This Week, Next Week: 29th November, 2015

November 29, 2015 Emma15 Comments

Hi there – and a belated Happy Sunday. I’m hoping those in the states got to enjoy their long thanksgiving weekend. With my husband being from the states we celebrated Thursday but because we live in the UK there was no day to recover from over eating. It was back to work, which has been really busy for me as I’m changing roles (same company) and trying to do both my new and old jobs…which will be the case through the end of December unfortunately.

Still it’s a challenge and one I probably need to be honest because I’ve been doing the same job for 8 years now. When I wasn’t working, I spent a fair bit of time just vegging in front of the tele. I am now hooked on Jessica Jones and we’ve been watching quite a good show on Sky called The Last Panther which I can recommend, not just because it has John Hurt in it who I love.

This did mean, though, that I didn’t get much time for books or blogging. I managed two posts all week, one a Tuesday Intro for a book I’ve only just managed to finish today (The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Parrick Ness) and one review for a book I have to say is more disappointing in hindsight than I thought at the time – Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt.

It also meant I didn’t get a chance to add any books to the piles, though this is probably a good thing as the pile might fall over! This week coming, I’m determined to turn off the TV and read some of them. I also plan on posting a review for the Patrick Ness book this week and November 9, which I finished over a week ago now (I’m in danger of forgetting what happened!)

What about you, what are you reading this week?

Emma

This week, I’m linking in with Kimba at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer and her Sunday Post and with (a little early) with Katherine at Book Date for It’s Monday, What Are you Reading? Head over to see what other bloggers have read, written about or just added to their shelves.

This Week, Next Week: 8th November, 2015

November 8, 2015November 8, 2015 Emma30 Comments

Hi All – hope you are having a good weekend. Ours was full of bangs – literally – as it was Bonfire Night Thursday and our neighbours decided to wait till last night to let off the million fireworks that usually accompany the 5th November. It was great to watch actually and I’m kind of hoping they go all out again on New Years Eve to save us having to track any displays down (yes, I’m lazy!).

The rest of the week wasn’t quite as exciting and book wise a bit of a mixed bag. I got my review of Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica posted and read and reviewed Girl Meets Boy, a short story by Ali Smith and part of the Canongate Myth series, which I really enjoyed. I loved Ali Smiths style of writing and sense of humour.

Then I read The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse, which I’d been looking forward too. Unfortunately it wasn’t what I had hoped. I’ll review it this week but it left me feeling a bit flat and struggling to read anything else.

Hopefully I’ll get my writing mojo back after picking up these, both books I’ve heard good things about…

The Ice Twins…A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity—that she, in fact, is Lydia—their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past—what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?

Little Girl Gone….A baby goes missing. But does her mother want her back?

When Estelle’s baby daughter is taken from her cot, she doesn’t report her missing. Days later, Estelle is found in a wrecked car, with a wound to her head and no memory.

Estelle knows she holds the key to what happened that night – but what she doesn’t know is whether she was responsible…

Keep your fingers crossed for me. What about you? What are you reading this week?

emma

This Week, Next Week: 25th October, 2015

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 Emma23 Comments

So, today has been officially crazy and, as a result, I’m running rather late with my This Week, Next Week post. It’s been crazy in a good way though – we have family visiting again (that’s what happens after you move into a new house I guess) and so, as per usual it seems, I’m running behind with positing.

Still, I’ve done better with the blogging itself during the week, getting reviews up for both Eeny Meeny and The Sudden Departure of the Frasers. Both of which I really liked, though in different ways and for different reasons and both are authors I will be reading more of.

The Sudden Departure of the Frasers had the added bonus too of being the first fiction audiobook I’ve ever listened to without it feeling like a struggle and persuaded me to keep trying with format.

One last both was that they were from the library, which is the same with all the books I’ve picked up this week. It really is all about the #librarylove with…

Fair Play by Tove Jansson

Mari is a writer and Jonna is an artist, and they live at opposite ends of a big apartment building, their studios connected by a long attic passageway. They have argued, worked, and laughed together for decades. Yet they’ve never really stopped taking each other by surprise. Fair Play shows us Mari and Jona’s intertwined lives as they watch Fassbinder films and Westerns, critique each other’s work, spend time on a solitary island, travel through the American Southwest, and turn life into nothing less than art.

Fair play has an introduction by Ali Smith, who is the author of the next book I picked up – Girl Meets Boy. I actually had this on loan once before but didn’t get to reading it so hope to this time.

Girl meets boy. It’s a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances? Ali Smith’s re-mix of Ovid’s most joyful metamorphosis is a story about the kind of fluidity that can’t be bottled and sold. It is about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, a story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations.

The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse is a book I had been looking for for a while after reading Before We Met earlier in the year so had to pick up it. It sounds good so here’s hoping.

One stifling night in a bar in Soho, Kate meets Richard – powerful, sensual Richard. Going home with him that night is reckless and exhilarating, their connection electric. Now, eighteen months later, Kate is fleeing London for an old coastguard’s cottage on the Isle of Wight, determined to forget Richard for ever.

And then there’s Eat, Nourish, Glow which was recommended to me by a colleague who has been doing this diet for a few weeks and says she feels great.

Replace fad diets for good with 10 easy steps to your rejuvenated future; from nutritional therapist and healthy eating expert Amelia Freer. Amelia Freer brings a fresh and unique voice to the field of holistic health. In this, her first book, she explains her 10 steps and provides over 25 enticing recipes to get you started on your path to optimum wellness. Amelia guides you gently through her 10 steps: how to detox your pantry and restock with alternatives, how to understand the differences between good and bad fats, the dangers of hidden sugar in the food we eat and how to dump the wheat (one of the demons!) from your diet.

I won’t be starting this next week as we are away for half term but will be trying to plan out the week after as I have a feeling that it will take some planning. Still, hopefully, I will be able to report good results in a few weeks!

And that’s it for me this week – how about you – what are you reading and doing this week?

Emma

This week, I’m linking in (rather belatedly) with Kimba at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer and her Sunday Post and with (a little early) with Katherine at Book Date for It’s Monday, What Are you Reading? Head over to see what other bloggers have read, written about or just added to their shelves.