Weekly wrap up 12/4/15

Last week I missed my weekly wrap up, this is because I had forgotten that I would still be away and didn't manage to schedule anything! So this week I am doubling up on my wrap up. I also have a holiday post that has been live for a while, if you haven't already taken a look at it and would like to, check it out here. So back to this weekly wrap up... 

This week I have been sent:

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley - Doyle

The Memory Book - Rowan Coleman (won)

All this has nothing to do with me - Monica Sabolo

The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance - Kirsty Greenwood

The Day We Disappeared - Lucy Robinson 

This week I have bought: 

Books I have read this week:

The Little Things - Jane Costello
Reading Saving Grace - Jane Green 

The books I have read all have reviews and they will be on the blog soon so look out for that!

Thanks for stopping by at The Book Corner, I loved  hearing what you have got this week so please leave a comment to let me know

London Book and Screen Week info!

I have been lucky enough to share some book information with you all. This seems like it is going to be a great event if you are able to make it. 

I’m sure you’ve already heard about London Book and Screen Week (13-19 April), brought to you by The London Book Fair to celebrate London as being at the heart of the book and film worlds.

One of our biggest events of the week is author of Tulip Fever and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Deborah Moggach in conversation with Louisa Young, author of My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You.

Tuesday 14^th April, 7-9pm at The October Gallery, London

Tickets available from: www.londonbookandscreenweek.co.uk/event/goodhousekeeping

You’re probably aware that The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has just been a smash at the cinemas and the film of Tulip Fever is due out in the summer starring Cara Delevingne, so Deborah is very much a woman of the moment!

Tell No One - Harlan Coben

Tell No One by Harlan Coben
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Eight years ago David Beck was knocked unconscious and left for dead, and his wife Elizabeth was kidnapped and murdered.

Dr Beck re-lived the horror of what happened that day every day of his life. Then one afternoon, he receives an anonymous email telling him to log on to a certain website. The screen opens on to a web cam - and it is Elizabeth's image he sees.

As Beck tries to find out if Elizabeth is truly alive, and what really happened the night she disappeared, the FBI are trying to pin Elizabeth's murder on him. And everyone he turns to seems to end up dead...



The second novel I have read by the brilliant Harlan Coben - I read Six Years and wanted to read another novel by this gifted writer and was asked to review Tell No One. I didn't think that this would be as good or a gripping as the first one I read by him but clearly I had mistook this prolific and talented writer.

Gripping the reader from the first paragraph again and drawing you in, Coben proceeded to take the reader on a journey that was both pacy and high octane. Loved every minute of reading this novel and yet again he managed to keep the suspense going throughout and slapping you in the face with 'I didn't see it coming' ending.

Supremely talented and I will continue to read his books in the sure knowledge that he will not disappoint and take me on a white knuckle ride that so far I have not experienced with another writer.

I could re-tell this story in precis but you don't want that; you want to experience this journey yourself unable to go to bed without reading 'just one more chapter' and realising that you simply have to stop otherwise you are in danger of not getting up for work in the morning!!

Easter Spent in Las Vegas!

I wanted to do a quick holiday summery, I cannot believe that a week has already gone by and before I know it I will be back at school! So this was the first time I have ever been in Vegas and wow, what an experience it was! It certainly is a crazy place and it seems that the longer I spent there the more insane it became! 

I began by stepping off the Virgin Atlantic plane, which I had been on for the best of 12 hours into the hot sun of the desert. It was around 3pm which was a perfect time to arrive in order to find my feet and get some dinner. We all were extremely tired from getting off the flight, so it was a quiet and early night. Saying that though it is certainly a city that never sleeps so it was packed even at midnight. 

Our room was amazing, we were lucky enough to get an upgrade on arrival so we got to check out our terrace one bedroom room. It had sliding glass doors which opened to an oversized private terrace, this gave wonderful views from our balcony to Las Vegas. A decadent bathroom which featured a Japanese soaking tub. Not to mention the living room and kitchen, to be honest you could live in this room, there would be no need to leave!

View from our pool

The hotel has three pools, we only visited two of them, mainly because one of them was a day club which would have been awesome to visit but it cost mega bucks to get in, so we thought we would save our money for something else.

So Las Vegas strip is mental, it is huge! We decided that we would walk to the famous sign just along the strip. This although doesn't seem too far away it was, especially in the hot dry heat of the desert! When we finally got there it was great, from always seeing the sign in places and finally being able to stand underneath it.

We made it to the sign!

On Tuesday - wow that was a week ago! Where did the time fly?! We visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We got on a helicopter to go as it cut the travelling time and allowed us to experience it at sun set and flying back over the strip on the way back was amazing!

The Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam

Me at The Grand Canyon

Flying over the Strip at night. 

Me on the helicopter

I then spent the rest of the week relaxing, sunbathing and doing a little bit of gambling. I'm not a gambler, but you cannot got to Vegas and not have a little flutter. The week really whizzed by and I had a fabulous time. I'm just a little disappointed that it is all over, it seems to be that you pay so much for your holiday and wait so long for it to arrive, then when it does it's all over with a blink of an eye. 

I also managed to do some make up shopping while I was away, look out for some reviews for these on here once I have used them. 

I am now sitting at thinking about my next holiday, not that I have paid for it yet! But I will be off in December and that seems a life time away now! Unfortunately on the book front I read very little. I think that this was down to being somewhere new and exciting, there was so much to explore! I do have another week off work though so will be catching up with the reading now I am at home. 

Anyway I am sorry it's not a bookish post today but I wanted to share my adventure with you. If you are still reading this post, thanks and I hope you enjoyed it. 

Dear Committee Members - Julie Schumacher

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can't catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville's Bartleby. In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms.

This short novel is written entirely in a series of letters by Jason Fitger, a Professor of English and Creative writing at Payne University in America.

I really love books that have this format, either in letter or email form, they somehow seem more interesting to read, almost because you know you shouldn't be reading someone else's letters/emails. Through these letters the reader learns that the building is being redesigned, they have leaky windows, and dust is flying from the building works. A lot of the staff have already left and you are almost left to pity the staff that haven't left yet.

These letters really paint a picture of Jason, divorced, his own writing career has failed or well never really got off the ground, he is grumpy and doesn't like modern day technology. One he particularly hates is the online form of media and forums. He seems to be rarely talking to his friends and seems to have driven most of them away.

These are humors through the way they are told and sad at the same time, I love the fact that they are told through letters as this seems to be something that is dying out. I don't want to say too much about the book as it is quite short and you would be able to read this rather quickly.

Although I did really enjoy the book, it was at times hard to keep reading one letter after the other, it may have been better to read a few letters at a time and then come back to the book. This is just my own personal opinion on the book and the reason I only rate it 4 out of 5 *. At times I did find it a little bit heavy in this format all at once. Saying that if I had read a few letters at a time and returned to the book, I may have enjoyed it even more.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer - Ali Maier

Mom Made Us Write This In The Summer by Ali Maier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A sister and brother, forced to write in the summer, and share ONE journal? Ugh.

This is exactly what happens to 10-year-old twins Maggie and Max Pruitt. When Mom comes up with a plan for them to keep a summer journal, Maggie and Max can’t believe it. Worse yet, they have to share!


This is a really fun book, I would say for children ages 8-12 especially for those who have siblings. This story is about Max and Maggie, 10 year old twins, who have just broken up for the summer holidays and mum has bought them a journal to write in and make sure they get along. They are required to share the journal and write in about their summer holiday, so this is written in journal format.

I really loved the format of the book and it really made it fun and interesting to read, the font inside is slightly different depending on who is doing the writing so it makes it really clear to follow and understand. I also loved all the scribbling inside, of pictures or enlarged letters, this really gave it the feel of being a journal and something that they children love to write in.

I really loved this book, although I am slightly older than 12! It is brilliant for children as it covers bickering and squabbling with a sibling, it helps them understand the thoughts that perhaps the other is having.Both Max and Maggie find it frustrating that they have to understand the others point of view, however they over come it.

I really liked the style of this book and I think it will prove to be extremely popular. Especially for long car journeys in the summer or on a plane trip. As an adult you will also enjoy it, remembering childhood memories that you may have had with your own sibling, and the doodles in the book are sure to make you giggle.

This is one book that I strongly recommend, I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

After the Storm - Jane Lythell

After the Storm by Jane Lythell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some secrets destroy you.

Rob and Anna have only just met Owen and Kim. Now they've boarded their handsome old boat to travel to a far off island in the Caribbean.

With only the four of them on board, it should be paradise: lazy afternoons spent snorkelling; long nights enjoying the silence and solitude of the sea.

But why does Owen never sleep? Why is he so secretive about his past? And why does Kim keep a knife zipped into her money-belt? Anna can usually get people to talk... but this time, does she want to?



This book has been really difficult for me to review. I really wanted to love it. From reading the blurb it sounded right up my street, travelling and a bit of a thriller, I was there! Unfortunately I found it very slow and very hard to finish, it has taken me weeks and weeks to read and that was just not as enjoyable as I had hoped. This was my first experience of Jane Lythell as an author and although I really wanted to read 'The Lie of You', I haven't yet got my hands on a copy. I wish now I had started with that book as it has had really great reviews.

So about the story: English couple Anna and Rob are travelling around South America, this really appealed to me as I really love to travel, especially in South and Central America. They meet Kim and Owen, an American couple who are on their way back to Florida after months of sailing. They offer Anna and Rob the chance to sail with them for the remainder of their holiday in exchange for some dollar, they take a risk by doing this. Although Anna is not keen and slightly worried about spending the last part of her holiday with two strangers on a boat, Rob manages to convince her.

So far, so good, I was really enjoying this story and I couldn't wait to find out about the journey and these 2 couples living with each other in tiny surroundings. However this is where I suddenly found the story slow, I understand that tension needed to build between the two and the story is about the developing relationships and the secrets they keep. It is a slower burner, that is the only way I can describe it. During this time we find out about the different characters and how they have made them the person they are today. I thought this was going to be more interesting than it was and I was just left wanting more.

I thought there was going to be more thrill in the book and although it was beautifully written and is very descriptive I was just left feeling a little disappointed. I thought that after all the slow burning of the plot developing that it would have been an almighty shock at the end, however I found it to be a bit of an anti climax.

Although I did find the book disappointing I would still be keen to pick up Lythell's other book, I feel that she is able to create believable and well rounded characters, the relationships between them felt real and the description in the book was good. Although I found the book too slow in pace, many will love this.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.