I saw these questions over at The Diary of a Domestic Goddess, and thought I would answer them too!

1. Who is your all-time favourite author, and why?

My favourite all time author is Roald Dahl. I love his books. They gave me hours of entertainment when I was small, and now keep me entertained as an adult. I’m currently re-reading James and the Giant Peach, and I’m laughing, and I’m gripped, and I love the illustrations by Quentin Blake. I don’t think it is possible to be too old to enjoy Roald Dahl, I love him.

2. Who was your first favourite author, and why?  Do you still consider him or her among your favourites?

Enid Blyton. I loved everything of hers that I read. I loved The Magic Faraway Tree, and remember my Mum reading that to me and my brother – and the Secret Seven, the Famous Five, Mallory Towers…the list goes on. I loved them all! I always found myself wanting to live in those books! I haven’t read any of these books in a long time, but I really want to – I’m sure I would still love them. I think I would still put Enid Elyton as a favourite author because of the memories I have of reading her books and really enjoying them.

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?

Sarah Dessen. I discovered her when I was blogging about young adult books. Every one of her books that I have read I have loved. I found her gripping, entertaining, touching, realistic and just fantastic. I read Just Listen first and it blew me away. I haven’t found a bad book by her yet – thankfully!

4. If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?  Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?

Terry Pratchett, CS Lewis, Sarah Dessen, Erica James, Wendy Virgo, Philippa Gregory, Roald Dahl. After some thought… Enid Blyton, Ben Elton, Dorothy Koomson, Beatrix Potter, A A Milne, Mark Driscoll, Debbie Macomber, Elizabeth Noble, Nicholas Sparks, Sophie Kinsella, Stephanie Meyer, JK Rowling, Andrew Wilson and Jane Austen I think.

5. Which “unknown” author do you recommend to people most often?

Probably Wendy Virgo. She writes theology books, mainly for women and I love her. I wrote a Recommended Author post about her. The books are easy to read, engaging and for me, life changing. I think everyone should read her books.

Book Type: Large Print Hardback from Library

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

What makes a house a home? For Eve Gallagher, home is miles away in England since she and her husband relocated to an apartment building on New York’s Upper East Side. And life isn’t remotely coming up roses. What makes a neighbour a friend? Violet has lived in the building for decades but she’s always kept herself apart.

I was worried about how good this book was going to be when I opened up the first page and saw a list of characters. There were a few pages and my initial thought was simply “oh no”. To be honest, the first time I tried this book I only managed around 50 pages. The second time was much better however. This is mature chick-lit that looks at the idea of relocating, making friends and starting a family.

The central character is Eve, who moves to New York with her husband as he has earned a promotion. She finds herself living in a gorgeous flat, but even though there are people all around, she is isolated and alone. That is until a fellow neighbour hosts a meeting about the roof terrace – they have permission to make it a nice garden area. Eve goes along and meets some fellow neighbours, most notably Violet. She is an old lady who also emigrated from England, but until meeting Eve has kept herself apart from others. The book mainly follows these two characters with interludes from others in the apartment to break up the story. To be honest, although I can remember the other story lines – the over-bearing mother of a spoilt toddler, a love affair between two unlikely people and a new friendship – the characters themselves haven’t stayed with them, I couldn’t name them for instance. In reflection though, that doesn’t bother me as I remember Eve and Violet, and how Eve struggles with life in America, and then gets pregnant and has to deal with a premature birth. Violet is there all the way through and we learn her story and about her heartbreak, and that to me is the main story and worth remembering.

Noble takes on tough issues in this novel. She looks at relocating, premature birth and death. There are moments when this is a sad tale, and other times when it is uplifting. This shift in mood keeps the book entertaining. This is not the best Noble novel I have read – that would be Things I Want My Daughters to Know, but I enjoyed this.

I liked Eve and felt sorry for her. I could relate her as she struggled in New York – I wouldn’t have been brave enough to go out and make friends either. Ed, her husband, was nice enough but he didn’t understand her that well, and I was a bit gutted that he wasn’t too keen on her the pregnancy at first. I had to grow to like him, whereas I liked Eve instantly. I liked Violet as well. She was kind and caring, but she was stern and motherly, just what Eve wanted. The other characters were pleasant but don’t stick out in my mind that much. It was nice that Noble included the other storylines but I think the people she wrote needed to be more inspiring.

This is mature chick-lit and I really enjoyed it. I would happily recommend this novel to others who like Elizabeth Noble and like a good, emotional, realistic, interesting read.

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Through the Post:

For Review:

• Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

E-Books:

Review Books:

• Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner
• The Orable Rebounds by Allison can Diepen
• Always the Baker Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker

Library Books:

• The Way We Were by Elizabeth Noble
• Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
• Chocolate Wishes by Trisha Ashley
• The Beach House by Jane Green

From Friends/Family:

• The Officer’s Lover by Pam Jenoff

It’s been a good week! Given a load away too. What did you get? do leave a comment

This is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The idea is simple: post about books coming out soon that you want to read!

Here is mine:

Promises, Promises by Erica James (no cover image yet)

I Must Stand Up for Myself More’ so promises Maggie Storm who spends her days cleaning houses for people who often have more money than manners. Married to a man with as much sex appeal as Mr Blobby, she dreams of a life straight from the pages of a romantic novel. ‘My Head Must Rule Over My Heart’ so promises Ella Moore who, determined never to let her heart get the better of her again, is recovering from seven wasted years of failing to win over the daughter of the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. ‘No More Women’ so promises Ethan Edwards who, to distract himself from the depressing sham of his marriage, is a repeat offender when it comes to turning to other women for sexual consolation. But when Ella appears unexpectedly in his life, he finds himself turning to her for very different reasons.

There are some books that have recently been released that I want to read:

Susannah and Rob were childhood sweethearts. But as with most early love affairs, they broke up, moved on and now find themselves in very different places. And not entirely happy – who is? A chance meeting between them sends shockwaves through their lives. What happens when your first love makes a surprise reappearance? Is fate telling you it’s time for a second chance…or should you simply walk away and let the past become ancient history? But Susannah and Rob just aren’t able to forget the way they were…and the world is about to realize the consequences of their reunion.

Everyone has a dream of their perfect house – in the heart of the countryside, or perhaps a stately residence in the middle of a wonderful city?

For Kate Hutchinson, the move to Suffolk from the tiny, noisy London terrace she shares with her husband Simon and their two young children is almost enough to make her dreams come true.

Space, peace, a rural pace of life have a far greater pull for Kate than the constantly overflowing in-tray on her desk at work.  Moving in with her mother-in-law must surely be only a temporary measure before the estate agent’s details of the perfect house fall through the letterbox.

But when Kate stumbles upon the house of her dreams, a beautiful place full of memories, it is tantalizingly out of reach.  Its owner is the frail, elderly Agnes, whose story echoes so much of Kate’s own.  And Kate comes to realize how uncertain and unsettling a life built on dreams can be – wherever you are, at whatever time you are living and whoever you are with.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teaser!

The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble

Page 181

“They were toxic – all three of them. They were toxic and he didn’t know why, or when it had happened.”

Please leave a comment so I can find your teaser too!

Good afternoon! It is Monday, so time to review the week and plan what to read this week! This is organised by Book Journey, and I love it

Past Week

I haven’t read as much as I would have liked. I focused on my TBR pile, and read three:

• Macomber: 44 Cranberry Point
• Beaumont: E
• Hore: The Memory Garden (technically finished today!)

I read one library book too:

• Blume: Forever

Do check out In My Mailbox to see what books entered my home last week!

This Week

Currently reading: Elizabeth Noble: The Girl Next Door

That is a library book, and I hope to get more of my borrowed books read! I would like to read these this week:

• Sparks: True Believer
• Macomber: 50 Harbour Street
• Hornby: About A Boy

So the important question: what are you reading?

I’ve been caught reading by my husband! I’m currently reading Old School Ties by Kate Harrison. I’ve read about half of this book today alone. I’m hoping to get it finished by tomorrow evening. The other books I have on the go are:

• The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble
• True Believer by Nicholas Sparks
• In Southern Waters by Ian Marchant

Now I think I was a good girl yesterday when I went to the library. Not only did I return more books than I took out, but there was a book sale on, where every book was 20p, but I didn’t even look. Yay for me… I think!

Haha! I did however take out 3 books:

Kate Harrison: Old School Ties – chick-lit
Alison Weir: Innocent Traitor - historical fiction
Cora Harrison – Michaelmas Tribute - historical crime

So my library shelf now looks like this:

Not too many there! I do have more out, but they are in a bag ready to go back to the library – which depending on  how good this afternoon’s football is might be today!

These are the library books that I am currently reading and enjoying:

I love my local library – do you?

Synopsis from Amazon:

Club Rules

Men, children, work, shopping, wine and chocolate. Important, but not AS important.

When they need you, you are there. No giving up.

Members

Freddie, Tamsin, Reagan and Sarah

They meet at university in the heady days of the 80s: four women with little in common but an eagerness to live life to the full. And over romantic crises, long gossipy nights and too many bottles of wine, they form the Tenko club and swear they’ll always be there for each other.

Life Membership

Twenty years later, that promise is put to the test.

Regan, Sarah, Tamzin and Freddie met at university and formed a lasting friendship. Their friendship remained after their uni years, through marriage, and children,  and the death of Sarah. Now they need each other a lot more. Freddie receives two doses of bad news, which send her to America. Regan and Tamzin go with her, and they explore themselves, their lives and their friendship. Through fights and laughter the Tenko Club move forward.

I really enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Noble. I have enjoyed the other books of hers that I have read. I love her writing style – engaging and fun, gripping and enjoyable. All her characters are believable, and the way Noble writes makes you wish you know them. I wanted to be a member of the Tenko Club! I even liked how they had memories and flash backs contained Sarah, even though she is dead.

This is definitely chick-lit, but this is chick-lit at its best. I found the book believable, but quite predictable. It was a heart warming read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

9/10

Synopsis:

‘My beautiful girls. If you’ve read this, you’ll know it contains some – not all, but some – of the things I want my daughters to know. And the greatest of these is love …’ How would you say goodbye to those you love most in the world? Barbara must say a final farewell to her four daughters. But how can she find the words? And how can she leave them when they each have so much growing up to do? There’s commitment-phobic Lisa. Brittle, unhappily married Jennifer. Free-spirited traveller Amanda. And teenage Hannah, stumbling her way towards adulthood. Barbara’s answer is to write each daughter a letter, finally expressing the hopes, fears, dreams and secrets she couldn’t always voice. These words will touch the girls in different – sometimes shocking – ways, unlocking emotions and passions to set them on their own journey of discovery through life.

I was so excited about reading this book, and I wasn’t let down. The story follows four daughters after their mother died. The story is full of love, grief, sex, family and of course, death. Noble is a good writer and I enjoyed this book a lot. It took longer to read than I thought it would, but actually that wasn’t a problem. I was gripped and wanted to know the outcome, and at the end I was happy, but sad too. This book definitely sparked emotion; as well as made me laugh and gasp.

It is hard to pick my favourite character. Probably Mark, the step-father. He was strong and held the family together. He remained there, even though he was just the step-father. He seemed like a good guy. I liked all the characters however, and I found myself willing the best for all of them.

This was a fun, engaging book, that I thoroughly recommend.

8/10