What’s new on my bedside table . . .

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Yay!!!! Only three new ARCs arrived in my inbox this week! Excuse me while I do a little dance . . .

My first new title is a publisher’s widget – The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. I see this isn’t getting great reviews, but I have enjoyed everything else I have read by her, so we’ll see . . . It certainly sounds enticing!

Midsummer, the Dorset coast

In the shadows of an ancient wood, guests gather for the opening weekend of The Manor: a beautiful new countryside retreat.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. And the candles have barely been lit for a solstice supper when the body is found.

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at…

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST

I have read so many amazing reviews about Goyhood by new-to-me author Rueven Fenton that I just couldn’t resist requesting it.

When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he’d left his wasted youth behind. Now he’s a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world – a dirt poor country boy reinvented in the image of God.

But his mother’s untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne’er-do-well twin brother David aren’t, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer’s only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim?

So begins the Belkins’ Rumspringa through America’s Deep South with Mom’s ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.

And to round out this weeks books is the latest in the Josie ‘nosey’ Parker cosy mystery series by Fiona Leitch – The Cornish Campsite Murder.

Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is back in 2024 with a brand new Cornish mystery to unravel…

Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area with revellers young and old. Former Met police officer Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers.

As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn’t bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band.

But when the body of one of the band members is found dead not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain…

I still have 22 pending requests, 2 past publication date but which are not archived until some time later in May.

I have 515 books on my NetGalley shelf, one less than last week. Hey, I’ll take it. It’s a gain, or a loss, however you want to look at it! At least it makes my 72% feedback ratio a little more secure . . .

Goodreads group, All About Books is having another readathon starting at 12.01 am Friday 26 April and finishing at 11.59 p.m. Sunday 28 April for which I have signed up.

I have completed 8/9 books and all four books by Australian authors for my Aussie Readers April challenge. I will read the 9th and remaining book after I have finished my current read. I will easily complete this challenge before the end of the month.

I have just signed up for the May Aussie Reader’s challenge. The featured author is Sophie Green.

I have read 7/14 books for the Autumn Aussie Readers challenge, so I am right on target!

I have completed my first task of 24 for the World Book Day Challenge which I need to complete before 23 April 2025.

When I was at the library recently, our librarian introduced me to Beanstack an online reading library-based reading challenge but I didn’t get around to signing up for it until yesterday. There is a timer where you can log your reading minutes, Book bingo on which I have this morning completed my first square, and a place to publish your reviews. There are several other features that I haven’t yet had time to explore but will do as soon as possible.

My annual goals I am just going to update at the end of each month, and as it is the last Wednesday of the month, here goes –

I have read 87 of my goal of 225 books for my 2024 Goodreads Reading challenge- 18 books ahead of schedule; and 64 of my goal of 150 NetGalley titles. I can always increase my goals later in the year.

I have read 13 of my goal of 20 Backlist titles for 2024. These titles must have been on my shelf for longer than 12 months to qualify.

I have read 22 of my 24 book goal for my 2024 library love challenge, so I may need to reset that goal too.

I selected the My Precious (I had my earbuds surgically implanted) level of 30+ audiobooks for 2024. I have so far listened to 19/30.

Another few days and we’ll be 1/3 of the way through the year!

Dustin and Luke fly back from Perth Thursday night – that week has gone by fast! Luke loved the reptile park so much that they made a return visit yesterday and Luke got to feed a snake! He was so excited. He keeps messaging me telling me what he’s doing. He’ll be spending time with his Australian grandad for the last two days of his visit which will be nice for both of them.

I have a busy morning ahead. I need to tidy up my office desk as I have mislaid two vital bits of paper. My friend Annette is staying tonight after we get back from seeing Dragon in concert so I need to make up a bed for her. Pete’s dinner is simmering away in the crockpot, but I need to get some food in for the weekend, do laundry, and sort out what I am wearing tonight. The day is going to be beautiful, but not that warm. It will be hot inside the event centre but cold outside. What to wear???? Boots, definitely. I hate to have cold feet!

Have a wonderful week, and read on!