Where To Begin

 I have been too slow to write about what I have been reading. I get too caught up on the fantastic books I read and always searching for a new favorite author that I don't have time to write anything.

In May ,June and July 2019 I enjoyed Reading lots of different books. Also had some good family holidays.

Loved our visit to Trial Bay Jail at South West Rocks

Went to Dorigo and enjoyed our walk through the National Park. We stayed the night and went to the Dorigo Museum and was able to find out some information on Bills's family.

The Midnight Sky by Anna Romer

A quick easy read. Full of twists and turns. Under the Midnight Sky was set in a small Australian town in the present time with flash backs to the 1940’s and twenty years earlier.

Abby is back in her hometown of Gundara after being away for ten years, she is haunted by the death of her twelve, year old friend twenty years earlier and spends her spare time running in a remote Deepwater Gorge searching for answers and a secret place that has haunted her memory for years.

One day while she is out running in the Deepwater Gorge, she finds a teenage girl unconscious. She leaves the girl and goes to where she can call for help but when the ambulance arrives the girl has vanished.

Abby has trouble finding someone who believes she had seen the unconscious girl based on what happened twenty years ago in the same area. She is a journalist working for the local newspaper. She wants to write a feature article about mysterious deaths that occurred at Deepwater Gorge, but her boss Kendra wants her to write about a local true crime author Tom Gabriel and reveal his faults.

Abby meets the local author and helps him out and in turn gaining his trust, he talks about his life and his latest novel. Tom lives in an old rambling house full of the previous owner’s furniture and nick knacks. Abby and Tom find an old scrap book and pages torn from a diary that reveal something very sinister happened in the house.

This is a murder mystery about life in a small town, families, secrets, friendships and journalists. I loved the setting and the character’s and the way Abby was determined to find the missing teenager. Another fantastic Australian book by Anna Romer.

Messy Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac.

Set in the UK and Italy in the present time. Allie is an academic research scientist. She is sure of her place in her family is happily surrounded by love from her father and grandparents until the day she accidentally finds an old newspaper article and secret letter.

Allie’s grandmother refuses to talk about the letter and forbids Allie from talking to her grandfather and father about the letter and newspaper article. Allie plans to travel to Italy to find the truth about the newspaper article and secret letter but she does not speak Italian.

Ed is an old friend of Allie’s and he is having marriage trouble and needs time away from his wife Julia but does not want to be alone, so he offers to travel to Italy with Allie.

This was about relationships, friendship and family secrets.

A Walk In Wildflower Park by Bella Osborne

This was about two friends who live near Wildflower Park. Anna is single and her friend Sophie is married with two children and soon to have a third. Anna and Sophie both work for the same insurance company which has just been taken over by another company.

Anna’s love life and working life are a mess. She is lonely at night and decides to rescue a kitten from the Cat Rescue. She feels a connection with a cat named Maurice who is nine years old. Maurice’s previous owner is in a nursing home and could not keep his beloved cat. Anna establishes a friendship with Maurice’s previous owner and takes Maurice for visits to the nursing home.

I loved the characters, especially Maurice the cat.

This is about workplace relationships, romance and friendships.

Peacock Room at Summezzano Castle by Merryn Corcoran

I really enjoyed this novel. I loved the way places were described especially the rooms in Sammezzano Castle. I was inspired to find out more about the Castle. It was set in 2011 in Fulham and in Italy. 

Allegra loves art and beautiful buildings, at University she studied European interior architecture.

When her children become demanding Allegra escapes to her special place - a bathroom she designed using 14 Century Italian and Florentine mosaics.

Allegra and her friend Julia go to Florence for a holiday. While she is in Italy, Allegra plans to find out more about her Italian family history and the reason her grandfather left Italy and something about the mysterious Peacock Room her grandfather is always talking about. 

This was about families, relationships and secrets. I loved the descriptions about Italian architecture and design.

Tracking down some family history in May. 

In May I was doing some of my family history. I went looking for the house my great grandmother lived in during the 1960's. It was in Phyllis Street, Lismore. I got the details from her death certificate. I remembered as a very young child visiting her and standing on the veranda and being able to see some railway buildings. When I found her house i was still able to see the railway buildings although some of them had been demolished.

I finished read A Wing and a Prayer by Margaret Thornton

Set in 1990 and during World War two. Helen Burnside is single lives in Blackpool, near her mother and grandmother, when her Great Aunt Alice dies, Helen moves to Yorkshire to live in a cottage she inherits from her Great Aunt Alice. Helen makes a new life for herself and gradually gets to know her neighbors. As she sorts out her Great Aunt’s mementos Helen finds a small box with old letters and other small items revealing that Alice had a war time romance. Helen’s mother and Aunt don’t want to talk about Alice’s life and the reason she moved to Yorkshire after the Second World War.

Helen is determined to find out more about Alice’s life and the family secrets going back to the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Books I was reading in July 2019

While You Were Reading by Ali Berg and Michelle Klaus

This was set in Melbourne in the present time. Bea Babbage moves from Perth to Melbourne to start a new life after she ruined her best friend’s wedding. Bea is devastated when her best friend does not reply to her e-mails and messages. Bea works in a boring job and goes home to an empty apartment.  She is so desperate to communicate with people she leaves notes for her cleaner and spends a lot of time in the Nook a small coffee shop where she gets to talk about books with Dino the barista. Bea loves books, reading and book shops. She finds an old book in a second hand bookshop and throughout the pages she discovers someone has been writing quotes and comments in the margins. Bea sets out to find the person who previously owned the book.

Bea writes a blog and mentions she is looking for the person who owned the book and she puts up notices in places mentioned in the quotes. With Dino’s help she runs a few literary events in his coffee shop.

I loved the humour in this book and the interactions between the different characters.  The best thing about this were the book quotes, names of authors and book titles. Bea is constantly talking about books she has loved and how they influenced her life and love of reading. I loved it.

The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix

A WW2 historical fiction set in Germany and England in the 1940’s. It is about two young girls and their life during World War two. Magda is a young girl who lives on a farm near a small village near Augsburg in Germany. She misses her older brother Karl who went to England before the war to attend Oxford University.

Karl sends a letter to Magda and tells her about the coming war and resistance fighters. He tells Magda to destroy the letter. Instead she keeps it and potentially puts her family in danger. Magda and her school friends are encouraged to be involved in a German Girls’ League.

In England Imogen and her best friend and other children, are sent away from their homes and families in Newcastle to Keswick, a small village in the Lake District.

The novel switches back and forward to Imogen and Magda as the war progresses. Imogen and her friends miss their families but are safe as they grow up and plan how they will contribute to the war effort.

Magda struggles to keep away from danger during the war, she has dangerous friends and tries to help wounded airmen and is constantly at risk of being discovered. This is about families, friendships, WW2 and secrets.

The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths

A Ruth Galloway mystery. Dr Ruth Galloway is on an archaeological dig in a salt marsh to discover information about a stone circle that has been discovered. A few days after the investigation began the remains of a young girl were discovered. DCI Harry Nelson starts receiving letters that are very similar to a previous discovery of remains some years earlier also by Dr Ruth Galloway.

The Stranger by Elly Griffiths

Both books easy to read.

Undara by Annie Seaton

Set in the present time. Emlyn is recovering from an accident. She travels to Hidden Valley to prepare accommodation for her team who will be helping on a scientific investigation of insects in some lava tubes near Undara National Park.

Travis Carlyle owns the property where the scientists are working and proves to be very difficult to negotiate with. Travis would prefer not to have strangers on his property but he needs the fee the scientists are willing to pay as his property is running at a loss.

Mysterious accidents happen and Emlyn will need help.

This was about the Australian outback, families, relationships and Undara Lava Tubes. I loved the way the lava tubes were described and how the scientists prepared each time they entered the tubes ensuring everyone’s safety.