The Last Sunday Salon of the Year

I hope everyone had an enjoyable festive season. It was a lovely and relaxing time chez Bride, and here we are already at the last Sunday of 2018.

You would think that having had a fine selection of gifts given to me (see my haul post here) I would not have been buying myself any books but if you know me at all then you know that would be very uncharacteristic. So here goes….

Books bought this week:

• Vigil by Angela Slatter – the first in a trilogy of urban fantasy set in Australia; really looking forward to this one
• Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley – his second novel after the very successful and highly praised The Lony (which I still haven’t read, oops)
• The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy – a recommendation by blogger Ali at heavenali.wordpress.com, beware that Amazon gives away much of the plot if you are thinking of investigating this one
• The Lingering by SJI Holliday – it’s Gothic and therefore a no-brainer
• John Dies at the End by David Wong – I just liked the title; no offence to anyone I know called John, of course
• Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss – so many people have recommended this one so I thought ‘why not?’
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – I was at a party on Saturday 29th and a fellow guest recommended this to me; I think it’s been on my wish list for a while so I succumbed.

Books finished this week? Hmm? Move along, nothing to see here…..

I’m still reading The Hanging Tree and determined to finish it on New Year’s Eve, though to be honest I’m not particularly bothered about it drifting into 2019, it would just be neat to tie things up on the last day of the year.

Making good progress with Global Crisis, and the thing I learned this week that stuck with me most was the fact that

In 1595 Sultan Mehmet III had followed tradition and executed all 19 of his brothers, some of them infants, as well as pregnant slaves in the harem, and he later executed the crown prince on suspicion of treason, so that at his death in 1603 only two male members of the Ottoman dynasty survived: his sons Ahmed (aged 13, who became the new sultan) and Mustafa (aged 4)

Such a waste.

Hope everyone has a fine reading week and a very Happy New Year!