2018 releases I want to read - Part 2

Let’s talk about more 2018 releases I am excited about because apparently there are lots.

I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan is a January YA release about a fifteen year girl who knows exactly what she wants her life to look like – but her parents, who plan for her become a doctor and marry her cousin from Pakistan have other ideas. It’s a debut novel about standing up for what you believe and it sounds like it might be a book that’s needed.

2018 releases I want to read - Part 1

Wow but I didn’t realise how many books due for publication this year were already on my radar until I started this post; I tend to just make notes – on my phone, on my computer etc – and it’s only when I came to actually look at it that I realised that actually there’s quite a lot that I’m excited about.

I bet these aren't even a tiny percentage of  Excellent Books Coming Soon because I never claim to be one of those that is In The Know, these are just the few that have happened to dance across my field of vision. It's a fun thing to blog about though, partly because NEW BOOKS and partly because it will make for another fun post at the end of the year when I come back and see how many I managed to read.  Or at least I’m hoping it’s a fun thing to blog about - it's fun for me at least, and that's a good enough starting point I think!

Books I am looking forward to for the rest of this year...

...even though my TBR is already the size of Everest and my bookshelves are full. A list by me.

Basically guys, I am in a reading slump and it’s making me sad. Seriously, up until yesterday I think I’d read about ten pages in as many days and I hate when this happens to me and I have decided to try and get myself out of it by making a list, thanks to the notes on my phone, of the books I am excited about for the latter part of this year. Also because this list is generated from said phone notes me of which are months old, a couple of these books are OUT NOW GO GET THEM.

New Things to Read in 2016

Hello pals!

I had wondered about posting today all about snow covered mountains and vin chaud and cold fingers on hipbones and kisses because that’s what my life looks like right now and frankly, it’s marvellous but I decided that really probably nobody will be anywhere near as interested in my snowy adventures as they are in the books I’m waiting for this year. So, let’s talk about that instead. Grab yourself a cuppa because this is a list. 

2016 books are a coming, some, because it’s already February are even here. There’s probably hundreds (thousands?) but obviously (obviously) I’m not going to list them all, that would be ridic; imma just talk at you a little about the things that are on my radar right now, like, (and I think I talked about it’s general existence last year) Steve Toltz’s Quicksand which is due for paperback release in April. I love a paperback. I love a hardback from a purely aesthetic point of view because pretty, but paperbacks are just so much more manageable aren’t they? When you read in bed, which I do all of the time, holding a hardback is far too much like a workout.

So. What’ve we got?

Chris Cleve (who wrote The Other Hand which I loved) has a new book out in April called Everyone Brave is Forgotten and it sounds awesome. It’s set during the Second World War and is about, I think, how the every day can change us as much as the unexpected can, about how war is perhaps just a backdrop for the ordinary. It sounds excellent. I think you all should read it. Actually I think you all should read all of the books in this post because that’s kind of the point…

Anyhow.

The sequel to A Court of Thorns and Roses is out later in the spring I think, mebbes May. It’s called A Court of Mist and Fury and I am ridiculously excited about it. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. And, all the characters are stupidly attractive in my head so you know, there’s that. 

Speaking of sequels, anyone remember how much I liked The Fire Sermon last year? Well book two (The Map of Bones) is also published at the start of May (again, I think!) and again, ridic excited. I cannot wait to see where that story goes next. The Fire Sermon is the dystopia where everyone is born a twin and each twin is either an Alpha (is physically ‘perfect’) or an Omega (is not) and all the Omegas are branded and cast out and the world is riled by Alphas BUT in a cruel(?) twist of fate, when one twin dies so does the other. It centres around Cass who is an Omega with a dream of Alphas and Omegas being equal and a twin in a position of power. S’really worth a read if you haven’t already and I cannot wait to see what happens in book 2. So excited.

Ruta Sepetys – her of Between Shades of Gray aka the book that broke my fragile little heart - also has a new book out. It’s called Salt to the Sea, and it’s out on Feb 4^th which is TOMORROW PEEPS. It’s a WWII true story and I have so many feelings – I’ll review this next week so won’t say much now but be warned, it will make you feel. Ruta does that so well.

Helen Simonson who wrote the lovely Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand has a new book out next month. I know. Marvellous. It’s called The Summer Before the War and again, sounds lovely. I don’t know a person who wasn’t enchanted by the Major so I have high hopes for this. It’s set in East Sussex in 1914 and it’s about Hugh who has come to visit his Aunt and Beatrice the new female (gasp!) Latin teacher and the last perfect summer before the unimaginable happens.

The Lubetkin Legacy by Marina Lewycka is out in May. I expect it to make me laugh out loud. I still giggle when I think about We Are All Made of Glue.

Shtum by Ben Lester about the family of a ten year old boy with sever autism is getting a lot of hype right now. I’m hearing all the good things. That one’s out in April.

Anthony Quinn’s Freya is out in the spring. It promises the unpredictable course of a woman’s life and loves against a backdrop of Soho pornographers, theatrical peacocks, willowy models, priapic painters, homophobic blackmailers, political careerists.

STOP THE PRESSES: Claire King, who wrote the GORGEOUS The Night Rainbow has a new book out now. It’s called Everything Love Is and I AM EXCITED. So excited. GO FORTH AND READ.

The first in Michael Grant’s new series Front Lines was published last week I think. Should be good although I’m still only part way through the Gone books, not because I don’t like them – I do – but because so many books; so little time. You know how it goes. Anyway, this will likely be A Good Read. Apparently s’perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Code Name Verity and it reimagines WWII with girls fighting on the front lines…

There’s a new David Leviathan collab out in the summer (with Nina LaCour who I don’t know) which I want because David Leviathan. S’called You Know Me Well.

In June Kit de Waal’s My Name is Leon is published and again, this is one that I’ve been seeing a fair amount of hype about. It’s set in the 80’s and it sounds like it might be that special kind of heartbreaking. Have a blurb: A brother chosen. A brother left behind. And a family where you'd least expect to find one. Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to give Jake to strangers. Since Jake is white and Leon is not. As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile - like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, burying his hands deep in the soil, hanging out with Tufty (who reminds him of his dad), and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum. Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a heart-breaking story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the fierce bond between siblings. And how - just when we least expect it - we manage to find our way home.

Yann Martel’s new book The High Mountains of Portugal was released this week and it sounds incredible, a road trip across 2 continents and 4 centuries and the uncovering of a secret found in an old journal. There’s been a fair amount of buzz about this book, obviously and I’m totally caught up in it. I loved The Life of Pi and this feels like it could measure up to that. Fingers crossed hey!

There’s a short story collection out in March by Helen Oyeyemi which I’ve heard described as insprired by fairy tales with all the stories being centred around the idea of a key: to the heart, to a house, to a secret. Obviously I am all over that. I’m really excited about it actually and I have a copy on pre-order. Woop woop.

I’m also excited about another short story collection – The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon, mostly because I love his novels and I love his poetry and I expect I’ll love this too. Roll on May! 

 M.R Carey who wrote the amazingly amazing The Girl With All the Gifts has a new book out in April called Fellside and I actually can not wait. Actually.  It's set in a max security prison on the Yorkshire moors and it sounds terrifying and that's totally not usually my thing at all but I loved  The Girl With All the Gifts so much that how can I not read this?

Fairyland's Catherynne M Valente has a novel out in March - Radiance - which I want to read for Fairyland reasons and also because it sounds incredible, with lawless saloons on Mars and disappearing diving colonies on Venus and Hollywood being on the moon. It sounds SO GOOD. 

Deborah Levy (who wrote the excellent Swimming Home) has a new novel out in March – Hot Milk. It’s about a mother and daughter seeking salvation in a Spanish village and it sounds excellent. I thought Swimming Home was stunning so I really can’t wait for this.

May sees a new book from Aravind Adiga – Selection Day, I enjoyed his other two so I’ll be giving this one a read for sure for sure

There’s a new Anne Tyler in June. So much for A Spool of Blue Thread being your last Anne! It’s a reworking of The Taming of the Shrew and I bet it’s glorious. Why would I not want to read an Anne Tyler version of The Taming of the Shrew?

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue who wrote Room is out I think in September, so it’s a while off but I reckon it’ll be worth the wait. It’s set in the 1850’s and is about a girl who has stopped eating.

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan is basically a love letter to books and childhood reading and it sounds like it could be right up my street. Got to wait to October though which is AGES.

As well as getting my hands on that one in October I’ll also be all over Gary Oldman’s vampire novel. Because it’s Gary Oldman’s vampire novel. It’s called Blood Riders and it’s a vampire novel. By Gary Oldman. I don’t know what else to say to you about this. Dracula has written a vampire novel. Gary Oldman who I love has written a vampire novel. Not just any vampire novel though, these are vampire cowboys and it’s set in the Gold Rush and yep, I want it. (I should probably point out that it’s co-authored actually; Gary wrote it with his manager Douglas Urbanksi. Apparently they’ve been planning it for ages; I love that.)

 

 

& a vampire novel by Gary Oldman (still not over it) seems like a good place to stop because long list is long but still, there’s some exciting stuff coming, is there not? You should talk to me about what’s tickled your fancy – and what you’re excited about that I’ve neglected.

Exciting May Releases

Hello May.

I’m planning on being pals with May this year, mostly because March and April were both so shockingly bad that I’m feeling pretty desperate for something that’s just, well, better.

With regards to books to read, then, it’s off to a pretty good start. There’s some super fun books due for release this month that I cannot wait to get my prettily painted nails on. [I say ‘prettily painted’ but actually I painted them on Tuesday night, had to redo two of them because of smudging and already had a chip by the time I woke up on Wednesday. This my friends, is why I will always advocate the wonder that is the gel polish.]

Anyway. Books. New shiny new pretty books. The list is long this month and I’m not going to talk about them all because that would be crazy so I’ve just chosen 5. HERE THEY ARE:

I was going to start with Kirtsy Logan’s The Gracekeepers which I have been immensely excited about  and will be reading in a book and a half (yep, I have a list, that’s the level of organisation I work to these days. I’m quite impressed by my own self) because I thought it was released in May. It would appear I was wrong. I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy, which might just be one of the prettiest books I’ve ever seen – seriously, some of these proofs are just stunning – but also must, at some point, have pre-ordered it in my sleep and as such was super confused when it popped through my letterbox in all its hard-backed glory proclaiming ‘look at me, I am beautiful and not at all released in May. Stupid.’ I’m going to talk about it anyway because let me tell you a thing: The Gracekeepers sounds like all kinds of perfect. It’s about a world divided between people who live on the water and those who live on the land; it’s about floating circuses and a bear girl, and another girl who has exiled herself to live alone on an island and take care of the dead and it sounds magical and mythical and so freaking wonderful. I am stupidly excited about it. Stupidly.

If you don’t know that Kate Atkinson’s new novel A God in Ruins is out this month, well, you must’ve been living under a rock because this book has had all the hype. All of it. Deservedly so no doubt: I love Kate Atkinson. She’s one of my auto-buy authors, which I’m going to talk about another time, and as such I am practically giddy at the prospect of this book. If you read Life After Life which was Atkinson’s last offering and was marvellous, then you’re in for a treat with this one because it’s the story of Teddy. Teddy was a side character in Life After Life, one you couldn’t not love and now here he is, with his own shiny book and his own shiny story. It was released yesterday. Love. 

I loved Steve Toltz’s A Fraction of the Whole (and talk about it here) so I’ve been really looking forward to Quicksand which is out on May 21^st. It’s the story (and I steal this straight from the blurb) of Aldo and Liam – lifelong friends, criminal and police officer, muse and writer. So, it’s about a struggling writer – also a policeman, who decides to write a book about his best friend (a criminal entrepreneur with very bad luck and an ex-wife he’s still in love with). I’m expecting great things, I’m expecting it to be gritty and honest and funny and thought-provoking and I want it in my life. I am so excited about it, and God, I hope I’m not disappointed.

A Court of Thorns and Roses was released (I think) on Tuesday. Again, I’ve heard all the good things about it – Sarah J Maas is talked about a lot on American book blogs I follow. I think her Throne of Glass series is kind of A Big Deal; I read that she wrote it when she was just 16 which is really excellent. I’ve not seen her name around much over here until now, but perhaps I’ve just not been looking in the right places.  A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first in a YA trilogy, and is A BEAUTY AND THE BEAST RETELLING OH GOD LET ME AT IT with a magical kingdom and hunters and faeries and love and It’s described as ferocious and delicious and magical and all of those things are things I like in my books. I also love Beauty and the Beast so you know, this ticks all the boxes for me.

 

Hold Me Like a Breath makes me want to clap my hands in delight; It’s another one of those fairytale retellings I love so much. This time, it’s the Princess and the Pea, with rare blood diseases and organ trafficking and rival crime families all set against a New York backdrop. How awesome does that sound? I feel like it’s going to be either sublime or ridiculous. I can’t wait to find out which. It’s published on the 19^th and the cover, according to the internets at least, looks super pretty. Lookit.

Exciting March Releases

I'm posting this from my phone as I am currently in a fight with both Firefox, my browser of choice, and IE which I hate and which won't load anything ever. The Internet and I are not friends right now. So, if there's dodgy formatting or whatever, I'm reals sorry. Also there's no pretty pics in this post as that is way beyond my capabilities and there might be the odd dogy autocorrect - I can spell really. Mebbes I'll come and pretty this up later. We'll see.

So, I have a lot of blogging to do over the next few days. I feel like I should apologise for any kind of blog-post-overload that may happen, so in advance, if you feel like I am spamming you with book talk this week, I really am sorry.

Right now, I want to share with you some of the books I’m excited for in March (how is it March already. Golly!) most notably of all the new Ishiguro. 

You have no idea how excited I am about The Buried Giant. Me and the rest of the world I think, if Twitter and the blogosphere are anything to go by. There’s a lot of Kazuo Ishiguro talk all over the place right now because release day is TOMORROW. I’m so excited and a little nervous and so excited. It’s Ishiguro’s first novel for lots of years and it sounds excellent: it’s set in the Middle Ages and there’s talk of dragons and ogres and a quest and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I loved Never Let Me Go, as in, it’s one of my favourite books of all time levels of love. I pretty much shoved that book down the throats of everyone I knew when I first read it, I was kind of forceful in my ‘you have to read this’ and I know that The Buried Giant isn’t going to be like Never Let Me Go, just like it’s not going to be like The Remains of the Day, and just like it’s not going to be like When We Were Orphans, but I’m kind of spiralling anyway, because Ishiguro man, Ishiguro.

In addition to The Buried Giant, I’m also quite excited about this little lot:

The Walls Around Us by Nova Sen Ruma will be released on the 24^th – from Goodreads:

The A to Z of You and Me by James Hannah sounds lovely. And like it’s probably going to hurt a whole lot, in a way not dissimilar to the way Queenie hurt. Ivo’s in a hospice.  To keep him occupied his dedicated nurse suggests a game: Ivo has to list his body parts alphabetically and associate a memory with each one, which in turn unravels the story of Ivo’s life. It hurts already. I’ve heard good things about this one, and I’m really looking forward to giving it a go. It’s out on March 12^th.

HausFrau ­– Jill Alexander Essbaum (March 26^th) is a spectacularly pretty book. Seriously, I am in love with this cover. It sounds like something a little bit different too, which I am all about this year. My horizons, I am expanding them. HausFrau tells the story of an American expat, living in Switzerland with her husband, she’s fairly unhappy with her life there, adrift from her husband, her children, the people who try to be her friends and she finds herself engaging in a string of affairs. A modern day Madame Bovary is what I’m hearing; a strangely hypnotic, and remarkably captivating portrait of a woman on the edge. It just sounds really…interesting. I’m interested. 

Emily St John Mandel who wrote Station Eleven which I bought last month has her back catalogue released in the UK this month. The Lola Quartet, The Singer’s Gun and Last Night in Montreal. They all sound really good, and, if Station Eleven is as good as I’ve heard it is, I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting my hands on these lovelies as soon as I possibly can. They look pretty too, which always helps.

A while ago I read the first three books in The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. They were fun books, kind of like The Vampire Diaries in Victorian times. WHAT IS NOT TO LIKE. Anyway, Gail Carriger has a new series: The Custard Protocol, the first book of which (Prudence) is released on March 19^th. It’s set in the same world as Parasol – hurrah – and it sounds like fun times: I cannot wait. & I should probably read books 4 and 5 of Parasol in preparation. They’re on my Kindle after all.

Exciting February Releases

I wanted to post this last week but alas I was on a mountain and could not. That means some of the books I am super excited about this month have already been released, but you'll forgive me, right? I mean it doesn't really matter. There's some gems in here too; February, the month of ski holidays and Valentine’s looks like A Good Book Month. Depending on your view point this is either a good or bad thing as my January book ban has been lifted and I can now buy ALL THE BOOKS. All the boooooooks. Yep, my book haul for February is gonna be a big one.

So, what do we have. What's being released this month that's made its way onto my radar?

I love Anne Tyler. I've loved her since I read A Slipping Down Life when I was fifteen (which is still my fave a whole lifetime later…) Anne Tyler's like the apple crumble of authors you know? Delicious and familiar and comforting and I really can't wait for this. I don’t have to either: it’s out tomorrow.

I have a bit of an author!crush on Neil Gaiman. I don't know if that's because of his hair or his writing. Mebbes it's both. Either way I am super excited for Trigger Warning which sounds like a short story collection of delightfulness and which I want. I love everything of Neil's that I've read so far, especially ESPECIALLY Stardust and Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book (still love Silas so hard) and I really really want to read this. Trigger Warning was released on the 3^rd. If you already have your copy then let me know what you think!

Everyone knows about Lemony Snicket, right? And I'm working my way through those books and I think they're ok. They haven't rocked my world thus far but I like them. Why'm I so excited about We Are Pirates! then?  Because you know what, if you haven't read Handler’s Adverbs then you're doing life wrong. Seriously. It's so amazing. So SO amazing and....and actually, I'ma talk about it on Thursday so just come back then, please?

As for this. God it sounds equally amazing.

[We Are Pirates! is a novel about our desperate searches for happiness and freedom, about our wild journeys beyond the boundaries of our ordinary lives.
Also, it's about a teenage girl who pulls together a ragtag crew to commit mayhem in the San Francisco Bay, while her hapless father tries to get her home] 

I did a small dance at my desk when I first read the blurb because it sounds delightful and it has pirates which always says to me Captain Jack Sparrow and I'll be buying this as soon as it's released which is on Thursday actually. Hurrah. 

Touch is really really good, it’s released on the 26^th  and I will be reviewing it here on Friday so make sure to come back then for a sneaky read, til then though, if you want a reason to get excited about it: the first word is Josephine. Clearly this is excellent.

Holy Cow - David Duchovny which I read last week and talk about here and which, look I'm not going to lie, this book is really fucking weird. But it's also funny and sentimental and well worth a look. It was released on the 3^rd. Just you know, be prepared for the weird okay?

I'm reading this now and so far I love it. It kind of feels kind of like Eleanor and Park and also kind of like The Craft (anyone else remember that film? I loved that film) and also kind of like nothing I've ever read before and it's so cool, so cool it kind of makes me want to be it. It’s about this girl called Meche, and tells her story as a teenager in the 80’s in Mexico, where she was friends with a couple of misfits and her Dad was her hero and she thought she’d found some kind of magic in music – with old vinyl records as objects with enough power to bring down high school bullies and a Grimoire written in a notebook - and her story in the present day, coming back to Mexico from Oslo to bury her now estranged Father and desperately opposed to seeing any of her old pals. The two stories are woven together, the then and the now, and the story is so interesting and well thought out and I really really like it – so far at least. Release day is Thursday so again, not long to wait.

"Toby's life was perfectly normal . . . until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.

Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They're looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it's time to take them to the sanatorium.

No one returns from the sanatorium."

How good does that sound though? I know: really freaking good. Bleak but compulsive. Tfios for the dystopian fan. That's how it's been described and seriously, has this book been written for me? This is the book I am reading next because I cannot wait. It’s released on the 26th and  if it’s as good as I want it to be you shall likely need to drop all things to read it.

Another book released on the 26^th and THIS SOUNDS SO GOOD. Here, have the blurb:

When Zach and I were born our parents must have counted and recounted: limbs, fingers, toes. The complete set. They would have been disbelieving – nobody dodged the split between Alpha and Omega.

Nobody.

Born as twins. Raised as enemies.

One strong Alpha twin and one mutated Omega; the only thing they share is the moment of their death.

The Omegas live in segregation, cast out by their families as soon as their mutation becomes clear. Forced to live apart, they are ruthlessly oppressed by their Alpha counterparts.

The Alphas are the elite. Once their weaker twin has been cast aside, they’re free to live in privilege and safety, their Omega twin far from their thoughts.

Cass and Zach are both perfect on the outside: no missing limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop at nothing to expose.

The potential to change the world lies in both their hands. One will have to defeat the other to see their vision of the future come to pass, but if they’re not careful both will die in the struggle for power.

Yes. This is a thing that appeals to me.
 

 I've heard whispers of this book here and there and Jen talks about it on her most anticipated books of 2015 video. It feels like Snow White with a twist. I'm excited to see how it's going to pan out. It's "a fairytale more Grimm than Disney" and it was released on the 5th so have at it! I’m going to download this on payday (because sadly I do not have the space to own physical copies of all the books I want to read) and I’m really looking forward to it.

The Christmas Book Pile and Exciting January Releases

You know what I never blogged about? My Christmas book pile. The Christmas book pile has been a thing my whole life, like, actually. My parents have always always given me a book parcel for Christmas, made up of books I want to read and books they think I should read and books with pretty covers that my Mum just couldn’t leave on the shelf. It’s pretty much the best bit about Christmas Day, the familiar weight of a present that can only contain books and wondering what’s in it. I generally get a book or two from other folk too – my Granny for instance who introduced me to Muriel Spark the Christmas before last, or the time Ian’s parents bought me the new editions of Harry Potter in a pretty boxed set. There are always books on Christmas Day, and Christmas 2014 my book haul looked like this:

There’s the Bill Bryson on top, (from Sarah, for my book challenge) which I have very nearly finished and will be coming back to talk about very soon so WATCH THIS SPACE, along with three other lovelies:

The Secret History which I am super excited about because I am terribly late to that particular party. God. I actually wonder if I am the only person left in the reading world who hasn’t read this book. I’ve heard so much about it and pretty much all of it has been excellent and now I can find out for myself. Hurrah. Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype, then.

Margaret Drabble’s The Pure Gold Baby, which I know little about actually, but Margaret Drabble is one of my Granny’s faves and we have remarkably similar bookish tastes so you know, I’m sure I’ll love it. I’d been looking at it actually just before Christmas which makes me wonder if Mum was secretly book-stalking me, or whether Granny said ‘buy this for Josephine…’

Andandand the disreputable history of frankie landau-banks which I totally did a happy dance about right there in Mum’s living room on Christmas Day because I capital letter LOVED we were liars last year and I super duper wanted this and THERE IT IS. Hurrah. There you have it. It was rather a Merry bookish Christmas and they've all been added to the towering TBR pile. Whoops.

You want to know another thing?

I’m a teeny small (massive) bit concerned that my book buying habit is going to become a habit again this year. Mostly because there are SO MANY books I want to read and don’t own and also because the list of books due for release this year that are making me jump around in poorly contained excitement is well, it’s a long list that’s getting longer and longer and longer. It’s like the magic porridge pot of lists; the more books I buy the more books get published and it’s all VERY BAD because you see, I’m not supposed to be feeding this habit. In fact, what I am supposed to be living under – until further notice – is a Book Buying Ban. It’s a very real problem though, because I am surrounded by enablers and I have no self control and I just want all the books okay? I just want them.

What I’m thinking is that if I talk all about these forthcoming books here then it might stop me from…oh who am I even trying to kid?! Let’s just cut to the chase. I just really want to talk about books that I am excited about in January (three of which are already released so you don’t even need to wait) and that you just might like as well: 

The Invisible Library­- Genevieve Cogman (published January 15th 2015)

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake

I want this book. I want this book so badly. I’m going to buy this book and read it and hopefully not be disappointed. Does it not sound amazing? Also I think it’s one of a series which is always fun. I love a good series. It feels like it might be a little bit Thursday Next (another series that I really ought to read more of but you know, stupid book buying ban) – it sounds kind of crazy and kind of fun and just the right kind of utterly surreal and I WANT IT.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James ­– Emma Hooper (29^th January 2015)

Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2, 000 miles to water.
Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently - and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.

Why would I not want to read a book about an old lady hiking 2000 miles to the sea? Why would I not? Answer: I always always would. *grabby hands* Etta’s my Granny’s age and you want to know who I can imagine wanting to take a rifle and her best boots and begin a 2000 mile hike to live out a dream? My granny, that’s who, because she’s excellent. I am so excited for this and it’s out TOMORROW. Go forth and buy it. 

The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins (15^th Jan 2015)

YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU.
Rear Window meets Gone Girl, in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller.

That’s it, that’s the blurb. & IT MAKES ME WANT TO READ IT. I loved Gone Girl and I’m feeling a little bit thriller-y at the moment so this ticks all the right boxes. 

And last but not least, I’ve already read The Life I Left Behind (1^st Jan 2015) and I talk about it here. It’s good; read it.

There you go then, have at it and let me know if you read any of these – and if there are any books released this month that you can’t wait to get your hands on. I’ll be back in a week or so with my February wishlist (which includes Neil Gaiman, naturally.)