The Alibi Book Club #14 // 3 Books To Read In April

I really couldn't pick a book for this month's installment, so I thought why not chuck in three and give a quick lowdown to give you guys a choice of what you could read next. Recently, I've become quite a fast reader so it's no surprise that it's taken me a month to read about three books...

But before we get into it, I really want to write a Reader Q&A next week, so please leave questions in the comments about anything you want to know about me or if you want tips about blogging! I'll look forward to answering them!

001: Laura Barnett - The Versions Of Us:
I've very nearly finished this book and it's been quite a page turner. I picked it up because the plot sounded like one of my favourite Jared Leto films Mr Nobody. It entails three versions of Eva and Jim's life and the novel opens up with Eva falling off her bike. There's three versions of this event and it determines whether they fall in love or not. It feels quite complicated to explain but once you get past the first four chapters, it really speeds up.

"What if you had said yes ...? Eva and Jim are nineteen, and students at Cambridge, when their paths first cross in 1958. Jim is walking along a lane when a woman approaching him on a bicycle swerves to avoid a dog. What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. We follow three different versions of their future - together, and apart - as their love story takes on different incarnations and twists and turns to the conclusion in the present day. The Versions of Us is an outstanding debut novel about the choices we make and the different paths that our lives might follow. What if one small decision could change the rest of your life?"

002: Jennifer Egan - Look At Me:
This is now the third book I've picked up from Egan as I'm always drawn to and enthralled by her writing style. This one centres around the lives of two Charlottes - one a troubled teen who (in what I gather) wants to be loved and fit in, and one who is a 35 year old model who's been in a car accident, pretends she's 28 and wants to desperately get back into modelling. I loved this from the start and there's huge character development with both.

"Reconstructive facial surgery after a car crash so alters Manhattan model Charlotte that, within the fashion world, where one's look is oneself, she is unrecognizable. Seeking a new image, Charlotte engages in an Internet experiment that may both save and damn her. As her story eerily converges with that of a plain, unhappy teenager - another Charlotte - it raises tantalizing questions about identity and reality in contemporary Western culture. Jennifer Egan's bold, innovative novel, demonstrating her virtuosity at weaving a spellbinding, ambitious tale with language that dazzles, captures the spirit of our times and offers an unsettling glimpse of the future."

003: Sarah Winman - A Year Of Marvellous Ways:
A novel that I wouldn't necessarily pick up, but because I read her first novel, I was naturally drawn to this. Though a little confusing at first, it's not a heavy plot and you easily fall in love with the elderly Marvellous Ways who's looking for one last adventure in her life. It was really quite heartwarming and a perfect one to casually read on the way to work or school.

"Marvellous Ways is eighty-nine years old and has lived alone in a remote Cornish creek for nearly all her life. Lately she's taken to spending her days sitting on a mooring stone by the river with a telescope. She's waiting for something - she's not sure what, but she'll know it when she sees it. Drake is a young soldier left reeling by the Second World War. When his promise to fulfil a dying man's last wish sees him wash up in Marvellous' creek, broken in body and spirit, the old woman comes to his aid. A Year of Marvellous Ways is a glorious, life-affirming story about the magic in everyday life and the pull of the sea, the healing powers of storytelling and sloe gin, love and death and how we carry on when grief comes snapping at our heels."