My Expanding Bookshelf

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted every Friday by  Rose City Reader  where you share the first sentence (or couple of sentences) from your current read. The Friday 56 is also hosted every Friday by  Frida's Voice  where you share a sentence or two from page 56 or 56% into your current read.

Title: The Woman at the Gates Author: Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger Published: 2nd September 2021, Bookouture Pages: 343 Source: Netgalley Format: Kindle Rating: 3.5/5 "For as long back as Antonia could remember, there had been sliding panels and secret doors to be discovered in her Carpathian village, and the music of their defiance had sustained her." 1944, Germany: Gazing through the barbed wire fence, up to the pale blue sky, Antonia dreams of home: cherry orchards, golden fields, and the man she loves, who she may never see again... Resistance fighter Antonia is out in the forest behind her family's beloved farm when the Nazi soldiers arrive. As she sees her sister Lena and her young nephews herded towards the trucks, guns pointed at their heads, she faces a split-second, heart-wrenching decision: to stay hidden, stay free and continue the flight. Or give herself up and go with her family to protect them - no matter what lies ahead. As she clutches her nephew'...

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

              The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of  Caffeinated Reviewer . It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted every Friday by  Rose City Reader  where you share the first sentence (or couple of sentences) from your current read. The Friday 56 is also hosted every Friday by  Frida's Voice  where you share a sentence or two from page 56 or 56% into your current read.

 The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

Title: The Handmaid's Tale Series: The Handmaid's Tale #1 Author: Margaret Atwood Published: March 1998 (originally August 1985), Anchor Books Pages: 314 Source: Gift Format: Kindle Rating: 4.5/5 Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

 The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

  The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

            The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of  Caffeinated Reviewer . It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

    Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted every Friday by  Rose City Reader  where you share the first sentence (or couple of sentences) from your current read. The Friday 56 is also hosted every Friday by  Frida's Voice  where you share a sentence or two from page 56 or 56% into your current read.

Title: My Outdoor Life Author: Ray Mears Published: 2013, Hodder & Staughton Pages: 370 Source: Bought Format: Hardback Rating: 3/5 Ray Mears is a household name through his many television series, including Bushcraft Survival, The Real Heroes of Telemark, Tracks, World of Survival, and many more. He is a private individual who shuns publicity whenever possible and would prefer to let his many skills tell their own tale - until now. In My Outdoor Life, Ray tells of his childhood and the formative years when he first developed a passion for both bushcraft and the martial arts skills that are central to his life. Having traveled the world several times over, he is no stranger to risk and had had more than his fair share of dangerous and life-threatening encounters to share with his readers. But his life is so much more than a tale of derring-do. Shortly after he returned to England having narrowly survived a serious helicopter crash, his father died. Just a year later, he ha...

          The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of  Caffeinated Reviewer . It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

I'm taking part in Dewey's 24 Hour Reverse Readathon so this post will be routinely updated with my progress. I've never done a 24-hour readathon before so I honestly don't know how well I'll do. It also starts at 1 am for me so not sure when I'll be able to join... And since signing up I've been invited on a day out to another city with my parents and nephew so this probably isn't going to go well at all. Hopefully, I'll manage some reading on the train though.

Title: The Wasp Factory Author: Iain Banks Published: 1990, Abacus (originally 1984) Pages: 294 Source: Bought Format: Paperback Rating: 3.5/5 "Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my younger brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and less than a year after that I did for my younger cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through." Enter - if you can bear it - the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, and unconventional, to say the least.

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 16th and runs through Sunday, August 22nd in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional.  For all Bout of Books 32 information and updates, be sure to visit the  Bout of Books  blog.  - From the Bout of Books team

          Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl . This week's topic is titles/covers that made me want to read/buy a book. I've gone with covers that caught my eye.

          The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly of  Caffeinated Reviewer . It’s a chance to share news. A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.