April 2016 – Books & Events

All my good intentions at keeping up the Stacking the Shelves posts each week seem to have fallen by the wayside as life has got in the way recently and, as I haven’t done a post for several weeks, to try to catch up now would make for a never ending post.  Instead I’m doing a monthly wrap up post for books received and any bookish events attended which hopefully will be easier to keep up with in future.

LOADS of books came into the house and onto my Kindle during April – many ARCs from lovely publishers and authors, but also purchased books, including hardbacks, paperback and Kindle copies.  My shelves are now bulging even more and I have no idea as to when I will get round to reading all of these (my own purchased ones!) but at least I will never be short of a book to read! 


ARCs and review copies received:

• Sunset City – Melissa Ginsburg (for blog tour) (Faber & Faber)
• The Museum of You – Carys Bray (Hutchinson)
• To the Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey (Tinder Press)
• Looking for Lucy – Julie Houston 
• Valentina – S E Lynes (Blackbird Digital Books)
• Where Roses Never Die – Gunnar Staalesen (Orenda)
• Epiphany Jones – Michael Grothaus (Orenda)
• Deadly Harvest – Michael Stanley (Orenda)
• Under a Cornish Sky – Liz Fenwick (Orion)
• The Bitter Season – Tami Hoag (Orion)
• Distress Signals – Catherine Ryan Howard (Atlantic)
• The Accidental Life of Greg Millar – Aimee Alexander 

Netgalley’s approved:

• All is Not Forgotten – Wendy Walker (Harlequin/Mira)
• The Girl Who Lied – Sue Fortin (HarperImpulse)
• The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker)
• Wonder Cruise – Ursula Bloom (Corazon)

Paper Books Bought:

• Everyone Brave is Forgiven – Chris Cleave
• Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans
• May Day Murder – Julie Wassmer (signed copy)
• Look at Me – Sarah Duguid
• A Savage Hunger – Claire McGowan
• The Daughter’s Secret – Eva Holland
• The Loving Husband – Christobel Kent
• Gone Astray – Michelle Davis
• Fever at Dawn – Peter Gardos

The Ruby Slippers – Kier Alexander.  I just had to buy a copy of this as I recently found out that an extract from my blog review is quoted inside!

Kindle Purchases:

• The Real Book Thief – Ingrid Black –  currently free (a short story account of how this author discovered that her books had been plagarised by another author). 
• Breaking Dead – Corrie Jackson
• A Fine House in Trinity – Lesley Kelly
• The Undertaker’s Daughter – Kate Mayfield
• The Disappearance – Annabel Kantaria
• Dead in Deep Water (Archer & Baines #2) – Dave Sivers
• Evil Unseen (Archer & Baines #3) – Dave Sivers
• The Second Chance Shoe Shop – Marcie Steele
• Abigale Hall – Lauren A Fory
• Cinderella Girl – Carin Gerhardsen
• A Stranger’s House – Clare Chase
• Sleep Sister – Laura Elliott
• The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows – Marnie Riches
• The First Cut – Ali Knight
• The Camera Never Lies – Tess Daly
• Sweet Home – Carys Bray
• A Perception of Sin – Juliet Cromwell
• A Mother’s Secret – Renita D’Silva

Won/Given

• The Vintage Springtime Club – Beatrice Meier
• Quick Reads 2016 – The Anniversary

Events:

I attended two brilliant events in April – the first was First Monday Crime (@1stMondayCrime) at the beginning of the month.  Supported by various organisations, including Goldsboro Books, it is currently held in the College Building of City University, near Angel tube station. This was the very first one and sponsored by Orenda Books (who supplied a great goody bag!); the authors on the panel were Elly Griffiths (author of the Ruth Galloway and Stephens and Mephisto crime series), Amanda Jennings (In Her Wake), Mary Paulson-Ellis (The Other Mrs Walker) and Leye Adenle (Easy Motion Tourist). Chaired by Barry Forshaw (Brit Noir). The next event will be on Monday 9 May. 

After the panel discussion, questions were taken from the audience and then books were available to buy and have signed.   I didn’t go to the pub afterwards where the evening continued but it sounds a very sociable event and one that I shall keep an eye out for in future months. 

Of course I couldn’t come away empty handed and bought a couple of books which I was able to get signed.

The next event was later in April at the excellent Rooftop Book Club/Crime Files Spring Thrills evening, held at Hatchette/Headline’s Carmelite Building.   There were six authors attending, with two panels. Elly Griffiths (I’ve seen her 3 or 4 times now and I’m not stalking her, honestly!), J S Law (author of Tenacity) and Claire McGowan (author of the Paula Maguire series and another author that I have seen at a couple of previous events).  This panel was chaired by Jake Kerridge, journalist and crime fiction critic of the Daily Telegraph.

After a short break, appearing on the second panel were Sarah Hilary (whose third book in the DI Marnie Rome series ‘Tastes Like Fear’ has just been published), Janet Ellis (ex Blue Peter and author of The Butcher’s Hook) and historical crime fiction author Antonia Hodgson (whose third book is due to be published this summer).  This panel was chaired by author, journalist and Times reviewer Antonia Senior. 

We arrived to find Rooftop goody bags waiting on our chairs – all crime thrillers due to be published later in the year and they all look excellent. Do keep an eye out for the @RooftopBookClub tweets as to when the next event is. For the price of a £10 ticket, it really is a fantastic evening.  

This was another opportunity to get some books signed, thank you to Sarah Hilary and JS Law.  🙂 

That’s all for now.  I’d love to hear from you in the comments, if you attended either of these events too or if you have read any of the books listed.