The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.
Life…
Watching: Justified with my husband – we are trying to get through all the seasons before our Amazon Prime membership trial expires
Listening: To my daughter singing Taylor Swift’s latest song, Blank Space, over and over and over and over…
Doing: Reluctantly moving out of my office to give my youngest daughter her own room (she has to share with my biggest bookshelf though, it won’t fit anywhere else!)
Cooking: Tonight, it’s taco burrito’s.
Thinking: The weather is horrible, too hot and sticky.
Reading: As below
What I Read Last Week
The Dead Wife’s Handbook by Hannah Beckerman
Fly In Fly Out by Georgina Penney
Behind the Gates of Gomorrah by Stephen Seager
Mobile Library by David Whitehouse
A Things of Beauty by Lisa Samson
New Posts
(click the titles to read my reviews)
Review: The List by Joanna Bolouri ★★★
Review: What Burns Away by Melissa Falcon Field ★★★★
Review: The Dead Wife’s Handbook by Hannah Beckerman ★★
AWW Feature: A Rig Girl’s Night Out with Georgina Penney
Review: Fly In Fly Out by Georgina Penney ★★★1/2
Review: Behind the Gates of Gomorrah by Stephen Seager ★★★★
Review: Mobile Library by David Whitehouse ★★★1/2
Review: A Thing of Beauty by Lisa Samson ★★★
What I Am Reading Today
All families have their problems. None more so than the mad Maxwells of Tawny Brooks Winery. Situated in the heart of the Margaret wine region, this world-renowned winery was the childhood home to three sisters, Natasha, Eve, and Phoebe. Now all three girls are enmeshed in their city lives and are eager to forget their past, until Phoebe decides to get married at home. . . This novel follows three extraordinary women’s journey to find love. It is a complex story, full of warmth, humor, and family. It’s about recognizing that sometimes your best friend may also be your sister.
What I Plan To Read This Week
(click the covers to view at Goodreads)
What if the place you called ‘home’ happened to be a funeral home? Kate Mayfield explores what it meant to be the daughter of a small-town undertaker in this fascinating memoir evocative of Six Feet Under and The Help, with a hint of Mary Roach’s Stiff.
The first time I touched a dead person, I was too short to reach into the casket, so my father picked me up and I leaned in for that first, empty, cold touch. It was thrilling, because it was an unthinkable act. After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for thirteen years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death. A place where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. The place where Kate would spend the entirety of her childhood. In a memoir that reads like a Harper Lee novel, Mayfield draws the reader into a world of Southern mystique and ghosts. Kate’s father set up shop in a small town where he was one of two white morticians during the turbulent 1960s. Jubilee, Kentucky, was a segregated, god-fearing community where no one kept secrets, except the ones they were buried with. By opening a funeral home, Kate’s father also opened the door to family feuds, fetishes, and victims of accidents, murder, and suicide. The family saw it all. They also saw the quiet ruin of Kate’s father, who hid alcoholism and infidelity behind a cool, charismatic exterior. As Mayfield grows from trusting child to rebellious teen, she begins to find the enforced hush of the funeral home oppressive, and longs for the day she can escape the confines of her small town. In The Undertaker’s Daughter, Kate has written a triumph of a memoir. This vivid and stranger-than-fiction true story ultimately teaches us how living in a house of death can prepare one for life.
One modern-day Rapunzel. One naked man. Two very different wicked witches. At 22, Sage Rampion has barely spoken to a man, but she’s read a lot about them. She was raised and home-schooled by an expert on the subject: her grandmother, a Professor of Womyn’s Studies (spelt with a Y). When Sage meets the male nude model she saw from her grandma’s office window, her sheltered world begins to unravel. She starts asking questions about how she was brought up, and the teenage mother who abandoned her. It looks like the battle of the sexes is way more complex (and far more fun) than she’s been told …
To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. Just goes to show. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together. Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn’t have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself. Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there.
Dave Hooper has the hangover from hell, a demonic ex-wife and the claws of the tax office sinking into him. So the last thing he needs is an explosion at the off-shore oil rig where he works. But this is no ordinary industrial accident, and despite the news reports, Dave knows that terrorists aren’t to blame for the disaster. He knows because he has killed one of the things responsible. When he wakes up in a hospital bed guarded by Navy SEALs, he realises he hasn’t been on a bad acid trip. It all really happened. Yet his shock is cut short by a startling self-discovery; his contact with the creature has transformed the overweight, balding safety manager into something else entirely. A goddamned superhero. Then he learns the attack on the rig is only the first.
***********
I am so eager for my copy of The Girl on the Train…and now I’m drooling over Let Down Your Hair and The Undertaker’s Daughter….thanks for sharing!
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Always happy to please Laurel 🙂
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Can’t wait to read what you think of The Girl on the Train. Happy reading
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It’s been a popular read
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Nice of you to give up your office. Looking forward to The Girl on the Train. Have a great week.
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I have to admit it’s under protest!
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I quite enjoyed The Girl on the Train and it seems to be attracting a bit of attention. I’ve never actually read any of John Birmingham’s novels though I love his columns and his wit!
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Emergence is the first of a series, I am expecting to enjoy it.
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sorry to hear it’s ‘too hot and sticky’ there );
course if I could, I’d happily trade you… -30 degrees before windchill !
hapPy office moving 🙂
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That’s chilly! Keep warm!
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Yes hot and sticky is unpleasant. It’s like that here too, but probably not as hot. My sister gladly returned from the Gold Coast where she was visiting her daughter and son in law. Hot! I’m making a note of The Maxwell Sisters, think I would enjoy it.
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I’m sure you would Kathryn!
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Hot there, cold here. Too bad we can’t have a happy in between. 🙂 Hope you had a great weekend, and Amazon Prime is nice. I’m curious about Girl on the Train too…
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I’m looking forward to Autumn, the weather tends to be pleasantly moderate.
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Weather is gross here too Shelleyrae, so humid, I’m melting unless I sit on top of the aircon lol. The Maxwell Sisters sounds like my type of read … I’m tempted. Hope it cools down soon, happy reading 🙂
PS are you going to ARRC in Canberra in March?
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Sadly it’s not in the budget Sheree.
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Sadly, I had to give up my reading room for my older son who moved back home to save up some money. I feel your pain.
Here’s mine!
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I was hoping my oldest would have moved out before now so I could keep my office, but she isn’t budging lol
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Ooo The Girl on the Train sounds so good! I have noticed a lot of people reading it, but somehow missed always missed the synopsis. Sounds fabulous!
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The Undertaker’s Daughter and The Girl on the Train both sound really good. I hope you enjoy them and your other books.!
I’ll take hot and sticky weather over what we have here in the States! (Summer is my favorite time of year) I can hear the snow plows outside the window but at least I have the day off so I don’t have to be out in the ice and snow 🙂
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I don’t think I’d like the ice and snow either 🙂
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My aunt and uncle love Justified and tried to get me to watch it when it was on the air…I never got around to it 😦 Everyone seems to be reading The Girl on the Train these days! I’m planning to get to it soon!
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My husband and I are really enjoying it,
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“The Undertaker’s Daughter” sounds fascinating!
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The Undertaker’s Daughter sounds so interesting! What a nice mom you are, giving up your office space. Ha, the bookcase in my son’s room was originally meant for him, but is mostly filled up with my overflow books. I hope you have a great week!
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Wow you have some fantastic books to show off this week! I have The Dead Wife’s Handbook on my shelf to read (my daughter enjoyed it when she read it over Christmas) and The Girl On The Train is a wonderful read. I also like the sound of The Undertakers Daughter, my Mum used to work for a funeral director but only doing the admin and stuff…. not a job you can imagine that someone decides they want to do but luckily someone does 😉
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Aw, moving out of your office… That’s a pity. Hopefully another of your kids will move out soon and you can have an office again (that sounds mean!).
Have a good reading week. I’ve been deliberating about The Girl on the Train but decided not to ask for a review copy. I have too much to read – and I’m reading a lot slower these days. More than a week on a (fat) book is no exception (I hate to take that long but it just happens…).
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A lot of good books read.
The Girl On The Train has been calling my name for a while now. 🙂 The Undertaker’s Daughter looks good too.
Awwww on having to move so your daughter can have her own room. It will all work out.
ENJOY your reading week and the heat. We are freezing here. 🙂
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My It’s Monday, What Are You Reading
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I’m drooling over your books, especially The Girl on the Train, which I’ve requested from the library.
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What we do for love (husbands and children). You are hot while many of us are burrowing into blankets. You have plenty of new books! Enjoy!
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I’m ready for some hot weather, but we’ve got a long way to go before we get there. Enjoy your week!
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I can’t wait to see what you think of The Undertaker’s Daughter. Oh and I love Taylor Swift so I’d be singing along with your daughter. 😉
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