No Matter How Bad I Feel….

 

….. I can hardly ever say no when my girlfriend calls and says she wants to go to a thrift shop!

I have to show these photo’s because of my “sis”, Cath .  I sent her a new version of this “original” version of Vanishing Cornwall, and so want her to see I have my own (older) copy now!

We both like Daphne du Maurier and about all her books take place in Cornwall.. which is also the place Cath was born!  

If a miracle ever happens and I happen to get to England Cornwall will surely be top of my list to see… but I will also be sure not to watch Rebecca before going there!  :o)

The Second book, The Murrow Boys is about Edward R Murrow and other journalists.

Publishers Weekly described The Murrow Boys as "a lively, colloquial history of broadcast journalism that is so exciting one's impulse is to read it in a single sitting." It tells the swashbuckling tale of Edward R. Murrow and his legendary band of CBS radio journalists - Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, William Shirer, Eric Sevareid, and others - as they "paint pictures in the air" from the World War II front. Brimming with personalities and anecdotal detail, it also serves up a sharp-eyed account of where the craft went wrong after the war, when vanity and commercialism increasingly intruded."This is history at its best," said Ted Anthony of AP News.

How long before I get to them?..  heaven only knows!

Before I Go To Sleep

(Book 7 for RIP)

Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson.

Hardcover: 358 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers(June 14, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0062060554

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2011: Every day Christine wakes up not knowing where she is. Her memories disappear every time she falls asleep. Her husband, Ben, is a stranger to her, and he's obligated to explain their life together on a daily basis--all the result of a mysterious accident that made Christine an amnesiac. With the encouragement of her doctor, Christine starts a journal to help jog her memory every day. One morning, she opens it and sees that she's written three unexpected and terrifying words: "Don't trust Ben." Suddenly everything her husband has told her falls under suspicion. What kind of accident caused her condition? Who can she trust? Why is Ben lying to her? And, for the reader: Can Christine’s story be trusted? At the heart of S. J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep is the petrifying question: How can anyone function when they can't even trust themselves? Suspenseful from start to finish, the strength of Watson's writing allows Before I Go to Sleep to transcend the basic premise and present profound questions about memory and identity. One of the best debut literary thrillers in recent years, Before I Go to Sleep deserves to be one of the major blockbusters of the summer. --Miriam Landis

OMG! If this book doesn’t suck you in and make you not want to put it down, I will be shocked!  What an amazing book!  After reading this the feeling is that the author actually lived this story because at every moment you felt you were living Christine’s life.

First off, I can’t even imagine having amnesia.  But the fact is Christine has amnesia from “an accident”.. or so Ben tells her.  Christine decides to let a doctor try to help her and he has her keep a journal and hide it from Ben.  He will call her each day, tell her who he is and where to find her journal, where she reads what her day was like yesterday. 

Try to even imagine going to sleep and waking up not knowing who you are, who the person sleeping next to you is and what your life was like even just yesterday.

This is Mr Watson’s first book… I hold a little fear because of how much I loved a first book by another author but was disappointed in a second book.   Still… this is one amazing book!  I love, love, love the fact that the one letting the reader find out about her life before amnesia is Christine herself!  Flash memories.   And with each flash memory  you either discover another secret and your conclusions are not always correct!

I don’t want to give anything away so I will just say that this is one book you should give read!  

In Spock’s own words as he raises an eyebrow: “Fascinating!”

Do yourself a favor… don’t miss this book!

The House of Silk

 

(Book 6 for RIP)

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books(October 2, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0316197017

The House of Silk begins with a brief, personal recounting of events by Watson. The reader is informed of the particulars regarding the first meeting of Watson and Holmes, including the circumstances of the Afghan War and a mention of the case that was "too shocking to be revealed until now."

The client of "The Flat Cap case" is introduced as a man by the name of Edmund Carstairs, an art dealer whose paintings had been destroyed by a gang of Irish robbers. After the murder of Carstairs' client, and a failure on the part of a hired detective, he turns to Sherlock Holmes, who employs the aid of the Baker Street Irregulars, and upon locating the hotel wherein the supposed Keelan O'Donaghue (one of the leaders of the gang) is currently staying, one of the newest recruits of the Irregulars, a boy named Ross, is stationed to wait outside until Holmes, Watson, and Mr. Carstairs arrive. When the group finally arrives, Ross appears inexplicably horror-stricken and is later found brutally murdered by thugs of the House of Silk. When Holmes makes inroads with the House of Silk case, he is framed for murder and sent to prison

Having recently read another Sherlock Homes book I found myself comparing writers.. something  I never really do.   I think because of my age and my familiarity with the very old back and white Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce that I tend to hear their voices in the dialog and so draw on what sounds more like the movies I remember.   I have to say that I think the other book, Dust and Shadow, reads more like the Conan Doyle books I remember that turned into movies.

That being said I will say that this was still a very good read.  Unfortunately, I have not been feeling well and so this book, which I should have read in a few short days, took me a long time to read, but it had nothing to do with the writing.

This book begins a little slow (not toooo slow) and builds as it goes along, until the final few chapters just race by.  I do think that anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes stories will enjoy this book.

The Black House

Book 5 for RIP..

The Black House by Peter May.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: SilverOak (October 2, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1454901276

From acclaimed author and television dramatist Peter May comes the first book in the Lewis Trilogy--a riveting mystery series set on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a formidable and forbidding world where tradition rules and people adhere to ancient ways of life.

When a grisly murder occurs on the Isle of Lewis that has the hallmarks of a killing he's investigating on the mainland, Edinburgh detective and native islander Fin Macleod is dispatched to see if the two deaths are connected. His return after nearly two decades not only represents a police investigation, but a voyage into his own troubled past. As Fin reconnects with the places and people of his tortured childhood, he feels the island once again asserting its grip on his psyche. And every step forward in solving the murder takes him closer to a dangerous confrontation with the tragic events of the past that shaped--and nearly destroyed--Fin's life.
The Blackhouse is a thriller of rare power and vision that explores the darkest recesses of the soul.

This was a really good book!!

I knew it to be a murder mystery with a detective from Scotland (who once lived on the Isle of Lewis) but I didn’t expect two stories for the price of one!  Woot!

The first story is, of course, the murder mystery.  A man that Finn had gone to school with.. a bully as it were.  Many remembered him and just as many were not saddened that he was dead.  That makes for a who done it !

The second story is that of Finn growing up as a child on the Isle of Lewis.  He and his best friend both falling for the same young girl, who was going to school with them.  Seemingly this story of his youth one might guess that it was just so you got to really know Fin and why he was the man he was…   but in there lies many secrets… some of which even Fin had no memory of!

Like I said.. good book!!!!

I totally enjoyed this book and was surprised at having the story of Fin and the murder both to solve! 

I will not get into what the book is about any more then the Amazon review.  I don’t want to give anything away for those who might want to try it!

And so ends book Five for RIP !!