Welcome to this week’s news, reviews, and ‘all-things-books’ latest from the team at Waterstone’s Ballymena!
THIS WEEK’S TOP 10…
1. It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover
2. Where The Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
3. A Fatal Crossing - Tom Hindle
4. The Accomplice - Steve Cavanagh
5. A Slow Fire Burning - Paula Hawkins
6. The Spanish Love Deception - Elena Armas
7. The Paper Palace - Miranda Cowley Heller
8. April In Spain - John Banville
9. Revenge - Tom Bower
10. The Twyford Code - Janice Hallett
TWO BOOKS WE THINK YOU WOULD ENJOY READING THIS WEEK…
How To Live When You Could Be Dead - Deborah James
The journalist and podcast host tells her inspirational and courageous story of living with incurable bowel cancer and how developing a positive mindset was key to enabling her to cope with her diagnosis.
“I'm alive when I should be dead. In another movie, I missed the sliding door and departed this wondrous life long ago. Like so many others, I've had to learn to live not knowing if I have a tomorrow, because, statistically, I shouldn't have. At the age of 35, I was blindsided by incurable bowel cancer - I was given a less than 8% chance of surviving five years. More than five years later, my only option is to live in the now and to value one day at a time.”
So how do you flip your mind from a negative spiral into realistic and rebellious hope? How do you stop focusing on the why and realise that 'why not me' is just as valid a question? How we learn to respond to any given situation empowers us or destroys us. We have the ability in our minds to dictate our own outcomes - bad or good - and with the right skills and approach, we can be the master of our lives.
How to Live When You Could Be Dead will show you how. It will awaken you to question your life as if you didn't have a tomorrow and live it in the way you want to today. It will show you how to build a positive mindset and, through this, invite you to think about what you could do if you believed you could do anything you want.
The Family Remains - Lisa Jewell
The nerve-shredding sequel to the bestselling The Family Upstairs finds a bag of human bones linked back to the Chelsea mansion where a chilling crime was committed many years previously.
Loved The Family Upstairs? Find out what happened next...
London. Early morning, June 2019: on the foreshore of the river Thames, a bag of bones is discovered. Human bones. DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene and quickly sends the bag for forensic examination. The bones are those of a young woman, killed by a blow to the head many years ago.
Also inside the bag is a trail of clues, in particular the seeds of a rare tree which lead DCI Owusu back to a mansion in Chelsea where, nearly thirty years previously, three people lay dead in a kitchen, and a baby waited upstairs for someone to pick her up.
The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts. Four deaths. An unsolved mystery. A family whose secrets can't stay buried for ever...
BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR BEING PUBLISHED THIS WEEK…
The Black Dog - Kevin Bridges
THE BLACK DOG is the exciting debut novel from one of Britain's most-loved comedians, Kevin Bridges
Declan dreams of becoming a writer. It's a dream that helps him escape the realities of his life - going through the motions at college and stacking supermarket shelves part-time, whilst fighting a battle with the ever-darkening thoughts in his head.
He has his pet Labrador for companionship and his best friend-turned-mentor, a pseudo-intellectual who works as a greenskeeper at the local municipal golf course, both of which help keep the worst of his anxieties at bay. But following a drunken row with local gangsters, Declan's worries threaten to spiral out of control.
Genesis - Chris Carter
Robert Hunter is called to the most vicious crime scene he has ever attended. It is made even more disturbing when the autopsy reveals a poem, left by the killer, inside the body of their victim. Soon, another body is found. The methods and signature of the murder differs, but the level of violence used suggests that the same person is behind both crimes.
Hunter’s fears are confirmed when a second part of the poem is found.But this discovery does more than just link the two killings – it suggests that this is the work of a serial murderer.
With no forensic evidence to go on, Robert Hunter must catch the most disciplined and systematic killer that he has ever encountered, someone who thrives on the victims' fear, and to whom death is a lesson that needs to be taught.
1989 - Val McDermid
There's nothing like a killer story . . .
1989. The world is changing, and Allie Burns is still on the front line, covering the stories that count.
Although Allie is no longer an investigative journalist, her instincts are sharper than ever. When she discovers a lead about the exploitation of society's most vulnerable, Allie is determined to give a voice to those who have been silenced.
As Allie edges closer to exposing the truth, she travels behind the Iron Curtain, to East Berlin on the brink of revolution. The dark heart of the story is more shocking than she ever imagined. And to tell it, Allie must risk her freedom and her life…
The latest Allie Burns thriller, set a decade after the bestselling first novel in the ground-breaking, iconic new series.
SATURDAY STORYTIME…
This week our story time will be on Saturday 20 August at 12 noon, everyone is welcome! We will be reading There’s A Bear In Your Book by Tom Fletcher.
The latest cuddly addition in Tom Fletcher’s delightful interactive Who’s In Your Book? series helps little ones to wander off to the land of nod through the adorable story of a sleepy bear’s bedtime routine.
A brand new 'Who's in Your Book?' story from bestselling children's book author Tom Fletcher.OH, LOOK! A bear has wandered into your book! And - what's that noise? He's yawning! He looks like he's ready for bed. Can you help him drift off to sleep?
This warm, gentle adventure combines interactive fun with a night-time routine to help little ones wind down before they go to bed.