England is back in full lockdown, with everyone being ordered to stay at home. Once again I find myself being grateful for books and reading – and my community of book loving friends.
For Christmas I was given this poster:-
Top 100 books. The idea is that you scratch off the square once you’ve read the book. I’ve already read some of them (I won’t say how many) but in the spirit of the challenge I’m going to start again.
Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves
I’ve read a couple books by Ann Cleeves. This is part of the Shetland series, and is in fact the last one of that series. However, it is also a stand alone book – I’ve not read any of the other Shetland books but it wasn’t a problem. The back story of the main characters is explained concisely and well.
In this story, Jimmy Perez and his team are looking into the death of a young woman, Emma, who is found hanging in the barn belonging to a family who recently moved to the area. It is clear that Emma was murdered.
Jimmy looks into Emma’s life and the lives of those closest to her. When another person is killed they become under increasing pressure to find out what happened.
I enjoyed this book, a pleasure to spend time with. There’s something about losing yourself in a good murder mystery and Ann Cleeves does place and setting really well.
What Alice Forgot – by Liane Moriarty
I’ve listened to several books by Liane Moriarty now, and I’ve really enjoyed them. They were narrated by Caroline Lee, who is particularly entertaining. I’m going to read a book by the same author to see if I enjoy them as much.
In this book, the main character, Alice, falls and bangs her head. When she regains consciousness she finds she’s lost her memory of the last ten years. It comes as a complete surprise to her that her perfect marriage to Nick is on the bring of divorce and she has three children.
Alice begins exploring her life as a 40 year old woman from her 30 year old point of view. I found this a really interesting concept – thinking about what your younger self would make of you and your current life. And sometimes the events of the past really make a difference and cannot be put aside completely, but you need to take a step away and look at life from the outside to see what really matters.
Pixie Chronicles 