My Week in Books – 6th September 2020

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of The Museum Makers by Rachel Morris as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books That Make Me Hungry.  I also published my review of V For Victory by Lissa Evans as part of the blog tour.

Wednesday – It wouldn’t be “hump day” without WWW Wednesday, the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of Charlotte by Helen Moffett.

Saturday – I published my review of Talland House by Maggie Humm as part of the blog tour.

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


New arrivals

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn 

Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall.

Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home–how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

It’s 1840, twenty-three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, and Cassandra Austen – alone and unwed – returns to the vicarage in the village of Kintbury.

There, in a dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, she discovers a treasure trove of family letters – and within them secrets that she feels certain must not be revealed. She resolves to burn the letters, even those written by Jane herself. But why destroy so much of her sister’s legacy?

As Cassandra casts an eye back on her youth and the life of her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together long-buried truths from both her and Jane’s pasts, and knows she must make a terrible choice: let the contents of the letters colour Jane’s memory for ever – or protect her reputation no matter the cost.

20200902_150253-1


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books For My Younger Self
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • My Five Favourite August Reads
  • Buchan of the Month: Introducing The Magic Walking Stick by John Buchan
  • Book Review: The Ghost Tree by M.R.C. Kasasian

#6Degrees Of Separation: From Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield to Foe by J.M. Coetzee

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees

This month’s starting book is Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld in which the author imagines what might have happened had Hilary Rodham NOT married Bill Clinton.

Given she DID marry Bill Clinton and become First Lady, my first link in the chain is to another First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. White Houses by Amy Bloom tells the story of the friendship between Eleanor and reporter, Lorena Hickok.

A book which involves an extra-marital relationship with a future occupant of the White House, namely Dwight D. Eisenhower, is Ike and Kay by James MacManus. It’s a fictionalized account of the real-life affair between Eisenhower and his wartime driver, Kay Summersby.

Back to another First Lady, this time Jacqueline Kennedy. In her latest book, The Second Marriage, Gill Paul tells the story of the relationship between Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

If we’re talking multiple marriages, then we need look no further than King Henry VIII of England. In the latest book in her Six Tudor Queens series, Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen, Alison Weir explores the tragic life of wife number five.

A character mentioned (briefly) in the book is Thomas Cromwell, the subject of Hilary Mantel’s monumental trilogy. Like the first book in the series, Wolf Hall, its successor, Bring Up The Bodies, won the Man Booker Prize. In doing so, Mantel became the first woman to win the prize twice. (Will she make it three in a row this year?)

The first author to win the prize twice, though, was J.M. Coetzee (in 1983 and again in 1999). His novel Foe, which I studied as part of my Open University English MA (you know, intertextuality and all that) is a reinvention of the story of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

This month we’ve travelled from 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue to a desert island via some matrimonial shenanigans. Where did your chain take you?