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…

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I’m going away on holiday from mid-week and will be completely without internet access for at least five days. I will have a couple of posts scheduled in my absence. I don’t think I’ll have a lot of time to read but I’m hoping to at least start and finish The Last Chairlift by John Irving. It’s a chunkster at 900+ pages.

I finally joined StoryGraph this past week, though I’m not finding the interface particularly intuitive. My user name is @Shelleyrae, you can click here for my profile on The StoryGraph . Please leave your StoryGraph handle in the comments if you have one so I can follow you.

I made myself a Link.tree too, which you can see HERE and, thanks to a tip from Anne at Books of My Heart, I set up crossposting between my Twitter and Mastodon feeds.

It’s the last Monday of the month, so here’s my challenge update

Nonfiction Reader Challenge: 12/12

Aussie Author Challenge: 18/24

Historical Fiction Challenge: 15/25

Cloak and Dagger Challenge: 47/36

Pick Your Poison: 26/26

*Remember to SIGN UP for the 2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge*

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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…

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Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags by Jim Haynes

Murder in Williamstown by Kerry Greenwood

The Nocturnal Brain by Guy Leschziner

Retribution by Sarah Barrie

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New Posts…

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Review: The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke

Nonfiction November: Worldview Changers

Review: The Torrent by Amanda Gearing

Review: Keeping Up Appearances by Tricia Stringer

Bookshelf Bounty

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What I’m Reading This Week…

 

John Irving, one of the world’s greatest novelists, returns with his first novel in seven years—a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics.

In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor.

Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts; in The Last Chairlift, they aren’t the first or the last ghosts he sees.

John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time—among them, The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. A visionary voice on the subject of sexual tolerance, Irving is a bard of alternative families. In The Last Chairlift, readers will once more be in his thrall.

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Josh is a sweet, well-meaning university student with a big heart. After he impulsively steals two research mice from a campus laboratory, he hides them in the basement of the retirement village where he works. The mice are happy and so is Josh, until he discovers that the lab mice could cause a deadly disease.

Enter a cat called Harley, a dog called Bobby, the arrival of some mysterious packing boxes, and a strange spike in the village’s water bill.

As the clock ticks, and disaster looms, can the efforts of the Harewood Hall residents save the day?

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Jessie Else disappeared the summer the Lambs came to Magpie Beach. Not that the two events were connected at all, in reality; only in my own head, in my own world. They marked for me the end of a certain quiet time and the start of a more complicated living.

Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town – full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town – and partly because their neighbours treat them with such suspicion.

When Jessie Else, all of 9 years old, goes missing – it’s easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspects – but what they didn’t realise is that Jessie’s disappearance is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon all those secrets they’ve been trying to hide are going to be uncovered – and nothing will ever be the same again.

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Thanks for stopping by!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR @thebookdate #SundayPost @Kimbacaffeinate #SundaySalon @debnance This week I’m reading #TheLastChairlift #TheCastAwaysofHarewoodHall #AnAfterlifeforRosemaryLamb