Reviews – Page 69 – What Cathy Read Next…

On the blog last week

Tuesday – I went off-piste for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic with Books With Family Members In Their Title.

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.

Thursday – I published my review of Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee.

Friday – To mark Yorkshire Day (yes, there is one) I shared Ten Novels Set in Yorkshire.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a bookchain from The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden to A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan.

New on my shelves

Edith Holler by Edward Carey (Pushkin Press via NetGalley)

Norwich, 1901: Edith Holler spends her days among the eccentric denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave.

Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, young Edith decides to write a play of her own about Mawther Meg, a monstrous figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy, Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar woman named Margaret Unthank, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play-the one thing that’s truly hers-from the newcomer’s sinister designs.

Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by Carey’s trademark illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to escape her family’s control and craft her own creative destiny.

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas (Scribner)

Still reeling from the chaos of their wedding, Evelyn and Richard arrive on an idyllic Greek island for their honeymoon. It’s the end of the season and out at sea a storm is brewing.

They check in to an exclusive hotel, the Villa Rosa, where the proprietor Isabella ― a strangely intense woman of indeterminate accent ― flirts outrageously with Richard while treating Evelyn with a rudeness bordering on contempt. Isabella tells them the story of ‘the sleepwalkers’: a couple who stayed at the hotel the year before and drowned in a tragic and unexplained accident. It starts to feel like the entire island is obsessed with ‘the sleepwalkers’, but what at first seems like a fun tale to tell before bed quickly evolves into a living nightmare.

Caught in a web of deception and intrigue, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem, Evelyn and Richard discover that their island paradise may in fact be hell on earth and that their only means of escape is to confront dark truths about themselves and those they love.

The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke (Little, Brown)

This is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. With tremendous compassion and clarity, Dr Rachel Clarke relates the urgent journey of a young girl’s heart and explores a history of remarkable medical innovations , stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless physicians, immunologists, nurses and scientists.

What I’m currently reading

I’m very close to finishing the audiobook of The Mirror & the Light, I’m reading The Best of Intentions from my NetGalley shelf and The Body in the Ice, the next book on my 20 Books of Summer list.

Look out for…

Book Review: The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
Book Review: Green Ink by Stephen May
Book Review: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

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 #6Degrees 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 X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden, winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025. For once, it’s a book I’ve actually read although I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as other readers. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Isabel, the main character in The Safekeep, is the sole occupant of the family home purchased by her uncle after the Second World War, but it is her brother who will eventually inherit it. The possession of property also features in The Dutch House by Ann Patchett in which brother and sister, Danny and Maeve, are thrown out by their stepmother from the house in which they grew up.

Objects separated from their owners is the subject of Lost Property by Helen Paris. Dot Watson works in Baker Street’s Lost Property office diligently cataloguing lost umbrellas, lone gloves and an alarming number of shoes.

Deconstructing the previous author’s name, Helen and Paris are both characters in Homer’s The Iliad, set towards the end of the Trojan War. Euripides’ play The Trojan Women is one of the plays staged by Lampo and Gelon, the main characters in Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon.

Glorious Exploits won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize in 2024. This year’s winner is The Artist by Lucy Steeds. It’s set in a remote farmhouse in Provence, the home of a reclusive painter.

Set in 17th century Rome, Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle is the fictionalised story of Artemisia Gentileschi whose dreams of becoming an artist seem likely to be thwarted by the limitations placed on the lives of women.

A Light of Her Own by Carrie Callaghan is based on the life of another remarkable 17th century woman, Judith Leyster, who sought to challenge the social norms and prejudices of the time in order to fulfil her artistic talent. It’s set in the Netherlands which is also the location of The Safekeep bringing my chain full circle.