Books Month in Review - May

Welcome in, do join me by sharing your link to your look back at this month. I'm looking forward to visiting and seeing what everyone has been up to.  The link will be open for you to share your post whenever you post over the next few days.  Do visit each others' posts.

Total books read this month: 16

Books Read:
The Iron Duke   Meljean Brooks
The Swallow's Nest   Emilie Richards
Fool's Rush In  Kristan Higgins.
Some Kind of Hero    Suzanne Brockmann
Before I Fall   Jessica Scott
Distant Shores    Kristin Hannah
Not a Sound    Heather Gudenkauf  
Beyond the Carousel   Bette Lee Crosby
Untraceable    Laura Griffin
Scarlett    Marissa Meyer
Practicing Normal   Cara Sue Achterburg
Beach House for Rent   Mary Alice Monroe
Cafe by the Sea   Jenny Colgan
A Man Called Ove    Fredrik Backman
One Good Thing Wendy Wax
 Small Great Things  Jodi Picoult

New to Me Authors
Meljean Brooks
Cara Sue Achterburg
Fredrik Backman

Book Formats:

Paperback	Five
E-Book	Nine
Audiobook	Two
From TBR shelf	Five
Review Books	Seven
From my New Shelf	Two

Genres Read

Contemporary Romance	Two
Crime/Suspense	Three
Fantasy	Two
Mainstream Fiction	Seven
Historical Fiction

Top Book for May

I read some great books in May - The Swallow's Nest by Emilie Richards, Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf,  Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan and some more but my top book, such an amazing read was 

Jodi Picoult wrote such a challenging and well researched book that I totally enjoyed and also learned from. I congratulate her on the topic she chose and the risk she took in writing it. She did a small great thing.

Looking Forward to Reading in June...

Incoming Books.

E Books Purchased:

Paperbacks Purchased:

 

Library Books: 

Books coming from NetGalley or Edelweiss

Audio Books 
From Audible - 1 credit

Pre-Ordered
Silver Silence   Nalini Singh

So how did your reading month pan out?

An InLinkz Link-up

Practicing Normal Cara Sue Achterberg

Published: Story Plant
Date: June 6th 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 336
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Source: Author via NetGalley
Rating:
             

The houses in Pine Estates are beautiful McMansions filled with high-achieving parents, children on the fast track to top colleges, all of the comforts of modern living, and the best security systems money can buy. Welcome to normal upper-middle-class suburbia.

The Turners know in their hearts that they're anything but normal. Jenna is a high-schooler dressed in black who is fascinated with breaking into her neighbors' homes, security systems be damned. Everett genuinely believes he loves his wife . . . he just loves having a continuing stream of mistresses more. JT is a genius kid with Asperger's who moves from one obsession to the next. And Kate tries to manage her family, manage her mother (who lives down the street), and avoid wondering why her life is passing her by.

And now everything is changing for them. Jenna suddenly finds herself in a boy-next-door romance she never could have predicted. Everett's secrets are beginning to unravel on him. JT is getting his first taste of success at navigating the world. And Kate is facing truths about her husband, her mother, and her father that she might have preferred not to face.

Life on Pine Road has never been more challenging for the Turners. That's what happens when you're practicing normal.

Opening up Practicing Normal to read I wasn't sure what I was going to find, or whether I would enjoy it, pretty much normal for me when I am reading into a new author. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed this story very much.

The telling of the story rotates around three of the characters - Kate, mom and married to Everett, Jenna their daughter and Everett himself.  Through them we are given a view into the family dynamics.

The plot moves along at a good pace, there was always something interesting happening, and just a small thread of mystery weaving through that held my attention.

Kate - the mom, was a self sacrificing person, she was an ER nurse but now pretty much takes care of the various emergencies that arise in the family. She takes care of her ageing mother down the road, her son JT who is on the Asperger's continuum and generally keeps the family running. She also is perhaps being taken for a ride by a couple of people in her life. I liked her a lot, although I wished for more for her.

Jenna is her teen daughter, when we meet her she is breaking into houses and cutting school. However at the core she is okay and with the right people around her has every chance of doing well.

Everett is in my opinion a self serving, self centred person and ... a bully. While he does do a few things that redeem him a little he is mainly about his own pleasure. He needs a very large wake up call.

There are other characters in this book too who add to the story and the appeal of the book. Cassie in particular, the hospice nurse and cat lady, who is a support when needed and is one of those people any neighbor would be happy to have around.

If you enjoy family dynamics then you just might enjoy this story as much as I did.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 29th May

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week.  It's a great post to organise yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – join them!

I had a really good reading week, every book I read I enjoyed and reviews will be up for them later except for A Man Called Ove. I finished listening to it this week, it was well narrated and I enjoyed the story of a grumpy, law fixated guy who just couldn't prevent himself from helping others and really he was much loved!

I always um and ah over what book I will listen to next and I finally settled on Goodnight From London, and so far I'm enjoying that too. I don't go looking for books set in the time of WW11 but ... I seem to find my way to them.

                                                         

What I read last week:

I finished listening to a Man called Ove

I read for review 

What I am reading at present:

Started listening to...

Reading from the TBR a book I won on Twitter from a national bookseller and it has languished for awhile on the shelf! Long time since I read a book by Jodi Piccoult

Up next:

Review book

Last Weeks Posts

Beyond the Carousel   Bette Lee Crosby

An InLinkz Link-up

Beyond the Carousel. Bette Lee Crosby

Published: Bent Pine Publishing
Date: January 2017
Format: Kindle
Pages: 243
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Author
Rating:
               

Laura Wilkes has everything a woman could want when she snaps the picture of her five-year-old daughter on the carousel. Each time the carousel comes around Laura snaps another picture, seven in all. This is a day of unforgettable happiness; one of the few Laura has left.

In the months following the stock market crash the family is beset by tragedy. A homicide that goes unpunished. It's the height of the depression and there are hoards of faceless, nameless men living in train yards and back alleys. The murderer is never caught but the family never gives up hope of finding him. Until....

Sometimes when I read a book I have a question in my mind. And especially with Beyond the Carousel by Bette Lee Crosby. It was about the title - why was it given this title? What did it have to do with the book? Well as it turns out it was  a good question to hold and I was fully answered as I read a long.  I actually had a second question, how is this one related to one or more of the other books I've read in this series. It has been awhile so I wasn't sure if my memory would help - but enter - one memorable and loved detective met in book one, Jack - Spare Change.

This is a story that ranges over time from the early twentieth century, through the Depression times and on past the war. It is the story of a few generations of family, the joys and sorrows that befell them and the way they handled it. 

Emory is a character who is in the story right through. He comes into some good fortune early on and it makes all the difference to his life and those around him. I liked him, he was loving and caring, hardworking and positive. He didn't always get some things right immediately, but by listening to the women in his life, his were ultimately good choices. When he finally retires and for awhile loses his purpose in life it isn't long before there are people and things to do that bring new meaning into his life.

Then there are the women in Emory's life who bring him so much joy, they are wonderful homemakers on the whole and add very much to the story, as does the homes they live in. 

It is left to Jack Mahoney to round off this enjoyable story. This is him before we met him in Spare Change,  his beginnings as a police officer where he met his wife all through some eggs, and an arrest. In this book too we see his dedication and fight for justice, as he manages to close a cold case.

While a little predictable and with not as much tension as in previous novels in this series, I certainly enjoyed the story and the family as they travelled through that first half of the twentieth century.