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

Linking to: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at BookDate; Sunday Post @ Caffeinated Reviewer; and the Sunday Salon @ ReaderBuzz

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Life…

Good things:

*My youngest daughter is home for a whole week! I can’t express how full my heart is with everyone at the dinner table again.

*A zoom author talk with Tabitha Bird and Josephine Moon

*Two great TV shows, both of which were recommended on blogs I browsed last week (though I can’t remember whose). The first is The Irregulars, which my son and I enjoyed, and the second is Debris, which my husband and I are watching. I plan to binge Shadow and Bone with my daughter while she’s home this week.

It’s the last Monday of the month so time for a challenge update!

Nonfiction Reader Challenge 5/12

Australian Women Writers Challenge 34/50

Aussie Author Challenge 9/20

Historical Fiction Challenge  10/25

Books In Translation Challenge 1/4

What’s in a Name Challenge 4/6

Cloak and Dagger Challenge 10/25

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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…

The Rose Daughter by Maria Lewis

The Chase by Candice Fox

Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke

The Jam Queens by Josephine Moon

Learning to Live with Plants by Marta Orriols

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New Posts…

Review: The Rose Daughter by Maria Lewis

Review: The Chase by Candice Fox

Review: Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke

Review: The Jam Queens by Josephine Moon

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What I’m Reading This Week…

Spring of 1620 in a Lancashire fishing community and the memory of the slaughter at Pendle is tight around the neck of Sarah Haworth. A birthmark reveals that Sarah, like her mother, is a witch. Torn between yearning for an ordinary life and desire to discover what dark power she might possess, Sarah’s one hope is that her young sister Annie will be spared this fate.

The Haworth family eke out a meagre existence in the old plague village adjoining a God-fearing community presided over by a seedy magistrate. A society built upon looking the other way, the villagers’ godliness is merely a veneer. But the Haworth women, with their salves and poultices, are judged the real threat to morality.

When Sarah meets lonely farmer’s son Daniel, she begins to dream of a better future. Daniel is in thrall to the wild girl with storms in her eyes, but their bond is tested when a zealous new magistrate vows to root out sins and sinners. In a frenzy of fear and fury, the community begins to turn on one another, and it’s not long before they direct their gaze towards the old plague village … and does Daniel trust that the power Sarah wields over him is truly love, or could it be mere sorcery?

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Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend’s wedding in the north of Scotland. The playlist is all planned and the snacks are packed.

But, not long after setting off, a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver is none other than Addie’s ex, Dylan, who she’s avoided since their traumatic break-up two years earlier.

Dylan and his best mate are heading to the wedding too, and they’ve totalled their car, so Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride. The car is soon jam-packed full of luggage and secrets, and with three hundred miles ahead of them, Dylan and Addie can’t avoid confronting the very messy history of their relationship…

Will they make it to the wedding on time? And, more importantly… is this really the end of the road for Addie and Dylan?

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Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they’re changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful and inexplicably dangerous.

But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time – something her two famously glamorous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren’t the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realise that the story they’ve been told about their past is unravelling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.

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From being a TV newsreader in Sydney to a hotelier’s wife in the heart of China – this is a true story of reinvention, love and finding your place in the world.

Nicole Webb and her husband, James, are always up for an adventure, so when James is offered a job in the ancient city of Xi’an in north-west China, they jump at the chance. Nicole, James and three-year-old Ava fly into a world they know nothing about ¬– a place where they know no one.

Touching down, culture shock hits Nicole head on. It feels as if all eyes are on her and Ava, the only blondes in the jam-packed arrivals hall, two foreigners so far from home.

With honesty and humour, Nicole takes us on a journey of daily life in the Middle Kingdom at a time when the whole world is looking towards China.

We follow her search for friendship and acceptance where she discovers, no matter what your culture or background, we’re connected the world over by the common thread of humanity.

CHINA BLONDE gives us a very personal insight, told with a journalist’s eye view, into the lives of those who embraced Nicole with open arms. Her experiences along the way will resonate with anyone who’s ever built a life in a new home – be it across the city or across the world.

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Thanks for stopping by!