My Five Favourite August 2021 Reads

favourite

I read fifteen books in August and this was another month when I read so many great books it was tough to whittle down my list to just five. Links from each title will take you to my review. You can find a list of all the books I’ve read so far in 2021 here.  If we’re not already friends on Goodreads, send me a friend request or follow my reviews.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer – a compelling, action-packed story set in World War 2 occupied France
A Line To Kill (Hawthorne & Horowitz Mystery #3) by Anthony Horowitz – a clever, witty crime mystery set on the island of Alderney
End of Summer by Anders de la Motte – a compelling and insightful mystery
The Hidden Child by Louise Fein – a beautifully written, moving story about overcoming prejudice (full review to follow for blog tour)
The Unfortunate Englishman by John Lawton – a classy, perfectly paced Cold War spy thriller set in Berlin and Moscow

What books were your favourites in August? Have you read any of my picks?

#WWWWednesday – 1st September 2021

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


Currently reading

The Senator's Darkest DaysThe Senator’s Darkest Days by Joan E. Histon (ebook, Top Hat Books)

40AD and despite the threat of bloodshed, Senator Vivius Marcianus travels to Jerusalem to investigate the delay in erecting the Emperor’s statue in the temple. Failure is not an option.

When Vivius is wounded and imprisoned, it is left to Dorio to rescue his heavily pregnant sister and her children and set about proving Vivius’s innocence.

AnythingIsPossibleAnything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (proof copy, Viking)

Short story collection Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.


Recently finished

Gallowstree Lane (Collins & Griffiths #3) by Kate London

The Unfortunate Englishman (Joe Wilderness #2) by John Lawton 


What Cathy (will) Read Next

Three Words for GoodbyeThree Words For Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb (review copy, William Morrow)

Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . .

New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe – together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.

Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity to develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.

Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and  Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey.