It's Monday

It's Monday! has been in repeat mode for the past few week as I've slowly, sadly read Vera Brittain's memoir of her WW1 experiences in The Testament of Youth.

But this week will see it draw to a close. It has been such an emotional read and so consuming that I'm struggling to see what book might fill its place.

During the past few weeks, I have also knocked over a few quick, easy teen reads for light relief, so I don't need more of that. (Although there was nothing easy or light about The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick - see review below).

How do you solve the dilemma of what to read next?

This time, this book, this 'what next' I will resort to a well-known phrase from the Monty Python gang "and now for something completely different!"

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

An extraordinary new novel from the author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning  

The Remains of the Day.

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. 

There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."

The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope 

of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a 

decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

I also hope to get to Stella longlisted author Ellen van Neerven's debut novel, Heat and Light.

 

Winner of the 2013 David Unaipon Award

In this award-winning work of fiction, Ellen van Neerven takes her readers on a journey that is 
mythical, mystical and still achingly real.

Over three parts, she takes traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. 
In ‘Heat’, we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl. 
In ‘Water’, a futuristic world is imagined and the fate of a people threatened. 
In ‘Light’, familial ties are challenged and characters are caught between a desire for freedom 
and a sense of belonging.

Heat and Light presents an intriguing collection while heralding the arrival of an exciting 
new talent in Australian writing.

What will you be reading this week?

How do you decide what to read next?

(Apologies to those of you who use intensedebate comments. I've tried everything to create an account/log in, but I simply cannot leave comments on your blogs.)