It's Monday. What Are You Reading today?

I am very excited to start Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult today.

When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.

What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.

Please pop over to the Book Date to see what everyone else is reading today.

Saturday parkrun fun

Saturday isn't Saturday without parkrun. If I'm not running then you will find me volunteering.

Today I was tailrunner for the very first time.

At first I felt frustrated as it felt too slow and I really wanted to run.

Then I started chatting to 2 ladies who were at the beginning of their Couch to 5k journey. They were doing great and soon caught up with Dennis.

Dennis has been a parkrun regular for a while now - easily identifiable by his purple pully! He is 66, recently retired and suffering with shin splints. He walked a bit and ran a bit and we had a good old blether. As we approached the finish funnel Dennis suggested a sprint finish. he took my hand and we crossed the finish line together in a time of 45.33 minutes. We had a celebratory hug.

This is what parkrun is all about and I am so pleased to be a part of it.  

Skywatch Friday

#walk1000miles

Continuing with the above challenge (in conjunction with Country Walking magazine) Andy and I enjoyed a short walk just after New Year along the River Findhorn. Love the Winter sun shining between the trees.

Please pop over to the Skywatch blog to see more skies from around the world.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

Good morning.

2 books on the go as usual.

Watching Edie by Camilla Way - psychological thrillers are my new thing. Slow to start but the story is now building....

BEFORE
Edie is the friend that Heather has always craved. But one night, it goes terrifyingly wrong. And what started as an innocent friendship ends in two lives being destroyed.

AFTER
Sixteen years later, Edie is still rebuilding her life. But Heather isn’t ready to let her forget so easily. It’s no coincidence that she shows up when Edie needs her most.

NOW
Edie or Heather?
Heather or Edie?

Someone has to pay for what happened, but who will it be?

I am also reading (and reviewing) by The Last Night by Cesca Major. Another slow burner but something strange is starting to happen........

In a quiet coastal village, Irina spends her days restoring furniture, passing the time in peace and hiding away from the world. A family secret, long held and never discussed, casts a dark shadow and Irina chooses to withdraw into her work. When an antique bureau is sent to her workshop, the owner anonymous, Irina senses a history to the object that makes her uneasy. As Irina begins to investigate the origins of the piece, she unearths the secrets it holds within...

Decades earlier in the 1950s, another young woman kept secrets. Her name was Abigail. Over the course of one summer, she fell in love, and dreamed of the future. But Abigail could not know that a catastrophe loomed, and this event would change the course of many lives for ever..

Please pop over to the Book Date to see what everyone else is reading today.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

Good morning.

After reading so many glowing reviews I thought it was about time I read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Not sure what to think of it so far but it is early days.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?

In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible...

I am also reading The Last Night by Cesca Major who is a new author to me. It has started of slowly but the story seems to be building.

In a quiet coastal village, Irina spends her days restoring furniture, passing the time in peace and hiding away from the world. A family secret, long held and never discussed, casts a dark shadow and Irina chooses to withdraw into her work. When an antique bureau is sent to her workshop, the owner anonymous, Irina senses a history to the object that makes her uneasy. As Irina begins to investigate the origins of the piece, she unearths the secrets it holds within...

Decades earlier in the 1950s, another young woman kept secrets. Her name was Abigail. Over the course of one summer, she fell in love, and dreamed of the future. But Abigail could not know that a catastrophe loomed, and this event would change the course of many lives for ever...

Please pop over to the Book Date to see what everyone else is reading today.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

Good  morning.

2 books on the go as usual.

I am reading Duplicity by Sibel Hodge - a psychological thriller (which is fast becoming my favourite genre). I thought I could see which way the plot was going.................

Max and Alissa have a fairy tale life—newlywed, madly in love and enviously rich. Then Max is brutally stabbed to death at their home and Alissa, miraculously, escapes with her life. But why was she spared?

The hunt for the killer begins, uncovering a number of leads—was Max’s incredible wealth the motive? Had his shady business practices finally caught up with him? Or was it a stalker with a dangerous obsession?

Devoted friends rally around gentle, sweet Alissa as she is left to mourn the loss of her husband and pick up her life. But not everyone is who they seem…Deep-rooted jealousies, secrets and twisted love lie just beneath the surface, and not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

I am also reading The Hope Family Calendar by Mike Gayle. This author has written quite a few books but I think this is the first I have read.

Tom Hope is broken. Ever since his wife Laura died he hasn't been the same man, and definitely not the same father. Luckily for Tom his mother-in-law Linda is around to pick up the pieces and look after his two struggling daughters, Evie and Lola.

But Tom getting arrested on the first anniversary of his wife's death is the last straw for Linda.

In a last bid attempt to make Tom reconnect with his daughters she takes drastic action and leaves for Australia. With two fast-maturing daughters Tom has to learn how to accept his responsibilities and navigate the newly discovered world of single fatherhood - starting immediately.

With only himself to rely on, will Tom fall back into grief or finally step up and be the father his girls need?

Please pop over to the Book Date to see what everyone else is reading today.

Skywatch Friday

This year I have signed up for a few challenges - one of which is the Walk 1000 Miles in 2017 featured in Country Walking magazine.

Hopefully this will make me get out and about with my camera this year.

I managed a 2 mile power walk round my local park one lunchtime this week and captured this shot with my phone of a weak Winter sun.

Please pop over to the Skywatch blog to see more skies from around the world.

First Book of 2017

Shelia over on The Book Journey has been hosting this meme for several years now I think and this is the second year I have played along.

I had made a decision in plenty of time that my first book of the year would be My Husband's Wife by Amanda Prowse which has been on my to be read pile since it was published. I started it on 29th December thinking it would keep me busy through to the New Year. But it was one of those books you cannot put down and due to a spell of insomnia I finished it the next day!

Next on my list was The Fire Child by S K Tremayne. I enjoyed the authors previous title The Ice Twins which was a creepy read and hopefully this one will be just as good. It will alos mean another book off my library book pile.

Please pop over to The Book Journey and see the other titles that have been chosen for first book of the year.