My Weekly Wrap Up and Stacking the Shelves

This week has flown by, I can’t believe it’s Saturday already and time for my weekly wrap up!

Lots has been happening this week and my blog is probably the busiest it’s ever been to date! I’m part of the fabulous publisher Bookouture’s Christmas week over on twitter. Every day between the 22nd and 27th October fifteen bloggers, including me, are posting reviews, guest posts, Q&As and giveaways all to do with Bookouture’s Christmas books.

Here are the links to my posts so far. Please check them out and enter the great giveaways for a chance to win some ebooks.

Bookouture Christmas Week

Bella’s Christmas Bake Off by Sue Watson

One Wish in Manhattan by Mandy Baggot

And here’s a page where you can go straight to the giveaways (I have more giveaways in the coming days so will keep updating this link so please check it out:

Giveaway Page (BookoutureXmas)

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This week I read four books (click the links to read my reviews):

     

One Wish in Manhattan by Mandy Baggot

Get Yourself Organized for Christmas by Kathi Lipp

Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses by Jenny Hale

Snowflakes in Silver Cove by Holly Martin (review will be on my blog on Monday 26th October)

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I’m currently reading:

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley

I’m still reading this one and very much enjoying it. I had to focus on other books for review this week to meet a deadline but now I’m planning on spending the weekend reading this.

Blurb:

From the critically acclaimed author of Lies We Tell Ourselves comes an emotional, empowering story of what happens when love isn’t enough to conquer all.
Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They’ve been together forever. They never fight. They’re deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they’re sure they’ll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, their relationship will surely thrive.
The reality of being apart, however, is a lot different than they expected. As Toni, who identifies as genderqueer, falls in with a group of transgender upperclassmen and immediately finds a sense of belonging that has always been missing, Gretchen struggles to remember who she is outside their relationship.
While Toni worries that Gretchen, who is not trans, just won’t understand what is going on, Gretchen begins to wonder where she fits in Toni’s life. As distance and Toni’s shifting gender identity begins to wear on their relationship, the couple must decide—have they grown apart for good, or is love enough to keep them together?

 

The Record Store of the Mind by Josh Rosenthal

I started reading this yesterday and it’s very good. Anyone who loves, or has ever loved, listening to music on vinyl should go buy this book when it’s released soon.

Blurb:

“Josh Rosenthal is a record man’s record man. He is also a musician’s record man. He is in the line of Samuel Charters and Harry Smith. In this age where we have access to everything and know the value of nothing, musicians need people like Josh to hear them when no one else can.”
– T Bone Burnett
Grammy-nominated producer and Tompkins Square label founder Josh Rosenthal presents his first book, The Record Store of the Mind. Part memoir, part “music criticism,” the author ruminates over unsung musical heroes, reflects on thirty years of toil and fandom in the music business, and shamelessly lists some of the LPs in his record collection. Crackling with insightful untold stories, The Record Store of the Mind will surely delight and inspire passionate music lovers … especially those who have spent way too many hours in record stores.
Celebrating ten years in 2015, Rosenthal’s San Francisco-based independent record label Tompkins Square has received seven Grammy nominations and wide acclaim for its diverse catalog of new and archival recordings.

Books I plan on reading this week:

Out of the Darkness by Katy Hogan

I was offered the chance to review this book and I couldn’t resist, it sounds like an excellent read. I’ve been so looking forward to reading it and am really hoping I can start it early next week.

Blurb:

DOES EVERYTHING IN LIFE HAPPEN PURELY BY CHANCE? OR ARE WE GUIDED TOWARDS PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP US IN OUR HOUR OF NEED?
Following the sudden death of her beloved mother, Jessica Gibson’s world falls apart. But after meeting a man who seems heaven-sent, she starts to feel she has something to live for again, and soon discovers that their connection holds far more significance than she could ever have imagined. And when Jessica strikes an unlikely bond with Alexandra Green, the two new friends are taken on an emotional journey into the world of the supernatural, where psychic mediums pass on messages from beyond the grave. What — or who — is causing the strange goings-on in Alex’s home? What secret is she keeping from Jessica? And who is the young woman who so badly needs their help? In a series of surprising twists and turns, the pieces of the puzzle finally fall into place and a mystery is unwittingly solved — with life-changing consequences for all involved.
‘Out of the Darkness’ is an uplifting tale of friendship and redemption; of love and loss. And life…after death.

 

A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt edited by Simon Garfield

This is a review copy that I was lucky enough to receive recently, it’s a long book so I expect to be reading it over the next few weeks but it sounds wonderful.

Blurb:

In April 1925, Jean Lucey Pratt began writing a journal. She continued to write until just a few days before her death in 1986, producing well over a million words in 45 exercise books over the course of her lifetime. For sixty years, no one had an inkling of her diaries’ existence, and they have remained unpublished until now.
Jean wrote about anything that amused, inspired or troubled her, laying bare every aspect of her life with aching honesty, infectious humour, indelicate gossip and heartrending hopefulness. She recorded her yearnings and her disappointments in love, from schoolgirl crushes to disastrous adult affairs. She documented the loss of a tennis match, her unpredictable driving, catty friends, devoted cats and difficult guests. With Jean we live through the tumult of the Second World War and the fears of a nation. We see Britain hurtling through a period of unbridled transformation, and we witness the shifting landscape for women in society.
As Jean’s words propel us back in time, A Notable Woman becomes a unique slice of living, breathing British history and a revealing private chronicle of life in the twentieth century.

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I’m also joining in with Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga’s Reviews), which is all about sharing all the books you’ve acquired in the past week – ebooks or physical books, and books you’ve bought or borrowed or received an ARC of.

Books I’ve bought this week:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

One by Sarah Crossan

A Miracle at Macy’s by Lynn Marie Hulsman

ARCS I’ve received this week:

How To Stuff Up Christmas by Rosie Blake

The Rest of My Life by Sheryl Browne

Written in the Scars by Mel Sherratt

Winter’s Fairytale by Maxine Morrey

Competition Prize:

I was very excited to win a Harper Impulse ebook in a competition last week and even more excited when the book arrived on my Kindle and it was a book I’ve been dying to read. The book is Never Kiss A Man in a Christmas Jumper by Debbie Johnson. Isn’t that just the BEST title for a book? I’m sure it’s going it be a fab read!

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So, that’s my week in books! What have you read this week? Have you bought any books that you can’t wait to read? Have you any other book-related news to share? Please tell me in the comments below! 🙂