Harrogate Crime Festival

I love a good crime novel as you know! So imagine my excitement to be asked to attend the Harrogate Crime Festival on the opening night when the announce the winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award . Here is the long list (short list to be announced on July1st):

· In the Dark by Mark Billingham
· If It Bleeds by Duncan Campbell
· The Surrogate by Tania Carver
· The Business by Martina Cole
· A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
· Until It’s Over by Nicci French
· The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
· Cold in Hand by John Harvey
· Skin by Mo Hayder
· Vows of Silence by Susan Hill
· The Dying Breed by Declan Hughes
· Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
· Target by Simon Kernick
· A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
· Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
· Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell
· Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay
· Doors Open by Ian Rankin
· All The Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson
· Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Some of my favourite crime authors are in that list so I am so excited that I will get to meet some of them on the night. I am a HUGE fan of Val McDermid and I love Peter Robinson, Nicci French and R J Ellory among others.

This year’s festival chair is the author Stuart MacBride (who I have yet to read but I have just swapped one of his books on readitswapit) and I will get to interview him about how the festival was put together! *does happy jig*

I will be blogging about this event in the run up to and after the festival and tweeting about the winner during the award ceremony too so keep watching for updates.

New blog’s I’ve discovered

I’ve been having a good ole laugh courtesy of some newly discovered blogs this week! You must check these out!

This one is hillarious. Dead White Guys is written by a very funny lady who also slightly scares me! Read her “About Me” page; it’s a treat.

She reads books by, funnily enough, dead white guys (think Dickens et al) and also the odd dead white woman (oh, and a dead brown woman too). This blog is too funny to miss.

The next one also cracks me up. Awful Lirbary Books is written by two, erm,  librarians who post about funny and outdated books, including one called “How to Get a Teenage Boy and What To Do With Him When You Get Him” which includes a step-by-step stalking strategy.  I’m kinda hoping that the book was aimed at teenage girls rather than ladies of a certain age, but the chick on the front worries me somewhat.

And finally, Books I Done Read, writes the funniest reviews (particularly about books she doesn’t like).

My book buying addiction

I would like to proudly report that it has now been a whole 10 days since I have bought a single book! No, I’m not an imposter – I really am the real Book Whisperer – but I have managed to keep my disease under control for a whole 13 days and counting. Are you impressed? (OK, so I did receive 6 review copies this week and won  some and swapped one too which has fed some of my addiction – they all look so lovely too!) but seeing as I am now on a roll I am going to see how long I can keep up this book-buying-ban (swaps and review copies not included – come on; a girl’s gotta have some fun!)

Here’s what I received in the post this week:

The Radleys – Matt Haigh

Kraken – China Mieville

White Woman on a Green Bicycle by

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

Ripley Under Water – Patricia Highsmith

The Fan Tan Players – Julian Lee

Our Promised Land – Michael T Darkow

Stone in a Landslide – Maria Barbal

Beside the Sea – Veronique Olmi

Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley – Patricia Marnham

Happy, happy, happy