Author: whatcathyreadnext

My Week in Books

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MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals

I thought this was going to be a quiet for week for acquisitions and then I remembered that trip to the Oxfam Bookshop just to drop off books…and what happened next at the £1 sale table.

ChoosetoRiseChoose to Rise: The Victory Within by M N Mekaelian (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Set in a forgotten land in the heart of World War One, Choose to Rise: The Victory Within paints the vividly realistic portrait of one of the most horrific atrocities of the modern world- The Armenian Genocide of 1915. Told through eyes of old Armen Hagopian, reliving his youth, this is a story of survival against the merciless Ottoman Turkish government. Through his journey, Armen and his older brother, Vartan, must discover what it takes to overcome the brutality while deciding who will live, who will die, and whether or not they have the strength to save an entire race from total annihilation. Filled with passion, suspense, love, and inspiration, Choose to Rise is a book that questions everything you know about humanity, what it means to be alive, and will stay with you long after you finish it.

StrangerStranger by David Bergen (ARC courtesy of Duckworth Books)

Íso Perdido, a young Guatemalan woman, works at a fertility clinic at Ixchel, named for the Mayan goddess of creation and destruction. Íso tends to the rich women who visit the clinic for the supposed conception-enhancing properties of the local lake. She is also the lover of Dr. Mann, the American doctor in residence. When an accident forces the doctor to leave Guatemala abruptly, Íso is abandoned, pregnant. After the birth, tended to by the manager of the clinic, the baby disappears. Determined to reclaim her daughter, Íso follows a trail north, eventually crossing illegally into a United States where the rich live in safe zones, walled away from the indigent masses. Travelling without documentation, and with little money, Íso must penetrate this world, and in this place of menace and shifting boundaries, she must determine who she can trust and how much, aware that she might lose her daughter forever.

AtDuskAllCatsAreGreyAt Dusk All Cats Are Grey by Jerrard Tickell (ebook, Kindle deal, free)

It’s not only the cats slinking through the dark…Twenty-two-year-old Joanna Shirley is the only daughter and child of Lady and Sir Robert Shirley. Joanna grew up in the countryside of the Cotswold; in her view, she had an idyllic childhood roaming the rolling, green hills. Her teens were spent socialising in France, Austria and Germany, where she learnt of her affinity for languages and accents. In fact, while skiing once in Austria, her German was so good that she was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of being a spy…It once seemed a jolly funny story to tell people, but now rumours that Hitler is edging his way to the Polish border and, feeling that now she must earn her own keep, Joanna moves to London. She soon gets a job at an advertisement firm – Silvertops – wheren she meets Colonel Seymour. The Colonel wants to know if she’s interested in something a little more profitable and discreet than a receptionist. All she has to do is report back about a group of Austrian refugees…A sinister darkness is creeping over Europe, and Joanna finds herself unable to recognise the world she once knew so well…

BeyondTopSecretUBeyond Top Secret U by Ewen Montagu (ebook, Kindle deal, 99p)

A keen sailor in the years preceding the outbreak of World War II, Ewen Montagu joined the Navy’s supplementary reserve, hoping that they would find some use for him. Following the emergence of his qualifications as a K.C. he found himself attached to the Admiralty and stepping into the shadowy world of British Intelligence. For most officers Top Secret was the highest classification, but for those involved with Enigma it was Ultra Secret (Top Secret U), and yet there was a higher classification still. Working under the Director of Naval Intelligence, Montagu was one of those few privy to that highest classification, beyond Top Secret U, and the Double Cross System. Involved in the strategic deception surrounding D-Day and V-bombs, as well a lead role in Operation Mincemeat, his work was so secretive that it even prevented promotion. Beyond Top Secret U is a very personal account of the secret war, filled with intrigues and ingenuity, ne’er-do-wells and corpses … and more incredible than any thriller.

PompeiiPompeii by Robert Harris (hardback, charity shop purchase, £1)

All along the Mediterranean coast, the Roman Empire’s richest citizens are relaxing in their luxurious villas, enjoying the last days of summer. The world’s largest navy lies peacefully at anchor in Misenum. The tourists are spending their money in the seaside resorts of Baiae, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. But the carefree lifestyle and gorgeous weather belie an impending cataclysm, and only one man is worried. The young engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has just taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the enormous aqueduct that brings fresh water to a quarter of a million people in nine towns around the Bay of Naples. His predecessor has disappeared. Springs are failing for the first time in generations. And now there is a crisis on the Augusta’s sixty-mile main line—somewhere to the north of Pompeii, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Attilius—decent, practical, and incorruptible—promises Pliny, the famous scholar who commands the navy, that he can repair the aqueduct before the reservoir runs dry. His plan is to travel to Pompeii and put together an expedition, then head out to the place where he believes the fault lies. But Pompeii proves to be a corrupt and violent town, and Attilius soon discovers that there are powerful forces at work—both natural and man-made—threatening to destroy him.

GoSetAWatchmanGo Set A Watchman by Harper Lee (hardback, charity shop purchase, £1)

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s conscience.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of If The Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss as part of the blog tour. I adored this book and found it hard to believe it was the author’s debut novel.

Tuesday – I took part in the blog tour for the latest thriller by Carys Jones, Dead Girls Can’t Lie, publishing an enticingly teasing extract from the book. Top Ten Tuesday is back after a summer break and this week’s topic was Recommendations for… I shared Ten Recommendations For People Who Think They Don’t Like John Buchan!

Wednesday –Wednesday is WWW Wednesday, where I and other book bloggers share what we’ve been reading, are currently reading and plan to read next.

Thursday – The subject of my Throwback Thursday post was The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman which was one of the early books I reviewed as part of my ongoing From Page To Screen Challenge (books that have been made into films). I also took part in the blog tour for The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway, sharing my review and featuring a giveaway (closes 24th August, UK/ROI & Europe only) to win a copy of the book, complete with its gorgeous cover.

Friday – I did some more clearing out of my To-Read shelf on Goodreads courtesy of the Down the TBR Hole meme which is growing in popularity. I took part in the book blitz for Fallen Star by Allison Morse, a mystery set in Hollywood. Finally I shared my review of The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, the second book in my ARC August reading list. Very clever, very funny.

Saturday – I was thrilled to take part in the cover reveal for Alison Brodie’s next book, Zenka, due to be published in November. Following the Q&A I featured last week with Lachlan Walter, author of The Rain Never Came, I shared an extract from the book.

Sunday – To close the week, I featured a Q&A with Emma Dibdin, author of The Room by the Lake, as part of the blog tour for this dark, unsettling psychological thriller.

Challenge updates

  • Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 98 out of 104 books read, 3 more than last week
  • Classics Club Challenge– 4 out of 50 books reviewed, same as last week
  • NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 (Gold) – 44 ARCs reviewed out of 50, 1 more than last week
  • From Page to Screen 2017– 7 book/film comparisons out of 12 completed, same as last week
  • ARC August – 2 ARCs out of 6 read, 1 more than last week
  • The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – completed

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Review: Path of Lucas by Susanne Bellefeuille
  • Book Review: The Wardrobe Mistress by Patrick McGrath
  • Throwback Thursday: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  • Book Review: The Scribe’s Daughter by Stephanie Churchill

Blog Tour/Q&A: The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin

whatcathyreadnext

TheRoombytheLakeBlogTourBanner

I’m thrilled to be co-hosting the first stop on the blog tour for The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin, a dark, unsettling psychological thriller. I’m even more thrilled that Emma has agreed to answer some questions about the book, its inspiration and her approach to writing.

Do check out the post from my co-host, the fabulous Book Addict Rambles . You can also read my review of The Room by the Lake here.

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TheRoombytheLakeAbout the Book

When Caitlin moved from London to New York, she thought she had left her problems behind: her alcoholic father, her dead mother, the pressure to succeed. But now, down to her last dollar in a foreign city, she is desperately lonely.

Then she meets Jake. Handsome, smart, slightly damaged Jake. It looks like she has found the fresh start she longed for. But Caitlin realizes too late that she might become lost forever…

Format: Hardcover Publisher: Head of Zeus Pages: 368
Publication: 10th Aug 2017 Genre: Thriller    

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Kobo
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Room by the Lake on Goodreads

Interview: Emma Dibdin, author of The Room by the Lake

Welcome, Emma! Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about The Room by the Lake?

The Room by the Lake is about a young English woman, Caitlin, who’s just out of university and on the verge of a breakdown. Desperate to escape after years of being a caretaker to unstable parents, she spontaneously books a flight to New York, which feels like a place she can become truly lost. Once there, she falls hard for Jake, a charming and slightly damaged former soldier who whisks her away to meet his family at their idyllic lakeside house upstate. But his family isn’t what it seems.

How did you get the idea for the book?

The idea to write about a cult came from a surreal encounter I had years ago in Seattle, with a man on the street who was protesting against then-president Barack Obama. The man was very young, about my age at the time (early twenties), and his argument was bizarre, illogical, as though he had learned it by rote or by brainwashing. He was polite, but dead-eyed, and the encounter really haunted me, particularly when I learned he was part of a far-right “political movement” which is essentially a cult. They prey on young people, I was told, often people cut off from their own families, and that got me thinking about what would make someone psychologically vulnerable enough to be sucked in.

The Room by the Lake is your first novel so can you tell us a bit about your writing journey?

I’ve always written fiction, for as long as I can remember – my mum loves to talk about how I used to write my own Animals of Farthing Wood stories when I was really young! Being an author was what I always wanted to do, but I went into journalism because it seemed like the best way of making an actual living from writing, and continued writing fiction in my spare time. I wrote The Room by the Lake during evenings and weekends, over the course of about two years, and I think the best thing about writing with limited time is that you can’t afford to be too precious – there’s no such thing as waiting for “the muse” to come.

In the book, Caitlin sees her move to New York as a form of escape.  Where in the world would be your dream place to escape to?

Well, funnily enough I really did move from London to New York two years ago, although not to escape! I think my dream place to escape to is anywhere my family and friends are. I’ve been craving a trip to Italy a lot lately – my parents lived there for years and we spent a lot of time there in my childhood, so I think my answer right now is Tuscany.

In The Room by the Lake, Caitlin comes across as a troubled, fragile, rather socially awkward young woman.  Do you think it’s necessary for readers to like the main character in a book in order to engage with them?

No, I don’t think so – I prefer characters that lean more towards anti-hero than straight hero, and any protagonist who’s not at least slightly troubled is a non-starter. Caitlin’s not necessarily somebody I’d want to be friends with, at least not at this point in her life, but I think her fears and insecurities make her fairly relatable. Female coming-of-age stories often get boxed into just being about sexual awakening, and while that’s definitely an element in Caitlin’s journey, I wanted her struggle to be psychological, and about the burden of mental illness in families.

How did you hope the setting of the book – the vast forest, the silent lake – would contribute to its atmosphere?  

The isolation of that setting is really key to Caitlin’s unravelling. Getting away from hectic city life and escaping to a peaceful forest sounds dreamy, but that experience can really turn on a dime if you’re feeling fragile. There’s such a weird duality to New York specifically: people always think of the city, which is one of the most densely populated in the world, but there’s also this vast expanse of very, very remote farmland upstate. I wanted to really draw out the contrast between those frenetic early chapters in Manhattan – where Caitlin’s shaky but at least engaged in the world – and this slow-paced retreat upstate, where she’s seemingly getting better.

Have you tried any of the dishes mentioned in the book – the sweet potato brownies, the cauliflower rice, or even the Apfelwein?

I’ve tried pretty much all of them! Cauliflower rice is great – I won’t pretend it tastes like the real thing, because it does not, but it’s a pretty good light alternative. I would never want to be fully paleo (in the immortal words of Oprah, I love bread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2sx8Bc4mAw) but I do enjoy experimenting with ways to make slightly healthier versions of things, although there’s no substitute for a real brownie.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered when writing the book?

The third act was probably my biggest challenge, just working out how things should finally unravel. The first half of the book was always incredibly clear to me, Caitlin walking around New York in this alienated haze and becoming wilfully lost, but the climactic chapters at the cult went through a lot of different iterations. There’s a twist that comes towards the end of the book which wasn’t in my original draft, but came to me suddenly one day last December – and once I’d figured out that turn, everything else fell into place.

Which other writers do you admire?

Margaret Atwood, George Elliot, Elena Ferrante, Cormac McCarthy and Gillian Flynn are a few of my all-time favourites. I just read Robin Wasserman’s Girls On Fire, which was really vivid and intoxicating. I also love to read plays – I saw Angels in America while I was back in London over the summer, and just bought the text so that I can really dig into the language.

What are you working on next?

I’ve just started my second novel, a thriller that takes place in modern Hollywood, following a young journalist who becomes drawn into the life of a very famous actor she’s assigned to interview. Unlike The Room by the Lake, this book draws a bit from my own experiences (I’ve been in entertainment journalism for years) but with the drama cranked up several notches. I’m also working on a short story commissioned by Audible.

Thank you, Emma, for those fascinating answers…and the inside track on your next book.  

EmmaDibdinAbout the Author

Emma: ‘I’m a lifelong writer and pop culture nerd, and feel endlessly grateful to have a job that combines both. Since moving to New York from London two years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time brewing coffee, writing fiction, and covering the ever-broadening selection of Peak TV – all while fighting a one-woman war against the culinary tyranny of cilantro. My first novel, The Room By The Lake, will be published in the UK on 10th August 2017.

Connect with Emma

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