Holiday Read

We will be off in a week or so for a family holiday.  After our holiday in the Land of The Rising Sun last year, we decided to go local this year and to coincide our holidays with a convention that we are attending.

As I do my packing for the clothes and other stuff for the trip, I pack also for what I am going to read on the trip.

I have not decided yet and most probably will wait till the last minute to decide. For now, it's a choice between I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella or Breaking the Rules by Barbara Taylor Bradford.  Whichever title I decide on, it would be something that I have to stick with for about two weeks as I only want to bring along one title.

I am extremely keen on I've Got Your Number but I am not sure if it'll last two weeks as I ran read Sophie Kinsella's title quite fast

Breaking the Rules might last me two weeks but what if I am tired of it after a while as I didn't have good experience with what Barbara has to offer from the last few books that I read.

Decisions...decisions....

Books Second Time Around - Hills Shopping Mall Kuching

IF you are a residence of Kuching and you love to read, you would have known that Hills Shopping Mall has been hosting a book fair in the months of November and Decembers for the past two years.

This year, it's no different.  The 'Books Second Time Around' Fair started on Saturday, 14 November and will run till around 21 Decemeber 2015.

Readers will have a great selection of books at rather good prices to choose from. The only thing is that these books are second hand books as in they have been bought and read and used to belong to a public or private libraries in the United States.  However, some of the books can be so crazily new that you would not believe that they are second hand books.

I was there on the second day of the fair and managed to bring home a few books only as I wasn't in the mood to really purchase any.  Out of the 6 titles that I bought, five were for the princess and I only bought one for myself.

 Say hello to The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen, author of one of my favourite fiction characters, Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles.  I first read them in Vanish and have been wanting to read her again since.

So, what are you waiting for? If you love the read and have not been to the book fair, do make your way there and let me know if you bought any interesting titles.

 

Yesterdays Stardust by Becky Melby

 Synopsis :

Two Stories—Decades Apart—Converge on a Secret

With an award-winning series to her name, journalist Dani Gallagher is anxious to find her next big scoop. . .she just doesn’t expect it to come from the past. But while searching for answers connected to her latest story, Dani discovers a tattered journal in an alley near Bracciano, an Italian restaurant run by Nicky Fiorini. The diary, written in the Roaring Twenties by a young girl caught in a web of organized crime, mentions Nicky’s restaurant, and despite an explosive first meeting, Dani persuades Nicky to help her uncover what happened to the girl—and what her story has to do with their present. 

Nicky is frustrated. No matter what he says, he can’t seem to convince Dani that she’s treading on thin ice. Her zeal to make a difference for others is leading her into some precarious situations—and just might get her hurt. 

Attraction soon ignites, but in the struggle to reveal the truth, will Dani and Nicky miss the real story while clinging to secrets of their own,

Another wonderful story by Becky Melby from her Lost Sanctuary Series.  Book 1 was called Tomorrow's Sun which I read a few year back.  (Note : I actually read this a few years back too but just never got the review published).

Anyway Becky is very good at infusing past and present that is based in the same location into her story which she did for Tomorow's Sun and which she does here too in Yesterdays' Stardust.

The story wasn't very exciting but decent enough for me to enjoy and if you like contemporary and clean type of novels, this would be for you.
 

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

Synopsis :

Sally Jupp seemed the ideal girl to help Mrs Maxie run a large house and look after her invalid husband.  She was pretty, docile and grateful, or so it seemed, until murder shattered the tranquility of her new home.

A puzzling, disturbing killing that brought Chief Detective Inspector Adam Dalgleish to the quiet village in search of the murderer.

Cover Her Face is P. D. James's electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.

I can safely say that if you enjoy readying Agatha Christie, chances are you would quite enjoy some of what P.D. James offered.  This title was written in 1962 and was the first of may titles wrote by P.D. James until her death last year at the grand age of 94 years old.

What can I say except that it was an honour to read the first case of Chief Detective Inspector Adam Dalgleish.  There are millions of readers out there who have been thrilled by P.D. James and I am thrilled (pun intended) to be one of the many.

Back to Cover Her Face,  it was captivating, right to the very end.

Alaska Twilight by Colleen Coble

Synopsis :

Haley Walsh has returned to remote Alaska to come to terms with her past. Twenty years ago a tragedy occurred, and Haley has been living with her grandmother in Phoenix ever since. Haley's parents stayed behind to work on an archeological dig, and with their recent deaths, Haley has decided to face her troubles head-on. She joins Kipp Nowak, a television wildlife star, and his crew, who are making a documentary about bears. Their group is also accompanied by Tank Lassiter, a biologist who is less than thrilled with Kipp's easygoing approach to the dangerous bears.

As Haley begins to delve into the circumstances surrounding her parents' deaths, she uncovers evidence that the fire that killed them might not have been an accident. Tank, although fighting a battle of his own to retain custody of his daughter after his wife's suspicious death, joins forces with her to uncover an evil force at work in the Alaskan wilderness.

It is very relaxing to read Alaska Twilight.  The story started off with a suspense but the suspense disperse quite early in the story and never really picks up but it was a pretty even momentum throughout the book right until the end.

There are moments of comical humour and sadness here and there but not too much to drag the story down.  There is a rather unexpected twist to the story at the end and I can't say I like the twist but it certainly was unexpected.

Overall, I enjoy the book.

Through The Looking Glass

Not relevant to this post...just sharing with you my ideal study room. Image from web

I was browsing through my old post a while ago and was just marveling that I managed to keep up with this blog for quite a number of years  One of the purpose I started this blog was because I wasn’t able to properly keep track of what I have read.  There were many instances when I have double titles in my collections all because I forgot that I have that particular book already and bought another one.  While that still happens, it is happening much, much infrequent.  There were also instances when I started a book only to realize that I have read it in previous occasions.  What that happened, I would end up being extremely annoyed with myself for the time and sometimes resources wasted.  This blog has helped me in keeping track of all these especially from the INDEX page, I was able to see at a glance where I am at particular with series.

Like my subtitle says, I also love to talk about what I read except I can’t really talk to family and friends  about it as not everyone in the family nor my friends share the same hobby and I can’t very well discuss a book each time I meet up with friends who enjoy reading nor do I want to spoil it for others with ‘spoilers alert’ which might happen in a discussion.  Such, this platform serves me extremely well too in this aspect as it allows me express my opinions over the books that I read without any prejudice.

Image from web. not relevant. Just thought it's beautiful

During one of the years, I did a lot of committed posts which I committed to publishers who sent me ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of new titles, either physical book or e-book.   I have stopped taking part in such activities as I find that it can be quite a tiring experience and I wasn’t able to really enjoy reading title that I truly like and the whole process became quite a chore and pretty pressuring after a while in trying to observe the deadline in finishing a book and posting up the review.  I won’t mind picking it up again in the future if I have the time to do so but for now, I am just grateful for that experience.

A photo from last year

 Another extension of my love for reading would be my flea market sales.  I have been doing this a few times a year, time permitting for the past couple of years.  This year I think I took part in about six flea markets which usually run over the weekend.   As I am sure you will agree with me, there are books that you keep as collections and there are books that you are quite happy to let go off after reading them.  The opportunity to be able to sell my books to other readers out there is quite encouraging.   Not only I can manage my collection more wisely, the income from the sales  contributes back to purchase of new titles which otherwise, can be quite limited as books are not cheap!

A photo from two years ago

It is also a lot of fun to recommend titles to people I would meet during the flea market.  There are those who knows very well what they like and don’t like but there are also some who are open to new titles and authors and welcome recommendation which I enjoy doing.  It is quite joyful too when I met someone who like a particular author that I do too or a particular series and we would have a quick animated chat over it.  I remember feeling worried that there might not be many readers out there who would like this series and I have two books from this series to let go off.  Imagine my surprise when a lady says she loves the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series (which I do too, which you know!) and it was so easy to recommend these two books to her as they are from the same author and thus she is so open to trying them out.