Sunday Bookshelf PRECIOUS BANE by Mary Webb #SundayBlogShare

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

A compelling story of passion, with an enduring air of enchantment throughout, Precious Bane is a novel that haunts us with its beauty and its timeless truths about our deepest hopes. Set in Shropshire in the 1800s, it is alive with the many moods of Nature, benevolent and violent and the many moods — equally benevolent and violent — of the people making lives there.

Prue Sarn is an unlikely heroine, born with a facial disfiguration which the Fates have dictated will deny her love. But Prue has strength far beyond her handicap, and this woman, suspected of witchcraft by her fellow townspeople, rises above them all through an all-encompassing sweetness of spirit.

Precious Bane is also the story of Gideon, Prue’s doomed brother, equally strong-willed, but with other motives. Determined to defeat the poverty of their farm, he devotes all his energies to making money. His only diversion from this ambition, he abandons her for the stronger drive of his money lust.

And finally, it is the story of Kester Woodseaves, whose steady love for all created things leads him to resist people’s cruelty toward nature and each other, and whose love for Prue Saen enables him to discern her natural and rach other, and whose love for Prue Sarn enables him to discern her natural loveliness beneath her blighted appearance.
Rebecca West, a contemporary of Mary Webb, called her, simply, “a genius,” and G. K. Chesterton, another contemporary, asserted: “the light in the stories . . . is a light not shining on the things but through them.”

Critic Hilda Addison summed up Precious Bane: “The book opens with one of those simple sentences which haunt the mind until the curiosity has been satisfied . . . It strikes a note which never fails throughout; it opens with a beauty which is justified to the last sentence.”

When the book was first published in 1926 in America, the New York Times Book Review predicted: ” on some bookshelves, we feel sure, Precious Bane will find almost a hallowed place.”

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Sunday Bookshelf The Nemesis Program by Scott Mariani #SundayBlogShare

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book description

The explosive, thrilling new BEN HOPE adventure from the top 10 bestselling author

A BRUTAL MURDER
While secretly researching the bizarre discoveries of Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla many years earlier, physicist Claudine Pommier becomes the victim of a remorseless and cruel murderer who breaks into her Parisian apartment. Is he just a serial killer, or is there more to her death than the Paris cops believe?

A SCIENTIST ON THE RUN
Maverick American biologist Dr Roberta Ryder receives a mysterious letter from her friend Claudine and travels to Paris to see her, only to learn of her shocking death. Before she knows it, Roberta becomes the target of ruthless men with a deadly agenda that only the letter can unmask. She’s alone and vulnerable. But she knows someone – the only someone – who can help her.

A PLOT TO KILL MILLIONS
Ben Hope, ex-SAS soldier and Roberta’s old flame, now trying to retire to a life of peace with his fiancée Brooke, suddenly finds his life turned upside down by Roberta’s sudden arrival in England. She needs his help; he can’t turn her down. In a frantic race to Paris and halfway around the world, Ben and Roberta battle to uncover the mystery of Claudine’s research, with the killers just half a step behind. In the process they uncover a global conspiracy that will claim the lives of millions of people . . . unless Ben can stop it.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf The Alphabet Sisters by @MonicaMcInerney #SundayBlogShare

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

As girls growing up in Clare Valley, Australia, Anna, Bett, and Carrie Quinlan were childhood singing stars known as The Alphabet Sisters. The unbridled enthusiasm of their flamboyant grandmother Lola was the glue that held them together. As adults, though, the women haven’t spoken in years – ever since Bett’s fiancé deserted her to marry the younger Carrie. Now Lola is turning eighty and she is determined to reunite the girls for a blowout bash. And no one ever says no to Lola.

Bett, who fled to London after the scandal of losing her fiancé, is hesitant to face her sisters and her hometown& – especially since she has yet to find another man. Sophisticated Anna, the eldest sister, isn’t too keen on the prospect either, though she’s secretly grateful for any excuse to leave her crumbling marriage behind in Sydney. And Carrie, who remained in Clare Valley, is perhaps the most apprehensive. Her marriage – the nominal cause of the sisters’ estrangement – is also on the rocks. Was she wrong to have followed her heart and run off with Bett’s fiancé?

When Lola shares her special request, that the girls stage a musical she has written, their short visit becomes a much longer commitment. As they are forced to spend more time together, the sisters must confront the pain that lingers between them. Preconceptions and misunderstandings are slowly put aside and the three find themselves gradually, irresistibly enveloping one another once again – until an unexpected turn of events changes everything in ways none of them could have ever imagined. . .

Layering the lighthearted antics of small-town life with a heartbreaking story of loyalty lost and found, The Alphabet Sisters is an unforgettable story of two generations of women who learn that being true to themselves means being true to one another.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf #SundayBlogShare #Books

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

In her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered.

In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town’s children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen-year-old Augie Baker, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf Wicked Prey by John Sandford #SundayBlogShare #books

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

Danger stalks Lucas Davenport at work and all too close to home, in the superlative new thriller by the #1 “New York Times”-bestselling author.
For twenty years, John Sandford’s novels have been beloved for their “ingenious plots, vivid characters, crisp dialogue and endless surprises” (“The Washington Post”), and nowhere are those more in evidence than in the sudden twists and shocks of “Wicked Prey.”
The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stickup men who’ve spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash to that armored-car warehouse with the weakness in its security system. All that’s headache enough for Lucas Davenport-but what’s about to hit him is even worse.
A while back, a stray bullet put a pimp and petty thief named Randy Whitcomb in a wheelchair, and, ever since, the man has been nursing his grudge into a full head of psychotic steam. He blames Davenport for the bullet, but it’s no fun just shooting him. That wouldn’t be painful enough. Not when Davenport has a pretty fourteen-year-old adopted daughter that Whitcomb can target instead. . . .
And then there’s the young man with the .50 caliber sniper rifle and the right- wing-crazy background, roaming through a city filled with the most powerful politicians on earth. . . .

Rich with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, “Wicked Prey” is further proof that “Sandford is one of the most consistently entertaining crime writers working today” (“Booklist”).

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson #SundayBlogShare #books

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book’s categorization to be sure that ‘The Devil in the White City’ is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.

Burnham’s challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous “White City” around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair’s incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World’s Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf Dreams Of Empire by Justin Richards #DrWho @SundayBlogShare

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

Landing on a barren asteroid, the Doctor and his friends discover the final pages of a drama that has torn apart an empire are being played out.

Who is the man in the mask, and how are his chess games affecting life and death in his prison? What is the secret of the knights in armor that line the bleak walls of the settlement. And what is the nature of the alien ship approaching — and what will it want when it arrives?

Soon the TARDIS crew find themselves under siege with a deadly robotic race and human traitors to defeat — and the future of an entire stellar empire hangs in the balance: if the Doctor cannot triumph it will become a force not for good, but for evil.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf The Piper’s Tune by Jessica Stirling #SundayBlogShare #books

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Book Description

Jessica Stirling’s Glasgow comes to scintillating life in a story of love and fortune set in Edwardian Scotland.

Lindsay Franklin’s life is an adventure she has just begun to enjoy. At eighteen, Arthur Franklin’s cosseted daughter has left her Glasgow school and finds her role as a marriageable young lady with a widowed father more than agreeable. And the source of her family’s wealth, the Franklins’ shipbuilding yard on Clydeside, is prospering as the long peace of Queen Victoria’s reign gives way to the feverish arms race of the new century.

But Lindsay’s life takes an unexpected turn when she is given a share of the family business. Equally unexpected is the appearance of Forbes McCullough, her charming Irish cousin whose attentions she secretly welcomes. To everyone’s surprise, Lindsay decides to master the family business as carefully as her male cousins. What is not surprising is that several eligible men have decided that it is time to master Lindsay.

As the mysteries of shipbuilding open to her, and the puzzle of male behavior becomes both more fascinating and more dangerous, Lindsay is forced to make some fateful decisions.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf Land Of Painted Caves by Jean M Aurel #SundayBlogShare

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

In The land of Painted Caves, Jean M. Auel brings the ice-age epic Earth’s Children series to an extraordinary conclusion. Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and above all, courage.

As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla are welcomed by the Zelandonii, but problems arise. They are faced with new challenges, not just the ordinary trials of sheer survival, but the complications posed by many groups of people who need to live and work together. The wisdom that Ayla gained from her struggles as an orphaned child, alone in a hostile environment, strengthens her as she moves closer to leadership of the Zelandonia.

Ayla and Jondalar’s first priority is the care for their golden-haired child, Jonayla, and the well-being of their amazing animals, Wolf, Whinney, Racer, and Gray. The two participate in hunts to provide food, in travels to Summer Meetings for decision making, and in social activities. Whatever the obstacles, Ayla’s inventive spirit produces new ways to lessen the difficulties of daily life: searching for wild edibles to make delicious meals, experimenting with techniques to ease the long journeys the Zelandoni must take, honing her skills as a healer and a leader. And then, there are the Sacred Caves, the caves that Ayla’s mentor–the Donier, the First of the Zelandonia–takes her to see. These caves are filled with remarkable art–paintings of mammoths, lions, aurochs, rhinoceros, reindeer, bison, bear. The powerful, mystical aura within these caves sometimes overwhelms Ayla.

Ayla’s final preparations for her initiation as a Zelandoni bring The Land of Painted Caves to a riveting climax. So much time apart from Jondalar has caused him to drift away from her. The rituals themselves bring her close to death. But through those rituals, Ayla gains A Gift of Knowledge so important that it will change the world.

Spellbinding drama, meticulous research, fascinating detail, and superb narrative skill combine to make The Land of Painted Caves a captivating, utterly believable creation of a civilization that resonates long after the reader has turned the last page, and serves as an astonishing end to this beloved saga.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Sunday Bookshelf #SundayBlogShare A Country Wife by Lucy Pinney #books

Sunday Bookshelf

This feature is to get more shout-outs for books that are sitting of my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Twenty years ago a young Londoner named Lucy arrived in the Dorset countryside as a rather bemused bride. She knew nothing of the great outdoors and blithely agreed to spend her honeymoon harvesting. Her rural education was to be a fast and frantic one.

This is the story of a woman who began rural life in romance, raised a family in the farmyard, was left by her husband just as her name was being made as a columnist for the countryside, and found a whole new life for herself in the hills and valleys she had come to love.

Inspired by Lucy Pinney’s popular columns for The Times, this bewitching bucolic romp is a glorious combination of Bridget Jones, I Don’t Know How She Does It and Gervase Phinn.

She became a farmer’s wife for love of the farmer, but can Lucy’s relationship with the countryside survive two decades, divorce and more mud than she ever dreamed possible?

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com