My Reading Radar 12//2013

What hit the radar and wishlist this week?

Heads in the Clouds by Amber Polo. It is a revised edition of a previous title and after the reading the reviews and old blurb, I've decided to get my hands on this one eventually. It promises an interesting cast of characters and a lady learning to fly, oh, and a flying community, which sounds cool.

Love is in the air…

Can a meat-eating Texas advertising woman find love with a vegetarian Buddhist and get her pilot’s license despite interference from her wacky Arizona airpark neighbors and a high flying Alaskan Malamute?

All they have to do is conquer the fear of flying and their fear of love.

***

WAY too expensive right now (20 bucks on kindle) and sadly, not available in PB form over here, this one will probably take a while for me to come by, but I can't resist the blurb. 

A superbly written novel offering an intriguing interpretation of one of the world's greatest aviators, the glamorous and mysterious Jean Batten.

Jean Batten became an international icon in the 1930s. A brave, beautiful woman, she made a number of heroic solo flights across the world. The newspapers couldn't get enough of her; and yet she suddenly slipped out of view, disappearing to the Caribbean with her mother and dying in obscurity in Majorca, buried in a pauper's grave.

Fiona Kidman's enthralling novel delves into the life of this enigmatic woman, exploring mysteries and crafting a fascinating exploration of early flying, of mothers and daughters, and of fame and secrecy.

***

I've "met" this author on twitter and like her very much. This is her first adult book and as it's a historical featuring two tough women and a mystery, I scooped it up. Diamonds & Dust by Carol Hedges.


When a horrific murder takes place on a dark night in 1860's London, it changes two women for ever. New light is cast upon past lives they thought they knew so well, and suddenly their futures become intertwined. The death of her uncle will leave eighteen-year-old Josephine King an orphan, an heiress and the owner of a priceless diamond, The Eye of the Khan. For Lilith Marks, a chance finally arises to end her life as a highly paid prostitute and to prove herself as a serious businesswoman. Set against the backdrop of the great gas-lit city, the two women are drawn together in their quest to discover just who killed the man they both loved. Diamonds & Dust is a page-whizzing narrative, with an intricate and absorbing plot that entices you through the teeming streets of Victorian London. If Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle all washed up on a desert island, they might have come up with something like this.