I can’t believe another month has already passed! It feels like only a few days ago that I was compiling my February wrap up. I’m quite happy with the books I read this month, I got through a good few of the books on my Goodreads list. I would have liked to add a few more to the list but oh well, there’s always April!
‘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’m quite pleased with the books I read in January – while I enjoyed some of them more than others, there are none of them that I disliked or regret spending time with. If I had to chose my favourite, I think it would be A Man Called Ove. It took me a little bit longer than usual to get through it, but it was a fantastic book.
In no particular order of preference, you can find the reviews of my January reads below.
‘One love. Two people. Twenty Years.
From the moment they met, Erin and Dom loved each other too much, too quickly. Everyone said it wouldn’t last. But they knew differently.
A wedding present, a notebook, brings them together through the good times and the bad. On the blank pages of their love story, they write down everything they can’t always say – the secrets, the heartbreak, the highs and lows. It’s where they see the best and worst of each other.
‘Would you read your partner’s texts? What if you thought he was having an affair? Once bitten, twice shy Emma King is in no rush to join Harry’s bustling, big, fat Greek Cypriot family and become Mrs Georgiades. So it comes as no surprise when, after plenty of Dutch courage, his proposal of marriage at a family gathering is met with rejection. Emma doesn’t think they need a piece of paper to prove how much they love each other..
‘Aisling is 29 and she’s still a complete Aisling.
After a tough year, things between herself and John are back on track, and life with Sadhbh and Elaine in their notiony Dublin apartment is more craic than ever.
But when a shock change means moving Down Home might be her only option, Aisling is thrown. Can she give up the sophistication of brunch and unlimited Pinot Greej? Will she and Mammy kill each other living back under the same roof? And where does that leave her and John?
‘In 1952, two young lovers, Fawn Burrows and Walter Brown, meet backstage in a beautiful West End theatre during a production of When The Curtain Falls. Between clandestine meetings and stolen moments, they must hide their love from the one person who will stop at nothing to keep Fawn for himself. But life in the theatre doesn’t always follow the script, and tragedy and heartache are waiting in the wings for all the players…
The Reading Nook 