Game On: Tempting Twenty-eight by Janet Evanovich

When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen.  And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude whom she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy.  

Turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless.  Stephanie may not be the most technologically savvy sleuth, but she more than makes up for that with her dogged determination, her understanding of human nature, and her willingness to do just about anything to bring a fugitive to justice.  Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world.   

Another good, fun Stephanie Plum story. She only blew up 2 cars this time, but there was another man trying to get into her bed.

8/10

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Books bring them together - but friendship will transform all of their lives. Five very different women come together in this Top Ten bestseller, set in the Northern Territory of the 1970s, by an exceptional new Australian author.

In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.

Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe's designated successor but he has left the Territory - for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother's place. But that doesn't stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child.

With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben's English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.

Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick.

Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the list of world events for each year. The story is very much a taste of the Territory. I loved the line about the wet season meant that everyone was grumpy. So true!

9/10

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

ACCORDING TO JANUARY SCALLER, THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO RUN AWAY FROM YOUR OWN STORY, AND THAT'S TO SNEAK INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S . . . 

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr Locke, she feels little different from the artefacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored and utterly out of place.

But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

A story of layers. Told from a few different points of view and over different time scales. It all came together beautifully at the end.

8/10

Mayhem in St Malo by Jean Failler

Mary Lester is a French police lieutenant in Quimper, but she has been sent to Saint-Malo to investigate a beautiful young woman's death. The local superintendent concluded that the woman died of natural causes. Mary, who is both inquisitive and independent, thinks he is dead wrong. Not only that, but unless she takes decisive action, more lives may be lost.

It was an enjoyable, quick read. She was a bit slow to put the 3 missing persons cases together as relating to the murder so I got a bit frustrated with her. Overall it was good. I wouldn't go looking for more in the series, but if I came across them I would be happy to read them.

7/10

Night School by Lee Child

It's just a voice plucked from the air- 'The American wants a hundred million dollars'.

For what? Who from? It's 1996, and the Soviets are long gone. But now there's a new enemy. In an apartment in Hamburg, a group of smartly-dressed young Saudis are planning something big.

In the morning they gave Reacher a medal, and in the afternoon they sent him back to school.

Jack Reacher is fresh off a secret mission. The Army pats him on the back and sends him to a school with only three students- Reacher, an FBI agent, and a CIA analyst. Their assignment? 

To find that American. And what he's selling. And to whom. 

Jack Reacher stories are always so good. The story grabbed me from the start and I didn't want to put it down.

8/10

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

London, 1929. Joseph Waite is a man who knows what he wants. With his Havana cigars and Savile Row suits, he is one of Britain?s wealthiest men. And the last thing he needs is a scandal. When his eighteen-year- old daughter runs away from home, he is determined to keep the case aw ay from the police and the newspapers. So he turns to a woman renowned for her discretion and investigative powers ? the extraordinary Maisi e Dobbs. Immediately sensing the tensions pervading the Waite househol d, Maisie soon discovers that there are many reasons why Charlotte mig ht have left home. Instinctively Maisie feels that Charlotte is safe. Yet, suddenly, she finds herself confronting a murder scene.

This is my first Maisie Dobbs book and I was entertained and engaged and would happily read more in the series.

8/10

The Year of Living Danishly. by Helen Russell

When she was suddenly given the opportunity of a new life in rural Jutland, journalist and archetypal Londoner Helen Russell discovered a startling statistic: the happiest place on earth isn't Disneyland, but Denmark, a land often thought of by foreigners as consisting entirely of long dark winters, cured herring, Lego and pastries.What is the secret to their success? Are happy Danes born, or made? Helen decides there is only one way to find out: she will give herself a year, trying to uncover the formula for Danish happiness.

The author tried really hard to be witty and clever and didn't quite pull it off. An interesting look at being an ex-pat in a country we will never live in.

7/10

Three Gold Coins by Josephine Moon

One coin for love, one for marriage, one to return to Rome.

Two days ago, Lara Foxleigh tossed three gold euros into the Trevi Fountain. Now, she is caring for a cranky old man and living in a picturesque villa, half a world away from her home and the concerns of her loving family.

Soon, it seems as if those wishes she made in Rome just might be coming true, and she may even be able to help heal a fifteen-year-old tragedy.

Until Lara's past threatens to destroy everything she loves . . .

An OK read. Told from various point of view. and jumps around in time. No real surprises, no real thrills. Quick and easy read.

7/10

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”
"After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

A dark and twisted story of intergenerational incest. Couldn't put it down.

8/10

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son. 

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection - some key to understanding what makes us the people we become. 

5 stories, all set in a different time and place, all linked in some way. Some by an old, cracked Madonna statue, some by being the descendant of a previous story. All brilliantly written, all drag you into each persons story. At the end of each story I had to go do something else for a while before I could start to read the next. My favourites were the soldier in the POW camp, and The Second Sister started out set in a Victorian workhouse. Both sound depressing but at the end were quietly hopeful.

9/10

Cain His Brother by Anne Perry

Genvieve Stonefield's husband Angus is missing when she seeks William Monk's help to find him. She is convinced that he has been murdered by his twin brother Caleb, a shadowy figure who lives in the slums bordering the Thames and has always hated his respectable businessman brother. Although worried about Hester Latterly's health as she nurses victims of a typhoid outbreak in Limehouse, and threatened by a personal scandal, Monk is determined to bring one of the most bizarre cases he has ever encountered to its conclusion.

It wasn't 2 brothers, it was one man with a split personality. A twist I didn't see coming. The descriptions of Victorian London are well done. You really get a feeling for the atmosphere.

7/10

Before The Frost by Henning Mankell

The leader of a religious cult in Guyana instigates a mass suicide. He succeeds in killing himself and his whole flock of worshippers, save one. 

In a wood outside Ystad, the police make an horrific discovery- a severed head, and hands locked together in an attitude of prayer. A Bible lies at the victim's side, handwritten corrections and amendments on every page. 

A string of incidents, including attacks on domestic animals, has been taking place and Inspector Wallander fears that these events could be the prelude to attacks on humans on a much greater scale. Meanwhile Linda Wallander, preparing to join the Ystad police force, arrives at the station. Showing all the hallmarks of her father - the maverick approach, the flaring temper - she becomes involved in the case and in the process is forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

A story of flawed characters. You usually read stories of police officers who are clever, kind and intuitive not rude, impatient and sarcastic. The later is probably much more realistic.

7/10

A Sea of troubles by Donna Leon

The murder of two clam fishermen off the island of Pellestrina, south of the Lido on the Venetian lagoon, draws Commissario Brunetti into the island's close-knit community, bound together by a code of loyalty and a suspicion of outsiders worthy of the Mafia. When the Vice-Questore's secretary Signorina Elettra volunteers to visit the island, where she has relatives, Brunetti finds himself torn between his duty to solve the murders, concerns for Elettra's safety, and his not entirely straightforward feelings for her. 

I always enjoy the descriptions of Venice. The ending left me feeling like there could be more to the story.

6/10

The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father's money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma's research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction — into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist — but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

OH WOW!! Fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. A charming, compelling story superbly written.

10/10

The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan

As England becomes enmeshed in the early days of World War II and the men are away fighting, the women of Chilbury village forge an uncommon bond. They defy the Vicar’s stuffy edict to close the choir and instead “carry on singing,” resurrecting themselves as the Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. We come to know the home-front struggles of five unforgettable choir members: a timid widow devastated when her only son goes to fight; the older daughter of a local scion drawn to a mysterious artist; her younger sister pining over an impossible crush; a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia hiding a family secret; and a conniving midwife plotting to outrun her seedy past.

The story was told in a series of letters and journal entries by several of the residents of Chilbury. They share their secrets and fears, and also explain how the Chilbury Ladies' Choir was formed.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

8/10

Death In Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood

When a mysterious invitation arrives for Miss Phryne Fisher from an unknown Captain Herbert Spencer, Phryne's curiosity is excited. Spencer runs a retreat in Victoria's spa country for shell-shocked soldiers of the First World War. It's a cause after Phryne's own heart but what could Spencer want from her?

Phryne and the faithful Dot view their spa sojourn as a short holiday but are quickly thrown in the midst of disturbing Highland gatherings, disappearing women, murder and the mystery of the Temperance Hotel.

Meanwhile, Cec, Bert and Tinker find a young woman floating face down in the harbour, dead. Tinker, with Jane and Ruth, Phryne's resilient adopted daughters, together decide to solve what appears to be a heinous crime.

There are 2 unrelated mysteries going on in this book, both with a surprise twist in the solution. Well written,descriptive and fun. I always enjoy the Phryne Fisher series.

8/10

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Anything is Possible tells the story of the inhabitants of rural, dusty Amgash, Illinois, the hometown of Lucy Barton, a successful New York writer who finally returns, after seventeen years of absence, to visit the siblings she left behind. 

Seemingly innocuous scenes unfold with a gradual shift in tone and mood, that are sometimes alarming and violent, sometimes touching and sad, but always moving, as a character learns something about himself or herself, or revisits a distant memory and wonders at how it has been distorted just so.

Moving and beautifully written.

8/10

Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell

In the heart of Elizabethan England, young Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in the London playhouses, dominated by his older brother, William. But as a penniless actor with a silver tongue, Richard’s onetime gratitude begins to sour, as does his family loyalty.

So it is that Richard falls under suspicion when a priceless manuscript goes missing, forcing him into a high-stakes game of duplicity and betrayal, and through the darkest alleyways of the city.

A well written, interesting book based on a true story. I liked Richard more than the famous William.

8/10

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

Peter and Rebecca Harris: mid-forties denizens of Manhattan's SoHo, nearing the apogee of committed careers in the arts--he a dealer, she an editor. With a spacious loft, a college-age daughter in Boston, and lively friends, they are admirable, enviable contemporary urbanites with every reason, it seems, to be happy. Then Rebecca's much younger look-alike brother, Ethan (known in thefamily as Mizzy, -the mistake-), shows up for a visit. A beautiful, beguiling twenty-three-year-old with a history of drug problems, Mizzy is wayward, at loose ends, looking for direction. And in his presence, Peter finds himself questioning his artists, their work, his career--the entire world he has so carefully constructed.

He is such a whinger. And you really shouldn't have an affair with your brother-in-law, your wife won't like you having sex with her brother.

The Story Of General Dann and Mara's daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog by Doris Lessing

The Earth’s climate has changed – it is colder than ever before – and Dann, four in the first book, is now grown up and a general, and the man to whom everyone looks for guidance and leadership.

Lessing’s novel charts his adventures across the frozen wastes of the north, a journey that will eventually lead to the discovery of a secret library.

Convoluted and confusing.

The Dust That Falls From Dreams by Louis de Bernieres

In the brief golden years before the outbreak of World War I, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of the conflict that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood.

When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie is left confused by her love for two young men - one an infantry soldier and one a flying ace. Can she, and her sisters, build new lives out of the opportunities and devastations that follow the Great War?

It was really well written with engaging language. The story line just didn't grab me however. I kept reading because I loved the writing, but skipped bits to try to get the storyline to move along a bit faster.

The Shanghai Wife by Emma Harcourt

Leaving behind the loneliness and trauma of her past in country Australia, Annie Brand arrives to the political upheaval and glittering international society of Shanghai in the 1920s. Journeying up the Yangtze with her new husband, the ship's captain, Annie revels in the sense of adventure but when her husband sends her back to Shanghai, her freedom is quickly curtailed.

Against her will, Annie finds herself living alone in the International Settlement, increasingly suffocated by the judgemental Club ladies and their exclusive social scene: one even more restrictive than that she came from. Sick of salacious gossip and foreign condescension, and desperate to shake off the restrictions of her position in the world, Annie is slowly drawn into the bustling life and otherness of the real Shanghai, and begins to see the world from the perspective of the local people, including the servants who work at her husband's Club.

But this world is far more complex and dangerous than the curious Annie understands and, unknowingly, she becomes caught in a web of intrigue and conspiracy as well as a passionate forbidden love affair she could not have predicted: one with far–reaching consequences...

An entertaining read about a turbulent time in China's history. I found it interesting that it was based on the true story of the author's grandmother. The ending wasn't what I was hoping for.

7/10

The Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood

Adam One is the leader of the God's Gardeners, a religious group devoted to living under the command of the natural world. They wear beige cloth-sacks, cultivate mushrooms, harvest honey and curse each other by shouting: Pig-Eater! Their community is only tolerated by the CorpSeCorps, the ruling power, because they are not perceived as threatening. But, this is a world where gene-splicing is the norm; where lions and lambs have become Liobams and pigs have human DNA. The times, and species, are changing at a rapid rate, and with loyalites as thin as environmental stability, the future is a dangerous place. And, if the Waterless Flood does indeed arrive, as predicted by the Gardeners, will there even be a future to contemplate?

Ren is a trapeze dancer at Scales and Tails, and can work a plank just as well. After a rip in her biofilm she is placed in solitary confinement until they can guarantee she is without disease. Her story is one part of our gateway into this uniquely constructed world. The other is Toby, an ex-counter-girl at SecretBurger ('Because we all love a Secret'), a natural cynic and source of extensive homeopathic knowledge.

This pandemic, it turns out, was deliberately started by a drug company who also developed the cure and thought they would make a lot of money. The virus, once released, mutated faster and in ways they hadn't expected. It became much more infectious and much more deadly than they had planned and quickly wiped out most of the population of earth. A few small religious sects survived as did some of the survivalist people who locked themselves down fast enough. makes you think, huh?

7/10

Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

Having survived a life-threatening illness, Kate celebrates by gathering with six close friends. At an intimate outdoor dinner on a warm September evening, the women challenge Kate to start her new lease on life by going white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon with her daughter. But Kate is reluctant to take the risk. 

That is, until her friend Marion proposes a pact: if Kate will face the rapids, each woman will do one thing in the next year that scares her. Kate agrees, with one provision--she didn't get to choose her challenge, so she gets to choose theirs. Whether it's learning to let go of the past or getting a tattoo, each woman's story interweaves with the others.

Some of the women's stories I enjoyed more than others. It was a nice, easy, feel-good read.

7/10

The Burden of Lies by Richard Beasley

Self-made property mogul Tina Leonard has already lost her business, her home and custody of her children because South East Banking Corporation left her bankrupt. Now it appears she is being framed for the murder of her banker Oliver Randall, a senior executive of the corporation. Her motive? Revenge for ruining her life and her business.

When maverick lawyer Peter Tanner is brought in to represent Tina, he bends the law to learn the truth. Was the real killer employed by the bank to silence Randall, who knew too much about their corrupt clientele and business dealings?

As Tanner digs deeper the truth is harder and harder to find. Drug dealers and dodgy cops are a breed apart from corrupt corporate bankers, who’ll do anything to keep their names in the clear.

This was a good, twisty legal thriller. I liked the author being Australian and the book being mainly set in Sydney. At least I recognised the names of suburbs.

8/10

A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones

Lia Frank, an appraiser of fine Chinese porcelain, is sent from New York to Beijing to catalogue and appraise a rare collection of twenty pieces. At the private house she has been given to work in, however, she finds eight hundred pieces, many originating from the imperial porcelain collection.As Lia examines her treasure, she finds herself drawn into the underworld of Chinese art. From the slightly shady Hollywood Road antique district in Hong Kong, to the professional underworld smugglers who move art illegally out of the mainland; from the rich Western art lovers who don't ask questions, to the Chinese museum officials who want to bring back every piece taken out by Western marauders, each player in the game carries his own secret. It's Lia's job to find the truth.

An enjoyable read with interesting characters,  a unique story and an intriguing look inside Chinese culture.

7/10

The Lives of Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

Hauled in a cart to a field hospital in northern France in March 1916, an American woman wakes from unconsciousness to the smell of gas gangrene, the sounds of men in pain, and an almost complete loss of memory: she knows only that she can drive an ambulance, she can draw, and her name is Stella Bain. 

A stateless woman in a lawless country, Stella embarks on a journey to reconstruct her life. Suffering an agonising and inexplicable array of symptoms, she finds her way to London. There, Dr August Bridge, a cranial surgeon turned psychologist, is drawn to tracking her amnesia to its source. What brutality was she fleeing when she left the tranquil seclusion of a New England college campus to serve on the Front; for what crime did she need to atone - and whom did she leave behind?

Really lovely story that gradually unfolds. She finds out about her old life and makes a new one. A touching story with an unpredictable, but perfect ending.

8/10

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure.  With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined – with Margaret’s younger sister Mary – to a sisterhood unique in all the world. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland and France.

United by family loyalties and affections, the three queens find themselves set against each other.  Katherine commands an army against Margaret and kills her husband James IV of Scotland. But Margaret’s boy becomes heir to the Tudor throne when Katherine loses her son. Mary steals the widowed Margaret’s proposed husband, but when Mary is widowed it is her secret marriage for love that is the envy of the others. As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss and passion, the three sisters find that the only constant in their perilous lives is their special bond, more powerful than any man, even a king.

The story of the first of Henry VIII's wives and his 2 sisters. It was told through the eyes of Margaret, his older sister. She whinged a lot. It was very well researched and well written.

7/10

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

Cornwall, 1972. Three lighthouse keepers vanish from a remote rock, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.

What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the swell, drowning ghosts. Can their secrets ever be recovered from the waves?

Twenty years later, the women they left behind are still struggling to move on. Helen, Jenny and Michelle should have been united by the tragedy, but instead it drove them apart. Now, they have a chance to tell their side of the story. But only in confronting their darkest fears can the truth begin to surface . . . 

Everybody has secrets. A very atmospheric, twisty mystery.

My favourite quote from the book "What I show people and what I am - that's two separate things."

8/10

Under The Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen

Sophie Schofield travels out to India with her doctor father and vicious mother shortly before India's independence - her father has taken a job working for the Maharajah of a small state in the hope of making a fresh start post-World War II and saving his marriage. Soon after her arrival Sophie meets Jagaan ('Jag'), the son of one of the Maharajah's most trusted servants, and they fall passionately in love. But Jag is an Indian, expected to make a marriage within his own caste, and Sophie a British girl in an India where the British are beginning to leave - how can such a love end well? Ten years later, Sophie returns to India, as the wife of diplomat Lucien Grainger. She has tried to tell herself for years that the past is behind her, and that she's made a fresh start. But she can't forget Jagaan. Nor can she ignore the fact that her glamorous marriage is not turning out the way it should, and that Lucien is far from a good husband...

Well written, interesting book. I don't like sad endings though.

7/10

What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty

When Alice Love surfaces from a beautiful dream to find she's been injured in a gym, she knows that something is very wrong - she hates exercise. Alice's first concern is her baby, she's pregnant with her first child, and she's desperate to see her husband, Nick, who she knows will be worried about her.

But Alice isn't pregnant. And Nick isn't worried. Alice is the mother of three children and her hostile husband is in the process of divorcing her. Alice has lost ten years of her life.

Alice's sister Elisabeth, who seems uncharacteristically cold, drives her home from the hospital. And home is totally unrecognisable, as is the rest of her life. Who is this Gina that everyone is carefully trying not to mention? Why does her mother look like she's wearing fancy dress? And what's all this talk about a giant lemon meringue pie?

In the days that follow, small bubbles of the past rise to the surface, and Alice is forced to confront uncomfortable truths. It turns out forgetting might be the most memorable thing that's ever happened to her.

A good read. I skipped most of the journal entries from her grandmother, they didn't have much to do with the story. The whole mystery of Gina thing was pushed to it's limits. The rekindled relationship with her almost ex-husband was the best bit of the book.

7/10

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Let me tell you stories of the months of the year, of ghosts and heartbreak, of dread and desire. Or after-hours drinking and unanswered phones, of good deeds and bad days, of trusting wolves and how to talk to girls at parties.

There are stories within stories, whispered in the quiet of the night, shouted above the roar of the day, and played out between lovers and enemies, strangers and friends. But all, all are fragile things made of just 26 letters arranged and rearranged to form tales and imaginings which will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul.

Inside Neil Gaiman's head is a VERY strange place!

8/10

An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire

When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned and a media storm descends.

Unwillingly thrust into the eye of that storm is Bella's beloved older sister, Chris, a barmaid at the local pub, whose apparent easygoing nature conceals hard-won wisdom and the kind of street-smarts only experience can bring.

As Chris is plunged into despair and searches for answers, reasons, explanation - anything - that could make even the smallest sense of Bella's death, her ex-husband, friends and neighbours do their best to support her. But as the days tick by with no arrest, Chris's suspicion of those around her grows.

A different sort of crime novel in that it concentrates on the after effects on those left behind rather than on the hunt for the killer. It got the feel of life in a small country town. 

8/10

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Despite their differences, sisters Viann and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Viann finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her. 

As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength is tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.

A wonderful story about family, love and strength through the most gruelling of times. It isn't the easiest book to read, but well worth it. 

Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley

Hebe sits in the darkness and listens to her hypocritical grandparents and her older siblings discuss how her unexpected pregnancy must be terminated to avoid the shame it will bring. Determined to raise her child, she flees into the night with only her mother's jewellery to support her.

Twelve years later she is living happily alone in Cornwall, whilst her son attends an expensive private school. Hebe has harnessed her two great talents - cooking and making love - to make a living for herself, but when the separate strands of her life become intangled the even tenor of her days is threatened, and her world changes forever.

Even though it was written in 2007 it very much reminded me on English romances from the 60's and 70's, sad and depressing.

6/10

The Concubine's Child by Carol Jones

In 1930s Malaya a sixteen-year-old girl, dreaming of marriage to her sweetheart, is sold as a concubine to a rich old man desperate for an heir. Trapped, and bullied by his spiteful wife, Yu Lan plans to escape with her baby son, despite knowing that they will pursue her to the ends of the earth.

Four generations later, her great-grandson, Nick, will return to Malaysia, looking for the truth behind the facade of a house cursed by the unhappy past. Nothing can prepare him for what he will find.

The setting was so true to our visit of Malaysia. It brought it back to life. A sad but realistic story.

7/10

Grunt by Mary Roach

Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries-panic, exhaustion, heat, noise-and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you'll never see our nation's defenders in the same way again.

Some LOL moments, some interesting bits and some bits I skimmed. I have enjoyed other books by this author more than I did this one.

7/10

Landing by Emma Donoghue

A delightful, old-fashioned love story with a uniquely twenty-first-century twist, Landing is a romantic comedy that explores the pleasures and sorrows of long-distance relationships--the kind millions of us now maintain mostly by plane, phone, and Internet. 

Síle is a stylish citizen of the new Dublin, a veteran flight attendant who's traveled the world. Jude is a twenty-five-year-old archivist, stubbornly attached to the tiny town of Ireland, Ontario, in which she was born and raised. On her first plane trip, Jude's and Síle's worlds touch and snag at Heathrow Airport. In the course of the next year, their lives, and those of their friends and families, will be drawn into a new, shaky orbit.

A trans-Atlantic lesbian love story.

A nice, easy read that I enjoyed. I didn't like the friends of either main character. It was a solid 7 until the end, and then it became an 8.

A Spot Of Bother by Mark Haddon

At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. 

The family is not pleased, as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the way he cares for her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by the way the wedding planning gets in the way of her affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials.

Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind.

Annoying characters, really annoying.

Cloud Of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka

Emily Gibson has come to Japan as a missionary, to start a new life. In America her beauty drove men wild. In Japan she possessed no beauty at all.

Matthew Stark speaks like a missionary but wears a pistol like a gunslinger. Emily has come to Japan to bury her past, Start has come to kill his.

It is 1861 and after over two centuries of isolation Japan has been forced to open its doors. A whole way of life is about to die.

Lord Genji of the Akaoka Clan knows this. Blessed with his family's power of prophecy he has foreseen that his and Japan's fate lie in the hands of outsiders. But this knowledge is dangerous to many powerful men, and deadly for Genji. As intrigue mounts and the city of Edo and the Shogun's palace are threatened by foreign ships, Genji plans his escape to his ancestral home, Cloud of Sparrows.

With him travel Emily and Stark, and Heiko, his beautiful geisha and a deadly spy. However, the road is long and there are many places along the way for a samurai to attack and for Genji to die.

Beautiful story about two Americans and an amazing cast of Japanese warriors whose lives are intertwined in 19th century Japan. Lots of political intrigue, violence, cultural references, gorgeous settings and descriptions.

8/10