Next up on my TBR…

Because I am always curious to see what people have got on their ‘to be read’ next pile, these are the five books I’ve currently got on my bedside ready to be picked up. The quotes are all the first few lines of the book, to give you a little teaser.

Magpie, by Elizabeth Day

The house was perfect. Well, not perfect exactly, because houses never are, but at least the imperfections were liveable with. The flooring which had clearly been bought in bulk by the developer, was a shade too light, the wood-laminate a touch too smooth to pass for real. The plantation shutters were plastic and layered with thin spores of dust.

Magpie

I’ll admit this this opener doesn’t immediately draw me in but any book that is described as ‘completely, terrifyingly brilliant’ according to Marian Keyes, is probably definitely worth reading. Jake and Marisa open up their home to lodger, Kate, before too long, however, Marisa starts to question Kate’s motives for being there. The Guardian described it as “domestic noir with a twist.” Ooooohhh…

Learwife, by JR Thorp

The word has come that he is dead, now, and the girls. And that it is finished.

Today they will ring the bells. The priest will say four masses, for their souls. The autumn light is fragile and my veil is thick, and I must descend. To light the candles. This is just and Christian, and I am afraid.

Learwife

Inspired by King Lear, this is the story “of the most famous woman written out of literary history”: his wife. Having recently read Ariadne, and previously The Silence of the Girls, I am enjoying the re-telling of stories from a female perspective, and just from the opening of this novel, I can already tell that I am going to be swept away by the voice of it. Waterstones describes it as a “breath-taking novel of loss, renewal and how history bleeds into the present.”

Dead Relatives and other stories, by Lucie McKnight Hardy

The Ladies are coming today and Cook is beside herself with worry.

‘I’m beside myself with worry, Iris,’ she says, and the blade strips the darkness from the back of my eyes. ‘Do not just sit there, Iris,’ she says, turning the corpse over on the wooden board, spreading the legs just so. ‘Go find your mammy and ask her what jobs there are for you to do.’ She drops the knife and her hand goes out for the cleaver.

Dead Relatives

This is said to be a ‘”no-holds-barred” short story collection “not for the faint-hearted” (I am very faint of heart and so already scared, but excited to be so). The blurb explains that the stories explore themes of motherhood and the fragile body, family dynamics and unusual traditions. I look forward to being terrified reading this in bed on these cold, dark November nights.

The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes

Listen. Three miles deep in the forest just below Arnott’s Ridge, and you’re in silence so dense it’s like you’re wading through it. There’s no birdsong past dawn, not even in high summer, and especially not now, with the chill air so thick with moisture that it stills those few leaves clinging gamely to the branches.

The Giver of Stars

A friend lent me this book ages ago with the recommendation that it was an excellent read and I have to return it soon and so it is on the pile, ready to go. I haven’t read anything by Jojo Moyes before, but the sound of this novel has me intrigued. Set in 1937, Alice moves from England to Kentucky after she marries a man called Bennett Van Cleve. Here, she joins the ‘Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky’ who take books to the isolated and vulnerable of the wilderness. However, Alice’s father-in-law begins to turn the town against them and they must now overcome all kinds of danger in order to continue with their mission of bringing books to those who need them. Apparently this is based on a true story and sounds epic in terms of setting and adventure.

Hostage, by Clare Mackintosh

‘Stop that, you’ll fall.’

A week’s worth of snow has pressed itself into ice, each day’s danger hidden beneath a night-time dusting of powder. Every few yards my boots travel further than my feet intended, and my stomach pitches, braced for a fall.

Hostage

Long-time readers of Luggage & Scribble will know that I love a good twisty thriller, I always try to guess what is coming and rarely am I right. Clare writes really good books and I am looking forward to getting into this one. The book is set over the course of a flight from London to Sydney where “someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination” and one of the hostesses, Mina, is being blackmailed into cooperation.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?