It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

Time seems to be accelerating as we head for the end of the year. We have been kept busy during the last week with school disco’s, formal dress fittings, basketball games, Scouts activities, catching up with friends etc etc. My oldest daughter is currently in Adelaide performing at the National Gymfest, she returns this week just in time to attend her Year 12 school formal on Thursday. This week my husband and I will also celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary on Tuesday and it is my mother’s birthday on Wednesday. So I am resigned to the fact that it will be another week with too much to do and not enough hours in the day – or night!

What I Read Last Week

Lies You Wanted To Hear by James Whitfield Thomson

Driftwood by Mandy Magro

The Lazy Hostess by Babe Scott

Barracuda by Christos Tsoilkas

The Good House by Ann Leary

Color Me Bad by Sharon Sala

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Shame and the Captives by Tom Keneally  ★★★1/2

Review: Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois ★★★★

Review: Driftwood by Mandy Magro ★★★

Review: Lies You Wanted To Hear by James Whitfield Thomson ★★★★1/2

Literary Blog Hop Nov 9th to 13th

Stuff on Sundays:  Goodreads Choice Awards 2013

What I Am Reading Today

What happens when you think you have it all, and then suddenly it’s taken away? Willa Chandler-Golden’s father changed the world with his self-help bestseller, Is It Really Your Choice? Why Your Entire Life May Be Out of Your Control. Millions of devoted fans now find solace in his notion that everything happens for a reason. Though Willa isn’t entirely convinced of her father’s theories, she readily admits that the universe has delivered her a solid life: a reliable husband, a fast-paced career. Sure there are hiccups – negative pregnancy tests, embattled siblings – but this is what the universe has brought, and life, if she doesn’t think about it too much, is wonderful. Then her (evidently not-so-reliable) husband proposes this: A two-month break. Two months to see if they can’t live their lives without each other. And before Willa can sort out destiny and fate and what it all means, she’s axed from her job, her 12 year-old nephew Nicky moves in, her ex-boyfriend finds her on Facebook, and her best friend Vanessa lands a gig writing for Dare You!, the hottest new reality TV show. And then Vanessa lures Willa into dares of her own – dares that run counter to her father’s theories of fate, dares that might change everything…but only if Willa is brave enough to stop listening to the universe and instead aim for the stars.

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Crosswords are not as old as you think. The first one appeared a century ago, the little square keeping in remarkable shape. Cluetopia is here to toast the centenary, whizzing you through 100 years of remarkable clues, across the world, seeking the inside stories. Come travel to New Guinea, Venezuela and Metropolis: every destination arising from a clue. Encounter love, murder, hoaxes, propaganda. Visit a Maori funeral, a Bass Strait oil-rig, a Russian game show-just some of side-trips locked inside a crossword. With almost 100 mini-chapters, each one with a clue to crack, Cluetopia is a book for word lovers and puzzle fans. You’ll see how crosswords capture the life around them, from prison cells to outer space. A holiday for the head, Cluetopia is as fun, as wild and as wordy as David’s previous bestseller, Puzzled.

Shannon Will is nearing thirty and has already made six trips to rehab (not that anyone’s counting). But this time, she swears, will be different. She’ll clean up her act, go to meetings, find a sponsor, and make a clean break with her past—starting with a new phone number. But old ties aren’t so easy to sever. When Shannon’s new phone starts getting messages she was never meant to see, Shannon has to decide whether to risk getting involved, or stay safely disconnected. Gripping, suspenseful and smart, Disconnected is a riveting tale of addiction and obligation, secrets and redemption.

As a teacher at the Fawlty Towers of London language colleges, Sebastian Pink is accustomed to confusion caused by the complexities of the English language. Married to Sarah, a career woman who has long been a total workaholic but is now desperate for a baby, Sebastian feels ambivalent about becoming a parent. Sarah has effectively been absent from his life for so long that they’ve grown apart and these days his social life has come to revolve around his work; walking his dog, Claude; and his obsessive daily completion of the cryptic crossword. When an alluring Czech student called Eva becomes one of Sebastian’s students – and inadvertently provides him with the last solution in his morning crossword – he finds himself drawn into a sordid suburban tangle based mainly on his own misinterpretations and feverish imagination. Happy Eva After is a seriously funny comedy about a bloke, his wife, his dog, an alluring young woman with a mysterious past, and the nuances of the English language.

The thrilling finale to Fukuda’s vampire trilogy. After barely escaping the Mission alive, Gene and Sissy face an impossible task: staying alive long enough to stop an entire world bent on their destruction. Bound on a train heading into the unknown with the surviving Mission girls, Gene, Sissy, David, and Epap must stick together and use everything they have to protect each other and their only hope: the cure that will turn the blood-thirsty creatures around them into humans again. Now that they know how to reverse the virus, Gene and Sissy have one final chance to save those they love and create a better life for themselves. But as they struggle to get there, Gene’s mission sets him on a crash course with Ashley June, his first love . . . and his deadliest enemy.

While you are here…

Enter to WIN Driftwood by Mandy Magro (Open Australian Residents only)

ENTER The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop (Open worldwide)

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