The Overflowing Library

Another month has flown by. Here's what I read over the past few weeks Books read in March 45) Life on the refrigerator door by Alice Kuipers (British Books Challenge) 46) A kiss in the dark by Cat Clarke (British Books Challenge) 47) Trouble by Non Pratt (British Books Challenge) 48) Alex as well by Alyssa Brugmann 49) Baby one more time by Esme Taylor (British Books Challenge) 50) Say her name by James Dawson (British Books Challenge) 51) The declaration by Gemma Malley (British Books Challenge) 52) The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd 53) Landline by Rainbow Rowell 54) The Road of bones by Anne Fine (British Books Challenge) 55) Breaking Butterflies by M Anjelais 56) Bombmaker by Claire McFall (British Books Challenge) 57) Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivson (British Books Challenge) I must say while it has been a really slow month for me reading wise the books I have read on the whole I thought were thoroughly brilliant Here's to next month and easter...

Not being a particularly outdoorsy little girl the Dorset countryside made for a pretty boring childhood, so from the moment I could read I escaped into other, infinitely more exciting worlds.   People said I would grow out of this dreaminess, but I’m afraid I never did.   Like Bananaman I lead an exciting double life: by day I’m a middle aged mother of two sons who spends her time ferrying children to clubs and swimming lessons, but I spend my nights in the company of dystopian revolutionaries, child serial killers, ghosts and vampire lovers. My bookcase is basically my inner life on six shelves. Under 12 – Most of my well thumbed childhood texts (Roald Dahl, Penelope Lively, Alan Garden) have been transported upstairs to my sons’ bedroom – a triumph of hope over experience considering their reading (non) habits – but The Wind Eye by Robert Westall is still here, as it is ‘The Best Book Ever” according to my inscription on the inside cover.   It was wha...

Another month, another lovely pile of books I am dying to read The Castle by Sophia Bennett Peta Jones is an ordinary girl struggling with the loss of her father, an army hero who died in mysterious circumstances. When she receives clues that he may still be alive, she embarks on a dangerous rescue across the Mediterranean to a clifftop castle, home to a billionaire in exile. Soon Peta discovers that what some people will do for money, she will do for love. I have loved the books I have read by Sophia. I cannot wait to get my hands on this. Murder most unladylike by Robin Stevens Deepdean School for Girls, 1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia's missing tie. Which they don't, really.) But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all hav...

Nine months. Two weeks. Six days. That's how long recovering addict Sophie's been drug-free. Four months ago her best friend, Mina, died in what everyone believes was a drug deal gone wrong - a deal they think Sophie set up. Only Sophie knows the truth. She and Mina shared a secret, but there was no drug deal. Mina was deliberately murdered. Forced into rehab for an addiction she'd already beaten, Sophie's finally out and on the trail of the killer - but can she track them down before they come for her? My thoughts I tried to read this on my kindle and struggled to know what was going on and gave up with it. I then received a paperback copy which made the differentiation between time periods more clear and therefore so much easier to know what was going on and it had me hooked. The paperback wins again over the kindle. I loved this book for a variety of reasons most of which I can't talk about for fear of spoiling the book. The murder mystery s...

These are my downstairs bookcases, containing everything from picture books I've had since I was a kid to the large collection of plays I collected in college to my favourite YA reads. I've lost quite a few lately to one of my dogs who has developed a taste for books, so usually there's a barrier of chairs around the shelves to protect them! Tom Stoppard's play ARCADIA is up there, which definitely inspired me, as well as my collection of gardening books which helped me with the layout of Sophie's garden--I resisted giving her a Shakespeare themed garden, just barely! And Sharon Creech's WALK TWO MOONS, which is an MG that is the book that taught 10 year old to love plot twists. I was home-schooled and my mom had me read this book twice for our version of English class. First time, I just read it all the way through normally. Second time, she had me underline all the subtle hints interwoven into the book that step by step led to the twist. ...

Growing up on the embattled Mawr Estate in South Wales, all Gemma sees are burglaries, muggings, sadness and boredom. With a dad in prison and a mum who has given up hope, she, like everyone around her, is holding on to memories of the times when happiness wasn’t so hard to find. When her search for the scene of a perfect childhood day takes her up into the surrounding hills, Gemma is forced into a meeting with the legendary Cowgirl. Everyone at school knows she’s a weirdo: six foot tall and angry, the only conversations she has are with the twelve cows on her dad’s farm. But with her abrupt arrival in Gemma’s life, everything starts to look different. And with her only friends in mortal danger of the abbatoir, it turns out she and Gemma have a mission on their hands. A gently funny story of a community coming together, this is a tale of happy endings in unexpected places. My Thoughts I thoroughly enjoyed Cow girl. Cow girl is the story of a farm in decline the t...

I adored Girl with a White Dog and thought it was absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait for it to be released so I can buy several copies and give to everyone I know. Girl with a white dog does several things well for me. Firstly it discusses Nazism and the holocaust in a sensitive and thought provoking way. All too often I get angry with books which deal with issues such as Nazism as a gimmick to sell their book and make it more interesting rather than because they have a story to tell or something to say about the issues around it. This book is perfect in the way it handles it and that makes the history teacher in me very very pleased. Next I loved the characterisation in this book. All the voices are so authentic and I loved how these kids sounded like the ones I teach. There's actually one quote about a history teacher that one of my students could have happily said themselves because it is spot on. Also I loved how the characters were diverse without being in ...