Author: whatcathyreadnext

My Week in Books – 5th May 2024

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My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical mystery, The Montford Maniac by M.R.C. Kasasian. 

Tuesday – I came up with my own topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday sharing an update on My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List. 

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. I also took a look at the books on the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 Shortlist.

Thursday – I shared My Top 5 April 2024 Reads. 

Friday – I published my review of historical novel, Darkness Does Not Come At Once by Glenn Bryant.

Saturday – I took part in the monthly #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from The Anniversary by Stephanie Butler to The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting.

New arrivals

Heart, Be At PeaceHeart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan (eARC, Transworld via NetGalley)

‘I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise…’ 

Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two. In a small town in rural Ireland, the local people have weathered the storms of economic collapse and are looking towards the future. The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the marks of its history, new stories are unfolding.

But a fresh menace is creeping around the lakeshore and the lanes of the town, and the peace of the community is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way. Young people are being drawn towards the promise of fast money whilst the generation above them tries to push back the tide of an enemy no one can touch… 

AlvesdonAlvesdon by James Holland (eARC, Transworld via NetGalley)

The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the stormclouds of war in Europe. As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the prospect of their lives being transformed beyond recognition the moment Britain declares war on Germany.

When the inevitable happens and Britain finds itself at war, the younger members of the family and farm workers are called up to fight and those who remain must battle to keep the home fires burning and the farm afloat. The gentle certainties of rural life are replaced by the urgent clamour of war, in the air, at sea and on land, where events unfold with dizzying rapidity and unexpected consequences.

Stretching from the glorious summer of 1939 to the Battle of Britain the following year, acclaimed historian James Holland paints a compelling and immersive fictional portrait of how the war changed everything. For one family and for a community, their way of life can never really be the same again…

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: James by Percival Everett
  • Book Review: Under the Banner of Valor by Gary Corbin

#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from The Anniversary to The Bell in the Lake

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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.

The AnniversaryThis month’s starting book is The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop. As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read but from the blurb I learn it’s a thriller about a novelist whose husband disappears while they’re on a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

White Water, Black Death by Shaun Ebelthite also takes aboard a cruise ship but in this case the threat is from an outbreak of a deadly plague.

Fortune’s Wheel by Carolyn Hughes, the first book in her Meonbridge Chronicles series, is set in a medieval Hampshire village in which the Black Death has wiped out half the population and the villagers are struggling to return to normal life.

Staying with the theme of fortune, the heroine of The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, a young girl known as Red, travels the country with her father earning money by telling people’s futures using an ancient method of laying out cards.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson is the daughter of actor Sir Tony Robinson who was the presenter of Channel 4’s Time Team series in which a group of archaeologists had three days to discover historical artifacts in different sites around Britain. One of the archaeologists who frequently appeared on the programme was Francis Pryor, author of A Fenland Garden. In the book he describes how he and his wife set about creating a garden in the Fens of southern Lincolnshire.

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers is set in the fictional Fenland village of Fenchurch St. Paul. As well as trying to solve the mystery of a mutilated body found in another person’s grave, Lord Peter Wimsey helps to ring an all-night peal of bells in the village church on New Year’s Eve.

In The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting, set in 19th century, Norway, a young pastor arrives in a small village and seeks to demolish its 700-year-old church which contains two bells said to have supernatural powers.

My chain has taken me from the high seas to a Norwegian lake via the Lincolnshire Fens. Where did your chain take you this month?
#6Degrees of Separation May 2024