It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

A rather awesomely productive week for me…

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What I Read Last Week

Tony Hogan Bought Me an Icecream Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson

The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson

Close Up by Kate Forster

In the Blood by Lisa Unger

The Priority List by David Menasche

Someday, Someday. Maybe by Lauren Graham

Doomed by Tracy Deebs

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Hurt by Brian McGilloway Hurt ★★★1/2

Review: Snowblind by Christopher Golden ★★★★1/2

Review: Tony Hogan Bought Me an Icecream Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson ★★★★

Review: The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson ★★★

Review: A Breath of Frost by Alyxandra Harvey ★★★

It’s the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop!

Stuff on Sundays: Eclectic Reader Recommendations

Review: The Priority List by David Menasche

What I Am Reading Today

Dylan Mint has Tourette’s. For Dylan, life is a constant battle to keep the bad stuff in – the swearing, the tics, the howling dog that escapes whenever he gets stressed. And, as a sixteen-year-old virgin and pupil at Drumhill Special School, getting stressed is something of an occupational hazard.  But then a routine visit to the hospital changes everything. Overhearing a hushed conversation between the doctor and his mother, Dylan discovers that he’s going to die next March.  So he grants himself three parting wishes: three ‘Cool Things To Do Before I Cack It’. It isn’t a long list, but it is ambitious, and he doesn’t have much time. But as Dylan sets out to make his wishes come true, he discovers that nothing – and no-one – is quite as he had previously supposed. A story about life, death, love, sex and swearing, When Mr Dog Bites will take you on one *#@! of a journey . .

 What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

The daughter of a pastoralist, Daphne grew up in a remote valley of the Brindabella Ranges where she raised her family with her husband, Doug, in a world of horses, cattle and stockmen. But then the government forced them off their land and years later, Daphne is still trying to come to terms with the grief of her departure from the mountains and its tragic impact on her husband. It is during a regular visit to her valley that she meets Abby, a lonely young woman shying away from close contact with others, running from a terrible event in her early teens. But Daphne is a patient mentor, and slowly a gentle friendship develops between them. While Abby’s family history means she tries to ignore her feelings for journalist Cameron, Daphne struggles with her own past and the long shadow it may have cast over the original inhabitants of their land. Both women must help each other face the truth and release long-buried family secrets before they can be free. The Grass Castle is a sweeping rural epic that reflects the strength which resides in us all: the courage to grow and learn from the past.

On a hot day in July, the body of a 16-year-old girl is pulled from the river Main near Frankfurt. She has been brutally attacked and murdered, but no one seems to miss her and no one seems to know who she is. Investigations lead to a rural children’s home in the mountains, and to a TV presenter whose research took her too close to the wrong people. As investigators Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein dig deeper, they uncover a pit of evil and cruelty in the midst of a middle class idyll. And then the case gets personal . .

When Lizzie Blake knocks on the door of Dan McSwaine’s beach house at Middle Point, she barely recognises the man who answers. Whatever happened to the guy who swaggered into her home town with a grin and left with her heart in his back pocket? Lizzie wonders if he’ll ever be that man again — and if she should risk everything she’s built her life on to help him. Dan can’t normally bear to be more than ten minutes from a hip bar, an imported beer and a group of hot women. So what is he doing holed up in a falling down beach shack at Middle Point? All he knows is that he’s made some crazy decisions since the night a truck slammed into his car and almost killed him. The first one was to think that buying a crumbling piece of coastal real estate was a good idea. The second crazy decision was to try to hide away from the world when a woman like Lizzie Blake is determined to drag him right back into it…

Esteemed human rights lawyer Su-Lin Tan barely recognises Professor Paris Thumboo when he delivers a history lecture in London. For the last time she saw him was in a crowded Malayan courtroom more than half a century ago, during the trial that would change her life…It’s 1951 and Malaya is in the grip of ‘The Emergency’ between the government forces and communist rebels. Yet eight-year-old Su-Lin lives in relative ignorance of the chaos raging around her. That is until she shadows her beloved father, esteemed defence barrister K. C. Tan, as he embarks on a controversial new case – and into Su-Lin’s life walks war hero Dr Anna Thumboo, her son Paris and her lover, Toh Kei, the enigmatic leader of the jungle rebels. For Anna and Toh Kei, the trial is a matter of life and death. For Su-Lin it’s the start of a journey of discovery – about love and sacrifice, about truth and lies, and about fighting for what you believe in, whatever the cost.

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