It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #SundayPost #SundaySalon

 

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…

I’ve posted over the last two weeks about the fires near me, my town was at the time ringed by blazes, but at a safe distance from my home. That changed on Thursday when those fires, fanned by high heat and strong winds, grew out of control.

The first map below is an overview of the region…the fire grounds to the north west, east and far south encroach on the 20km radius around my home (the light blue circle), the second satellite map shows why we are so vulnerable surrounded as we are by bush, and the third map shows how close the fire is, literally just on the other side of the river (my home is marked by the binoculars).

Luckily my husband opted to come home from work in Tuncurry at midday on Friday, and walked in the door just as they closed the highway (the yellow line), which has been closed ever since. I have friends who have had to evacuate their homes and I’ve had one of my youngest sons friends staying with us while his parents remained on their property to help defend it. Schools have been closed til Wednesday (much to my children’s delight) and my husband won’t be able to get to work either.

While tonight the firefighters, who have been joined by the army and fire services from other states who have been flown in, have gained some control, the NSW government has declared a Catastrophic Fire Rating -never before used- for our region ahead of Tuesday when we are expecting temperatures of 38c+ (100f+) and strong winds. If the fire takes hold here in town, crossing the river through an ember attack, we literally have nowhere to go. So, it’s a stressful here at the moment, all we can do is wait and hope conditions won’t be as bad as feared.

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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…

Up On Horseshoe Hill by Penelope Janu

Unmentionable by Therese Oneill

Bush Doctors by Annabelle Brayley

They Walk Among Us by Benjamin and Rosanna Fitton

An Island on the Edge of the World by Deborah Rodriguez

Killer Instinct by Donald Grant

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New Posts

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading #SundayPost #SundaySalon

Review: The Great Divide by L.J.M. Owen

#NonficNov Review: Bush Doctors by Annabelle Brayley

Review: The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

#NonficNov Book Pairings

#NonficNov Review: Unmentionable by Therese Oneill

#NonficNov Review: They Walk Among Us by Benjamin and Rosanna Fitton

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What I’m Reading This Week

House of Wishes by Jenn J. McLeod

A story for mothers, daughters, fathers and sons: about the choices we make, the connections that matter, the secrets we keep, and the power of a wish.

Dandelion House is ready to reveal its secrets.

Dandelion House, 1974

Two teenage girls—strangers—make a pact to keep a secret.

Calingarry Crossing, 2014

For forty years, Beth and her mum have been everything to each other, but Beth is blind-sided when her mother dies, and her last wish is to have her ashes spread in a small-town cemetery.

On the outskirts of Calingarry Crossing, when Beth comes across a place called Dandelion House Retreat, her first thought is how appealing the name sounds. With her stage career waning, and struggling to see a future without her mum, her marriage, and her child, she hopes it’s a place where she can begin to heal.

After meeting Tom, a local cattleman, Beth is intrigued by his stories of the cursed, century-old river house and its reclusive owner, Gypsy. The more Beth learns, however, the more she questions her mother’s wishes.

When meeting Beth leads Tom to uncover a disturbing connection to the old house, he must decide if the truth will help a grieving daughter or hurt her more.

Should Dandelion House keep its last, long-held secret?

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The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective by Susannah Stapleton

Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society’s finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital aspects of her own identity in order to thrive in a class-obsessed and male-dominated world. And – as Susannah Stapleton reveals – she was a most unreliable witness to her own life.

Who was Maud? And what was the reality of being a female private detective in the Golden Age of Crime?

Interweaving tales from Maud West’s own ‘casebook’ with social history and extensive original research, Stapleton investigates the stories Maud West told about herself in a quest to uncover the truth.

With walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Sayers, Parisian gangsters and Continental blackmailers, The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective is both a portrait of a woman ahead of her time and a deliciously salacious glimpse into the underbelly of ‘good society’ during the first half of the twentieth century

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Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic

Caleb Zelic, profoundly deaf since early childhood, has always lived on the outside – watching, picking up telltale signs people hide in a smile, a cough, a kiss. When a childhood friend is murdered, a sense of guilt and a determination to prove his own innocence sends Caleb on a hunt for the killer. But he can’t do it alone. Caleb and his troubled friend Frankie, an ex-cop, start with one clue: Scott, the last word the murder victim texted to Caleb. But Scott is always one step ahead.

This gripping, original and fast-paced crime thriller is set between a big city and a small coastal town, Resurrection Bay, where Caleb is forced to confront painful memories. Caleb is a memorable protagonist who refuses to let his deafness limit his opportunities, or his participation in the investigation. But does his persistence border on stubbornness? And at what cost? As he delves deeper into the investigation Caleb uncovers unwelcome truths about his murdered friend – and himself.

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Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls by Carrie Goldberg

Nobody’s Victim is an unflinching look at a hidden world most people don’t know exists—one of stalking, blackmail, and sexual violence, online and off—and the incredible story of how one lawyer, determined to fight back, turned her own hell into a revolution.

“We are all a moment away from having our life overtaken by somebody hell-bent on our destruction.” That grim reality—gleaned from personal experience and twenty years of trauma work —is a fundamental principle of Carrie Goldberg’s cutting-edge victims’ rights law firm.

Riveting and an essential timely conversation-starter, Nobody’s Victim invites readers to join Carrie on the front lines of the war against sexual violence and privacy violations as she fights for revenge porn and sextortion laws, uncovers major Title IX violations, and sues the hell out of tech companies, schools, and powerful sexual predators. Her battleground is the courtroom; her crusade is to transform clients from victims into warriors.

In gripping detail, Carrie shares the diabolical ways her clients are attacked and how she, through her unique combination of advocacy, badass relentlessness, risk-taking, and client-empowerment, pursues justice for them all. There are stories about a woman whose ex-boyfriend made fake bomb threats in her name and caused a national panic; a fifteen-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted on school grounds and then suspended when she reported the attack; and a man whose ex-boyfriend used a dating app to send more than 1,200 men to ex’s home and work for sex. With breathtaking honesty, Carrie also shares her own shattering story about why she began her work and the uphill battle of building a business.

While her clients are a diverse group—from every gender, sexual orientation, age, class, race, religion, occupation, and background—the offenders are not. They are highly predictable. In this book, Carrie offers a taxonomy of the four types of offenders she encounters most often at her firm: assholes, psychos, pervs, and trolls. “If we recognize the patterns of these perpetrators,” she explains, “we know how to fight back.”

Deeply personal yet achingly universal, Nobody’s Victim is a bold and much-needed analysis of victim protection in the era of the Internet. This book is an urgent warning of a coming crisis, a predictor of imminent danger, and a weapon to take back control and protect ourselves—both online and off.

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Thanks for stopping by!