What I’m Reading This Week: 1st December, 2014

I cannot believe I woke up in December this morning.  Does anyone else think that Christmas is coming way too quickly?  On a plus note, I’ve got quite a few books on my Christmas list so maybe I should be wishing it was here sooner?

It was a really good week for me last week reading wise (though I blogged very little). I made it through / caught up with all the books on my reading list and, as my hubby is from the States, spent the weekend belatedly celebrating Thanksgiving with way too much food and fizz.  Out of principle though (as we are in the UK at the moment) I avoided all Black Friday sales and will be doing the same with Cyber Monday.  Instead, I’ll spend my time reading some (or all if I’m lucky) of the following:

First up, I plan on finishing One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, which I started reading a couple of weeks ago and has been slow going.  It’s a hardback and it’s huge so I can’t take it anywhere meaning I keep losing track of what I’ve read and then the motivation to keep going.  I’m not enjoying it as much as his other books but that may be because I just need to sit down and actually read it.

I’m also going to start Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone.

This was my classic club spin and I have to say, as a fan of crime fiction, I’m quite looking forward to it.  Here’s what it says on Goodreads:

Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre–the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.

I’ve also got The Hero’s Welcome by Louisa Young on the Kindle this week courtesy of my local library.

This isn’t the type of book I normally read if I’m honest but I stopped short every time I saw the cover.  As it gets good reviews, I thought it was worth a go (worse case, I can stop reading it right?).  The only other worry I have is it is a follow-up to another book so am hoping I don’t need to have read that one first.

LONDON, APRIL 1919.
THE GREAT WAR HAS ENDED.

In a flurry of spring blossom, childhood sweethearts Nadine Waverney and Rilery Purefoy are married. Thos who have survived the war are, in a way, home. But Riley is wounded and disfigured; normality seems incomprehensible, and love unfathomable. Honeymooning in a battered, liberated Europe, they long for a marriage made of love and passion rather than dependence and pity.  At Locke Hill in Kent, Riley’s former CO Major Peter Locke is obsessed by Homer. His hysterical wife, Julia, and the young son they barely know attempt to navigate family life, but are confounded by the ghosts and memories of Peter’s war. Despite all this, there is the glimmer of a real future in the distance: Rose Locke, Peter’s cousin and Riley’s former nurse, finds that independence might be hers for the taking, after all.

And that’s it…more than enough for this week I think.  Once again, I’m linking in with Sheila at Book Journey, who has a weekly post I’ve enjoyed following – It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Click on the link to find out what Sheila and other book bloggers are reading.

Have a good week!

Emma x