It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

My husband and I spent the first weekend alone last week in over a decade when the three younger ones went camping with their cub pack and my oldest stayed the weekend at her grandmothers to go shoe shopping. Ah bliss!

And then the children came home with bags of muddy clothes, the dishwasher broke, which we can’t afford to replace, and I was volunteered to help cater for 120 (I made pumpkin soup, celery soup and pudding with butterscotch sauce). Still I managed to get plenty of reading done, though I’ve fallen behind on reviews.

I also managed to catch up with one of my favourite TV series Haven, with a little creative thinking since the new season isn’t available yet in Australia. It was inspired by Stephen King’s, The Colorado Kid. Have you ever seen it?

What I Read Last Week

Just Like Other Daughters by Colleen Faulkner

Seven Deadlies: A Cautionary Tale by Gigi Levangie

Ride Like Hell and You’ll Get There: Detours into Mayhem by Paul Carter

Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Coal Creek by Alex Miller

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Dollar

The Good Boy by Theresa Schwehgal

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★

Review: The Iron Traitor by Julie Kagawa ★★★1/2

Seven Sins in Seven Days Blog Tour, Review  & Giveaway: Seven Deadlies by Gigi Levangie ★★★

Review: Just Like Other Daughters by Colleen Faulkner ★★★★

Review: Ride Like Hell and You’ll Get There: Detours into Mayhem by Paul Carter ★★★

Review: Coal Creek by Alex Miller ★★★

Stuff on Sundays:  It’s Not You, it’s me…

What I Am Reading Today

Marian couldn’t see the woman’s eyes behind her glasses, and was filled with panic. That bosom was not for comfort. Not for Marian. She, Marian, was here so that this woman, this psychologist, could expose her failure to be a proper mother. Her son’s actions shatter Marian’s life. As the days pass she is haunted by layers of grief rising like the salt of the degraded earth. Marian’s everyday heroism, her earthy humour and innate honesty, sustain her as she confronts her own tragedy and sees beyond it to other moral dilemmas of white Australian life – racism, environmental damage. This novel has its roots in an ancient landscape – the dry farming country around Koikyennuruff (Stirling Ranges) in the south of Western Australia. It is the story of a journey from the country to the city and back again, a journey that will change Marian forever.

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

When Patrick Cusimano’s alcoholic father kills a child in a hit-and-run, Patrick is faced with a terrible choice: turn his father in – destroying what’s left of his family in the process – or keep quiet. But can Patrick’s brother, Mike, live with the choice that was made that night? Layla Elshere was once a poster-girl for purity. But when her evangelical father forces her to spearhead a campaign against her school, it compels her to question everything she’s ever known. Now Layla is doing all she can to obliterate her past. Verna adores her older sister but as events begin to spiral, Verna must make the hardest choice possible; save the person she loves most in the world – or save herself.

**An American foreign-exchange student arrested for murder. A desperate father determined to win her freedom. The brilliant lawyer tasked with her prosecution. And the sphinx-like young man who happens to be her only alibi.** When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colourful buildings, the street food, the elusive guy next door. Her studious roommate, Katy, is a bit of a bore, but Lily hasn’t come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who’s asking. As the case takes shape — revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA — Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her. With mordant wit and keen emotional insight, Jennifer duBois delivers a novel of propulsive psychological suspense and rare moral nuance. *Cartwheel* will keep you guessing until the final page, and its questions about how well we really know one another — and ourselves — will linger well beyond.

He asked the water to lift him, to carry him, to avenge him. He made his muscles shape his fury, made every stroke declare his hate. And the water obeyed; the water would give him his revenge. No one could beat him, no one came close. His whole life, Danny Kelly’s only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he’s ever done-every thought, every dream, every action-takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment. His parents struggle to send him to the most prestigious private school with the finest swimming program; Danny loathes it there and is bullied and shunned as an outsider, but his coach is the best and knows Danny is, too, better than all those rich boys, those pretenders. Danny’s win-at-all-cost ferocity gradually wins favour with the coolest boys-he’s Barracuda, he’s the psycho, he’s everything they want to be but don’t have the guts to get there. He’s going to show them all. He would be first, everything would be alright when he came first, all would be put back in place. When he thought of being the best, only then did he feel calm. Should we teach our children to win, or should we teach them to live? How do we make and remake our lives? Can we atone for our past? Can we overcome shame? And what does it mean to be a good person?

It is the lives of the farmers, townspeople and soldiers training and working in Australia, for this cataclysmic international event that is taking place at a distance, that we explore. This is not the Western Front but a NSW farming community having to deal with the enemy. Many of the townspeople and soldiers have husbands, sons, brothers who are away at war, missing, imprisoned, or perhaps dead. The moral quandary they have is deciding how to treat these PoWs in their midst.  Do they treat them with disdain, as the enemy? Or with respect and an element of care in the hope that their own loved ones on the other side of the world will be treated with the same care? Will keeping these PoWs alive in Australia keep their own people alive over there?  Alice, a young woman living a dull life with her father-in-law on his farm as her husband of less than a year fights the grand war, begins a relationship with Giancarlo, the Italian immigrant from the PoW camp assigned to work on their farm. Giancarlo is bright and charming and gives an insight into the other side of the war, a war he did not willingly participate in, nor support. Alice discovers the world is much larger and more complex than she had been given to understand.  The machinations of life in the PoW camp, the separate housing of Italians, Japanese and Koreans to accommodate all their different needs  including different sporting fancies the concerts that take place are fascinating. But never more interesting than the lives, decision-making and relationships of those attempting to manage the camps.

While you are here…

Enter to win Seven Deadlies by Gigi Levangie (US & Canada only)

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