The Girl on the Train...Really mixed reviews

Title: The Girl on the Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
ISBN: 978-0-552-77977-7
Rating: 8/10
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Adult
Book: Paperback

"Tuesday 9th July 2013
Morning
The pile of clothes from last week is still there, and it looks dustier and more forlorn than it did a few days ago. I read somewhere that a train can rip the clothes right off you when it hits you. It's not that unusual, death by train. Two to three hundred a year, they say, so at least one every couple of days. I'm not sure how many of those are accidental. I look carefully, as the train rolls slowly past, for blood on the clothes, but I can't see any.
The train stops at the signal as usual. I can see Jess standing on the patio in front of the French doors. She's wearing a bright print dress, her feet are bare. She's looking over her shoulder, back into the house; she's probably talking to Jason, who'll be making breakfast. I keep my eyes fixed on Jess, on her home, as the train starts to inch forward. I don't want to see the other houses; I particularly don't want to see the one four doors down, the one which used to be mine."

Wonder...A tear jerker

Title: Wonder
Author: R. J. Palacio
ISBN: 978-0-552-57695-6
Rating: 7/10
Genre: Adolescent, Disability, Young Adult
Book: Paperback 

"Mom knocked on my door after dinner. She looked drained, and I realized that between me and Auggie, today had been a tough day for her, too.
'So you want to tell me what's up?' she asked nicely, soft.
'Not now, okay?' I answered. I was reading. I was tired. Maybe later I'd be up to telling her about Miranda, but not now.
'I'll check in before you go to bed,' she said, and then she came over and kissed me on the top of my head.
'Can Daisy sleep with me tonight?'
'Sure, I'll bring her in later.'
'Don't forget to come back,' I said as she left.
'I promise.'
But she didn't come back that night. Dad did. He told me Auggie had had a bad first day and Mom was helping him through it."

All the Light We Cannot See...WWII from a different perspective

Title: All the Light We Cannot See
Author: Anthony Doerr
ISBN: 978-0-00813830-1
Rating: 7/10
Genre: WWII, Fiction, Nazi, France, Germany
Book: Paperback

"If there are fireflies this summer, they do not come down the rue Vauborel. Now it seems there are only shadows and silence. Silence is the fruit of the occupation; it hangs in branches, seeps from gutters. Madame Guiboux, the mother of the shoemaker, has left town. As has old Madame Blanchard. So many windows are dark. It's as if the city has become a library of books in an unknown language, the houses great shelves of illegible volumes, the lamps all extinguished. But there is a machine in the attic at work again. A spark in the night.

Three Years and 2018's Bucket List

Happy New Year Everyone!

How did you spend your new year? What did you decide to do? We spent the evening with family playing games, eating lots of food and laughing. However, the start of 2018 has brought some change in our house. We have both decided a number of things. We have decided that we ate far too much over Christmas and needed to be healthier in the new year, we wanted to be more active and go for long walks in our local countryside and we want to go on more city breaks this year. So in order to see what we have achieved over the year and what we could do to achieve these things, I created a bucket list for the year. 

Finally...a new book shop has arrived!

Evening all.

I have the utmost happiness to announce that after over 10 years, Yarm, my lovely little picturesque town which I live in, has its very own bookshop! The Waterstones bookshop opened on Saturday. It is located at the North end of Yarm High Street where the HSBC bank used to be. It is lovely!