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 was able to buy toilet paper and flour off the shelf this week! It’s  been six weeks since either were available unless you were able to queue for an hour before the stores opened. I used the flour to make ANZAC Biscuits in honour of ANZAC Day.

Though originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli Campaign, their first engagement in the First World War (1914–1918) ANZAC Day is now a commemoration of all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and the suffering of all those who have served. Due to Covid-19 and social isolation regulations, the usual Dawn services and parades were cancelled, instead we were asked to stand at the top of our driveways with a candle as the service was broadcast over the radio at 6am, which I did while wearing my Grandfather’s medals for his service in WWII.

It’s the last Monday of the month so time to check in with my challenge progress. I’m not where I should be … but hey… still a pandemic 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge: 7/12

Australian Women Writers Challenge: 24/50

Aussie Author Challenge: 11/24

Nerd Reading Challenge: 19/52

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: 13/25

Social Justice Challenge: 2/5

SwordsnStars Challenge: 3/10

 

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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…

 

Something To Talk About by Rachael Johns

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Fake Law by The Secret Barrister

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

 

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New Posts…

 

Review: Something To Talk About by Rachael Johns

Review: Fake Law by The Secret Barrister

Review: The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

 

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Currently Reading

 

Inspired by the true story of a young Jewish girl – Hedy Bercu – who fled to Jersey from Vienna only to find herself trapped on the island during the German occupation.

In June 1940, the horror-struck inhabitants of Jersey watch as the German army unopposed takes possession of their island. Now only a short way from the English coast, the Germans plan their invasion.

Hedy Bercu, a young Jewish girl from Vienna who fled to the isolation and safety of Jersey two years earlier to escape the Nazis, finds herself once more trapped, but this time with no way of escape.

Hiding her racial status, Hedy is employed by the German authorities and secretly embarks on small acts of resistance. But most dangerously of all, she falls in love with German lieutenant Kurt Neumann — a relationship on which her life will soon depend.

A remarkable novel of finding hope and love when all seems at its darkest.

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What I’m Reading This Week…

 

Australian and New Zealand crime and thriller writing is booming globally, with antipodean authors regularly featuring on awards and bestseller lists across Europe and North America, and overseas readers and publishers looking more and more to tales from lands Down Under.

Hailing from two sparsely populated nations on the far edge of the former Empire – neighbours that are siblings in spirit, vastly different in landscape – Australian and New Zealand crime writers offer readers a blend of exotic and familiar, seasoned by distinctive senses of place, outlook, and humour, and roots that trace to the earliest days of our genre. Southern Cross Crime is the first comprehensive guide to modern Australian and New Zealand crime writing. From coastal cities to the Outback, leading critic Craig Sisterson showcases key titles frommore than 200 storytellers, plus screen dramas ranging from Mystery Road to Top of the Lake.

Fascinating insights are added through in-depth interviews with some of the prime suspects who paved the way or instigated the global boom, including Jane Harper, Michael Robotham, Paul Cleave, Emma Viskic, Paul Thomas, and Candice Fox.

xxxxxxx

 

Olivia Wolfe is a journalist who travels the world exposing heinous crimes. She has more enemies that most.

When her anonymous source is murdered, Wolfe must unravel the terrible secret that connects a series of gruesome murders. But powerful people want her stopped.

Betrayed and isolated, Wolfe is hunted by a faceless killer. Can she stay alive long enough to expose the shocking truth?

Four murders. Four countries. One terrible secret.

xxxxxxx

 

Nell Stevens’ life is a mess.

When her business goes bust and her relationship with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect instagram lives, she feels like a f*ck up. Even worse, a forty-something f*ck-up.

But when an old work contact lands her a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eightsomething widow, who is also adjusting to her new life and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.

Because Nell is determined. She’s going to completely turn her life around. This time next year things are going to be very different. First, though, she has a confession.

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India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Satara mountains southeast of Bombay, where the kingdom of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic accident. The kingdom is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur’s two maharanis, the dowager queen and the maharaja’s widow.

The royal ladies are in dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer’s council is required—but the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, India’s only female lawyer.  Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince’s future, but knows she is breaking a rule by traveling alone as a woman into the remote countryside. And she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?

xxxxxxx

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Thanks for stopping by!