On What Cathy Read Next last week
Happy New Year everyone!
Monday – I published my review of historical crime mystery The Unquiet Heart by Kaite Welsh.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was the always challenging Best Books I Read in 2021.
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 to take a peek at what others are reading.
Thursday – I shared my review of Blue Shoes and Happiness (No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #7) by Alexander McCall Smith, the final book I needed to complete the What’s In A Name Challenge 2021.
Friday – I published my review of Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud and shared My Life in Books 2021.
Saturday – The first Saturday of the month – and of a new year – means it’s time for Six Degrees of Separation.
As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.
New arrivals
The Magician by Colm Tóibín (Viking)
The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism.
He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that inspired his creativity.
Rose Nicolson by Andrew Greig (Quercus)
Embra, winter of 1574. Queen Mary has fled Scotland, to raise an army from the French. Her son and heir, Jamie is held under protection in Stirling Castle. John Knox is dead. The people are unmoored and lurching under the uncertain governance of this riven land. It’s a deadly time for young student Will Fowler, short of stature, low of birth but mightily ambitious, to make his name.
Fowler has found himself where the scorch marks of the martyrs burned at the stake can be seen on every street, where differences in doctrine can prove fatal, where the feuds of great families pull innocents into their bloody realm. There he befriends the austere stick-wielding philosopher Tom Nicolson, son of a fishing family whose sister Rose, untutored, brilliant and exceedingly beautiful exhibits a free-thinking mind that can only bring danger upon her and her admirers.
The lowly students are adept at attracting the attentions of the rich and powerful, not least Walter Scott, brave and ruthless heir to Branxholm and Buccleuch, who is set on exploiting the civil wars to further his political and dynastic ambitions. His friendship and patronage will lead Will to the to the very centre of a conspiracy that will determine who will take Scotland’s crown.
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- My Five Favourite December 2021 Reads
- Book Review: The Cornish Captive by Nicola Pryce
- Blog Tour/Book Review: Wahala by Nikki May
- Blog Tour/Book Review: Betrayal by David Gilman
- Blog Tour/Book Review: The Ends of the Earth by Abbie Greaves
What Cathy Read Next... 
The Magician was not an easy read, but well worth the effort. Enjoy!
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