Give me a Bothy was the cry when we reviewed Bothy Tales by John D Burns.
I can move only with the aid of barrels of anti-inflammatory gel, sticking plasters and real ale anaesthetic. Martin and I descend from hours of walking to the small town of Middleton-in-Teesdale. I walk, stiff legged, into the campsite office and a plump, middle-aged woman looks up from her desk and can see the old timer is in trouble. “Oh, what a shame you weren’t here last week,” she says, pity radiating from behind her horn-rimmed specs. “You’ve missed him.” I look at her, puzzled. “Elvis!” she explains. “You missed Elvis.” Oh God, now I’m hallucinating.
A Prequel to T.H.U.G!!!!!!! We’re you as excited as we were? Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas:
With his King Lord dad in prison and his mom working two jobs, seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter helps the only way he knows how: slinging drugs. Life’s not perfect, but he’s got everything under control. Until he finds out he’s a father…
Suddenly it’s not so easy to deal drugs and finish school with a baby dependent on him for everything. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. But when King Lord blood runs through your veins, you don’t get to just walk away.
Our first translated fiction of the month – Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin – had us drooling at how gorgeous the cover was. Just maybe not about the fish.
The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle was a lot to get your mouth round. The read, luckily, was somewhat easier.
For several years Miss Lane was companion, collaborator and friend to the lady known to the Psychical Society only as Miss X – until she discovered that Miss X was actually a fraud.
Now Miss Lane works with Mr Jasper Jesperson as a consulting detective, but the cases are not as plentiful as they might be and money is getting tight – until a wife’s concern for her husband’s nocturnal ramblings piques their interest, and mediums begin to disappear all over London.
There is only one team with the imagination and intelligence to uncover the nefarious purpose behind the vanished psychics and the somnambulist’s wanderings.
Jesperson and Lane: at your service.
Peter Duck by Arthur Ransome was too much sail not enough treasure.
The Swallows and Amazons, as well as Captain Flint and the ancient able seaman Peter Duck, set sail on the Wild Cat bound for the Channel. But they are shadowed by the Viper, manned by none other than Black Jake – a beastly pirate with a dark plan. Can the children race ahead and uncover the buried treasure before the pirate? Can they survive storms, earthquakes, crabs and even a waterspout and make it home?
And we rounded off the month with a Blog Tour for Deity by Matt Wesolowski
A shamed pop star
A devastating fire
Six witnesses
Six stories
Which one is true?
When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator, who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls.
Online journalist, Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rake over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge: Was the fire at Crystal’s remote home really an accident? Are reports of a haunting really true? Why was he never officially charged?
Dark, chillingly topical and deeply thought-provoking, Deity is both an explosive thriller and a startling look at how heroes can fall from grace and why we turn a blind eye to even the most heinous of crimes…
Also in February
Our Books of the Month were The Memory Police and A Murder Most Unladylike. We had lots of birthdays which included The second Maze Runner book, The Parent Agency and a strange one about cats, golf and Nazis! That about sums up Book Social’s February – what about yours?
