Tuesday Reviews Day - Books

Hello fellow bookworms!

I'm happy to report that my daily reading continues at a fairly fast pace.

As I don't get out on big adventures myself, I am obsessed with living them vicariously through others. One of my many interests are canal boats...I've never been on one but I love the idea of living in one and travelling the canal systems. I even follow a few canal boaters on YouTube. I watch documentaries on rock climbers, mountain climbers, extreme snow-boarders, and people who are on personal adventures in foreign lands.

So it stands to reason that I enjoy books like that too which brings me to the first review for today....

The Journey In Between by Keith Foskett

Keith, aka Fozzie, takes us with him as he walks the El Camino De Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. It is an ancient path that leads through French and Spanish countryside. Hundreds of people travel this path each year and it is said to be a soul enlightening journey.  The people who do the walk are referred to as Pilgrims and they are given a special certificate at the end. Keith's walk/hike will cover 1600 miles.

If you're into real life, adventure stories that include the good, the bad, and the ugly, it is worth the read. I enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars. I already have another book by Keith in my Kindle library where he hikes The Pacific Crest Trail.

I also have two other books by artists I follow online. Each walked the El Camino De Santiago — at different times — and I may do reviews on those at a later date.  On Netflix, there is a documentary titled Footprints, the Path of Your Life which covers the journey of a group of strangers coming together to walk the Camino. I quite enjoyed that.

***************************************

Next up are a few books by an author who is new to me - Darcy Coates. She writes horror and suspense novels and I really like her writing style. Not too heavy and keeps you in suspense.

I just finished Hunted which starts out with the disappearance of a young female hiker in Ashlough Forest.  Fed up waiting on the police to do something about the disappearance, her brother and three friends set off in search for her. As they get further along the trail that they believe she took, it becomes very clear that something very sinister is at play in the forest. Will they make it out alive? 
I gave this one 5 stars. I didn't want to put it down.

The Folcroft Ghosts starts out with siblings, Tara and Kyle, having to go and stay with their estranged grandparents after their mother is involved in a serious accident. Their grandparents seem lovely enough but strange and unexplained things start to happen and Tara and Kyle find themselves in serious danger. Can their grandparents be trusted?
I gave this one 4 stars.

The House Next Door is told from a first person perspective.
Jo lives next door to a haunted house — Marwick House. She has seen quite a few people move in but they never stay long...some leave in a frantic panic in the middle of the night. Then Anna moves into the house and she and Jo strike up a friendship. Jo feels the need to watch over and protect Anna from the unfriendly ghosts that reside there. Can Jo save Anna or is her own life in danger too?
I gave this one 4 stars.

I will definitely be reading more books by Darcy Coates!

And that wraps up the reviews for this week.

Do you have a favourite author or genre? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Scribble Picnic - FOREST

Hi fellow Scribblers!

It's been one of those weeks and I very nearly didn't participate.  However, I caught a lucky break because there were some issues with the Mr Linky gadget on Michael's blog so he extended the time for us. Phew!  I swear I had nothing to do with it!

So this week's prompt is FOREST.

I LOVE hiking through the rain forests at Mount Tamborine here in South East Queensland so I figured I'd depict a forest walk.

Initial ink pen sketch and watercolour

And then to give it a bit of oomph by bumping up the contrasts between lights and darks. I used Sumi ink for the darks.

To see what everyone else did for this week's prompt, click HERE.
To find out how to join in on the fortnightly fun, click HERE.

The next prompt will be GOODBYE AUTUMN.  Not sure that it applies to me though as we will be saying goodbye to spring soon.

Scribble Picnic - Double

Hi fellow scribblers!

We had a choice of prompts this week with either JOLT or DOUBLE.

I chose double but it took me a while to decide what I actually wanted to do hence just a scribble for you this week.

We came to Australia when I was only four but, at fourteen years old, my Mum and we five kids went back to England for a three month holiday to see family. Dad remained behind as there was another motive for the trip — to decide if we would move back to England permanently. If we chose 'yes', Dad would sell up and follow us over.

While in England, I remember how entranced we kids were by the double decker buses there. We had never seen them here in Australia and it was such a huge treat when our Uncle took us on one for the very first time. Of course, we just had to ride on the top deck, didn't we?!  Needless to say, my 'Londoner' Uncle was more than a little embarrassed when we 'Aussie kids' kept screaming with delight while the other passengers behaved like they were in a library. My Uncle even apologised to the driver and nearby passengers as we exited the bus adding, "They're from Australia.". haha I'm sure the passengers were all greatly relieved to see the back side of those noisy Aussies. However, it still remains a very happy memory for me.

So here is my very loose graphite sketch and that's as far as I've managed so far...

To see what everyone else did for the prompt this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join us each fortnight, click HERE.

The next prompt is FOREST and due on the 14th. Hope to see you at there!