The It’s Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at BookDate
I’m also linking to The Sunday Post @ Caffeinated Reviewer
And the Sunday Salon @ ReaderBuzz
Life…
It’s been a week of petty frustrations.
The most infuriating – for the fourth time in 3 years the heating element in my oven died mid meal. This time at least I could use the grill to finish dinner off, though it took almost two hours to do it, but it will take a few days until I can get the oven repaired. It’s a pain because I’ve already partially prepped a couple of meals for this week that require the oven, and at least one won’t keep.
The rest of the issues were mostly resolved, but managed to put a crimp in my plans for the week.
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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…
Careful What You Wish For by Hallie Ephron
State of Fear by Tim Ayliffe
Snake Island by Ben Hobson
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New Posts
Review: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Review: Careful What You Wish For by Hallie Ephron
Review: State of Fear by Tim Ayliffe
Six Degrees of Separation– The Elegance of the Hedgehog to The Desert Midwife
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What I’m Reading This Week
In the fall of 1957, Olivia McAlister is living in Opelika, Mississippi, caring for her two girls, June and Grace, and her husband, Holly. She dreams of living a much larger life–seeing the world and returning to her wartime job at a landing boat factory in New Orleans. As she watches over the birds in her yard, Olivia feels like an “accidental”—a migratory bird blown off course.
When Olivia becomes pregnant again, she makes a fateful decision, compelling Grace, June, and Holly to cope in different ways. While their father digs up the backyard to build a bomb shelter, desperate to protect his family, Olivia’s spinster sister tries to take them all under her wing. But the impact of Olivia’s decision reverberates throughout Grace’s and June’s lives. Grace, caught up in an unconventional love affair, becomes one of the “girls who went away” to have a baby in secret. June, guilt-ridden for her part in exposing Grace’s pregnancy, eventually makes an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile Ed Mae Johnson, an African-American care worker in a New Orleans orphanage, is drastically impacted by Grace’s choices.
As the years go by, their lives intersect in ways that reflect the unpredictable nature of bird flight that lands in accidental locations—and the consolations of imperfect return.
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Nadia gets the 7.30 train every morning without fail. Well, except if she oversleeps or wakes up at her friend Emma’s after too much wine.
Daniel really does get the 7.30 train every morning, which is easy because he hasn’t been able to sleep properly since his dad died.
One morning, Nadia’s eye catches sight of a post in the daily paper:
To the cute girl with the coffee stains on her dress. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors… Drink sometime?
So begins a not-quite-romance of near-misses, true love, and the power of the written word.
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Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked? Put together the pieces? Identify the suspect?
Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn’t have an ending. The killer was still out there.
But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.
You’ll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You’ll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara’s pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools―and the rules―to help solve murders yourself.
Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you’ve read before.
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A scandalous secret. A deadly bushfire. An agonizing choice.
Australia 1948. As a young woman single-handedly running Amiens, a sizeable sheep station in New South Wales, Kate Dowd is expected to fail. In fact the local graziers are doing their best to ensure she does.
However Kate cannot risk losing Amiens, or give in to her estranged husband Jack’s demands to sell. Because the farm is the only protection she can offer her half-sister Pearl, as the Aborigines Welfare Board calls for her forced adoption.
Ostracised by the local community for even acknowledging Pearl, Kate cannot risk another scandal. Which means turning her back on her wartime lover, Luca Canali . . .
Then Jack drops a bombshell. He wants a divorce. He’ll protect what’s left of Kate’s reputation, and keep Luca out of it – but at an extortionate price. Soon Kate is putting out fires on all fronts to save her farm, keep her family together and protect the man she loves. Until a catastrophic real fire threatens everything . .
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hope you get the oven fixed. I learned a while back, a fascinating secret to keeping the over clean, which has never caught fire(no worries) and I’ve been saving a tremendous amount of time. #Sunday Post
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Please share your secret 🙂
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Our Stop sounds like a really fun read and Chase the Darkness with Me sounds fascinating! Can’t wait to see what you think of them.
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Wow, that sounds awful! I hope your oven will be fixed soon!
Love the cover of The Accidentals!
Have a wonderful week and enjoy your books!
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My oven is going out too. I turn in on and then the gas doesn’t light for a long time and then all of a sudden it ignites with a woosh of flames. Yeah, not the safest thing, but it’s been 20 years so I guess we got our moneys worth. Hope you get yours fixed soon.
Chase Darkness With Me sounds good. Happy reading Shelleyrae! 🙂
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How frustrating indeed!!! Now I’ve been out of town so I’ll go read your review of Sorcery of Thorns 😉 let’s hope no more incident with the oven next week!
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How annoying! It shouldn’t be failing that often, should it? Regardless, I hope you get it fixed!
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It’s always a huge inconvenience when major appliances stopped working. I was without a washing machine for over a month, and I have three small children and five dogs. It was AWFUL. I hope you’re able to get it repaired soon!
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬
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Ah hate it when appliances go at crucial times. A big pain. The book that appeals to me out of your coming reads is The Burnt Country. I hope she totally rises over and above them all. I’m on her side.
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I hope you are able to get your oven fixed–and working for a long time to come without further problems. That sounds so frustrating.All four of your upcoming reads sound good. Our Stop appeals to my current mood in particular. I hope you have a great week! Happy Reading.
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Wow, your oven story sucks! I had an issue with my oven this week too. My sister was cooking salmon, and after she served it she put the leftovers in the oven and forgot to turn it off! It was crazy, the whole thing was burnt and you cannot imagine the smoke. At least the one we ate was good though.
Have a great week!
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That would be so irritating about the oven! Totally get that frustration.
Our Stop sounds fun!
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I’m sorry about your oven problems. How annoying especially while you are I the middle of cooking. Hope you have a great week!
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Sorry to hear about your oven. Mine is very old and I know I’ll have a day like yours soon. Crossing my fingers every time I use it.
My Sunday Post
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I love the sound of The Accidentals. I’m always fascinated with the lives of women in the past. It reminds me to appreciate my life when I see what women before me had to face.
Is there anything harder than dealing with an oven on the blink? Ovens used to be fairly inexpensive…but now…no.
I hope you have a great week and that you are able to get your oven repaired without a lot of expense.
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Hope your oven is working! Have a great week.
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Awesome list of books. The Accidentals is on my wish list. Hope you enjoy your books.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2019/08/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-aug-5.html
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Great looking books! Thanks for sharing, and enjoy your week.
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Sorry about your oven! i have a second oven – a small, inexpensive electric one.It’s useful for heating pies etc, and has never broken down, even after several years of use.
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I need to read Chase Darkness With Me! It’s definitely on the list.
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There must be something in the air, because we just replaced our washing machine. Ugh. Our Stop sounds like a cute summer (or for you, winter) read.
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How annoying about the oven! Chase Darkness With Me sounds intriguing. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
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That stinks about your oven! I hate when things happen like that. 😦
Our Stop looks so cute!!
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Oh dear. Sorry to hear about your oven. My parents have had similar bad luck with theirs. I hope the new element / over behaves itself for years to come. My weekly updates
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Oh no!! That’s frustrating about your oven going out on you mid-meal 😦 It looks like you got a lot of wonderful books in your haul! Happy Reading and I hope you enjoy all of your books!
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I really want to read Chase the Darkness With Me; I hope you enjoy it.
I’m sorry to hear about your oven, especially with meals mostly prepped. I hope you can fix it soon!
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
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I hope your oven gets fixed soon! Sorcery of Thorns is on my TBR! I hope you enjoy your books this week!
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Oui Stop sounds so adorable!! If only that would happen in real life!! ❤️ That’s awful that your oven quite on you again. How frustrating too that you were all ready prepping other meals. I hope you’re able to get it fixed quickly.
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That is just ugh about the oven. Our element went out, I got one off of Amazon and we replaced it ourselves. Luckily, it was easy to do and hasn’t gone out again. *knocks on wood*
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That’s so frustrating about your oven. I hope that you’ll be able to get it resolved soon so that your prepped meals don’t go to waste.
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After many repairs we recently replaced our double oven with a single one. Double oven sounds like a great idea but it ended up being double trouble. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on Our Stop.
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I really really want to read Sorcery of Thorns. Sorry about your heating element! I had that happening to my stove until someone told me that the aluminum I kept in the bottom of my oven for easy cleanup was causing it. It fixed my problem.
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Sounds like you had a similar week to mine with all the little frustrations. That sounds so frustrating the heating element died right in the middle of cooking your meal, what a pain. And that you couldn’t make one of your dishes because of your broken oven. I hope this week was a better one for you!
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I hate when things like that happen! No one needs them. Hope your oven will be fixed very soon. Happy reading.
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