As I was a brave wee soul, getting my haircut and all that, I treated myself to two new books as well – The Drift by CJ Tudor and Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka.
Bottom L-R: Dirt; The Drift; Notes on an Execution
New pre-orders this week: The Institution by Helen Fields (March 2nd) and Fear The Silence by Robert Bryndza (July 6th). Just the one new Netgalley approval – Blood Runs Cold by Neil Lancaster (April 13th). Not too shabby a week really.
Books I have read
The Institution by Helen Fields
They’re locked up for your safety.
Now, you’re locked in with them.
Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.
On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse’s body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.
Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the girl – before it’s too late.
But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her?
Emma Webster is a respectable MP.
Emma Webster is a devoted mother.
Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.
Emma Webster is a liar.
#Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe…
Twenty years ago, her brother was murdered. Tonight, she’s found his killer.
Thessaly Hanlon is four hours into a long drive home through the night when she pulls into a 24-hour roadside diner to take a break. She’s exhausted, but when she hears a chillingly familiar voice from the next booth, she wonders if he’ll ever sleep again.
The voice is unmistakable. It belongs to Casper Sturgis, the man who murdered Thessaly’s brother two decades before, and then disappeared without a trace.
Thessaly makes the decision to follow the killer. As Thessaly begins to unravel the second life of Casper Sturgis, she finds that digging into the past can have deadly consequences…
Eighteen Seconds by Louise Beech
Family is the best thing in your life. And the worst.
My mother once said to me, ‘I wish you could feel the way I do for eighteen seconds. Just eighteen seconds, so you’d know how awful it is.’
I thought about it. Realised we could all learn from being in another person’s head for eighteen seconds. Eighteen seconds inside Grandma Roberts’ head as she sat alone with her evening cup of tea, us girls upstairs in bed. Eighteen seconds inside one-year-old Colin’s head when he woke up in a foster home without his family. Eighteen seconds inside the head of a girl waiting for her bedroom door to open.
Writer, Louise Beech, looks back on the events that led to the day her mother wrote down her last words, then jumped off the Humber Bridge. She missed witnessing the horror herself by minutes.
Louise recounts the pain and trauma of her childhood alongside her love for her siblings with a delicious dark humour and a profound voice of hope for the future.
Another not bad week, reading wise at least. I’ll take it. Most of my reading is done at a weekend, so it’s all good and excellent reading choices really helped. Busy enough week on the blog, with some reviews of recently published books – recap below:
#Review – The Other Half – Charlotte Vassell
#Review – A Winter Grave – Peter May
#Review – The Drift – CJ Tudor
#Review – So Pretty – Ronnie Turner
Two blog tours this week. Today i review A Womb With A View by Mark Tilbury and tomorrow it’s time to investigate The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. All being well we’ll be seeing the author in Brum on 6th Feb – fingers crossed, hey?
And that’s my lot. Off to read some more books. I’m bang up to date with reviews at time of writing, so why the heck not, right?
Have a lovely week all. Happy reading.
Jen x
Jen Med's Book Reviews 