My Week in Books – 20th January ‘19

New arrivals  

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (hardcover)

It is 1945, and London is still reeling from years of attritional war. 15-year-old Nathaniel and his sister seem to have been abandoned by their parents in a big house in Putney, and the ruined city is a strange Expressionist jungle after the Blitz, which the teenagers use as their playground. The Black Market and petty criminals are thriving and the two children’s eccentric guardians – nicknamed the Moth and the Darter – are busy smuggling munitions through the darkened London streets, or greyhounds from France through the rivers and canals.

When the children discover that their mother has not gone to Singapore as announced, and is actually engaged in perilous work for British Intelligence – and that the Moth and the Darter are protecting them from harm – the novel darkens and deepens into Nathaniel’s search for the truth: for the mother he lost once and may well lose again.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson (hardcover, signed by the author)

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past for ever.

Ten years later, now a producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

---

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my ideas about books published in 2018 that may be contenders for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2019.

Tuesday – The Top Ten Tuesday topics was New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2018.  It turns out I read quite a few.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.   I also joined the blog tour for The Secret by Katharine Johnson sharing my review of this dual time novel set in present day and wartime Tuscany.

Thursday – Another day, another blog tour – this time to mark the publication in paperback of The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola.  I republished my review from when I read the book last year.

Friday – I published my review of The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters, the sequel to The Last Hours.

Saturday – I shared an introduction to my first Buchan of the Month for 2019, Prester John by John Buchan.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.

---

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2018 But Didn’t Get To
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Book Review: Nemesis (Tom Wilde #3) by Rory Clements
• Throwback Thursday/Book Review: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood