It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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

Life…

I’ve enjoyed a much quieter week, punctuated only by the usual commitments. I even found time to watch Catching Fire (finally) and Gravity (really good) and finish Season 2 of Continuum on Netflix, didn’t do a lot of housework though…

What I Read Last Week

The Wrong Girl by Jennifer Smart

The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit

Iron Junction by Charlotte Nash

Terms & Conditions by Robert Glancy

Skeletons by Jane Fallon

Paris Lettersby Janice MacLeod

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Making Soapies in Kabul by Trudi-Ann Tierney ★★★★1/2

Review: The Wrong Girl by Zoe Foster ★★★1/2

Review: The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit ★★★★1/2

Review: Iron Junction by Charlotte Nash ★★★1/2

Review: Terms & Conditions by Robert Glancy ★★★1/2

Review: Skeletons by Jane Fallon ★★★

Stuff on Sundays: Bookshelf Bounty

Review: Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod ★★★

What I Am Reading Today

When Darcy Fletcher drags a handsome sailor from a stricken yacht, she finds herself drawn into his mysterious world. Having saved his life, can she now rescue him from his dark past? Or will that endanger all she holds most dear?  Noah, keeper of the peace and guardian of the Banskia Cove secrets, can’t tell Darcy the real reason this stranger has washed up on their shores. If she understood the links between him and her own dysfunctional family, he’d lose her love for good.  As they take refuge in an old whaling station for the night, only one thing is certain – by morning, no one will be the same again. Lies will surface. Hearts will break, and not all will find safe harbour.  A heart-stopping novel of high drama and desire by Australia’s award-winning master of romantic suspense

 What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

On the inside, Detective Nhu ‘Ned’ Kelly is a mess. Stitched up after being shot, her brain’s taking even longer to heal than her body. On the outside, though, she’s perfect, at least as far as the top brass are concerned. Cabramatta is riding high on the new ‘Asian crime wave’, a nightmare of heroin, home invasions, and hits of all kinds, and the cops need a way into the world of teenaged dealers and assassins. They think Ned’s Vietnamese heritage is the right fit but nothing in Cabra can be taken at face value. Ned doesn’t speak the language and the ra choi – the lawless kids who have ‘gone out to play’ – are just running rings around her. The next blow could come from anywhere, or anyone. And beyond the headlines and hysteria, Ned is itching to make a play for the kingpin, the person behind it all with the money and the plan and the power. Beams Falling is the brilliantly compelling and gritty second novel by the rising star of Australian crime writing. A portrait of our recent past, it’s also a compulsive and utterly authentic insight into the way both cops and criminals work.

For a moment that afternoon, it was only woman and water, the Bay in all its sickening glory squaring itself for a fight. Life hasn’t always been perfect, but for Abe and Cassandra Green, an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. He’s a doctor piloting his new sailing boat. She’s a sculptor finally getting a bit of recognition. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is off to Harvard at the end of the summer. But then there is a terrible row. Cassandra has been unfaithful. In a fit of insanity, Abe throws himself off the boat. A love story that begins with the end of a marriage, The Violet Hour follows a 21st century American family through past and present, from a lavish New York wedding to the family funeral home in suburban Washington, from a drunken PTA party to a scene of unexpected public violence. In this resonant odyssey of youth, middle age, ambition and loss, intimacy is fragile and the search for gratification breeds destruction. Here is a family ripped apart by individual desires. And here is a family possibly reborn

She trusted the man she loved. It was the most dangerous things she had ever done … A gripping story of gangs, drugs, girls and unbreakable bonds. Perfect for fans of Martina Cole and Mandasue Heller. No one can touch Del Williams – the hardest gangster in Soho. He’s got the monopoly on the drugs, the clubs and the girls – it’d be a mistake to underestimate him. The one person he’d take a bullet for is tough, beautiful Bunny Barker, mother of their daughter Star. Bunny is determined to shield Star from ‘life’ but Del has a lot of enemies. When a familiar face appears from their past, their family is put into terrible danger. Can Bunny protect Star from the demons of her own past, and her very worst nightmare?

Lauren Clay has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq just in time to spend the holidays with her family. Before she enlisted, Lauren, a classically trained singer, and her brother Danny, a bright young boy obsessed with Arctic exploration, made the most of their modest circumstances, escaping into their imaginations and forming an indestructible bond. Joining the army allowed Lauren to continue to provide for her family, but it came at a great cost. When she arrives home unexpectedly, it’s clear to everyone in their rural New York town that something is wrong. But her father is so happy to have her home that he ignores her odd behavior and the repeated phone calls from an army psychologist. He wants to give Lauren time and space to acclimate to civilian life. Things seem better when Lauren offers to take Danny on a trip to visit their mother upstate. Instead, she guides them into the glacial woods of Canada on a quest to visit the Jeanne d’Arc basin, the site of an oil field that has become her strange obsession. As they set up camp in an abandoned hunting lodge, Lauren believes she’s teaching Danny survival skills for the day when she’s no longer able to take care of him. But where does she think she’s going, and what happened to her in Iraq that set her on this path?

Kelly Roberts finds refuge in the rugged and remote cattle country of northern Australia, but when tragedy strikes she is forced to find a new life for herself and her children outside of Rainsford Station. She retreats to the family’s only asset – a freehold block of land owned jointly by her eccentric father-in-law, Quinn. In the valley at Evergreen Springs, Quinn hopes the fractured family might all come together to start over again. Life in Queensland’s far north is wildly unpredictable, with daily challenges and the wet season, in all its wild majesty, to survive. But when twelve-year-old Rob makes the gruesome discovery of a dead body in the valley, real peril comes far too close to home. Tracking North is a beautiful family story about life in the stunning Gulf Country, one of the world’s most unique and fascinating places.

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.  Welcome to Christine’s life.

While you are here…

Smile!

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