My Week in Books – 19th April 2020

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday –  I took a look at the books on the shortlist for The Dylan Thomas Prize 2020.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Enjoyed But Are Rarely Talked About. I highlighted some ‘hidden gems’ I’ve read that seem to have had little attention.   I also shared my review of A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry.

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.

Thursday – I shared some thoughts on the six books shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2020.

Friday – I published my review of Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather, a collection of short stories I read for the 1920 Club.

Saturday – I shared my list for the latest Classics Club Spin.

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


New arrivals

Although I’ve already read and reviewed Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, I only had a digital copy so I couldn’t resist treating myself to this signed edition with bonus content.

The RedeemedThe Redeemed (The West Country Trilogy, #3) by Tim Pears (paperback)

It is 1916. The world has gone to war, and young Leo Sercombe, hauling coal aboard the HMS Queen Mary, is a long way from home. The wild, unchanging West Country roads of his boyhood seem very far away from life aboard a battlecruiser, a universe of well-oiled steel, of smoke and spray and sweat, where death seems never more than a heartbeat away.

Skimming through those West Country roads on her motorcycle, Lottie Prideaux defies the expectations of her class and sex as she covertly studies to be a vet. But the steady rhythms of Lottie’s practice, her comings and goings between her neighbours and their animals, will be blown apart by a violent act of betrayal, and a devastating loss.

In a world torn asunder by war, everything dances in flux: how can the old ways life survive, and how can the future be imagined, in the face of such unimaginable change? How can Leo, lost and wandering in the strange and brave new world, ever hope to find his way home? [Shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2020]


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys by John Buchan
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Titles That Would Make Good Band Names
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Book Review: A Life Without End by Frederic Beigbeder
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Wheelwright’s Daughter by Eleanor Porter
  • Book Review: The Figure in the Photograph by Kevin Sullivan

The Classics Club Spin 23 #ccspin

The Classics ClubHow time flies because it’s time for another Classics Club Spin and a welcome prompt to read a book from my list. 

For those unfamiliar with how the spin works, here are the step-by-step instructions:

  • At your blog, before Sunday 19th April 2020, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. See mine below. I don’t actually have 20 unread books left on my list so I cheated a bit and, as eagle-eyed readers may spot, I’ve included a couple of books twice that I’m really keen to read.
  • You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.
  • On 19th April the folks at The Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 1st June 2020.

  1. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
  2. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
  3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  4. A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates
  5. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
  6. The Flowers of Adonis by Rosemary Sutcliff
  7. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
  8. The Town House by Norah Lofts
  9. Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
  10. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
  11. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
  12. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
  13. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
  14. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  15. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  16. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
  17. The Last Secrets by John Buchan
  18. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
  19. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
  20. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Will you be taking part in the Classics Club Spin #23?  If so, what are you excited about (or daunted by) the prospect of reading?