My Week in Books – 3rd December 2023

Posted on by whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine, a book towards the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Set in X and I went for Books Set in Eurovision Countries.   

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly 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 published my review of The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, the December pick for BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub.

Friday – I shared my #NetGalleyNovember Wrap-Up.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain to The Night Manager by John le Carré. 

New arrivals

At last, some new books! 

A Good Scent from a Strange MountainA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (No Exit)

The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama.

Butler’s literary ventriloquism, as he mines the experiences of a people with a great literary tradition of their own, is uncanny; but his talents as a writer of universal truths is what makes this a collection for the ages.

A Dry Spell PBA Dry Spell by Clare Chambers (Cornerstone)

In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.

And repercussions are exactly what Guy doesn’t need. His wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane’s sanity, and now even God’s gone quiet on him.

As for Nina, she’s having enough trouble with her son, James. He’s got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he is on drugs. Nina certainly won’t welcome any ghosts from the past…

Life isn’t going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Binding by Bridget Collins
  • Book Review: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
  • My Five Favourite November 2023 Reads

3 thoughts on “My Week in Books – 3rd December 2023”

  1. It’s great to see Tom Hiddleston is to star in another season based on John le Carré’s Night Manager. It’s also back in fashion in India but the reviews for that are mixed but that is a tad like the maestro himself. John le Carré’s novels are perfection yet in real life whilst David Cornwell was a great character and a brilliant writer, as a spy did he have more Achilles heels than toes? Did he really upset Field Marshall Montgomery’s cousin? Were Pemberton’s People in MI6 as depicted in The Burlington Files really friends or foes? Was he the perfect spy? What of his Dad’s links to the Krays? What were his links to Kim Philby? Did the SAS trust him? For more beguiling anecdotes best read a brief and intriguing News Article about Pemberton’s People in MI6 dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website and then read Beyond Enkription.

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