This Week In Books (September 7th 2016)

This Week In Books is a weekly update on what you’ve been reading hosted by Lipsyy Lost & Found . A similar meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

∧ Then ∧ The Dream Thieves, Maggie Stiefvater

If you could steal things from dreams, what would you take?

Ronan Lynch has secrets. Some he keeps from others. Some he keeps from himself.

One secret: Ronan can bring things out of his dreams.

And sometimes he’s not the only one who wants those things.

Ronan is one of the raven boys—a group of friends, practically brothers, searching for a dead king named Glendower, who they think is hidden somewhere in the hills by their elite private school, Aglionby Academy. The path to Glendower has long lived as an undercurrent beneath town. But now, like Ronan’s secrets, it is beginning to rise to the surface—changing everything in its wake.

I expected so much from this book. Too much maybe. When I finally finished it, I remembered Claire’s review and realized I completely agreed with her. I was not sure I wanted to review it so I decided to make it a Lazy Saturday post. You will find it on the blog this weekend. Until then, I’ll drown my sorrow in Rum and chocolate.

≈ Now ≈ My Grandfather’s Eyes, B.A Spicer /
The News Media: What Everyone Needs To Know, C.W. Anderson, Leonard Downie Jr., Michael Schudson

Alex Crane is not a nice woman. But she understands what it is to be set apart from other people, and she knows the pain of unrequited love.

Inside a small cupboard at the top of the stairs during a Christmas game of hide and seek, five-year-old Alex Crane listens to her cousins as they dance downstairs chanting, ‘Poo face! Poo face!’ She raises a small hand and covers her moles, glowing with shame and confusion. She does not want them to find her. Already reeling from the loss of her beloved grandfather, the cousins’ careless words cut deep. But there is worse to come, and Alex discovers that there are very few people in the world whom she can trust. Years later, self-assured but emotionally disaffected, Alex marries, knowing that the only person she cares for is her closest friend, Lizzy. Trapped and with diminishing hope, Alex almost gives in to Richard’s suffocating devotion. However, the discovery of a family mystery takes her over. She pieces together clues and delves deeper into the past, recalling scenes from her childhood which mask a devastating truth. The cupboard at the top of the stairs cannot hold Alex forever.

I am 50% in and really enjoying the writing. I find exploring the main character’s memories and life absolutely riveting. For once, I don’t mind the slow pace.

The business of journalism has an extensive, storied, and often romanticized history. Newspaper reporting has long shaped the way that we see the world, played key roles in exposing scandals, and has even been alleged to influence international policy. The past several years have seen the newspaper industry in a state of crisis, with Twitter and Facebook ushering in the rise of citizen journalism and a deprofessionalization of the industry, plummeting readership and revenue, and municipal and regional papers shuttering or being absorbed into corporate behemoths. Now billionaires, most with no journalism experience but lots of power and strong views, are stepping in to purchase newspapers, both large and small.

This addition to the What Everyone Needs to Know® series looks at the past, present and future of journalism, considering how the development of the industry has shaped the present and how we can expect the future to roll out. It addresses a wide range of questions, from whether objectivity was only a conceit of late twentieth century reporting, largely behind us now; how digital technology has disrupted journalism; whether newspapers are already dead to the role of non-profit journalism; the meaning of “transparency” in reporting; the way that private interests and governments have created their own advocacy journalism; whether social media is changing journalism; the new social rules of old media outlets; how franchised media is addressing the problem of disappearing local papers; and the rise of citizen journalism and hacker journalism. It will even look at the ways in which new technologies potentially threaten to replace journalists.

I could not help but request this book when I saw it on NetGalley. As a The Newsroom fan and an avid press reader, I had to jump on the opportunity to discover a new take on the subject of the media.

∨ Next ∨ Undertow, Elizabeth Heathcote

A heart-pounding psychological thriller for fans of Disclaimer and Apple Tree Yard.

My husband’s lover. They said her death was a tragic accident. And I believed them . . . until now.
Carmen is happily married to Tom, a successful London lawyer and divorcé with three children. She is content to absorb the stresses of being a stepmother to teenagers and the stain of ‘second wife’. She knows she’ll always live in the shadow of another woman – not Tom’s first wife Laura, who is resolutely polite and determinedly respectable, but the lover that ended his first marriage: Zena. Zena who was shockingly beautiful. Zena who drowned swimming late one night.

But Carmen can overlook her husband’s dead mistress . . . until she starts to suspect that he might have been the person who killed her.

I know what you’re thinking. A lawyer is involved, she must have picked this book because it says LAWYER on the blurb. But this time, it’s all about cover love. I was delighted to see it hid a story from my favorite genre.

Have you read any of these books? What is on your list this week?
Do share in the comments
Happy reading!