It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and received lots of bookish goodness! True to form not a single book made it into my Christmas stocking so I treated myself at the AllBooks4Less sale and expect a generous delivery this week sometime.

It has been a frantic week here, the children were thrilled to open their presents Christmas morning, before we joined our best friends for  Christmas lunch at their place. The lazy afternoon culminated in a frenzy of packing for a whirlwind trip to visit family. We spent Boxing Day with my parents, staying with them overnight before the three hour drive to join  my cousins in the city for lunch. After a lovely day with them we drove the two hours to my inlaws to spend the night night and next day with them, before making the long, long trek back home again. Yesterday we celebrated my youngest son’s 7th birthday with an afternoon spent at the beach swimming and playing soccer and tonight we will head to the river to enjoy the New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Unsurprisingly I had very little chance to read and I’m behind in posting reviews but I hope to have some time to catch up this week.

Since it is the last day of the year I am going to take the opportunity to post a bit of a wrap up of 2012 so bear with me….

I have read 287 books in 2012, according to Goodreads that is around 89, 172 pages (give or take a few thousand for the ebooks with no page numbers listed)

I completed all the challenges I chose to participate in for 2012 – click on the challenge name for the list of titles

Eclectic Reader Challenge: 12/12 – Compeleted

Australian Women Writers Challenge: 109 /100 – Completed

Aussie Author Challenge: 12/12 – Completed

Crusin Through the Cozies Challenge 7/7 – Completed

***************************

WordPress helpfully compiled some blog stats for me:

In 2012, there were 448 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1,022 posts.

This blog was viewed about 89,000 times in 2012

The posts that got the most views were

• 1 Review: The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• 2 Review: The Boy Under The Table by Nicole Trope
• 3 Exclusive Excerpt: The Siren by Tiffany Reisz
• 4 Review: Smokin’ Seventeen {Stephanie Plum #17} by Janet Evanovich
• 5 Review: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Thank you to my most enthusiastic commenter’s:

laurelrainsnow ; The Australian Bookshelf ; Stephanie at Read in a Single Sitting ; Mystica ; Teddyree

I received visitors from 162 countries, most visitors came from Australia. The United States & The United Kingdom were not far behind.

I hope you continue to visit me through 2013 – I look forward to sharing another fabulous year with you!

What I Read Last Week

Man Drought by Rachael Johns

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

Finding Casey by Jo-Ann Mapson

Fifty Bales of Hay by Rachael Treasure

Posts this week

(click the titles to read my reviews)

The Harp in the South by Ruth Park ★★★★

Merry Christmas to You!

Secret Santa and Christmas Card Exchange

Inheritance by Kate Loveday ★★★

What I Am Reading Today

When a different kind of justice is needed – swift, effective, and personal – a new type of avenger must take action. Vengeance features new stories by bestselling crime writers including Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Karin Slaughter, as well as some of today’s brightest rising talents. The heroes in these stories include a cop who’s seen too much, a woman who has been pushed too far, or just an ordinary person doing what the law will not. Some call them vigilantes, others claim they are just another brand of criminal. Edited and with an introduction by Lee Child, these stories reveal the shocking consequences when men and women take the law into their own hands.

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

From the author of The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots comes another funny and deliciously romantic tale of a woman in a man’s world. Wendy Hopkins arrives in the Pilbara to search for the father who abandoned her at birth. Getting mixed up in construction site politics at the Iron Ore wharf just out of town was not high on her ‘to do’ list. But when she takes a job as their new Safety Manager she becomes the most hated person in the area. Nicknamed ‘The Sergeant’, she is the butt of every joke and the prime target of notorious womanizer, Gavin Jones. Giving up is not an option, though. For, as it turns out, only Wendy can save these workers from the coming storm, find a man who wants to stay buried and … put a bad boy firmly in his place.

Skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony and lips as red as blood… But this is no fairy story… In a small town in Germany a boy is accused of murdering a beautiful girl. But does a “wicked queen” lurk in their midst? On a September evening eleven years ago, two 17-year-old girls vanished without a trace from the tiny village of Altenhain, just outside Frankfurt. In a trial based on circumstantial evidence 20-year-old Tobias Sartorius was convicted and imprisoned for the murder of his childhood friend Laura and his beautiful girlfriend Stefanie – otherwise known as Snow White. After serving his sentence, Tobias returns home. His presence in the little German village stirs up the events of the past. Events that the locals would prefer to remain hidden. When the Sartorius family is subjected to a number of attacks, Detective Inspector Pia Kirchhoff and DS Oliver von Bodenstein are tasked with monitoring the tense atmosphere in the tight-knit community. As the village inhabitants close ranks it becomes apparent the disappearance of Snow White and her friend was far more complex than imagined. Then history starts to repeat itself in a disastrous manner when another pretty girl goes missing. The police are thrown into a race against time. Will they be able to save her, or is she destined to die?

Actress Willow Carruthers is Australia’s favourite daughter. Now living the dream life in London, with an Oscar on her shelf and a rock-star husband, the beautiful Willow seems to have it all – wealth, fame and three perfect children.
Kitty Middlemist, Willow’s nanny, is used to flying under the radar.But a life-changing secret forces her to rethink her tactics. So when Willow suddenly falls from grace Kitty offers her the perfect place to hide – Middlemist Manor, the crumbling ancestral home of Kitty and her reclusive older brother, Merritt. Middlemist is the dream location for Willow’s new movie, a gorgeous costume drama that the actress hopes will restore her fortunes. But sparks fly as the house is taken over by a glamorous and demanding cast and crew, and the distinction between acting and real life becomes ever more blurred. From London to LA, Byron Bay to Sydney, is a lush, compelling story about passion, betrayal, forgiveness, and the price of fame.

While you are here…

Join…

Are you up for the challenge? Join the Eclectic Reader Challenge for 2013!

Last day to Enter…

Win 1 of 2 copies of Sex, Lies and Bonsai by Lisa Walker (Aust only)

Congratulations to:

Winners of  Where Have You Been? by Wendy James

Allison & Marlene

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