Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

This book is about amnesia, a women wakes up in a bedroom that is not hers, beside a man she does not know and she wonders how much she had to drink last night to end up in someone else's house. That is until she makes it to the bathroom and realises that not only is she 20 years older than she thought she was, but there are pictures all around the mirror telling her that that man, in the bed, is her husband, Ben. She is married? She is older. She doesn't know who she is. Christine's memory resets every night before she wakes up. So she has no memory of the last 24 hours let alone the rest of her life.

I won't spoil this thrilling, page-turner for you. It is a breathless immersion into the life of an amnesiac. What would you do if all your memories were gone? If the only person you could trust was a man you didn't know, didn't recognise? How do you know who you are when you don't have any memories of your life?

I found this a very convincing and incredibly honest book. Similar to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time this novel draws you into an unknown reality. While many of us would like to relive our past, right our wrongs, forget our most embarrassing moments - would you really want to lose it all? Without hindsight we are nothing, we never learn, we would always be making the same mistakes over and over again. You would never be able to move on, to experience life the way you should. I found this to be a rather life-affirming read, while also being a pacey thriller with incredible twists and turns that make your heart beat faster with every chapter.

I have to admit to being the glazed eyed commuter, head buried in my book, eyes widening with each turn of the page, an involuntary gasp emitting my lips whilst my head began to whirl. This is a book that is well worth the embarrassing glances I received this evening. Well worth nearly missing my stop and walking home in a daze.

A brilliantly executed novel that is worth reading no matter where you are. I can't imagine any reader will be able to put this book down.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Now, I desperately want to write all about this book - it was so good, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was a roller coaster - like The Knife of Never Letting Go. A thrilling, no holds barred kind of a book that kept me turning the pages so quickly I nearly moved faster than light.

But, unfortunately, someone who reads my blog has finally got around to reading these fantastic books and therefore so as not to spoil it for everyone else who hasn't read The Knife of Never Letting Go - and you should!!! For now I will say I am a huge fan of the Chaos Walking trilogy and it belongs on every bookshelf. Get it from a bookshop, borrow them from a library and for goodness sake try not to give Amazon any more money - but if you must then do, because you really don't want to miss out.

So until next time!

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

Ali Shaw was quoted on the back of my last great read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and I was inspired to read this. It was beautiful, well-written and enchanting.
Ida is a beautiful girl, she used to dive deep into the ocean and sunbathe on beaches, she used to be a normal girl. Now, her feet are turning to glass. Slowly, slowly it starts, but the glass is spreading and Ida's only hope is to find the strange old man who once told her of people turning to glass on St Hauda's Island. Her adventure leads her to Midas, a man who is haunted by his father's death, by his mother's life and his own fears.

This story perfectly captures the fairy-tale essence without ever descending into the Disney world. Heartbreaking and breath-taking this novel draws the reader into the strangely intoxicating world of St Hauda's Island. It divulges slivers of information, character history as gifts you don't fully comprehend until it all slots into place.

The horror of turning into glass is told with a sincerity that made me ache with each chapter. The understanding that life has changed, now, forever and that we have so little control over it, that we know so little of life's possibilities. Turning to glass, a bird that with one look can turn you white, these seem likes dreams, nightmares and yet Shaw makes us believe in their reality. Questioning the importance of life, he draws us further into Ida and Midas' love affair and shows us that the only real meaning in life is to find love.

Read this book curled up on a sofa with a glass of wine or a mug of hot tea and be prepared for a heart wrenching journey that will sear through your defences and make you breathless.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

This breath-taking novel is set in Alaska in the deep winter. An old woman and an old man were unable to have any children, but dreamt of being parents. One day they are frolicking in the snow (recapturing their love of one another and their joy of life, despite their difficult circumstances) and they build a snow girl, complete with mittens, scarf and a beautifully carved face. The next morning their snow girl is destroyed, but a mysterious child begins to visit their cabin. Their life becomes a fairy-tale and it is one so familiar to make this novel an absolute enchanting read.

Beautifully written, this novel has had high praise from many broadsheets and novelists alike, it is full of stunning descriptions of the snow, winter in a desolate place and the incredible feat of finding something that is all yours. The characters were interesting, drawing you further into their thoughts and histories as you turn each page. Love is a major theme that is spun out throughout the novel, love between husband and wife, love conquering old wounds and love for a child. There is also kindness, friendship and adventure. I was entranced by this novel, reading it on the tube, pressed against sweating passengers in flickering light, my eyes were stuck to the page. I yearned for the solitude and grace living in a homestead in Alaska would bring, while gleefully turning the pages.

This novel is bewitching, it has woven a spell that is still unbroken, I feel the need to reach for this novel even after devouring it in 3 days, as it is a stunning debut worthy of all the attention and definitely worth buying from a lovely independent bookstore or borrowing from a library near you.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

The Andreas sisters have been cursed, cursed with having a father obsessed with Shakespeare and giving them names that have a whole life already attached to them: Rose (Rosalind from As You Like It), Bean (Bianca from The Taming of the Shrew) and Cordelia (King Lear). Constantly fighting against their roles, the sisters lives are vividly spent within books. TV is something other people had, these sisters grew up in a world of books. Their father reads only his Shakespeare and dispenses advice and information by photocopying highlighted passages from these plays. Their mother drifts along in her own world, reading and discarding books all over the house.

The sisters, of course have grown up now, Bean lives in New York, Cordelia is travelling around with no fixed plan and Rose has stayed at home, looking after her ageing parents and working at the University like her father.
But all sisters have secrets and these secrets eventually have a way of working their way to the surface and destroying the careful balance of life. With all the sisters once again at home, faced with their mother's cancer and with their own mysterious secrets bubbling close to the surface, it is only a matter of time...

Now, I really loved this book, it was beautifully written and captures the relationship between three very different sisters perfectly. The constant need for attention, the desire to be special, the only child if just for one day drives them and makes them constantly compete for this affection. Being a bookish person, I loved the idea of a family that loved reading so much no one would dare walk outside without a book. That reading was akin to breathing, without what would you do to pass the time? I must confess I am also one of 3 sisters, while we do not call ourselves 'weird' or have names with such heavy expectations, we are very like these characters. It was so refreshing and interesting to read a story about sisters who felt real.

I also loved the family dynamics, the world of fantasy, the bookish-ness of the whole novel, the fact that I read it in 2 days (last weekend, I am late in posting!) curled up in the British sunshine. This novel was delectable and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has siblings and to all of you out there who grew up with a TV, but wished you had a house of books instead.