January Physical Book Haul 2021

Is it good or bad that I brought 2 books into my home this month? On the one hand, it’s only two books! On the other? I’m supposed to be getting through my tbr shelves, not adding to them!! I couldn’t resist these books though, I found them in the selection of free books at work and given that I moved to working from home in the middle of January (thank god) I needed to grab these and take them with me when I shifted home!

First up is Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I’ve only ever read The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Atwood so I would like to branch out to some of her other works. This seems to be a fictionalised account of a real life tale, following a woman who is believed to have committed murder, but the reality may be more complicated than that. A historical fiction set in Canada, I’m really interested in seeing how Atwood takes this story and interweaves truth and fiction, as well as how this stacks up against the facts that we know about the case.

Secondly is No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald. This is a non-fiction work, written by the journalist who published Edward Snowden’s reports gleaned from classified documents. This book starts with Snowden and Greenwald first communicating, it talks about the NSA, and it examines the far reaches of the US government’s surveillance programme, far outside the boundaries of its borders. Whilst I’m not an American, Snowden’s reports were still widely reported in the UK and I didn’t follow them too closely at the time. A mixture of my change in interests and being busy with education. But I’m definitely interested in reading about this now and fingers crossed the book will be interesting!

And those are the two books I grabbed from the pile! There were many more books there but most weren’t the sort I would enjoy and I was trying to not be stupid with the books I was taking! Have you heard of or read either of these? Let me know what you think of them! And let me know which books you brought into your life in January!

After Anna by Alex Lake, a review

This thriller screwed my head up, big time! I only read it as my aunt donated her copy to me, and I’m genuinely so glad that she did! So, let’s get into my specific thoughts on this mind-f*ckery.

In this book, our main character is a mother, and her daughter is abducted. This isn’t a spoiler, this is in the synopsis! Another “plot twist” that you already know from the synopsis is that she is returned after one week, and that’s when the trouble occurs. This is a running feature throughout this book, you’ll know exactly what is going to happen but you still can’t stop reading. I guessed almost immediately into the second half of the book (once Anna, her daughter, has been returned) who it was who had taken Anna and at least part of the reason why. I was still hooked.

The writing of this book is so encapturing and engaging that knowing what is going to come up is of no concern, as you just want to know how Lake is going to describe it and the specifics of the event! I’m so surprised that I’ve not heard this book mentioned by other people on BookTube (that I know read thrillers) as I personally found it to be a great book and I definitely want to pick up more from Alex Lake. I 100% recommend having a look at this book and giving it a try! I finished it, phoned up the aunt that gave it to me as I threw the book across the room and asked her why the f*ck she got me to read this – exactly what you want from a thriller book!!!