My Week in Books – 1st December 2024

My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – I published my review of Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton, one of the books on my reading list for Novellas in November.  And my take on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic – Thanksgiving – was Books Set in Turkey.  

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 Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.

Friday – I made another trip Down the TBR Hole.


New arrivals

A Beautiful Way To DieA Beautiful Way to Die by Eleni Kyriacou (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

PLAY THEIR GAME
Hollywood, 1953. Young actress Ginny Watkins is turning heads. Even the legendary – and married – actor Max Whitman can’t resist the allure of the hottest new starlet. He promises Ginny the world, in return for the right favour.

DO WHAT THEY SAY
London, 1954. Stella Hope, once the most famous actress in Hollywood, has been ousted to Ealing Studios after her divorce from the powerful Max. Just as she accepts her fate, she receives a letter, blackmailing her for a mistake she made many years ago.

OR THEY’LL BURY YOU
Two women on either side of stardom find themselves in the orbit of the same beguiling man. And one night, in the shadows of a glamorous Oscars afterparty, their lives are changed forever…

Eden's ShoreEden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan (eARC, John Murray via NetGalley)

In the late 18th century, Angel Kelly sets sail from Liverpool aboard the Atlas, with the intention of setting up a Utopian commune in Brazil. Before he arrives, there is a mutiny on the ship, and he and the crew are left stranded upon the coast of an unnamed Spanish colony in Latin America.

Angel is rescued by a local Amerindian child named Esa, and brought to her settlement where all the crew are cared for, but later the crew conspire with a local colonist to displace their Amerindian hosts so as to make way for a mine.

Eight years later, Esa is looking for revenge, using the revolutionary fervour of the times to stage an uprising against the Spanish colonists, but she ends up finding herself trapped in a deadly game of espionage and proxy war between the European empires.

The Language of RememberingThe Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway (ARC, epoque press)

Returning from Brazil with his wife and daughter, Oisín is looking to rebuild a life in Ireland and reconnect with his mother, Brigid, who has early onset Alzheimer’s. As her condition deteriorates, she starts to speak Irish, the language of her youth, and reflects on her childhood dreams and aspirations.

Mother and son embark on a journey of personal discovery and as past traumas are exposed, they begin to understand what has shaped them and who they really are.

The Language of Remembering asks how we connect to the people we love and how we move on from the past to find meaning in the present.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Time of the Child by Niall Williams
  • Book Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

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