12 Tuesday Dec 2017
Eleanor Oliphant taught herself how to survive – but she doesn’t know how to live. This unsettling story shows an extraordinary young woman locked in a way of life that provides the only sort of security she knows.
It’s a life of absolute routine: wearing the same clothes every day, eating the same meal deal at lunchtimes, and drinking two bottles of vodka every weekend. Continue reading
27 Monday Nov 2017
Posted in Reviews
Books featuring children don’t feature highly on The Novels I Have Read list, and books featuring children coping with grief are similarly low on my To Be Read pile.
So it was a surprise to enjoy two books which both have young girls as their central character and grief as the main premise.
And if it seems odd to enjoy books about grief, let me add that although there were moments of touching sadness in both novels, there was also wisdom and humour. It seems there is much to be learned about grief, love and life – by adults as well as by children. Continue reading
16 Thursday Nov 2017
Posted in Viewpoint
I’ve a new respect for people who take part in televised events. Sitting on the sofa at home watching the box, it all looks so easy: participants chat happily, respond calmly to comments and answer questions.
But let me tell you – when you’re in the sights of a studio camera, complete with hot lights and an audience, it’s nerve-racking.
And the worst of it is deciding what to wear. Continue reading
16 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in Viewpoint
Have you ever been described as ‘depressing, judgmental and ignorant’ and then been accused of being a dummy?
Well, actually, you might have. If you saw one of the glossy magazines that came with a particular Sunday newspaper yesterday, you could have looked at the so-called fashion spread where a coat costing nearly £3,000 was featured with matching £1,000 trousers (mentioned but invisible as they’d been cropped out of the photo), and asked: ‘Who spends that kind of money on clothes?’ Continue reading
05 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted in News
We’re delighted to be the first novelists to appear at a new event launched by Burley-in-Wharfedale Library.
It’s Meet the Author – although, of course, it will be ‘authors’ plural in our case – and we’d be really pleased if any of our Northern Facebook and Twitter friends and followers could come and join us. Continue reading
07 Thursday Sep 2017
Posted in Reviews
I’m pleased to be reviewing the latest AJ Waines psychological thriller, Lost in the Lake, which is released today.
I first read Waines’ Girl on a Train, which I by far preferred to that other much-hyped book of a similar title, so I was delighted to be sent a proof copy of this new chiller thriller, the second book in the Dr Samantha Willerby series.
01 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in Viewpoint
How should authors interact when they are taking part in book events? Should they stay quietly at their tables, behind piles of their recently published novel?
Should they concentrate on a book they’re reading and avoid looking up?
Or should they leap forward whenever anyone comes near and start doing a major sales pitch?
It’s an interesting dilemma and something considered by freelance copy editor, Emma Mitchell, who wrote a blog on her website asking: ‘Do we expect too much of authors?’ Continue reading
25 Tuesday Jul 2017
We’re often invited to take part in and contribute to other writer’s websites and we’re always delighted to be interviewed, asked to talk about books or write about writing.
So it was great to be invited by blogger and reviewer Jo Barton to take part in her Close to Home feature.
Sue appeared on the spot earlier this year and my turn came this week when I was able to write about living and working in the North – particularly Yorkshire.
There’s so much to say about this part of the world and I could have written a book about everything on offer here, but I managed to edit myself – and you can read the result here:
http://jaffareadstoo.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/close-to-homesusan-pape.html
Jo’s been blogging for six years and supports writers in a number of ways, including writing book reviews and running blog tours. Her overall aim is to promote books and reading – which we thoroughly approve of.
She says she’s usually found curled up with a book – with Jaffa, the cat, close by. See what the two of them get up to here:
http://jaffareadstoo.blogspot.co.uk
13 Thursday Jul 2017
Posted in Blog Tours
Dare to look at the dramatic cover of A.J.Waines‘ latest book, which we reveal today: here it is …
…and get ready for a nail-biting ride.
Lost in the Lake:
Amateur viola player Rosie Chandler is the sole survivor of a crash which sends members of a string quartet plunging into a lake. Rosie’s convinced that the accident was deliberate – but she can’t remember what happened.
She seeks out clinical psychologist, Dr Samantha Willerby to help recover her lost memories.
But Rosie is hiding something…
Why is she so desperate to recover her worthless viola? And what happened to the violin lost in the crash – worth more than £2 million?
Sam begins to see the truth – but not until she’s seriously out of her depth.
This is the second book in the Dr Willerby series.
Pre-order on Amazon from today.
Release date: September 7.
About the author:
A.J.Waines has sold over 400,000 books worldwide and topped the UK and Australian Kindle Charts in 2015 and 2016 with her number one bestseller, Girl on a Train (yes, the other one!)
Her fourth psychological thriller, No Longer Safe, sold over 30,000 copies in the first month, in 13 countries.
Following 15 years as a psychotherapist, A.J.Waines (pictured) is now a full-time novelist. She lives in Hampshire with her husband.
Pre-Order on Amazon from 13 July 2017
Release date: 7 Sept 2017
UK (99p):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073W8X17W
US ($1.28):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073W8X17W
12 Friday May 2017
Posted in Read an extract
‘Dan had been commandeered by Stella Lastings (what was a History bod doing here?) I try to give Stella a wide berth, and not just because she is a size eighteen and needs wide-berthing.
I can’t understand how someone who teaches History is so caught up in the present, as in staff room goings-on.
There is no subject to do with anything or anyone in the university that she hasn’t got some take to add to the drama. If she can’t find any fresh gossip, she makes it up. She once started a rumour that Lee was having an affair with Mike Orme, our deputy dean, on the premise that the speed at which information flows accelerates in direct relation to the strength of the rumour i.e. the more likely a piece of gossip, the faster it would spread through the faculty.
And although nothing could be more unlikely than Lee having an affair with anyone, let alone someone who wears knitted tank tops, this particular rumour spread rapidly.
Meanwhile, Stella was doing her squirming act for Dan. She is pretty with silly blonde curls, and she squirms in a girlish way when talking to men as though she is an insecure six-year-old.
Having a visceral dislike for women like that, I couldn’t bear to watch. I know that’s judgmental of me, but why do girly women think squirmy/flirty is attractive?
Men apparently fall for it.’
