The weekend started miserably here on the east coast of Australia, with heavy rain, king tides and big winds. We were whipped about by some storms but in my part of the world most occurred while we slept like babies and the aftermath wasn’t as worrisome as weather forecasters predicted.

Today, on the other hand, is magnificent. Sunny and breezy. 

What I read

I started the week with Die of Shame by Mark Billingham before having a lengthy break. Ostensibly I was waiting until I caught up with my reviewing, but in reality I was just feeling lazy and not wanting to do any reading or writing at the end of my working day. I did however, catch up on some taped TV and final episodes (ever) of Castle and CSI Cyber. 😉

Eventually I recovered and read The Teacher’s Secret by Suzanne Leal which started a little slowly for me, but eventually came together. It follows a number of characters whose stories ultimately coincide.

And then I read a new arrival which I allowed to leap-frog my TBR pile, The Twisted Knot by serving police officer and therefore queen of anonymity, JM Peace.

What I wrote

This probably won’t come as a surprise, but I reviewed some books:

The Dry by Jane Harper – a thriller which wonderfully depicts the dichotomy of outback Australia
Venice by Nick Earls – a novella I very much enjoyed and reviewed in Goodreads
Spare Me The Truth by CJ Carver – an enjoyable tale of a man discovering he’s got a secret past
Die of Shame by Mark Billingham – a standalone thriller set amidst an addiction recovery support group.

I also wrote some other exciting stuff:

The i in team – my thoughts on exercise and the fact that most of us are into either group classes or individual workouts
How am I doing? – about the fact I recently asked my boss for feedback on my work performance, and wondering if that’s weird.

What I did

I’ve already mentioned that I had a slow reading and writing week. I had a few personal commitments, including the requirement to wear a bloody blood pressure monitor for a 24hr period. I expected something like a heart rate monitor. Something subtle. But nope. The cuff pumped itself up every 30mins during the day and (from 11pm to 6am) hourly at night. I noted it didn’t work sometimes so became quite vigilent at making sure it got a reading each time, and activated it manually if it didn’t. Surprisingly my readings were REALLY low which was good. I’m already on BP medication, so my doctor wondered if my BP was usually only elevated in her office, and that may indeed be the case. (White coat syndrome!)

I’ve got no news on the apartment-selling front and my Open House was cancelled on Saturday because of the weather.

What I plan to do

I received some new books – hard copies and (for a change) electronic copies. I thought I’d share a screenshot of my NetGalley shelf as some of the books there aren’t being published for ages so I’m just leaving them sit there for a while.

As usual I’m yet to add my new arrivals into my obsessively chronologically-sorted TBR pile – which I often ignore anyway. But hey, I’m a control freak and it makes me feel better…

And that’s it for me on the book reviewing and blogging front.

What are your plans – reading or otherwise – this coming week?

I’m linking up with Leanne for the Lovin’ Life Linky; Kimberly for the Sunday Post; and Kathryn (tomorrow) for ‘It’s Monday!’