{"id":42637,"date":"2024-11-07T06:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T17:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=42637"},"modified":"2024-11-07T20:55:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T07:55:49","slug":"those-books-keep-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2024\/11\/07\/those-books-keep-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Books Keep Coming!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Which as a reader and writer, is a very good thing, I hasten to add.<\/p>\n<p>As regulars will know, I&#8217;ve made it through reading and posting on all five titles in <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2024\/01\/22\/book-booty-for-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">my initial Book Booty post for 2024<\/a>. (Awesome: high five.) And am making good progress on the &#8216;stretch&#8217; titles <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2024\/09\/05\/more-book-booty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from September<\/a> &#8212; two out of three ain&#8217;t bad, to quote the song.<\/p>\n<p>So what better time to feature some new additions to the TBR table. Starting with:<\/p>\n<h3><em>Pinch Perkins and the Midsummer Curse<\/em> by Cathy Fitzgerald<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-42664\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Pinch-Perkins_Midsummer-Curse-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Pinch-Perkins_Midsummer-Curse-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Pinch-Perkins_Midsummer-Curse-98x150.jpg 98w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Pinch-Perkins_Midsummer-Curse.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I heard of this book through Nicolas Fitzgerald, of <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2024\/07\/11\/announcing-the-wall-of-night-wiki\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the Wall of Night series wiki<\/a> fame (among much else, I hasten to add!) because Cathy is his cousin. So when I saw it in the bookshop, I&#8217;m sure you know what happened next. Not least because I love putting down my (very metaphorical) dime to support a new author.<\/p>\n<p>As you&#8217;ve probably guessed from the title, <em>Pinch Perkins<\/em> is Junior fiction and according to the backcover &#8216;blurb&#8217;:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><em>&#8220;&#8230;Pinch Perkins lives on Tricky Dragon Lane, deep in the heart of London\u2019s magical quarter. But when her mum is struck by a curse, and nobody seems to have a clue what to do, Pinch knows it\u2019s down to her to find a cure.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><em>Racing the clock on Midsummer&#8217;s Eve, Pinch will face the terrifying boss of the Thames Mudlarks, dance with the devious fairy king and queen and share a burger with King Arthur&#8217;s knights \u2013 all the while trying to avoid the clutches of two most fearsome villains .&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>All of which sounds like a lot of fun, so I aim to dive in and let you know more here, as soon as maybe.:)<\/p>\n<h3><em>Boy Swallows Universe<\/em> by Trent Dalton<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-42663\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Boy-Swallows-Universe_Dalton-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Boy-Swallows-Universe_Dalton-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Boy-Swallows-Universe_Dalton-97x150.jpg 97w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Boy-Swallows-Universe_Dalton.jpg 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was in Australia earlier this year, and when I decided I absolutely must have a book to keep me company, I was equally adamant that it should be an Australian title &#8212; and I don&#8217;t think you can get much more Australian than <strong><em>Boy Swallows Universe<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also a book I&#8217;ve been meaning to read for some time, so fate conspired and the book was acquired.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a coming of age story, and I think the following will give you the flavour:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><em>&#8220;Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It&#8217;s not as if Eli&#8217;s life isn&#8217;t complicated enough already. &#8230; But Eli&#8217;s life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He&#8217;s about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also won a truckload of awards, so although events conspired further and I didn&#8217;t get to it while in Australia, it&#8217;s very firmly in the TBR queue so &#8216;watch this space.&#8217;<\/p>\n<h3><em>Ink Blood Sister Scribe<\/em> by Emma T\u00f6rzs<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-42662\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ink-Blood-Sister-Scribe-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ink-Blood-Sister-Scribe-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ink-Blood-Sister-Scribe-98x150.jpg 98w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ink-Blood-Sister-Scribe.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was offered an ARC of this book by a friend in the industry, but had already spotted it &#8216;in the wild&#8217; and thought it looked interesting, so was very happy to accept the offer. As the title hints, it&#8217;s Fantasy, with a thriller-style storyline and some romance thrown in. I really can&#8217;t say it better than the publisher&#8217;s synopsis:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><em>&#8220;A spellbinding, edge-of your seat thriller, INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE follows a family tasked with guarding a trove of magical but deadly books, and the shadowy organisation that will do anything to get them back . . . even murder.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><em>Not all books should be opened.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Paint me intrigued &#8212; and ready to read. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"c-book-details__title\"><em>What You Are Looking For Is In The Library<\/em> by Michiko Aoyama<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-42661\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/What-You-Are-Looking-For-is-In-The-Library-192x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/What-You-Are-Looking-For-is-In-The-Library-192x300.jpg 192w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/What-You-Are-Looking-For-is-In-The-Library-96x150.jpg 96w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/What-You-Are-Looking-For-is-In-The-Library.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Translated by Alison Watts, my copy is another ARC that came with <em>Ink Blood Sister Scribe<\/em>, but with a very plain cover so I had to look at the internet to find out a bit more.<\/p>\n<p>I <em>think<\/em> it&#8217;s a contemporary story of real life and people, but with a little bit of magical realism thrown in. It sounds, too, like it&#8217;s a series of linked short stories.<\/p>\n<p>What I know, though, is that it was a Times bestseller and one of <i>Time<\/i> magazine&#8217;s Top 100 books of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Definitely something to look forward to, including revealing more when I do my post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which as a reader and writer, is a very good thing, I hasten to add. As regulars will know, I&#8217;ve made it through reading and posting on all five titles in my initial Book Booty post for 2024. (Awesome: high five.) And am making good progress on the &#8216;stretch&#8217; titles from September &#8212; two out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justarrived"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42637"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42674,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42637\/revisions\/42674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}