Oh I’m ready for the weekend, how about you? I don’t have big plans really but that’s the best part. I feel like there’s so much I could do. So much potential for fun and adventure but watch, I’ll be so tired from the heat I may just curl up with a book and stay indoors.

A few things I would like to do are:

• Spend some time browsing through NetGalley. How have I not checked this out fully before?!
• Would love to check out this scrapbooking store, Scrapology. I don’t scrapbook but love the papers for other projects.
• Catch up on the NPR Summer Books series. I always find a book or two to add to my list.
• Enjoy our new succulent garden. We only did a bit of landscaping on our front lawn but it’s so pretty. Maybe next year we’ll do more.
• And, go to the bookstore of course.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Normally I’d be telling about all the books I’m currently reading but as I mentioned recently I’m sort of sticking to one book at a time for now. My energy seems a bit scattered as I have lots of work and other things going on so focusing on one book keeps me engaged and into the story.

So what am I reading? The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino which has been a Japanese bestseller and I believe it’s now also a movie?

The story centers on Yasuko Hanaoka, a divorced single mother, who has finally escaped her abusive ex-husband. She has a respectable job, lives in a nice apartment building and seems to be making a good life for herself until her Ex is back in the picture.

He wants money and Yasuko knows she’ll never see the end of him but their meeting turns violent and now he is dead and Yasuko doesn’t think she has any options left but her next door neighbor comes to her rescue.

How will her neighbor, Ishigami a brilliant math teacher, be able to conceal what happened and thwart a knowledgable police detective. That is what is become the real mystery and so far it’s very good. I should go to sleep early tonight because I know tomorrow I have a busy day at work but I get the feeling I’ll be wanting to read just one more chapter. You know how that is.

What about you, what book is keeping you up past your bedtime?

I had a couple of book boxes and packages show up recently and I’m very excited to share my new books with you. Here’s what I can’t wait to start:

• Painted Pages by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare. This is for crafty inspiration. I had a chance to look through it at the bookstore recently and I had to have it.
• Faithful Place by Tana French. Loved her two other books and although I wasn’t thrilled to hear who the main character is in this book I still think it’ll be a great read.
• This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park. This literary drama is set in South Korea in the 1960s and centers on Soo-Ja Choi, an ambitious young woman who finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage.
• Lagan Love by Peter Murphy. A young painter from Toronto goes to Ireland to seek passion in her life and her art.
• The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley. I keep hearing how I must read something by this author and Sourcebooks very graciously sent me an ARC of her upcoming new book. Yay.
• In A Treacherous Court by Michelle Diener. Another ARC from Sourcebooks and this one is about an artist sent from Belgium to be Henry VIII’s personal illuminator inside the royal palace. I love a good historical and who can resist the Tudors.

I also got some new books from NetGalley but I’ll tell you about those later. I can’t wait to check out all of these. How about you, got a new book you are excited about?