It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

I finally succumbed to the plague* that swept through our house starting last weekend and took down all my children one at a time. Mercifully my suffering has been reasonably brief but I’m still a little woozy and though I’ve kept up with the reading as a way to take my mind off the constant nausea, sitting at the computer to write a coherent review has been a bit beyond me at times so I am a bit behind on that score. I also didn’t get the chance to visit much for last Monday’s meme for which I apologise. My oldest daughter is home today still suffering from its lingering effects but the three youngest went back to school today finally. In fact, Aleah left for her class camp this morning for three days.

*[plague=gastro]

What I Read Last Week

Going Underground by Susan Vaught

The Robbers by Paul Anderson

San Miguel by T.C. Boyle

Heart of Danger by Lisa Marie Rice

Sincerely by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire

Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington

Reviews Posted

(click the titles to read  my reviews) 

The Burial by Courtney Collins ★★★

Darkness on the Edge of Town by Jessie Cole ★★★★1/2

**AWW Feature: Making sense of the Darkness by Jessie Cole**

Going Underground by Susan Vaught ★★★1/2

The Robbers by Paul Anderson ★★★★★

San Miguel by T.C. Boyle ★★★1/2

What I Am Reading Today

At last, a book about life that discusses liquor and lovemaking as much as it does the point of it all. Judith Lucy has looked everywhere for happiness. Growing up a Catholic, she thought about becoming a nun, and later threw herself into work, finding a partner and getting off her face. Somehow, none of that worked. So lately, she’s been asking herself the big questions. Why are we here? Is there a God? What happens when we die? And why can’t she tell you what her close friends believe in, but she can tell you which ones have herpes? No-one could have been more surprised than Judith when she started to find solace and meaning in yoga and meditation, and a newfound appreciation for what others get from their religion. In her first volume of memoir, the bestselling The Lucy Family Alphabet, Judith dealt with her parents. In Drink, Smoke, Pass Out, she tries to find out if there’s more to life than wanting to suck tequila out of Ryan Gosling’s navel. With disarming frankness and classic dry wit, she reviews the major paths of her life and, alarmingly, finds herself on a journey

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Hard Labour continues CFP’s commitment to mix the best of the new with the established pros of the crime genre.  From the Land Down Under comes seventeen dark criminal tales, including Garry Disher’s first ever Wyatt story, unpublished for over a decade, and new fiction by Peter Corris, Leigh Redhead, David Whish-Wilson, Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Helen Fitzgerald and more – including Greig Johnstone, JJ DeCeglie, Deborah Sheldon, Andrew Prentice, Finbarr McCarthy, Andrez Bergen, Amanda Wrangles, Cameron Ashley, Andrew Nette and Liam José.

Discontented with her life of poverty on a failing farm in the Eastern United States, Dellarobia, a young mother, impulsively seeks out an affair. Instead, on the Appalachian mountains above her farm, she discovers something much more profoundly life-changing – a beautiful and terrible marvel of nature. As the world around her is suddenly transformed by a seeming miracle, can the old certainties they have lived by for centuries remain unchallenged?

Why have the Twilight saga’s representations of romance and relationships enchanted millions of fans and generated millions in revenue, selling everything from Barbie-type dolls to blockbuster films? Tanya Erzen—herself no stranger to the allure of the series—explores the phenomenon of Twilight, books and films influenced by conservative Mormon religious ideas, by immersing herself in the vibrant and diverse subculture of “Twi-hards” to understand why so many love the series (sometimes in spite of themselves). She attends Edward-addiction groups, Twi-rock concerts, and fan conventions, and looks at the vast world of online fandom that Twilight has generated. Part journalistic investigation and part cultural analysis, Fanpire will appeal to obsessed fans and haters alike.

Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert. But the mischievous Coyote is not above a little sleight of paw, and Atticus soon finds that he’s been duped into battling bloodthirsty desert shapeshifters called skinwalkers. Just when the Druid thinks he’s got a handle on all the duplicity, betrayal comes from an unlikely source. If Atticus survives this time, he vows he won’t be fooled again. Famous last words.

After twelve years of secret training, Atticus O’Sullivan is finally ready to bind his apprentice, Granuaile, to the earth and double the number of Druids in the world. But on the eve of the ritual, the world that thought he was dead abruptly discovers that he’s still alive, and they would much rather he return to the grave. Having no other choice, Atticus, his trusted Irish wolfhound, Oberon, and Granuaile travel to the base of Mount Olympus, where the Roman god Bacchus is anxious to take his sworn revenge—but he’ll have to get in line behind an ancient vampire, a band of dark elves, and an old god of mischief, who all seem to have KILL THE DRUID at the top of their to-do lists.

1961: On a sweltering summer’s day, while her family picnics by the stream on their Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy called Billy, a move to London, and the bright future she can’t wait to seize. But before the idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed a shocking crime that changes everything. 2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds – Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy – who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatefully entwined. Shifting between the 1930s, the 1960s and the present, The Secret Keeper is a spellbinding story of mysteries and secrets, theatre and thievery, murder and enduring love

While you are here…

Winners!

Congratulations to Mary Preston who has won a copy of Love Anthony by Lisa Genova

Congratulations to Wendy who has won The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Congratulations to Michelle (Mish), Brenda and Jess who have won Slave Girl by Alexa Moses

Don’t miss

Bookshelf Bounty

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be along to visit you shortly!