books

Summer Books To Read: #20BooksOfSummer

11th June 2018 by Gemma Leave a Comment

20 Summer Books to Read

We’ll ignore the fact that I have been an absent blogger (I’m kind of back, and that’s all that matters, right?) and head straight to this fantastic idea by Cathy at 746books.com.

In essence, from the 4th of June ’til the 3rd of September, I will be reading 20 books of my own choosing. That’s 13 weeks, 21 days, and 20 books.

Like Cathy, I may swap one book on the list for another, because life is too short to spend one’s time reading book/s one doesn’t feel like reading at a particular moment.

I’ve mostly chosen books I already have on my shelves, including my e-shelf. The only exception would be the books for the book club I attend monthly which we don’t get to decide on until the month before.

So without further digressing, here’s my #20BooksOfSummer —

In The Country, Mia Alves
America Is Not The Heart, Elaine Castillo
Reaper At The Gates, Sabaa Tahir
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
The Bees, Laline Paull
Godsgrave, Jay Kristoff
~~Legendary, Stephanie Garber~~
Emma, Jane Austen
The Improbability Of Love, Hannah Rothschild
One Of Us Is Lying, Karen McManus
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
A Room With A View, E. M. Forster
The Surface Breaks, Louise O’Neill
How To Stop Time, Matt Haig
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
Conversations With Friends, Sally Rooney
A Crown Of Wishes, Roshi Chokshi
The Light We Lost, Jill Santopolo (July Book Club read)
August Book Club read
September Book Club read

I am undeniably in a YA mood as evidenced by more than a quarter of the books listed. And if you consider the books by Paull, Austen, and Forster as YA, then that’s almost half of the list! We’ll see where the mood takes me at the end of the season, eh?

And yes, I have already started — a week has gone by already, after all!

How about you? Do you have your own #20BooksofSummer?

Cliveden Literary Festival: History, Politics, and Decadence at Cliveden House

4th September 2017 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Cliveden House Hotel (photo from Luxurious Magazine)cliveden literary festival

One of my many interests is visiting stately homes and historic residences. There’s a few of them in London, but the remarkably grand ones are outside the capital, far from any form of public transport. Palatial houses come with extensive grounds and beautiful gardens after all.

My husband and I keep a list of houses we want to visit but we’ve never come across Cliveden House. It is jointly owned and looked after by the National Trust and Iconic Luxury Hotels. The former handles the gardens and the grounds while the latter manages the house as a luxury hotel.

Imagine my delight when I was asked to look around the place in anticipation of the Cliveden Literary Festival!

So why hold one at Cliveden House? That would involve some history-telling, so bear with me and I’ll try to keep this as short as possible!…

Mirror Shoulder Signal: A Thought-Provoking Read

23rd August 2017 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Mirror Shoulder Signal

Mirror Shoulder Signal was written by Danish author Dorthe Nors and translated to English by Misha Hoesktra for Pushkin Press. It was shortlisted for the 2017 ManBooker International Prize.

It tells the story of Sonja, a forty-year-old woman living in Copenhagen, who is single and lives away from her family. Sonja was born in the rural area of Jutland and fled to the capital in an attempt to make something of herself; to be something else other than the typical narrative of girls who were born and grown up in the area and has never left its confines.

I finished the book in two to three days. Granted, I had an off day from work where I did nothing else but read, but it is also a short book. With its bright tones and very relatable topic to most readers, is this a summer read to take with you to the beach?

…

Yesterday by Felicia Yap: Crime and Science Fiction in One Book

10th August 2017 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Yesterday by Felicia Yap

Summer 2016: I hear about a book written by a female author from Southeast Asia with a very interesting concept:

There are two types of people in the world: those who can only remember yesterday (Monos), and those who can also recall the day before (Duos). You have just one lifeline to the past: your diary. Each night, you write down the things that matter. Each morning, your diary tells you where you were, who you loved and what you did.

Today, the police are at your door. They say that the body of your husband’s mistress has been found in the River Cam. They think your husband killed her two days ago.

Can you trust the police? Can you trust your husband? Can you trust yourself?

Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and studied biochemistry at Imperial College London, then earned a doctorate in history at Cambridge University. …

TBR List Check-Up: Books I Planned To Read From the First Half of 2017

4th July 2017 by Gemma 1 Comment

My TBR Books from the First Half of 2017

Last week’s Top Ten Tuesday (which is sadly on holiday — how will we survive?!) was about the best books you’ve read during the first half of 2017. Unfortunately, I am unable to recall off the top of my head anything that absolutely stands out (I’m blaming depression and anxiety for this). I had to check my Goodreads shelves, and I don’t have enough to make a full list of ten books!

However, I have enough on my TBR (that’s To Be Read for you non-bookish people) list of books that have been published since January 2017 here in the UK that I have been planning to read but still haven’t gotten to. (Is this a familiar story or what?) …