Holy smokes
it’s been quiet round these parts has it not?! What’s that about. I blame
myself, because it’s my blog and who else is there to even blame? (I also blame
The Boy a little bit because it’s hard to blog about books when you’re finding
it rather hard to read them. I WANT
MY READING MOJO
BACK.)
I’m actually
reading Kirsty Logan’s stunning novel The
Gracekeepers at the moment, which, well. I love it. I love it in that kind
of way where I’m trying to drag it out and not finish it because then it will
be over and I will be sad. It’s so many different kinds of amazing, you don’t even
know. Keep your eyes peeled actually for a proper review of that, which I shall
endeavour to post next week from my lovely cottage by the sea, providing that
the coastal WiFi isn’t too sketchy.
Yep, I’m
going on holiday. Me, my bro and our parents are taking ourselves off to
Anglesey (North Wales) for a week in what
seems like it might be a recreation of all our childhood holidays. It was Dad’s
70th in May, and Mum will be 60 in July and what better way for them
to celebrate than with their offspring. I’m just, I’m so ready for a week away
from work and away from my life and a week of wine and coastal footpaths and a
cottage with an Aga. AN AGA. God, just take me there already. Drew (the
brother) and I are travelling down together which will be awesome. I’ve put him
in charge of the road trip playlist because left up to me we’d just listen to
Taylor Swift the whole drive and I feel like perhaps he wouldn’t be cool with
that. Or maybe he would. He surprises me quite often with his musical tastes my
baby brother. I say ‘baby’, he’s actually 27 and 6ft a million and awesome. These are our faces.
So, a week
away from work means ALL THE READING. I hope, I hope that’s what it means, and I already have my holiday reading
list planned which I'ma totally tell you aaaalll about because I'm nice like that.
First up, The Good Luck of Right Now which is by Matthew Quick of Silver Linings Playbook fame. S'about about
a man trying to find his place after losing his Mum and it sounds beautiful. I
loved Silver Linings and I’ve been
really wanting to read more of Quick’s work so I’m looking forward to this
Uprooted is by Naomi Novik, it was released
last week and it sounds wonderful; it’s all about a world where a village
borders a wood full of evil powers, and as such the people rely on The Dragon to keep
the wood under control. Every ten years a woman from the village is sent to serve
The Dragon, as payment for his help. The next choosing is approaching and our
heroine Agnieszka is terrified that The Dragon will take her bestest friend….its
had awesome reviews and I am super super excited about it.
Seed is a YA book all about life within a
cult and I read that it’s reminiscent of Handmaid’s
which, well I’m trying not to think about that too much because otherwise my
expectations will be unfairly high, but it’s about Pearl who has grown up
within a nature-worshipping community, and how her life changes with the
arrival of outsiders.
I Let You Go is on the list because every holiday
needs a thriller, right? And this one has had folks saying all the good things
The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North was released on May 19th
and it’s the story of an enigmatic film director as told by the people that
loved her the most. I think it sounds super excellent
Prisoner of Night and Fog has been on my TBR for a while and I
have a review copy if the sequel which I think gives me the perfect excuse to
bump this one up to the top of the pile. It’s set in Nazi Germany, which yes, I
know, call me predictable but it’s from a different side: Gretchen is swept up
in the excitement of 1930’s Munich, she’s embraced the life that her father
died to give her – he was a senior Nazi officer and he died to save the life of
Hitler, which, awesome. Not. BUT THEN Gretchen
gets an anonymous letter and it causes her to question everything and why has it taken me so long to read this
book?? Yep, looking forward to that one.
The Book of Speculation is due for release towards the end
of June if you want to pre-order. You probably do want to pre-order because it sounds
so freaking good. It’s about carnivals and mysterious books and travelling
circuses; about dead parents and doomed love stories and a family history that
seems to follow a tragic pattern – death by drowning and always on 24th
July and it just sounds so good. So
much better than I am making it sound here I know.
Quality of Silence is the new book from Rosamund Lupton
and I am practically giddy with excitement
about it. PRACTICALLY GIDDY. I loved Sister
so damn hard (I liked Afterwards a
little less) and this one sounds like it could be amazing. It’s about Yasmin
and her deaf daughter and their travels across Alaska looking for Ruby’s father, driving
deeper into a frozen silent world where as the blurb tells you, the night will
last for another 54 days and someone is watching them in the dark. Yep. GIDDY
WITH EXCITEMENT.
Fingers
crossed I manage to read ALL OF THEM, because that’s what I want to do, I want
to sit on the decking with a glass of wine and some crisps and look out to sea
and read. Two more sleeps.
