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Wednesday 28 January 2015

The Year in Books - January



Well it's been somewhat of a kindlefest here this month, with 6 out of the 9 books read have been on my Kindle or the iPad using the kindle app.

Just before Christmas I started Broken Angels by Graham Masterson only to realise within the first few pages that this was book two of four.  So I stopped and immediately downloaded White Bones. Come Christmas morning I then discovered I had been given a further eight books one of which was The Great Christmas Knit Off. Well with it being Christmas I felt this one needed to be read immediately so ended up with two books on the go at the same time.  Now normally I don't do that as I would normally confuse the stories and in turn would confuse myself (which doesn't always take a lot let me tell you).  But as they were so completely polls a part I didn't think I would get the two story lines mixed up.

The Great Christmas Knit Off.was a great little read very much a chick flick sorted of book and a little a long the lines of Bridgett Jone's diary.  If it were ever to be made into a film and I had to pick the actress to play Sybil I think it would have to be Joanna Page (of Gavin & Stacey fame).

Then it was back to the Graham Masterson Katie Maguire series of books in earnest.  I was totally immersed in White Bones & Broken Angels they were brilliant reads and the twists in the stories were fantastic.  I was definitely left needing to know more about Katie Maguire and what was going to happen in her life next.  The third in the series Red Light was good but not as good as the first two. Lastly I read Taken for Dead which in my humble opinion let the series down and was certainly less believable and more predictable in places.  There is a fifth book due out in Autumn of this year but until I see the synopsis I'm not sure that it will be a must have download.

This year I set myself challenges, as I do every year, I can't do resolutions as I know inside of three weeks I will have given up where as challenges seem to work for me.  This years book challenge is to re read some of those books I enjoyed reading in my child hood and that of my children.  January kicked off with The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. This was always one of my favourites every since I was at primary school and my then teacher Mrs Rose read it to us. From then I was hooked and when my daughter came along many years later it was one of the books we shared whilst she was growing up.  In fact since telling her about my challenge and which book I had picked as my January read she has now unearthed her own copy and is re-reading it again.  Who knows one day she may a daughter of her own to share it with.

The Winter Ghost - Kate Mosse was another dowload to my Kindle, I have always liked ghost stories and was looking forward to reading this one.  I was not to be disappointed. I was what I would call an easy read in as much as I could pick it up at varying times and not loose the thread of the story. I had sort of guessed the twist in the story but you were left not knowing for sure until the end which is just how I like my ghost stories to be.  I was given Misteltoe Bride for Christmas which is now in the queue for reading.

As I have already said,  and probably posted, I was given eight books this Christmas and I'm now going to tell you about another two. I think most of us thought it very sad when Lynda Bellingham lost her fight against cancer towards the end of last year. In her book  There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You she talks openly about her diagnosis and the impact it had on her and her family but in her usual light hearted manor without a bleak moment with in it and I'm sure it was her humor that got her through to the end.  The book stops at the point she makes her decision to stop any further treatment.

Now as you know from the selection of books that I read each month I like to pick a book of the month and my book for January 2015 is Kristin Hannah's Winter GardenIt tells the story of two sisters and their elderly parents. One sister was a stay local to mum and dad, married mum of two daughters and works in the family orchard business, the other is a high flying photojournalist, who travels all over the world.  Their mother has never really shown them love and affection and now as adults they struggle to show her any love and affection  back.  Throughout their childhood their mother used to tell them a fairy-tale of the  Black Knight, the Prince and the Peasant girl. The girls loved this story so much that they decide one Christmas to do the story as a pantomime. Their mother becomes very distressed and never repeats the story, what the girls hadn't realised was that the fairy-tale was actually the story of their mother before she had married their father.  When their elderly father becomes ill he tells his wife now is the time that she must finish telling their girls the story.  This takes the three women on a journey of discovery and for their mother to finally discover the truth.

This was a truly un-put-downable book and wherever I was you would find the book in my hand.




And there we are fast approaching the end of the first month of 2015, I wonder what other great reads we will discover this year.

Don't forget if you haven't already had a chance to check out Laura's Circle of Pine Trees Blog where she is hosting The Year in Books Project 2015. It's not too late to join in the fun of sharing your the books you read and you may find some great recommendations there too. 


Mx


5 comments:

  1. Hi and thanks for visiting my blog.... I've read Kristin Hannah's 'Home Front' and 'Fly Away' and enjoyed both. And I only discovered Amanda Prowse last year when the Book People did one of their cheap collections, just three books but it got me started reading her. I'm almost at the end of 'What Have I Done?' - have you read that one? A bit uncomfortable at times, describing the physical abuse meted out by Kathryn's husband and how she gets out of the situation - by killing him. And how she rebuilds her life, the effect all this had on her children. Brilliant writing.

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    1. I hadn't read Kristin Hannah before but I liked this one so much I will. I have Firefly Lane downloaded to my Kindle to read at some point in the future, just have a few others to get through first. I discovered Amanda Prowse when a colleague gave me Poppy Day as a gift as my son was about to go out to Afghanistan. From then I was hooked. Poppy Day was her first and not necessarily her best out of all she has now written but we all start somewhere don't we. I have read all she has written so far and I am eagerly awaiting for A Mothers Story to come out next month. I love the way each book is somehow linked even if you don't think so at the time as you carry on reading them you rediscover characters from her previous writing. As you say brilliant writing.

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  2. Hi and thanks for visiting my blog.... I've read Kristin Hannah's 'Home Front' and 'Fly Away' and enjoyed both. And I only discovered Amanda Prowse last year when the Book People did one of their cheap collections, just three books but it got me started reading her. I'm almost at the end of 'What Have I Done?' - have you read that one? A bit uncomfortable at times, describing the physical abuse meted out by Kathryn's husband and how she gets out of the situation - by killing him. And how she rebuilds her life, the effect all this had on her children. Brilliant writing.

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  3. My, my, girl, you sure have been busy reading. I too have a Kindle and then my girls bought me an Apple iPad which I went and downloaded a Kindle app to and so I have more on the iPad and trying to find the time to read just one book is a job because I stay so busy doing other stuff. Bedtime is always a good time to read, but I can't keep my eyes open unless I down a ton of coffee and then I am like a zombie. Thank you for sharing these books. I will keep them in mind. And, thank you also for coming to my blog and visiting me, commenting too, even when I was absent for a couple months.
    Susanne :)

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    1. Yep even I surprise myself how many I get through sometimes but I can tell you there are those that read over 100 in a year. Last year I got to 70 so we'll see whether I exceed that by the end of the year. Thank you for visiting my blog and yes I do like to keep an eye on people make sure they're ok when they have been absent for a while. You never know what is going on in peoples lives and sometimes you just like to know people care whether its virtual or not.

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