The Colour Collection: Yellow Edition

I’m always trying to think of ways to showcase some of the MANY books I have on my various bookshelves and two ram jam full book trollies, so when I noticed a few colours popping out at me recently I grasped that loose thread for blog content and didn’t let go!

I do think it’s nice though to have a little nosey through people’s bookshelves and I do have hundreds of books that I wouldn’t necessarily get to talk to you about unless I’ve read and reviewed them.

So today I’m bringing you my yellow books. A collection of six books (only one of which I’ve read) that maybe you’ve not seen before and might like to check out for yourself. So let’s crack on!

Keeper by Jessica Moor (Penguin Viking)

BLURB:

He’s been looking in the windows again. Messing with cameras. Leaving notes. 
Supposed to be a refuge. But death got inside.

When Katie Straw’s body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police decide it’s an open-and-shut case. A standard-issue female suicide. 

But the residents of Widringham women’s refuge where Katie worked don’t agree. They say it’s murder.

Will you listen to them?

I think the cover of this book is so eye catching! I’m not usually drawn to covers with real life people on them but I’ll definitely make an exception for this one. I do enjoy a good thriller every now and again to break up my usual reading taste of the dark and gothic. This one looks like an absolute corker and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things.

All About Sarah by Pauline Delabroy Allard (Harvill Secker)

BLURB:

It’s all about Sarah, her mysterious beauty, Sarah the impetuous, Sarah the passionate, Sarah the sulphurous, it’s all about the exact moment when the match flares, the exact moment when that piece of wood becomes fire, when the spark lights up the darkness.

A thirty-something teacher drifts through her life in Paris, raising a daughter on her own, lonely in spite of a new boyfriend. Then one night, at a friend’s tepid New Year’s Eve party, Sarah enters the scene like a tornado. A talented young violinist, she is loud, vivacious, appealingly unkempt in a world where everyone seems preoccupied with being ‘just so’. It is the beginning of an intense relationship, tender and violent, that will upend both women’s lives.

This is a very recent purchase after I heard Jen Campbell talking about it on Booktube during one of her haul videos. The synopsis gives me vibes of Pages For You and Pages For Her both by Sylvia Brownrigg which I enjoyed. It’s a short book at only 165 pages but I think it could be quite an intense read.

Tin Man by Sarah Winman (Tinder Press)

BLURB:

It begins with a painting won in a raffle: fifteen sunflowers, hung on the wall by a woman who believes that men and boys are capable of beautiful things.

And then there are two boys, Ellis and Michael,
who are inseparable.
And the boys become men,
and then Annie walks into their lives,
and it changes nothing and everything.

Ahhhh this book holds so many memories. I read it a couple of years ago and loved it even though it broke my heart. I loved it so much that I told my husband that he should read it too. Now….he’s not a reader. He reads maybe one or two books a year BUT he took this with him one afternoon when we took our kids to soft play and he devoured it with tears in his eyes. At one point he had to put it down on the table and still reading because it was ‘too much’. I was sitting there all smug thinking ‘ah ha! Gotcha!’ It’s a short but brilliant book that packs the hugest of punches. I would definitely recommend it (but grab some Kleenex!).

The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Headline Review)

BLURB:

You do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.

July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July’s mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides – far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.

Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves.

I love Andrea Levy’s writing and thoroughly enjoyed Small Island and Every Light In The House Burnin’ both ate brilliant books. I picked up The Long Song from a secondhand book shop and didn’t really read the blurb, I just saw Andrea Levy’s name and knew I’d be in safe hands. I’ll update you more when I’ve read it!

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson (Two Roads)

BLURB:

In 1627 Barbary pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted 250 of its people from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards.

In this brilliant reimagining, Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Ásta, the pastor’s wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Ásta meets the loss of both her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home: the stories in her head.

I recently read The Ninth Child by Sally Magnusson and my review is here (spoiler I LOVED it!).

I won a copy of The Sealwoman’s Gift a good while ago now on a Twitter Giveaway I had however had my eye on the book for a while so was thrilled to win a copy. I really must get around to reading it soon now that I know how great a writer Sally Magnusson is!

The Farm by Joanne Ramos (Bloomsbury)

BLURB:

Life is a lucrative business, as long as you play by the rules.

Ambitious businesswoman Mae Yu runs Golden Oaks – a luxury retreat transforming the fertility industry. There, women get the very best of everything: organic meals, fitness trainers, daily massages and big money. Provided they dedicate themselves to producing the perfect baby. For someone else. 

Jane is a young immigrant in search of a better future. Stuck living in a cramped dorm with her baby daughter and her shrewd aunt Ate, she sees an unmissable chance to change her life. But at what cost?

I was kindly sent a copy of the upcoming paperback release of The Farm which I’d had my eye on for a while. I recently saw Lauren from Lauren And The Books talking about how much she enjoyed this book over on Booktube and I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. I think it sounds like an absolutely fascinating premise.

So there we have it! Have you read any of these books? What were your thoughts?

I’ll be back soon with another colour collection….I’m sitting here eyeing up the oranges already…..

See you all soon and stay safe!

Amanda – Bookish Chat xxx

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