Hello...(tapping on screen). I was posting regularly for a while but have been hibernating with some miserable allergies as well as some healing from the dermatolgist cutting on me. Nothing like stitches on the face to make one feel pretty, lol. Results back show some precancer areas which can be handled by a precription cream. Yea for that.
Enough complaining. Let's talk about books. I can share two I have finished and a few reading plans.
Currently Reading / Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. This is a buddy read with Susan at The Cue Card. Just started part two and this is a good read, in my opinion.
I had been looking forward to another book by M.L. Stedman for well over a decade. I thought The Light Between Oceans was amazing, filled with love, grief and much emotion. (click on the title link for review on my old book blog, if interested).
This book hit me the same way. No one writes tragedy like Stedman, pulling you in with empathy and compassion for the characters as they navigate life with secrets and hardships. Set in the far-flung reaches of Australia on a sheep station, the McBride family had been farming, called pastoralists, for generations.
The beginning: Phil McBride is the father, driving his truck with his eldest son Warren and youngest Matt. The truck crashes, killing Phil and Warren almost instantly. Matt is flung through the window with grave injuries and has a long recuperation with a head injury which caused significant memory loss.
Everything changes then, for so many people. Lorna McBride loses Phil, her husband and love of her life. Matt didn't have the responsibility of inheriting the family business and had dreams of traveling as Warren would take over the station ...but Warren is dead. Rosie is the middle child and only daughter, helping run things best she can while also visiting Matt in rehab until he comes home.
Is that enough tragedy? Nope. Something unspeakable happens which will turn off some readers and they will quit the book (I saw that voiced in a few reviews) but if you do, you will miss out on a good story. One of my favorite characters is Pete Peachy, a roo hunter who works for the McBrides. He is a good man and I wanted to know more about him.
Great character development, lots of side stories, themes of compassion, love, guilt and duty. 5 stars. Well done.
Next up is Dog Days by Andrew Cotter.
This is a second book about the adorable labs Olive and Mabel in a diary type accounting told by Andrew Cotter. I will admit to loving his first book Olive, Mabel and Me more. That said, if you like following this trio, you'll be amused by this accounting of post Covid activities and appearances. Amazing how popular these canines are and the following they have on social media.
The first book had lots of background on the dogs, Cotter's experiences with mountain climbing and the lockdown from Covid. Also photos which were great. This second book does not compare. If you can get Dog Days from the library or on a good sale it would be worth it. If you have an interest in Olive and Mabel then grab this one pictured below.
Rounded up to 3 stars.
This is a nonfiction I could place under the memoirs category but I will add it to my Grazing Category. I've some other books in mind for memoirs for the 2026 Nonfiction Reading Challenge.
Up next in no particular order - Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, The Astral Library by Kate Quinn and Dear Missing Friend by Susan McGuirk.
Linking with:
Shelleyrae at Book'd Out for the 2026 Nonfiction Reading Challenge for the grazing category.
Joy for British Isles Friday for Scottish author Andrew Cotter
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