The Overflowing Library

Another quiet one for me book wise. I'm deep into exam period with the kids having just finished exams and me now starting exam marking. I'm very much counting down until the middle of July and my summer holidays starting so I can read everything. Books read Born Scared by Kevin Brooks (3 stars) The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah (2 stars) The Boy most likely to by Huntley Fitzpatrick (3 stars) Wonder Boy by Nicole Burstein (4 stars) Very British Problems by Rob Temple (3 stars) Songs about a girl by Chris Russell (5 stars) If I was your girl by Meredith Russo (3 stars) Sunny Side up by Holly Smale (4 stars) The Girls by Emma Cline (2 stars) The secrets of Billie Bright by Susie Day (5 stars) Girl out of water by Nat Luurtsema (3 stars) events attended I went to an awesome event at Walker HQ. I got to meet lots of lovely authors and bloggers and hear about all of walker's awesome future titles. Book of the month without question songs about a girl was

This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship. A chance for travel journalist Lo Blackwood to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse, and to work out what she wants from her relationship. Except things don’t go as planned. Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat. Exhausted, emotional and increasingly desperate, Lo has to face the fact that her sleep problems might be driving her mad or she is trapped on a boat with a murderer – and she is the sole witness... My thoughts This story is well creepy. It kept me guessing from the first page until the last. There are several things about this book that I enjoyed. Firstly the tension throughout is incredible. It is very much edge of your seat reading whi

another little pile of books I cannot wait to get my grubby mitts onto Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse Sophia has seven days left in Tokyo before she moves back to the States. Seven days to say good-bye to the electric city, her wild best friend, and the boy she’s harbored a semi-secret crush on for years. Seven perfect days…until Jamie Foster-Collins moves back to Japan and ruins everything. Jamie and Sophia have a history of heartbreak, and the last thing Sophia wants is for him to steal her leaving thunder with his stupid arriving thunder. Yet as the week counts down, the relationships she thought were stable begin to explode around her. And Jamie is the one who helps her pick up the pieces. Sophia is forced to admit she may have misjudged Jamie, but can their seven short days of Tokyo adventures end in anything but good-bye? Alwyn Hamilton recommended this on instagram a few days ago and now I want it. I want it lots. All I ever wanted by Lucy Dillon

Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back --with no idea of where they've been. Eleven years ago, six kindergarteners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to. Until today. Today five of those kids return. They're sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn't really recognize the person she's supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they're entirely unable to recall where they've been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max. He doesn't come back. Everyone wants answers. Most of all Max's sister Avery, who needs to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story. My thoughts I was really excited when I received thi

How influential was music to you as a child? Very, my dad was in a band that did pretty well and he had a huge record collection (back in the days of vinyl). I remember this one record as a very young boy that was pink. It fascinated me. It was Elvis Presley and it was amazing. My dad had all the classics. The Beatles, Stones, Who, Dylan. It was a treasure trove. How impactful do you think reading is on music and songwriting? I think it’s extremely impactful. Reading helps you collect the words you need to be a good songwriter. I still look up words I read in books I don’t understand and learn their meaning. What inspired you to write a book, and why did you decide to write a book about a band? I was inspired by boredom. I was on the road with my band, Officer Kicks, and I didn’t want to drink all day or watch TV so I started writing. I wrote it about a band because it’s what I know. Are there any events in the books that are based on real life, and

Twelve hours, two boys, one girl . . . and a whole lot of hairspray. Seventeen-year-old Sunny's always been a little bit of a pushover. But when she's sent a picture of her boyfriend kissing another girl, she knows she's got to act. What follows is a mad, twelve-hour dash around London - starting at 8pm in Crystal Palace (so far away from civilisation you can't even get the Tube there) then sweeping through Camden, Shoreditch, Soho, Kensington, Notting Hill . . . and ending up at 8am in Alexandra Palace. Along the way Sunny meets a whole host of characters she never dreamed she'd have anything in common with - least of all the devilishly handsome (and somewhat vain) French 'twins' (they're really cousins) Jean Luc and Vic. But as this love-letter to London shows, a city is only a sum of its parts, and really it's the people living there who make up its life and soul. And, as Sunny discovers, everyone - from friends, apparent-enemies,

Sixteen-year-old Solomon is agoraphobic. He hasn’t left the house in three years, which is fine by him. Ambitious Lisa desperately wants to get into the second-best psychology program for college (she’s being realistic). But how can she prove she deserves a spot there? Solomon is the answer. Determined to “fix” Sol, Lisa thrusts herself into his life, introducing him to her charming boyfriend Clark and confiding her fears in him. Soon, all three teens are far closer than they thought they’d be, and when their facades fall down, their friendships threaten to collapse, as well.  A hilarious and heartwarming coming-of-age perfect for readers of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and All The Bright Places , Highly Illogical Behavior showcases the different ways in which we hide ourselves from the world—and the ways in which love, tragedy, and the need for connection may be the only things to bring us back into the light. My thoughts

June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one – and a secret one. She is trapped like a butterfly in a net. But then June meets Blister, a boy in the woods. In him she recognises the tiniest glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away from her home and be free. Because every creature in this world deserves their freedom . . . But at what price? My thoughts This book made my heart ache. It's dark and chilling and one that will stay with you long after reading it. There were a lot of scenes which felt like a car crash in that I didn't want to look but needed to in equal measure as I needed to know what was happening but also sat and squirmed at the awfulness that June suffered. It said a lot about how no one really knows what goes on in other people's houses and the extent to which some young people suffer at the hands of tho

We are now almost half way through the British Books Challenge for 2016. How did that happen? Firstly the winner of a copy of Paige Toon's The One we fell in love with is Tine from Novel Meals. Please email me Tina with your address and I'll get it sent out. This Month I will be giving away a copy of a book published in June which I thought was awesome. That book is London Belongs to Us by Sarra Manning. I'll get it sent from Book Depo or Amazon or Waterstones depending on which one is cheapest on the day