I love books. Always have, always will. I have challenged myself to read 60 books this year (will probably not happen), I thought I would be ambitious. This post was going to be the 10 books on my TBR but I realised that post would be so long, everyone would be bored by book five. So, I am going to split the posts up. Next week, I will share my other five books I am eager to read this year. But first, here are the first five books I want to read. I have also included the blurbs underneath my little ramblings just in case you would like to be given more accurate information than my perception of the novels from just reading a little bit on it.
1. Holding by Graham Norton
I was buying a load of books on Amazon because there was a sale and I just had to, okay... and this book I saw and knew I had to read. I love Graham Norton as a chat show host (did anyone watch it last night with James McAvoy as well), I honestly think he is my favourite chat show presenter, I am just constantly hooked and the stories he gets out of his guests...
Mystery books I think are my favourites but I struggle to find some good ones and have been looking for one for a while that will just grip me. From the blurb, this sounds like this might be amazing if it is executed well. However, in the past, I have read books that sound amazing when written in a short blurb but the author has failed to execute it well and it just ends up a boring mess for the most part.
The story is about a little town of Duneen with some hidden secrets, that are uncovered after the death of a man named Tommy Burke which shakes up a once quiet village. In which Sergeant PJ Collins is on the hunt for the truth.
Blurb:
"The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn't always been this overweight; mother of two Brid Riordan hasn't always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn't always felt that her life was a total waste.
So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke - a former love of both Brid and Evelyn - the village's dark past begins to unravel. As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community's worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret." - Amazon
2. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
I have heard some amazing things about this particular book. I have heard of people crying whilst reading it and truly becoming in love with fictional characters and go through a rollercoaster ride with them and oh boy I am ready to live it. This book has nearly five-star ratings everywhere, which if you are a reader you know that is beyond rare, I already know this book is going to be amazing. I have high hopes.
This sounds like such a romantic book in which a man was given the job to give the concentration camp prisoners a number and to brand them with it when he falls head over heels for her and feels compelled to find a way to make sure she survives as well as himself. I think the most remarkable part of this story is that it is based on a real-life story.
Blurb:
"I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart.
In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.
Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too." - Amazon
This sounds like such a romantic book in which a man was given the job to give the concentration camp prisoners a number and to brand them with it when he falls head over heels for her and feels compelled to find a way to make sure she survives as well as himself. I think the most remarkable part of this story is that it is based on a real-life story.
Blurb:
"I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart.
In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust.
Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only to survive himself, but to ensure this woman, Gita, did, too." - Amazon
3. This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay
I am a big fan of the NHS, yay for free healthcare!!! However, I know there is probably a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we never know about unless you are a doctor, nurse or know one quite well. Me being nosey and seeing this book in my recommendations on Amazon, I was intrigued. So, instinctively, I bought.
Blurb:
4. Uncommon Type (some stories) by Tom Hanks
When you think of Tom Hanks you think of him acting as Forest Gump or the voice Woody and more but no one really ever thinks of him being an author too. Who knew? Except for all the people who have read the book. I was not really intrigued by the book itself and the blurb but just more on the fact that I just love Tom Hanks, so I just had to buy.
Within one book there are many stories and all stories are linked by one thing, a typewriter. A typewriter is a wonderful thing, that personally I think should be brought back. I think there is something so romantic and wonderful about someone taking time out to write with a typewriter, using their time and energy.
Blurb:
"A hectic, funny sexual affair between two best friends. A World War II veteran dealing with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A woman adjusting to life in a new neighborhood after her divorce. Four friends going to the moon and back in a rocket ship constructed in the backyard. A teenage surfer stumbling into his father’s secret life.
These are just some of the people and situations that Tom Hanks explores in his first work of fiction, a collection of stories that dissects, with great affection, humour and insight, the human condition and all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central. To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In his stories, Mr Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level.
Known for his honesty and sensitivity as an actor, Mr Hanks brings both those characteristics to his writing. Alternatingly whimsical, moving and occasionally melancholy, Uncommon Type is a book that will delight as well as surprise his millions of fans. It also establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice that perceptively delves beneath the surface of friendships, families, love and normal, everyday behaviour." - Amazon
5. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
I got this book at the Edinburgh Book Festival, anything with the word book in it or centred around books... I am there. At an event where there is literally thousands of books, it can get a bit overwhelming. I won't lie, I was judging books around their covers, something you totally shouldn't do (take it from me, the method didn't work, I bought another book and it was one of the worst books I've ever read). Anyway, after being mesmerised by the bright colours and the cover, I read the blurb and got quite excited about reading this book. That was months ago, probably about half a year ago and I still haven't got round to reading it. I will this year though. Lets hope it is better than the one I read before.
Based in a Correctional Facility, a woman named Romy Hall has been convicted with two life sentences. Adapting to being away from the outside world, where her old life with her young son has come to an end with now being in prison with no chance of ever seeing the outside again. We go through her journey of being a part of the prison.
Blurb:
"Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences, plus six years, at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Outside is the world from which she has been permanently severed: the San Francisco of her youth, changed almost beyond recognition. The Mars Room strip club where she once gave lap dances for a living. And her seven-year-old son, Jackson, now in the care of Romy’s estranged mother.
Inside is a new reality to adapt to: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive. The deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner details with humour and precision. Daily acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike. Allegiances formed over liquor brewed in socks, and stories shared through sewage pipes.
Romy sees the future stretch out ahead of her in a long, unwavering line – until news from outside brings a ferocious urgency to her existence, challenging her to escape her own destiny and culminating in a climax of almost unbearable intensity. Through Romy – and through a cast of astonishing characters populating The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner presents not just a bold and unsentimental panorama of life on the margins of contemporary America, but an excoriating attack on the prison-industrial complex." - Amazon
I am a big fan of the NHS, yay for free healthcare!!! However, I know there is probably a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we never know about unless you are a doctor, nurse or know one quite well. Me being nosey and seeing this book in my recommendations on Amazon, I was intrigued. So, instinctively, I bought.
Blurb:
"Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.
Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward." - Amazon
When you think of Tom Hanks you think of him acting as Forest Gump or the voice Woody and more but no one really ever thinks of him being an author too. Who knew? Except for all the people who have read the book. I was not really intrigued by the book itself and the blurb but just more on the fact that I just love Tom Hanks, so I just had to buy.
Within one book there are many stories and all stories are linked by one thing, a typewriter. A typewriter is a wonderful thing, that personally I think should be brought back. I think there is something so romantic and wonderful about someone taking time out to write with a typewriter, using their time and energy.
Blurb:
"A hectic, funny sexual affair between two best friends. A World War II veteran dealing with his emotional and physical scars. A second-rate actor plunged into sudden stardom and a whirlwind press junket. A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A woman adjusting to life in a new neighborhood after her divorce. Four friends going to the moon and back in a rocket ship constructed in the backyard. A teenage surfer stumbling into his father’s secret life.
These are just some of the people and situations that Tom Hanks explores in his first work of fiction, a collection of stories that dissects, with great affection, humour and insight, the human condition and all its foibles. The stories are linked by one thing: in each of them, a typewriter plays a part, sometimes minor, sometimes central. To many, typewriters represent a level of craftsmanship, beauty and individuality that is harder and harder to find in the modern world. In his stories, Mr Hanks gracefully reaches that typewriter-worthy level.
Known for his honesty and sensitivity as an actor, Mr Hanks brings both those characteristics to his writing. Alternatingly whimsical, moving and occasionally melancholy, Uncommon Type is a book that will delight as well as surprise his millions of fans. It also establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice that perceptively delves beneath the surface of friendships, families, love and normal, everyday behaviour." - Amazon
5. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
I got this book at the Edinburgh Book Festival, anything with the word book in it or centred around books... I am there. At an event where there is literally thousands of books, it can get a bit overwhelming. I won't lie, I was judging books around their covers, something you totally shouldn't do (take it from me, the method didn't work, I bought another book and it was one of the worst books I've ever read). Anyway, after being mesmerised by the bright colours and the cover, I read the blurb and got quite excited about reading this book. That was months ago, probably about half a year ago and I still haven't got round to reading it. I will this year though. Lets hope it is better than the one I read before.
Based in a Correctional Facility, a woman named Romy Hall has been convicted with two life sentences. Adapting to being away from the outside world, where her old life with her young son has come to an end with now being in prison with no chance of ever seeing the outside again. We go through her journey of being a part of the prison.
Blurb:
"Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences, plus six years, at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Outside is the world from which she has been permanently severed: the San Francisco of her youth, changed almost beyond recognition. The Mars Room strip club where she once gave lap dances for a living. And her seven-year-old son, Jackson, now in the care of Romy’s estranged mother.
Inside is a new reality to adapt to: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive. The deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner details with humour and precision. Daily acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike. Allegiances formed over liquor brewed in socks, and stories shared through sewage pipes.
Romy sees the future stretch out ahead of her in a long, unwavering line – until news from outside brings a ferocious urgency to her existence, challenging her to escape her own destiny and culminating in a climax of almost unbearable intensity. Through Romy – and through a cast of astonishing characters populating The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner presents not just a bold and unsentimental panorama of life on the margins of contemporary America, but an excoriating attack on the prison-industrial complex." - Amazon
These are the first books I want to read in 2019, not in order and have so many other books I want to read to. Not included in this post or the next post of the next five books on my TBR, which should be up on my blog next week. Have you read any of these books? What is on your TBR for 2019?
The Tattooist of Aushwitz is an amazing book my lovely!
ReplyDeleteLove, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
I really want to read This Is Going To Hurt and I definitely didn't know that Tom Hanks was an author too!
ReplyDeleteJenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
I adored The Tattooist Of Auschwitz! It's so sad at times but so worth reading xx
ReplyDeleteTiffany x www.foodandotherloves.co.uk
Oooh you've got some great picks on here. I've just picked up The Tattooist of Auschwitz as I'd also heard really great things. I read This is Going to Hurt last year and it's incredible, so so good! I didn't know Tom Hanks and Graham Norton had actually written anything so I'm excited to see how you get on with them!
ReplyDeleteBeth x Adventure & Anxiety