I was away for a month so took four books and then had to buy more!
The Amulet by Ann Bennet
My first stop was Singapore so I had searched Amazon for a book set in Singapore. It had a year 2000 narrative strand of a lady searching for her Mother and Grandmother’s history alongside flashbacks to their lives. Her Grandmother had worked at the famous Raffles hotel during the Second World War. It tells the story of her giving birth to a baby that ended up in an orphanage.
I left this book in Singapore after I finished it. It read it on the plane, at night, day after arrived had a chilled afternoon by the pool with it then on next day when was flying out late afternoon there was torrential rain so finished it then!
The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict
This was a book Cllub read. A murder mystery.
The Shelly Bay Swimming Circle by Sophie Green
I chose this on Amazon when looking for a book set in Australia. Think functional ocean town.
The Number Bias by Sanne Blauw
I bought this on a quick book shop visit before leaving Melbourne to get to the airport (to travel to Alice Springs). I bought it as for book Cllub challenge there was a category of a book with a maths category. This was a non fiction book. I read a lot on the plane journey. It booked up on thoughts I have about how numbers are used by politicians and the media. I finished it in between continuing fiction books.
Mrs Hemmingwood by Naomi Wood
The fourth book I took with me. It was a fictional story of Ernest Hemingway’s wives. I completed it in Cairns.
The One by John Marrs
Christmas Eve in Cairns, I had a mission to find a book shop as I wanted to read on Christmas Day and was close to finishing Mrs Hemmingway. It took a while to find a book shop!
I had seen a couple of programmes of this on tv a couple of weeks before going away.
The premises was that a method of matching people by their DNA to couple them up had been devised – so everyone had their ‘one’. It told a story of different couples and explored the ethical consequences. Each chapter was a different unconnected couple and the chapter ended on a cliffhanger so it was a page turner to get back to their story in the meantime there was another story that drawed me in!
The Woman in the Woods by Lesley Pease
This was the other book I bought in Cairns. I started it in Cairns then interrupted it to read the Holly Project and therefore finished it in Sydney. For a book about an abduction of a 16 year old in 1960, the pace was a little slow and read like a children’s book.
The Holly Project by Kate Sterritt
By the time I got to Sydney I was on the last book I had; the Woman in the Woods. On 30Dec I took a trip on a ferry to the beach resort of Manly. I was delighted to find a charity shop with books for $2 as soon far I had found books to be a little pricy in Australia.
This book was set in Sydney! It even mentioned Manly! I started reading it sat on a rock with my feet in the sea at Manly.
It was even signed by the author. I enjoyed mentions of places I had seen. When I read it I had just learned that the birds I had been seeing were Ibis so when the book mentioned running past ibis I knew what it meant!
The Piano Teacher by Lyn York
I also bought this one in the Manly charity shop for $2. I bought it because I needed a book with a musical connection for my Book Clllub challenge. I started this on my journey back and it is my current read.
Wonderwall 