DebJpole Heeey,
On 17th May it was my birthday! I know, it was ages ago now but I’ve been busy! And whilst it was another that I didn’t do anything for, I was surrounded by books in gift form! So here’s my birthday book haul:
Blood Orange
Blurb:
Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems…
Just one more night. Then I’ll end it.
Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle.
I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up.
Alison’s client doesn’t deny that she stabbed her husband – she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself.
I’m watching you. I know what you’re doing.
But someone knows Alison’s secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she’s done, and who won’t stop until she’s lost everything….
Why?
This book was all over my Twitter from fellow book lovers and after reading the blurb, I was hooked.
The Book Club
Blurb:
Everyone is hiding a secret. One of them is murder.
The book club was her idea, of course.
It was her way into our group. A chance to get close.
I knew from the day she arrived that she couldn’t be trusted.
And I was right.
Alice didn’t come to the village for peace and quiet.
She came for revenge.
Why?
This one featured a lot on my instagram page and this blurb worked a treat on me because once again, I was hooked.
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The Librarian of Auschwitz
Blurb:
Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz, responsible for the safekeeping of the small collection of titles, as well as the ‘living books’ – prisoners of Auschwitz who know certain books so well, they too can be ‘borrowed’ to educate the children in the camp.
But books are extremely dangerous. They make people think. And nowhere are they more dangerous than in Block 31 of Auschwitz, the children’s block, where the slightest transgression can result in execution, no matter how young the transgressor…
Why?
After reading the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this was recommended to me and I’m going to need to get a lot of tissues at the ready because I feel this is going to be an emotional ride.
The Sanitorium
Blurb:
EVERYONE’S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT.
An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother’s recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept.
Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it’s beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous – as does her brother, Isaac.
And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin’s unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.
But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she’s the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they’re all in . . .
Why?
My book twitter absolutely loved this book and raved about it constantly, not just by one book lover but by at least 10!
Greek Myths
Blurb:
Journey into a world of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, extraordinary creatures and fantastic monsters with this beautifully illustrated introduction to ancient Greek mythology. Perfect for children aged 7 to 9, this collection contains more than 30 enthralling new retellings of favourite myths as well as some you might not have heard before.
Including Theseus and the Minotaur, The Twelve Labours of Herakles, and the escapades of Jason and the Argonauts, each myth is told in engaging modern language, which is easy for children to understand yet still retains the humour and intrigue of the original tales. Stunning illustrations by multi-award winning artist Katie Ponder breathe new life into each classic story.
Why?
I love Greek Mythology so this was a no brainer. Every Greek god and goddess has a myth behind it and this book has them all in it. Would you like a review from this book?
A Court of Thorns and Roses Series
Blurbs:
A Court of Thorns and Roses:
Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death …
A Court of Mist and Fury:
Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court – but at a steep cost. Though she now possesses the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, the mesmerising High Lord of the feared Night Court.
A Court of Wings and Ruin:
Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s manoeuvrings and the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit – and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.
A Court of Frost and Starlight:
In this companion tale to the bestselling A Court of Thorns and Roses series, Feyre, Rhys and their friends are working to rebuild the Night Court and the vastly changed world beyond after the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin.But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming.
Why?
This series has been a constant ever present on my Instagram for the last couple of years and if people are raving about it for that long then it can’t be that bad, can it?
Oh and then I got some more…
A Forest In The Clouds
Blurb:
In A Forest in the Clouds, John Fowler takes us into the world of Karisoke Research Center, the remote mountain gorilla camp of Dr. Dian Fossey, a few years prior to her gruesome murder. Drawn to the adventure and promise of learning the science of studying mountain gorillas amid the beauty of Central Africa’s cloud forest, Fowler soon learns the cold harsh realities of life inside Fossey’s enclave ten thousand feet up in the Virunga Volcanoes.
Instead of the intrepid scientist he had admired in the pages of National Geographic, Fowler finds a chain-smoking, hard-drinking woman bullying her staff into submission. While pressures mount from powers beyond Karisoke in an effort to extricate Fossey from her domain of thirteen years, she brings new students in to serve her most pressing need to hang on to the remote research camp that has become her mountain home. Increasingly bizarre behaviour has targeted Fossey for extrication by an ever-growing group of detractors from conservation and research organisations to the Rwandan government.
Amid the turmoil, Fowler must abandon his own research assignments to assuage the troubled Fossey as she orders him on illegal treks across the border into Zaire, over volcanoes, in search of missing gorillas, and to serve as surrogate parent to an orphaned baby ape in preparation for its traumatic re-introduction into a wild gorilla group.
This riveting story is the only first-person account from inside Dian Fossey’s beleaguered camp. Fowler must come to grips with his own aspirations, career objectives and disappointments as he develops the physical endurance to keep up with mountain gorillas over volcanic terrain in icy downpours above ten thousand feet, only to be affronted by the frightening charges of indignant giant silverbacks or to be treed by aggressive forest buffalos. Back in camp, he must nurture the sensitivity and patience needed for the demands of rehabilitating an orphaned baby gorilla.
A Forest in the Clouds takes the armchair adventurer on a journey into an extraordinary world that now only exists in the memories of the very few who knew it.
Why?
The special human who gifted me this book once asked me who I would like to sit and have dinner and a conversation with dead or alive and Dian Fossey was in my top three. She was an incredible woman in more ways than one and one day I am absolutely determined to go to Rwanda and climb up to Mount Visoke visit her grave and that of her beloved gorilla family.
Light Shining Through The Mist
There’s no real blurb for this as it’s a photo biography book. Essentially it’s photos through Dian Fossey’s life and career. It tells the story through the camera lens. No controversy. Just simple photography telling the life and times of a woman who devoted herself to gorillas.
