Friday Fiction – holiday reads

Welcome to Friday Fiction #4

I started this Friday Fiction series a while ago, to share what I’ve been reading, what has taken my fancy or what I’d like to read. This is post number 4 so far in my series. I don’t post every Friday, just when I feel I have something to share.

My first post was a YA series, Seventeen and Rage, by Suzanne Lowe, all about a virus taking over the world (spooky given hat’s happening at the moment); next I featured a book written by a fellow blogger, Ritu, Marriage Unarranged and last time I mentioned a few books about Mermaids, Bodies and Sand Talk.

I’m an avid reader and have set myself a goal of 100 books for my 2020 Reading Challenge. You’re very welcome to follow along on my progress or even join me on Goodreads.

With the way the world is at the moment, this made me smile, so hopefully it makes you smile too :). I shared it on my Facebook page and it seems many others feel much the same way!

Holiday reads

I’m currently on holidays, away from home, even though retirement is something like a holiday every day. I’m finding time to read due to wet weather and downtime, in between spending time with my daughter and new grandson.

Do you find holidays mean a different reading genre? I definitely read lighter, more escapism type books than usual and I’ve been reading a few over the past weeks.

In previous Friday Fiction posts, a few suggestions were made for a crime series from L. J. Ross, the DC Ryan Mysteries series, so I gave one a go and am now up to book 5. I think there’s about 15 books in the series!

As I have Kindle Unlimited membership on my Amazon account, I get these for free so to me they are good value. And they’re easy to read, keep me intrigued and have interesting plots with characters I can relate to.

According to the Goodreads description, it’s a ‘Police procedural mystery/romantic suspense series set in Northumbria, England.’

I’m really enjoying the series and the characters.

Blogger catchup

While up here in Brisbane I had the opportunity to meet up with one of my favourite bloggers, Sue from Sizzling towards 60 and Beyond. This was our third such catchup and we love nothing more than sitting and chatting together for hours. Considering we live in different states we’re done well to meet up so many times and we will continue to do so whenever we can!

Sue is one of the loveliest, caring and inspiring friends I have made through blogging. She is now a great friend. My husband has learnt, he goes off for a bike ride or a walk and leave us to chat away the hours!

This is us!

Well it was actually Sue who mentioned this series to me, so of course we peppered our chat with lots of DC Ryan mentions! Sue has finished the series and we recommended lots of books to each other, we’re thinking of starting our our on-line book club! What do you think?

So far I’ve read these four and am currently reading number 5 High Force. I’ve given them all solid 4 stars as they are quite addictive!

Holy Island book 1

Sycamore Gap book 2

Heavenfield book 3

Angel book 4

Updates

It’s OK that you’re not OK: Meeting Grief and loss in a Culture that doesn’t understand – I took a while to read this as it was quite deep and a personal account of loss and how to manage. I will admit to thinking this was a completely different book than what it was – I had it in mind that a different author had written it but regardless of this confusion, I got a lot out of it and I rated it 4 stars.

Challenging conventional wisdom on grief, a pioneering therapist offers a new resource for those experiencing loss. Goodreads

Our bookclub book this month was The Dinner by Herman Koch and for some reason I just couldn’t get into it, although many of my blogging friends had loved it! I felt it was good but just didn’t embrace it. I ended up giving it a solid 3 star rating. Unfortunately I missed the discussion on this one due to being away!

An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives – all over the course of one meal.

I saw a new book released earlier this week called We Need to talk About Mum and Dad: a practical guide to parenting our ageing parents written by Jean Kitson. I have downloaded it and will work my way through it before giving it to my daughters for sometime in the future!

Everything you need to know about supporting ageing parents, from author and comedian Jean Kittson.

This warm and witty practical guide is a one-stop shop for information on how to support your ageing loved ones: how to protect their health and wellbeing, keep them safe and secure, and enable them to be self-determining and independent for as long as possible.

So what are you currently reading?

I’ve also been reading books to my new grandson, yes he’s only 2 weeks old but it’s never too young to start reading!

This series was sparked by an item on my list – 12 things to do before turning 60 – which was to write more book reviews and share them on my blog.

Over to you

Leave me a quick comment with what you’re reading at the moment and how it’s going.

Do you find time to read or is it something you have to force yourself to stop and do?

Thanks for joining me for Friday Fiction and I look forward to reading with you again soon.

Deb xx

Please note some of these books aren’t actually fiction, despite this being called Friday Fiction 🙂

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