Hobbies and Crafts

Thanks all, too late to do anything more tonight I will put the vote up tomorrow

Boys are still here, but as they are watching the football (extra-time) - thought that I would pop on here with my suggestions -

Sandie Shaw and the Millionth Marvell Cooker (a novel) by Wendy Robertson

It's the summer of 1965; rock and roll music rules the airwaves as innocent student, Cassandra, reluctantly begins temporary work at the Marvell cooker factory in Grafton. But little does she know that the events which follow will change her life forever.

o, as Marvell's prepares for the arrival of singing sensation Sadie Shaw, Cassandra learns that, for some workers, even bigger events are taking place off the clock. And as the sound of the sixties sings out from the Tannoy, the extraordinary stories behind the lives of the workers within unfold ......

An enchanting story of friendship and self-discovery, packed with warmth and hope.


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Mimi by Lucy Ellmann

It's Christmas Eve inn Manhattan, Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good.. "Ya can't sit there all day buddy, looking up peoples skirts!" chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi!
She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi.
Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis and a foundling cat. Harrison adds items to his life's work: a List of Melancholy Things: Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests ...... Then Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos.
She and Harrison fall emphatically in love. And as their lovemaking reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.

East of the sun by Julia Gregson
Autumn 1928. 3 young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride to be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid, couldn’t be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find a husband for herself. And Viva, their inexperienc3d chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past – and freedom.
Each has their own reason for leaving their homeland – but the hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what lies ahead in India.


The Legacy by Katherine Webb
Erica and Bet Calcott return to the house where they spent idyllic summers as children. As Erica sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, strange fragments of family history, and vivid memories, break the surface of the present day.
Memories of their cousin, Henry, who disappeared one summer long ago. Of their grandmother, a bitter woman, full of deep dark hatred.
As Erica sifts through remnants of the past, a secret emerges, reaching all the way back to a beautiful heiress in turn of the century Oklahoma.
As past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two terrible acts of betrayal – and the heartbreaking legacy left behind.

Dont Pass Me By - Julia McGowan


1940: London is about to be ravaged by the Blitz. For Lydia the last beating is the final straw. She has to escape from her husband, and when a gas explosion rips their house apart she flees, taking baby Grace with her. Rejected by her father, and not knowing where to go next, she joins a crowd of evacuee children at the railway station, and her destiny is changed forever as they find themselves in rural Wales.

Don’t Pass Me By is the story not only of Lydia and Grace’s salvation, but of the lives of a handful of evacuee children transplanted from the city to a tiny village filled with strangers who speak a different language. Torn away from their parents, each child learns to cope – one with a farm full of fearsome animals and a warm, caring family; others not so lucky. From the love and compassion of many, to sinister abuse from a few, the children find different ways to survive their own catastrophes, while Lydia finds what she has always been seeking – but when her masquerade of widowhood is shattered, will she lose everything?




Smile Through Your Tears - Angela Rawcliffe

In April 1912, Maeve Donoghue embarks to sail from Ireland to America for a better life. However, on the voyage occurs an immense tragedy.
Her years spent in an appalling orphanage affect her future decisions. She is forced to reverently maintain secrecy she sailed on that ship; but secrets do not die...

Will have to put my thinking cap on!

Will be back after son and grandsons have gone home - and I've had time to think!

The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse

When Kate meets a dark, enigmatic man in a Soho bar, she doesn't hesitate long before going home with him. There is something undeniably attractive about Richard - and irresistibly dangerous, too. Now, after eighteen exhilarating but fraught months, Kate knows she has to finish their relationship and hopes that will be the end of it. But it is only just the beginning.

Fleeing London for the wintry Isle of Wight, she is determined to ignore the flood of calls and emails from an increasingly insistent Richard. But what began as a nuisance becomes an ever more threatening game of cat and mouse...
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Cause for Alarm by Erica Spindler

Kate and Richard Ryan have the perfect marriage - marred only by their inability to have a child. The adoption agency's call fulfills that dream...and opens the door to a nightmare....
Julianna Starr has chosen Kate and Richard to be more than the parents of her child. For Richard is the man of her fantasies, the one she's been waiting for. Stalking the couple, Julianna molds herself in Kate's image and insinuates herself into Richard's life, determined to tear their perfect marriage apart. But for Kate and Richard, the nightmare has only begun. Because Julianna is not alone. From her dark past comes a man of unspeakable evil....No one is safe - not even the innocent child Kate and Richard call their own.

The Bloodletter's Daughter (A Novel of Old Bohemia) by Linda Lafferty

Within the glittering Hapsburg court in Prague lurks a darkness of which no one dares speak…
In 1606, the city of Prague shines as a golden mecca of art and culture carefully cultivated by Emperor Rudolf II. But the emperor hides an ugly secret: His bastard son, Don Julius, is afflicted with a madness that pushes the young prince to unspeakable depravity. Desperate to stem his son’s growing number of scandals, the emperor exiles Don Julius to a remote corner of Bohemia where the young man is placed in the care of a bloodletter named Pichler. The bloodletter’s task: cure Don Julius of his madness by purging the vicious humors coursing through his veins.
When Pichler brings his daughter Marketa to assist him, she becomes the object of Don Julius’s frenzied—and dangerous—obsession. To him, she is the embodiment of the women pictured in the Coded Book of Wonder, a priceless manuscript from the imperial library that was the mad prince’s only link to sanity. As the prince descends further into the darkness of his mind, his acts become ever more desperate, as Marketa, both frightened and fascinated, can’t stay away.
Inspired by a real-life murder that threatened to topple the powerful Hapsburg dynasty, The Bloodletter’s Daughter is a dark and richly detailed saga of passion and revenge.


Dancing in the Moonlight by Rita Bradshaw

On her deathbed, Lucy Fallow’s mother makes her twelve-year-old daughter promise to look after her four younger siblings and keep house for her father and two older brothers. When the Fallow menfolk lose their jobs they take work wherever they can. But it’s not long before they are working on the wrong side of the law and under the watchful eye of Tom McKenzie. Meanwhile, through the hardship Lucy begins to form a relationship with Jacob McKenzie, the boy next door, and one evening they dance cheek to cheek in the moonlight and know that one day they will marry. However, as their love grows so does the resentment from Jacob’s older brother Tom. He has had his eye on Lucy for years and has never understood why she doesn’t fall for him like all the other girls her age. Now he knows why – his brother already has her heart. What follows is a chain of heart-breaking events where Jacob and Lucy are torn from each other’s arms. Will they ever dance in the Moonlight again . . . ?

Three bites of the cherry by Emma Blair

Georgie Mair's first husband's dies tragically from leukaemia. Three years later love comes once more into her life. Charlie Gunn saves her after an explosion in the factory at work. Like her, Charlie is widowed with a young child. As their relationship blossoms into marriage, it seems to Georgie that this second chance is almost too good to be true. It is. And soon Georgie finds herself taking the only route possible. Shocking the staid community, she separates from him. But the community would have been far more shocked if they know what Lena was now up to. For in the new era of jazz and at the dawn of a Labour government, life is changing all around... And then it changes again for Georgie. She meets Bill Bailey. He is everything Charlie was not. But will she be able to find, with Bill, the same sort of bliss she had found with John? Or will this third bite at the cherry be something completely different

The Lewis Man by Peter May

An unidentified corpse is recovered from a Lewis peat bog; the only clue to its identity being a DNA sibling match to a local farmer.

But this islander, Tormod Macdonald - now an elderly man suffering from dementia - has always claimed to be an only child.

When Tormod's family approach Fin Macleod for help, Fin feels duty-bound to solve the mystery.

My suggestions tomorrow when I have unpacked, done a wash load and done the grocery shop after 2 weeks holiday

NATURAL CAUSES by
James Oswald

60 years ago a young girl was brutally murdered in an underground chamber., for the Edinburgh Police force it is not a priority. D.I.McLean is haunted by her murder and the six trinkets by her body...but then a wave of murders hits the city, and each bears a similarity to the last are they linked with the girl.?

THE MISBEGOTTEN By Katherine Webb


Set in Bath the year is 1821. Into a household comes a foundling child who tries to expose the lies behind the immaculate facades ..Others want to forget, and others will go to any lengths to cover things up

An engrossing tale of deceit, passion an courage, of two women, who's lives mix inexplicably.

Hope to be back to read others suggestions, time and problems allowing !!!!

Two books as usual please.


Review date will be 5 July 2014