Christmas Posts

Books On My Christmas List 2024

Posted on 15th Dec 202414th Dec 2024 by thelotusreaders

**Folio Society Edition of Finn Family Moomintroll**

It may seem strange that someone with six bookshelves, two cabinets and a pair of book trolleys would ask for books for Christmas. Not to mention the piles lingering around the house – the bought and unread, the proofs I don’t want to keep, a pile for the book exchange, books set aside for friends and family. However, I do always have a ‘handful’ of books on my Christmas wishlist. I read in so many different formats over the year: PDF copies of upcoming books, NetGalley copies, physical proofs and sometimes proper physical books you can throw at a wall. So I often want a finished copy of a book for my shelves, especially if I had a very early e-copy which can arrive up to six months before publication. There are some books where I’d like a special copy such as a special edition or signed copy by a favourite author and I’m a sucker for spredges! I also save coffee table books for Christmas, having a love of fashion Illustration and design can mean I hanker after expensive books on particular designers or fashion periods. Here are the books I’m asking for this year.

Next year is the eighty year anniversary of the Moomin series by Tove Janssen, a series I absolutely adored when I was a child. I still love these stories and their illustrations. Many people talk about Winnie the Pooh for it’s personality types and psychological insight, but it’s all about the Moomins for me. They are not just cutesy little hippos and were way ahead of their time. In this first eightieth anniversary edition of The Moomins and the Great Flood, the Moomins become homeless and are essentially refugees. The characters include Mymble, who is the single mother to Little My, the Hemulen who is a crossing botanist who suffers from anxiety, the Snork Maiden loves Moomintroll but is very conscious of being short and very round (tell me about it). Snufkin, who has always reminded me of my brother, needs freedom to come and go from Moomin House but that doesn’t mean the Moomins aren’t important to him. He always returns, because they never judge his need to go. There’s something about the books we love as children, particularly from that age where you’re first choosing your own books. It may seem odd to collect them now but they have nostalgia factor and I’d love to read them again, knowing what I know. I have to choose between the 80 year anniversary edition and the Folio Society edition which is beautiful. I have my fingers crossed that someone has chosen it from the list.

It’s so pretty. Is it wrong that I want to order it now just in case??

I love books about fashion and there are always a couple floating around the house for people to flick through – a particular favourite being Dogs in Vogue. I enjoy fashion history and illustration as well as specific designers like Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. This year I’m hoping for a book on Christian Dior – the beautiful film Mrs Harris Goes to Paris really touched me and I want to look at more of his creations. I understood her need to own something beautiful to lift her out of the ordinary. So I’d love to have some photographs of his new look. Other than that I have a book of fashion illustration through history and another of Vogue photography with an art nouveau feel. These will sit happily in my study for me to browse through in quiet moments.

Another special edition I’d love is this one of Suzanne Clarke’s fantasy novel Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell. This is one of my all-time favourite books and I have a dog-eared red paperback that I’ve read and re-read. This is a stunning copy with illustrations that I’m dying to pop in my cabinet while keeping the original for future re-reads. For those of you who haven’t come across this novel or are put off by it’s size, give it a chance. In 18th Century England, magic is no longer practiced and the renowned magician Mr Norrell is hoarding all the books about magic for his library. Only gentlemen should be allowed to study magic. However, new upstart Jonathon Strange is ripping up the rule book and gaining a name for himself very quickly. In his concern Mr Norrell breaks one of his own rules. He is asked by an important politician to perform a spell that’s beyond his capabilities. Desperate not to let him down he consults a fairy who’s able to access ancient magic, but fairies are capricious and don’t always stick to their word. This is a masterpiece of historical and fantasy fiction so it would be wonderful to add this favourite to my bookshelves in a more fitting edition.

Another special edition I’m keen on is the beautiful new hardback edition of Carrie by Stephen King. Im a lifelong fan of his novels and I’m constantly amazed by how prolific he is! I started reading his books in my teens and they have always been borrowed copies or ones I found in charity shops. Carrie is perhaps the only one of his older novels that I haven’t read yet and this copy is absolutely beautiful.

The next books on my wishlist are ones I’ve read this year on NetGalley and absolutely loved. I often buy the books I’ve had early access to because it’s great to have a finished copy and it supports the author. These are some of my NetGalley favourites from 2024 and I recommend every one of them. One Of The Good Guys was a Squad Pod pick for early 2024 and it blew me away. Cole is the perfect husband: a romantic, supportive of his wife, Mel’s career, keen to be a hands-on dad, not a big drinker. A good guy. So when Mel leaves him, he’s floored. She was lucky to be with a man like him. Craving solitude, he accepts a job on the coast and quickly settles into his new life where he meets reclusive artist Lennie. Lennie has made the same move, living in a crumbling cottage on the edge of a nearby cliff. It’s a scary location, but sometimes you have to face your fears. As their relationship develops, two young women go missing while on a walk protesting gendered violence, right by where Cole and Lennie live. Finding themselves at the heart of a police investigation and media frenzy, it soon becomes clear that they don’t know each other very well at all.
This is what happens when women have had enough. This book was a breath of fresh air in the genre and very of the moment, asking the question if there are so many good guys out there, why are women so scared?

Another great NetGalley find was Kristin Hannah’s latest novel The Women, focused on women’s roles in the Vietnam War. Twenty -year-old nursing student, Frances “Frankie” McGrath, hears some unexpected words and they are a revelation. Women can be heroes too. Raised on California’s idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause. I was engrossed by this book, both the horrors of war and the wonderful love story too. It’s a period of history I know very little about, especially women’s roles in Vietnam so it stayed with me through the year and I’d like to add it to my shelf.

My final NetGalley pick is Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lisa Evans. I have a real thing about stories set in big rambling houses – in fact shouldn’t this be a genre? Anyway, set in 1945, this is the common case of aristocratic families struggling financially in the aftermath of war. Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home to Dimperley. Built in the 1500s, the house is vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever. The worst part is the death of his heroic older brother meaning Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place. To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave. But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own…Funny, sharp and touching, Small Bomb at Dimperley is both a love story and a bittersweet portrait of an era of profound loss, and renewal.

Finally there are the books that have risen to the top of my Amazon wishlist that I haven’t managed to read yet this year. I love Richard Ayoade and I saw him talking on BBC2’s Between the Covers about his fictional quest to rescue Harauld Hughes – the almost mythical mid-century playwright – from obscurity. He first chanced upon a copy of The Two-Hander Trilogy by Harauld Hughes in a second-hand bookshop. At first startled by his uncanny resemblance to the author’s photo, he opened the volume and was electrified. Terse, aggressive, and elliptical, what was true of Ayoade was also true of Hughes’s writing, which encompassed stage, screen, and some of the shortest poems ever published. Ayoade embarked on a documentary, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes, to understand the unfathomable collapse of Hughes’s final film O Bedlam! O Bedlam!, taking us deep inside the most furious British writer since the Boer War. This is the story of the story of that quest. I’m hoping this has all the intelligence and quirks of the man himself.

Another Between the Covers recommendation is The Kellerby Code written by Jonny Sweet, the writer responsible for the brilliant film Wicked Little Letters starring Jessie Buckley and OliviaColeman. As soon as Sarah Cox mentioned toxic friends and Saltburn I knew this one had to go to the top of my wishlist.

He’s found a life worth killing for

Edward is struggling to hold it together. Just about getting by in a world he cannot afford, scurrying after his friends, doing everything he can to prove his value. But not to worry: the attention of his beloved Stanza and the respite he finds in her ancestral home, Kellerby House, provide all the reward he needs. Until he realises that Stanza is in love with his best friend Robert, forcing Edward to re-evaluate what those closest to him are actually worth. No price is too high to stop the life he has strived for slipping from his grip. Especially when he won’t be the one paying.

Over Christmas I’m catching up on Clare Chambers’s previous novel Small Pleasures which inexplicably I haven’t got to yet. Her novel Shy Creatures is on my list and it would be great to take them both on holiday with me over the New Year. In a failed relationship there is a point that passes unnoticed, but can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.

Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married doctor. One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen’s home. A thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist, Helen is determined to discover his story. Shy Creatures is a life-affirming novel about all the different ways we can be confined, how ordinary lives are built of delicate layers of experience, the joy of freedom and the transformative power of kindness.

Fire by John Boyne is another story that hinges on a moment. On the face of it, Freya lives a gilded existence, dancing solely to her own tune. She has all the trappings of wealth and privilege, a responsible job as a surgeon specialising in skin grafts, a beautiful flat in a sought-after development, and a flash car. But it wasn’t always like this. Hers is a life founded on darkness. Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become – or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being? In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture – or nature?

In a total change of pace I’m looking forward to reading this small town story with witchy vibes. In Oak Haven, this witch is about to brew up more trouble than she bargained for…

When Scarlett Melrose receives a call from her estranged sisters, she immediately knows something is wrong. The magic at their mother’s inn – and in fact, the whole of Oak Haven – has gone awry, and they need her help to save it. As the conflicted middle-child, returning home has given Scarlett the heebie jeebies. And to make matters worse, she’s just come face-to-face with charming old flame and handyman, Nate. When her spell to fix the magic goes horribly wrong, all Scarlett wants to do is flee back to the peace and quiet of her San Francisco flat. But she can’t keep running away forever, and she’ll need all the help she can to solve this magical mess. With time slipping away, Scarlett must learn that sometimes the greatest spells really do come with the greatest responsibility – especially when love is involved…

Welcome to Rook Hall.

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed. Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie is one of my literary crushes so her new instalment is definitely on my list. Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family.

Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends. As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers. Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.

I’ve had the next book sitting on my wishlist for a while and I’ve been drawn back to it recently. In January 1986, newly engaged Marnie Driscoll is found dead in her parents’ kitchen. With no witnesses, it seems as though the circumstances of her death will remain a mystery. Six months later, high-flying Detective Inspector Andrew Joyce’s career takes an unexpected detour when he finds himself unwillingly transferred to an obscure department within Greater Manchester Police, known as the Ballroom. The Ballroom team employs unorthodox methods to crack previously unsolved cases, and Joyce, a sceptic by nature, must find a way to work with Peggy Swan, a reclusive ex-socialite with a unique talent: she can communicate with the dead. Joyce soon discovers that Marnie’s death, initially dismissed as an opportunistic act of violence, actually seems to be a carefully orchestrated murder. It will take both Joyce’s skill as an investigator and Peggy’s connection to her new ghostly charge to navigate the web of secrets surrounding the case and bring closure to Marnie’s tragic story before the killer can strike again. This seems like a book I’m going to read in a day because I can’t put it down.

My final choice is fantasy fiction, something I only dabble with here and there, but really enjoy when I do. The Last Hour Between Worlds might just fall into that category. Kembral Thorne is spending a few precious hours away from her newborn, and she’s determined to enjoy herself at the year-turning ball. But when the guests start dropping dead, Kem has no choice but to get to work. She’s a member of the Guild of Hounds, after all, and she can’t help picking up the scent of trouble. Especially when her professional and personal nemesis, notorious cat burglar Rika Nonesuch, is also on the prowl.

At the heart of the mayhem is a mysterious clock that sends the ballroom down into strange and otherworldly new layers of reality every time it chimes. As the party plunges through increasingly dangerous versions of their city, Kem will have to rely on her wits – and Rika – to unravel the mystery before catastrophe is unleashed on their world. There are some beautiful editions around so hopefully there will be spredges to admire.

I hope your reading dreams come true and may all your presents be book shaped.

Christmas Posts

The Books I’m Buying For Others This Christmas

Posted on 10th Dec 202411th Dec 2024 by thelotusreaders

It’s that time of year again, when individual book reviews make way for lists that sum up our reading year and with a little bit of shopping time left I’m letting you know about books I’ll be buying this year and those I’ve popped on my own Christmas list. First we’ll take a look at nonfiction.

From Here to the Great Unknown is the story of Lisa Marie Presley’s extraordinary life. Her daughter Riley Keough was being celebrated for her role in Daisy Jones and the Six and Austin Butler had won an Oscar for playing Elvis in the extraordinary biopic by Baz Lurrhman. This was a time for celebration and Lisa Marie asked her daughter to help her with writing her story. Only a month later Lisa Marie died suddenly. In her grief, Riley listened to the many audiotapes that her mother had recorded. On were stories of growing up at Graceland, the amazing relationship she had with her father and the terrible day she had to be dragged away from his body on the floor of the bathroom. Then there are the life choices and stories that seemed incredible from the outside such as her marriage to Michael Jackson and the lifelong relationship she had with Danny Keough. There’s a story of terrible addiction, motherhood and the ever present sense of loss. Riley has brought her mother’s stories to the page and it is an intimate, raw and painful insight into an incredibly interesting life.

This series of books from Damien Lewis are the perfect answer to those difficult to buy for men in my life, particularly those who have been in the military like my dad and my husband. They’re very well written and usually follow a particular campaign or mission carried out by special forces. This latest book is set in the summer of 1945 and follows the SAS role in the D-Day missions, taking on the might of the Nazi Reich deep behind enemy lines. It focuses on my favourite character from the early formation of the SAS, Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne. He is definitely the epitome of the maverick thinking and unconventional warfare needed as they faced the fearsome Panzer divisions of Hitler’s army. Known and hunted wherever he went, it’s a fight to survive with only nimble ‘willy’s jeeps’ to help topple the enemy. Lewis has drawn on unseen archive material to bring this story to life and show the incredible effort made by the SAS to bring the war to it’s close.

I have a memory from when I was 5 or 6 years old and we lived on a fruit farm in Leicestershire. I was in the bath when my dad came in with something to show me. I remember standing in a towel and seeing a tiny bundle of fluff in my dad’s huge hands. I touched it and it was the softest thing ever. It was a leveret – a tiny baby hare. Ive been fascinated with hares ever since and they’re everywhere in our house. This is the perfect book to give my dad for Christmas to remember that moment. Chloe Dalton left her busy city profession to return to the countryside where she grew up during lockdown. She never expected to become the custodian of a baby hare. When she finds it alone and sure to die, she makes the decision to give it a chance. So she bottle-feeds it, letting it sleep in her bedroom at night and slowly it grows, lollops around the room at night and drums on the duvet cover when it wants attention. She writes about the challenges of caring for the leveret but also preparing for it’s return to the wild. This is an extraordinary kinship between human and animal, one that endures so that she can call it and it will come. It shows how an unexpected experience can change our lives and give us a new direction, perhaps awakening a more authentic way of living.

Alexei Navalny became a beacon of hope to millions as the sole political threat to Vladimir Putin. In his own word is the journey from his Soviet childhood, hispolitical awakening, his marriage and beloved family, his total commitment to taking on a corrupt regime and his enduring love of Russia and its people. His 2020 poisoning by the Russian security services was a global news event. In 2024 he died in a brutal Siberian prison. He began writing Patriot whilst recovering from his poisoning and ends with his prison diaries, seen here for the first time.

We witness the growth of his nationwide support. We see his many arrests and harassment and, in stunning detail, the attempt on his life. We understand why he felt he had to return to Russia. In prison, he shows a spirit and a sense of humour that cannot be crushed. Patriot is as dramatic as its author’s life – passionate that good and freedom will prevail. It is Alexei Navalny’s final letter to the world, a rousing call to continue his work, an unforgettably positive account of a life that will inspire every reader.

After watching Rory and Alastair Campbell on the election night coverage on C4, debating against Nadine Dorries (delusional) and Kwasi Kwarteng (largely oblivious) I decided to listen to a couple of their podcasts. Despite coming from different sides of the political divide, both are moderate, intelligent and incredibly eloquent, although Campbell has a much shorter fuse than his counterpart. Rory Stewart is a great writer too. Here he takes on the state of politics in Britain, analysing where things started to slide towards the broken state we’re in. Charting the course of a decade, Rory Stewart describes his own journey from went from political outsider to standing for prime minister – before eventually being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise. Uncompromising, honest and darkly humorous, this is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life. Instantly praised as a new classic, it is an astonishing portrait of our very turbulent times.

Having read Nancy Friday’s books on female sexual fantasies and desires, most notably My Secret Garden, I’m very interested in this modern collection of anonymous sexual fantasies as collated by Gillian Anderson. I’m a huge fan of Anderson’s from her Agent Scully days to her more recent character actress phase. I love the roles she chooses and her uncompromising feminist stance, both very visible in her role as Jean in Sex Education – the sex therapist mum of socially awkward student Otis. In Want she asks the questions: what do you want when no one is watching? Who do you fantasise about when the lights are off? When you think about sex, what do you really want?

There’s so much to cover when we talk about sex: womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet so many of us don’t talk about it at all. Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous sexual fantasies of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous submission). They are all extraordinary: full of desire, fear, intimacy, shame, satisfaction and, ultimately, liberation. From dreaming about someone off-limits to conjuring a scene with multiple partners, from sex that is gentle and tender to passionate and playful, from women who have never had sex to women who have had more sex than they can remember, these fantasies provide a window into the most secret part of our minds.
Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally themselves.

Travelling is one of Time’s must read books of 2024 and is a perfect choice for my music loving mum. Celebrated music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of the legendary Joni Mitchell. However this is not a dry, standard account of her life. The author takes us on a long journey, through a life that changed popular music: of a homesick wanderer forging ahead on routes of her invention. I remember her music as a huge part of the soundtrack to my childhood. She is one of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Joni Mitchell has inspired countless musicians and writers, while always herself.

In this book Ann Powers seeks to understand the paradox of Mitchell – at once both elusive and inviting – through her myriad journeys. Drawing on extensive interviews with Mitchell’s peers and deep archival research, Powers takes readers to rural Canada, charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with other greats and explores the loves that fed her songwriting. Kaleidoscopic in scope and intimate in detail, Travelling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell corpus – and one that questions whether an artist can ever truly be known to their fans.

A brand new release in November this year, The Real D H Lawrence is something of a misnomer – for who can ever truly know the real Lawrence? Lawrence himself spent a lifetime roaming the depths of his imagination trying to communicate the essence of who he really was – a quest that ultimately gifted the world twelve full-length novels, eight plays, over eight-hundred poems, enough paintings to form an exhibition, travel essays, novellas and short story collections: and a vast catalogue of non-fiction ranging from topics as diverse as European history to psychoanalysis. In this expertly researched exploration of Lawrence, Caroline Roope offers a captivating re-telling of the enigmatic author’s life, from his humble beginnings in the coal mining districts of Nottinghamshire to his final struggle with censorship and his battle to stay alive. Drawing on Lawrence’s published works, as well as his vast personal correspondence, The Real D. H. Lawrence offers a fresh insight into Lawrence’s creative process; and his stubborn refusal to live anything less than a life that was right for him, in a world he believed had gone terribly wrong. This is the perfect gift for my mum, a lifelong Lawrence fan who showed me the 1970’s film adaptations of his books and shares a love of his much maligned book Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Check out my next post for books on my own Christmas list this year.

Christmas Posts

A Book Blogger’s Christmas List

Posted on 13th Dec 202212th Dec 2022 by thelotusreaders

It’s very hard to buy for a book blogger, because I’m told people assume I have all the books I want. This is so far from the truth! I don’t always managed to secure a proof of a book I want so I still buy a huge amount of books. There’s also those e-books I’ve read, from the publisher and from Netgalley, where I would love a finished copy. This especially matters where the format of a book has been a struggle in e-book form – Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart and Janice Hallett’s The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels come to mind. Finally there’s those special editions, whether it’s a first edition, signed edition or has special sprayed edges I’m there for it. I’m an absolute sucker for spredges so I’m happy to receive pre-orders at Christmas if it secures me that special book. I’ve also included here, some sellers who create bookish jewellery, clothing etc because there’s nothing I like more than a sweatshirt or piece of art inspired by a favourite book. So here’s my Christmas List. I hope you get whatever your bookish heart desires.

Have an E-Copy want a Real Copy.

The left-over women from Jane Eyre and Dracula, Lucy Westernra and Bertha Mason – are living in Los Angeles when they find out that Dracula and Mr Rochester are on their way. Lucy has been resisting Dracula for many years and Bertha does not want to join Rochester’s harem of female fans. They must fight against these men who have tried to erase them.

A fantastic post WW1 look at the seedier side of London through the eyes of two women; Ruby Miller the charismatic and ambitious member of girl gang the Forty Thieves and Harriet Littlewood an aspiring writer who wants her own position at the local newspaper. These women’s lives overlap, changing the course of their lives and ambitions for the future.

Lucy Caldwell takes us back to four days in August 1941 when two sisters, Audrey and Emma, are caught up in the Belfast Blitz. One sister is engaged to be married and the other is in a secret relationship with another woman. Here we find out how they live under duress and try to maintain those elements of our personality that make us who we are.

Maggie Mackay has been haunted her entire life. No matter what she does, she can’t shake the sense that something is wrong with her. And maybe something is…When she was five years old, without proof, Maggie announced that someone in the remote village of Blairmore in the Outer Hebrides had murdered a local man, sparking a media storm. Now, Maggie is determined to discover what really happened and what the villagers are hiding. But everyone has secrets, and some are deadly. As she gets closer to the horrifying truth, Maggie’s own life is in danger…

The much-loved poet behind *Milk and Honey* and *Home Body* presents a guide to mindfulness and self-love through the act of writing, blending her own luminous verse with profound and empathetic advice for exploration through art.
*Healing Through Words* is a guided tour on the journey back to the self, a cathartic and mindful exploration through writing.
This carefully curated collection of exercises asks only that you be vulnerable and honest, both with yourself and the page.
You don’t need to be a writer to take this walk; you just need to write – that’s all.

Throwback Books and Classics

In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave.

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he’s drowning. She saves his life – and it will happen again and again.

Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.

And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it’s even begun.

This is the extraordinary story of two people bound by blood, separated by so much more than time.

It is 1865, the American Civil War has just ended, and 18-year old Vita Tenney is determined to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a country doctor like her father. But when her father tells her she must get married instead, Vita explores every means of escape – and finds one in the person of war veteran Jacob Culhane. Damaged by what he’s seen in battle and with all his family gone, Jacob is seeking investors for a fledgling business. Then he meets Vita – and together they hatch a plan that should satisfy both their desires.

Months later, Vita seemingly has everything she ever wanted. But alone in a big city and haunted by the mistakes of her past, she wonders if the life she always thought she wanted was too good to be true. When love starts to compete with ambition, what will come out on top?

Paris, 1750.

In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city’s celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter.

Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker’s experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.

For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker’s intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem.

And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles…

A intoxicating story of obsession, illusion and the price of freedom.

Those Very Special Editions

How beautiful is this special addition of Kiran Millwood Palgrave’s The Girl of Ink and Stars? Not only is this book an award winning tale in it’s own right, this is a beautiful hardback gift edition with stunning illustrations from Olia Muza. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself. I think this is a beautiful gift for any age group and it’s high on my list this Christmas.

This is a beautiful new special edition of a much loved book within the blogger community. This new edition is from Waterstones and has incredible Art Deco inspired end papers as well as this gold foil cover. Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ’80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Pre-Order Promises

When I was young I had absolutely no patience when waiting for presents I had to feel them all and was allowed to open one present when we got home from midnight Mason Christmas Eve, just to stop me from getting up at 4am to open them all! Now I don’t mind waiting, espe

In New York City, two rival witch families fight for the upper hand.

The Antonova sisters are beautiful, cunning and ruthless, and their mother – known only as Baba Yaga – is the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants. Their adversaries, the influential Fedorov brothers, serve their crime boss father. Named Koschei the Deathless, his enterprise dominates the shadows of magical Manhattan.

For twelve years, the families have maintained a fraught stalemate. Then everything is thrown into disarray. Bad blood carries them to the brink of disaster, even as fate draws together a brother and sister from either side. Yet the siblings still struggle for power, and internal conflicts could destroy each family from within. That is, if the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy both sides first. There are some gorgeous editions out there too, with spredges and end papers to die for.

Be careful what you wish for… it may just come true.

At The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End, rumours are circulating of a curse.

It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees.

What Jenny finds is a woman as astonishing in her performance as she is provocative in nature. On stage, it’s as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.

No one survives war unscathed. But even in the darkest days, seeds of hope can grow.

It is 1946 and in the village of Oakbourne the men are home from the war. Their bodies are healing but their psychological wounds run deep. Everyone is scarred – those who fought and those left behind.

Alice Rayne is married to Stephen, heir to crumbling Oakbourne Hall. Once a sweet, gentle man, he has returned a bitter and angry stranger, destroyed by what he has seen and done, tormented by secrets Alice can only guess at.

Lonely and increasingly afraid of the man her husband has become, Alice must try to pick up the pieces of her marriage and save Oakbourne Hall from total collapse. She begins with the walled garden and, as it starts to bear fruit, she finds herself drawn into a new, forbidden love.

Bookish Extras

As I’m sure most bookish people know, there are a wealth of gifts out there for your favourite bookworm. Above are just a few items from my wishlist on Etsy, as it’s my ‘go to’ place for bookish extras. I’m going to feature just a couple of them to give you a place to start and for all those bookish ladies, something to leave for your other half to ‘find’ when it’s your Ruth day.

The Vintage Bookworm is a great shop full of old books that need a new home. Some are recovered and restored vintage books, but the owner also makes new stationery such as covered sketch books and journals. You can even adopt an old book!

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheVintageBookwormUK?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=913582441

If you or your loved one has a favourite book, just do a search and you’ll find. Wealth of different gift ideas from bookmarks, to earrings to book cover art. I love The Great Gatsby and luckily it’s one of those books that seems to inspire artists. I also collect items inspired by The Night Circus and again, it’s a book that seems to spark creativity.

Another great shop on Etsy is Storiarts, who stock unique products from scarves and long fingerless gloves (which I’ve taken to writing in) to weekend bags, duvet covers, badges and candles. Usually based on classic literature from Shakespeare to 19th Century classics like Jane Eye and Dracula, there is something for every reader.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/storiarts?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=153180793

Finally there’s this lovely shop that does book subscription boxes of all kinds from self-care boxes to Blind Date With A Book. Each box has a chosen book plus other items like journals, teas, chocolate, bookmarks and bath bombs. They look lovely and are great for those bookish friends who live far away.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/happilyeverafterbook?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1021606838

So that’s my Christmas list. My lovely other half is brilliant at choosing something I’d love from my lengthy list. I don’t make a long list so I get so much stuff, I do it because I like to be surprised and also I like him to choose what he wants to give me from my suggestions. It’s often quite a surprise what he chooses. Us bookish types are not so hard to please, ask your bookworm to list books they’d like or share their Amazon wishlist with you. Or use their favourites list on Etsy or Folksy to steer you into the right direction. If you find out what your bookworm’s favourite book is you can find tote bags, sweatshirts and art for that title, or maybe look on abe.books or trawl old bookshops to find a vintage copy or even a first edition if it’s not too expensive. Finding an old copy of their favourite childhood book always looks thoughtful. I hope something here has given you a great idea for the bookworm in your life. I’ll be sure to post a first look at my pressies on Christmas Day. Happy Christmas shopping everyone.