We Have Books

WEST by Carys Davies - my review This book was, for me a very fast read, it's a short book with a big punch. It tells the story of Cy Bellmann, a pioneering Brit who has previously emigrated to Pennsylvania to farm mules and horses, this act alone tells us he is man not averse to taking a great risk to achieve what he wants in life even if it is to the cost of those dear to him, you'd think he'd be satisfied with what he has! Now widowed and left alone with just his young daughter Bess who is now 10, for company, like many of us, he knows there must be something greater than his humdrum life. He's only 35 but boy does this guy have a sudden mid life crisis. He hears news of a momentous discovery far away in Kentucky, a pile of colossal animal bones. He is convinced this skeleton reveals the presence of a yet undiscovered wondrous living creature and it ignites a fire in him he hasn't felt since before his wife died, he burns to be the one to find this huge animal. T

My review of Eliza Waite by Ashley Sweeney This is a very enjoyable work of historical fiction which however reads like 2 separate books! Both of which I hasten to add I enjoyed. Eliza Waite, the eponymous heroine of the tale is a strong and resourceful character. Considered big and clumsy and even unattractive she makes her way in life the best she is able with the few skills she has and the ones she hasn't already got she learns or adapts to. The first part of the book tells of her time living mostly alone on a remote island off Washington in the late 19th century. Recently widowed she is loath to mourn the death of a man she never loved, but when fate saw fit to take her beloved only son as well it's hardly surprising she becomes almost unhinged in her grief and decides to remain on this virtually uninhabited isle and forge a living surviving the best way she can. I think I liked this part of the book best, with its air of pioneering and survivalist minimalism in a natural e

I'm very pleased to have reached the dizzy heights of receiving a blogger award. Beadyjans books has been selected by a panelist on Feedspot.com  as one of the top 100 book blogs. Why not have a look at the list and find some great book blogs to follow. I'm in there alongside some wonderful fellow bloggers, publishers and bookish folk.

Home - by Amanda Berriman How fabulous it is to be the penultimate blogger on this blog tour, sharing my thoughts about the awesome new book by Amanda Berriman - entitled Home . Published on 8th February it's available now. My Review Home is where the heart is and in this book the heart belongs to Jesika, who at 4 and ½ has a warm heart as well as a lively and enquiring mind. Home will inevitably draw comparisons to Room by Emma Donoghue both books being narrated in the unique cadences of a very young child. In this case the narrators voice is that of Jesika who lives with her Mum and baby brother Toby in an apartment where the landlord is a nasty angry man who shouts a lot and comes demanding money. Jesika is a real sweetheart and I connected with her character easily and smoothly. Throughout my time immersed in this book I was 4 and a half and felt everything this little girl felt. I saw the world through her eyes and lived her life. She has left a little bit of herself in my sou

Hydra by Matt Wesolowski - blog tour and my Review: I'm delighted to take part in the Random Things blog Tour today for the second book in the Six Stories Series by Matt Wesolowski. Published by the magnificent Orenda books  it is a crepy and menacing thriller. My Review: This second book in Matt Wesolowski’s six stories series is equally as sinister and creepy as the original Six Stories his first novel. Written in the form of a podcast, featuring a series of six interviews each looking at the same story from a different perspective. The narrator is Scott King whose Investigative style of journalism leads him to revisit past crimes and take a fresh look at what really happened. Each crime he rehashes has distinctly sinister connotations and Hydra is creepy and menacing from the outset. He is granted the privilege of interviewing a notorious criminal Arla McLeod, now incarcerated in a Mental Health institution where she has languished since the night a few years ago when at the age