It’s our final day of our holiday beach reads tour, time for a last ice-cream before packing our bags.
Today my guest is Terry Tyler.
Beach Reads
I’ve got the last day of the holiday fortnight, the one in which you’re desperately trying to make the most of every last minute!
Where would I be? I hate being overheated and dislike crowds of people, so no holiday hotspots for me. My ideal destination would be a Scottish or Scandinavian island, somewhere really barren and beautiful, where I could walk for miles on deserted beaches/over hills/through woods, then go back to a wonderfully cosy cottage or log cabin. I think late spring or September would be fine. Now that I’m fast becoming a grumpy old hermit, I’d like it to be within a couple of miles of a small town/village so I could go to stock up, but mostly I’d prefer it just to be me and my husband, with perhaps a visit from a couple of friends for a day or so. I want to go there NOW….!
A Fun Read
For my ‘fun read’ I’ve chosen Knife Skills by Carrie Ann Lahain – I’ve bought this for my Kindle recently and plan to read it soon. I always loved working in restaurants and reading books about that life. I’m not much of a one for ‘fun reads’ generally, but I do like the look of this! Here’s the blurb:
It’s all burners on high for Chef Molly Price, about to start her first restaurant job on her aunt and uncle’s Long Island vineyard. They took Molly in as a child, and she’s determined not to let them down. But it’s hard to focus on the perfect bread pudding with a no-good ex who won’t leave her alone and a best guy friend who’s as cranky as he is kissable. Molly soon learns that, though her sauces never break, the same can’t be said for her heart.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
A book you’ve been meaning to read for ages
I am so looking forward to having the time to listen to Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle. It’s a historical novel about Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. I have an unquenchable thirst for anything about the Tudors, and when I was researching my novel Kings and Queens I discovered that Katherine interested me almost as much as Anne Boleyn; more so, in some ways, because I knew less about her. I’ve got it on audio book, and I would love to listen to it while striding along the aforementioned deserted beaches, early in the morning!
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
A book from your favourite genre
I’m mad on post apocalyptic drama, zombie or otherwise, so I think that, to go with my deserted holiday location, I would choose to re-read (on my Kindle) Future Perfect by Katrina Mountfort. I recently read this for Rosie’s blog (review coming soon) and LOVED it. It’s set in year 2185, when the world has gone to pot and selected citizens of the UK now live in controlled ‘Citidomes’. But what of those who still exist in the outside world? I thought it was like a modern version of ‘1984’, and it’s all scarily feasible… it’s actually a YA book, but it would definitely appeal to all ages.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
A book you could truly escape with
I had a long think about this, and eventually decided on three books that I first read in one hardback – The Suffolk Trilogy, or The House at Old Vine, by Norah Lofts. The first two are The Town House and The House At Sunset. It’s an incredible saga about a house, first built by one Martin Reed in the 14th century, and takes the reader through to the 1950s. Of course it’s not about the house so much as the people who lived in it, but in each one you are given glimpses of the past, and an insight into sociological changes. Fascinating, wonderful stuff; I’m currently re-reading the first part, holiday or not!
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Own book
Rosie says that we can suggest one of our own books, so here’s Round and Round! It’s novella length, only 36K words long, and is probably the ‘lightest’ of my books. The plot in brief: Sophie Heron is approaching her fortieth birthday, and becoming obsessed with a time, sixteen years before, when she had the choice of four different men. Unhappy in her current relationship, she can’t help wondering what might have been … and, as luck would have it, she just happens to have a guardian angel who helps answer her questions. Yes, and I’d probably read it on holiday, too – I read one of my own books every few months and still enjoy them. I’m not sure if that’s weird or not!
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Time to go home, then, back to the dead plants, the pile of junk mail on the mat, and four loads of washing! Thank you, Rosie, for inviting me to take part in Beach Reads 2015.
Should you be interested, this is my blog, on which I write about reading, television, clothes, relationships, shopping, social networking, and miscellaneous moans 🙂
http://www.terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/
and my book review blog:
http://terrytylerbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/
Bon Voyage! If you are off on your own summer holiday’s soon – perhaps you’ll be taking some of the books from our Beach Reads book Tour with you – what ever your choices – HAPPY READING.
Rosie Amber 