WHAT'S ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND - January 2018

With the exception of Keith Rosson's totally brilliant 'The Mercy of the Tide' which kicked off the new year, the start of my 2018 reading life isn't going amazingly well. I've felt the need to DNF several books, although not sure if the reasons for doing so are more to do with what's been happening in my personal life over the past few months rather than the books themselves.

Anyway, here are my updates for this month's, Read, DNF'd (did not finish), Reading Now, and which books are tempting me to read next.

Read:
All The Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J Church
Smoke City by Keith Rosson
The Mercy of The Tide by Keith Rosson
My Sweet Orange Tree by Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos

I absolutely loved all of these and will do my utmost to get reviews written and posted as soon as ...

DNF'd:
Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo 🤔
Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty😏
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (sexually explicit) 🙀
Why We Sleep by Matthew P. Walker (non fiction)😴

Reading Now:
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan
Closer: 7 principles of connectedness by Peter Charleston (non fiction)
12 Rules for Life by Jordon B Peterson (non fiction)

Tempted by:
BRIT(ish) on Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch (non fiction)
Purely interested in reading after a scathing review by the The Times. Definitely promises to be a personal and provocative read.

Wolf Boys by Don Slater (non fiction)
Just had to get this one after Richard Lange, who I love as an author, said this about it on his twitter feed: "Loved this book. Shows how the drug trade chews up and spits out boys in low-income communities. An American/Mexican tragedy. Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel"

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Just because colleagues and so many readers say is the best book they've read in a very long time. I don't want to miss out !

Another Way To Fall by Brian Evenson and Paul Tremblay
I have a love/meh relationship with Brian Evenson and Paul Tremblay. I just  have to give this one a shot as I love the cover image and the 'novel' idea that as a free book you read it, make a donation to a preferred charity, then pass the book on to someone else to do the same. AND, of course, I might also absolutely LOVE both stories.

Until next time, happy reading to you all

TEASER TUESDAY: The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by

 The Purple Booker

It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here are my teasers this month:
“Apparently seeing my mother stab my father at the kitchen table was enough to send any future adult loco. According to the professionals, we never escape our childhoods. Mine was short-lived after the kitchen incident. Dad ran off, and Mom prayed and drank, prayed and drank, while I raised my baby sister.”

Title:The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

Published by Lake Union Publishing (16th January, 2018)

Synopsis:
Metal artist Katie Mack is living a lie. Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind—to change her name and never return.

My Thoughts:
So far I have only read the first few pages but 'The Promise Between Us' promises to be a real heartbreaking, tearjerker and one I’m really looking forward to reviewing as part of the TLC Book Tour during February with my blog tour date scheduled for, 12th February.

TEASER TUESDAY : Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

 Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by

 The Purple Booker

It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here are my teasers this month:
“It was during the dog days, the season when the August wind blows hot, venomous with the rotten stench of Saporania blossoms.
The road rose and fell. It rises or falls depending on whether you are coming or going. If you are leaving its uphill, but as you arrive it's downhill."

Title: Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

Published by Serpent’s Tail (first published 1955)

Synopsis:
Swearing to his dying mother that he'll find the father he has never met, a certain Pedro Paramo, Juan Preciado sets out across the barren plains of Mexico for Comala, the hallucinatory ghost town his father presided over like a feudal lord. Between the realms of the living and the dead, in fragments of dreams and the nightly whispers of Comala's ghosts, there emerges the tragic tale of Pedro Paramo and the town whose every corner holds the taint of his rotten soul.

My Thoughts:
'Pedro Paramo' was sadly the only novel by Mexican author Juan Rulfo.  Originally published in 1955, it is the novel that started the genre for magical realism, and also the inspiration for Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, '100 Years of Solitude'.

I have only just read the first page so far and will say more about it in due course.

TEASER TUESDAY: The Mercy of the Tide by Keith Rosson

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by

 The Purple Booker

It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here are my "teasers":
Hayslip was reminded of certain guys in his platoon, as well—quiet, scared guys who would finally crack in a firefight and wind up screaming their throats raw as they emptied rounds into the dripping darkness. No thought to it, just anger and fear, all that tension finally unspooling. Maybe that tension was just youth itself, its yawning ceaselessness.

Title: The Mercy of the Tide by Keith Rosson

Publication date: 2017

Published by Meerkat Press

Synopsis:
Riptide, Oregon, 1983. A sleepy coastal town, where crime usually consists of underage drinking down at a Wolf Point bonfire. But then strange things start happening: a human skeleton is unearthed in a local park and mutilated animals begin appearing, seemingly sacrificed, on the town's beaches.

The Mercy of the Tide follows four people drawn irrevocably together by a recent tragedy as they do their best to reclaim their lives - leading them all to a discovery that will change them and their town forever.

At the heart of the story are Sam Finster, a senior in high school mourning the death of his mother, and his sister Trina, a nine-year-old deaf girl who denies her grief by dreaming of a nuclear apocalypse as Cold War tensions rise.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Dave Dobbs and Deputy Nick Hayslip must try to put their own sorrows aside to figure out who, or what, is wreaking havoc on their once-idyllic town.

- Keith Rosson paints outside the typical genre lines with his brilliant debut novel. It is a gorgeously written book that merges the sly wonder of magical realism and alternate history with the depth and characterization of literary fiction. - NPR Books | Jason Heller
- "Rosson is a talent to be watched, and Riptide is one of the most immersive fictional settings in recent memory." - Publisher's Weekly (starred review) - "A strikin

My Thoughts:
My final read of 2017 was this author’s second novel ‘Smoke City’ which I thoroughly enjoyed. So much so, that it felt fitting to commence 2018 with his debut novel.

Different, at this early stage in the book (15%), in genre definition to Smoke City which magically melded multi genre elements including the fantastical with plausible highly complex flawed characters, with a literary skill and matureness. So far it is rooted very much in reality and touches on difficult subject matters including PTSD expressed in narratives from four main tortured souls.

I must say it already looks to be another phenomenal read and show cases Rosson’s highly perceptive, diverse understanding of the human psyche, and his exemplary writing skills. A true artist in the form of words.

Absolutely going to be a great benchmark and highly recommended read for 2018.