Here is my reading summary for the week ending 4th March 2012 (well is two weeks really because I didn’t finish any the previous week)
Each week I give a short summary of the books I have finished and a bit of a blurb for each. I will also give you a sneak peek of all the books I am currently reading (as I never read just one book at a time) and I will also share any quotes or internet links that catch my eye.
A= Excellent Stuff
B= Really Good Read
C= Average
D= it was OK, a bit of a struggle to finish.
1. This week I have finished:
- Silent Fear by Katherine Howell (Mystery/Thriller) – A
What can I say – book 5 in the series and Katherine Howell just keeps on getting better. Silent Fear drew me in from the first page and did not let me go until I had finished. It was unputdownable! It opens on a stinking hot December day in Sydney, paramedic Holly and her partner are sent to a suspected heart attack victim in a park, when they arrive they discover the victim has been shot in the head. Detective Ella Marconi returns to take part in the investigation, but this is more Holly’s story this time, a woman with a hidden past who has to find the strength to bring the past into the present and become a stronger person for it. Katherine worked as a Sydney paramedic herself so she knows her stuff, Silent Fear is a fast paced thriller with several sub-plots going on complete with twists and turns as the stories intersect briefly and then part again. Thank GOODNESS she is already working on the next book!
- Under a Different Sky by Meira Chand (Historical Saga) – B
Getting ready for my upcoming holiday in Singapore I have a small pile of novels that are set there to work through. This saga follows three different people, each from different nationalities starting with the Chinatown riots in the 1920s through the war years and the Japanese occupation and on to the independence rally’s of the 1950’s. Howard is a hard-working middle-class Eurasian boy whose mother runs a boarding house, Mei Lan is a rich Chinese girl. They first meet as children when their bus is caught up in riots instigated by the Chinese communists. Also on the bus is Raj, a poor recent immigrant from India. Over the next 30 years their lives, and those of their families, intersect against the backdrop of the, at times violent, journey of Singapore to independence.
- The Shelly Beach Writer’s Group by June Loves (Hen’s lit) – B
Hens lit is Chick lit for the mature reader – when Gina’s husband dumps her for his much younger PA; almost immediately their jointly-owned company goes belly up and the publication of her first novel is cancelled. Gina agrees to be a house-sitter for six months in a cottage complete with dog at the tiny beachside hamlet of Shelly Beach. Her idea is to wallow in self-pity and decide what to do with the rest of her life – alone. She soon learns that ‘alone’ is not an option – the dog has a demanding schedule of his own, babysitting the bossy child next door is part of her duties, as is convening the Shelly Beach writers’ group. Soon her social life is as busy as ever and life starts to look good again.
2. My Current reads:
The books I am currently reading are:
Unsaid by Neil Abramson (General Fiction) – Helena has died, but her spirit remains as she watches her husband struggling to cope with her death. Have just started this one for a bookclub read, and not into it yet. Will see how we go – I understand it is a tear jerker.
The Good Life: Up the Yukon Without a Paddle by Dorian Amos (Non-fiction) – Dorian Amos was a cartoonist from Cornwall, he and his wife decided that they were in need of adventure, so they gave up their comfortable life and traveled to Yukon Territory in the remote Canadian wilderness.
Castles, Follies and Four-leaf Clovers by Rosamund Burton (Non-Fiction) – Rosamund is given a map of the ancient highway and pilgrim route ‘St Declan’s Way’ and decides to walk it. The story follow’s her adventures as she traces the footsteps of St Declan. The track is not an easy stroll – she climbs mountains, looks for fairy forts, castles, wells that perform miracles and talking statues. The blurb says “…Stories of goddesses, ghosts and fairies are intertwined with the eccentricities and daily lives of everyday people…”
3. Quote/s for the week
The first is from page 165 of ‘Under a Different Sky’ by Meira Chand:
“…Although the MDU had been forced to disband, the commitment to Independence was now even stronger. The future lies under a different sky, a bespectacled Chinese had told him on that first MDU meeting Krishna had taken him to. Perhaps, Howard thought, behind the thin clouds drifting above him, that the unknown sky already lay waiting….”
The next is from pg 1 of ‘Unsaid’ by Neil Abramson:
"…Every living thing dies. There’s no stopping it…"
