Look! It’s my first ever tag! It’s called the ‘Book Blogger Insider Tag’ and it’s a few bookish questions, and my answers to them. I was tagged by A Book. A Thought. blog , and the tag itself was originally created by A Little Slice of Jamie . I won’t tag anyone else when I’m done, but if you think it looks like fun, go ahead and do it anyway! Here goes!
‘Once a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life lovingly collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before.
Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfil his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners.
But the final wishes of the ‘Keeper of Lost Things’ have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters…
With an unforgettable cast of characters that includes young girls with special powers, handsome gardeners, irritable ghosts and an array of irresistible four-legged friends, ‘The Keeper of Lost Things’ is a debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that will leave you bereft once you’ve finished reading.’
‘It’s 1999 and the internet is still a novelty. At a newspaper office, two colleagues, Beth and Jennifer, e-mail back and forth, discussing their lives in hilarious detail, from love troubles to family dramas. And Lincoln, a shy IT guy responsible for monitoring e-mails, spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their e-mails offer a welcome diversion, but the more he reads, the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realises just how head-over-heels he is, it’s too late to introduce himself.
After a series of close encounters, Lincoln eventually decides he must follow his heart…and find out if there is such a thing as love before first sight.’
‘When pillar-of-the-community Harry Stewart dies of a sudden heart attack, the whole village is devastated – except for his wife Karen, who knew what an abusive alcoholic Harry had become.
But Karen is wracked with guilt about the circumstances of Harry’s death. Her only comfort in her grief and isolation is William, the sympathetic local vicar.
William’s listening ear soon becomes a shoulder to cry on, and before long Karen realises she is falling in love. But William has a wife and teenaged daughter, not to mention a parish to watch over – and be watched by.’
I have been dying to get my hands on these for a while now, can’t wait to get stuck into them!
The longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 has just been announced. I like to think of myself as the yaaass queen, let’s hear it for the girls, beyonce type of feminist, singing the praises of women, but I’m ashamed to say that I don’t think I’ve read any of the books on this list. Which not only makes me a shabby feminist, but a not so great book blogger either – something which I intend to remedy in the coming year, by ticking off as many of the following books as I can. The list for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 is as follows –
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
Milkman by Anna Burns
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden
Circe by Madeline Miller
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Have you read any of these? Where do you recommend I begin?
‘Poornima and Savitha, born in poverty, have known little kindness in their lives until they meet as teenagers. When an act of devastating cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.
Alternating between the girls’ perspectives as they face apparently insurmountable obstacles on their travels through the darkest corners of India’s underworld and across an ocean, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who refuse to lose the hope that burns within.’
‘It’s every mother’s nightmare …
The first time Alice Fancourt goes out after their daughter is born, she leaves the two-week-old infant with her husband, David. When she returns only two hours later, she swears the baby in the crib is not her child. Despite her distress, David is adamant that she is wrong.
‘One girl missing, one woman searching, both equally lost. Will a shared tragedy help them find their way home—even in the face of imminent danger?
Renowned archaeologist Richard Mathis is half a world away on the island of Crete when he learns his daughter, Bella, has gone missing. Within twenty minutes, he’s on his way back to the States. Two days later, he’s dead.
Richard’s young assistant, Angela Chase, is devastated by the loss of the man who had become both mentor and friend, and she’s determined to find the missing girl, who seems to have made dangerous connections—and whose lonely childhood so resembles Angela’s own. Born Laurel Springfield, Angela now spends her days digging up the origins of a lost civilization while struggling to keep her own past buried. But will the search for Bella expose Angela’s carefully disguised identity—and will she find Bella before she’s lost forever?’
The Reading Nook 