What Cathy Read Next...

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Second Sleep by Robert Harris.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Best Books I Read in 2024.

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 The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner and I shared my sign-up post for the What’s In A Name Challenge 2025.

Friday – I shared my Top Five December 2024 Reads.

Saturday – I joined in with the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Orbital by Samantha Harvey to False Lights by K. J. Whittaker.

New arrivals

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (William Morrow)

1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.

Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man’s young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward’s business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.

As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward’s charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.

The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker)

Nayan Olak hasn’t risked love since his young son died.

Instead Nayan has ploughed his grief and energy into his work at the union, trying to create the world he would have wanted for his boy. Now he’s running for the leadership: a huge moment for Nayan, the culmination of everything he believes.

As he grows closer to the mysterious Helen Fletcher, and to the possibility that their pasts may have been connected, much more is suddenly threatened than his chances of winning. And when Megha Sharma, a new candidate with new politics, bursts into the picture, the race of a lifetime is on.

Book cover of The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner

The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner (eARC, Aria via NetGalley)

Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she’s forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.

New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.

As Miriam uncovers Esther’s life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Extract: Lights Along The Interstate by Adam Fike
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 – Sign-Up
Book Review: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
When Are You Reading Challenge 2025 – Sign-Up

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.

Book cover of Orbital by Samantha Harvey

This month’s starting book is the Booker Prize-winning Orbital by Samantha Harvey set on a spacecraft in which six astronauts are orbiting the Earth. For once it’s a novel I’ve read and reviewed on my blog.

Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Fairly predictably my first link is to another book set in space, Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar, in which a Czech astronaut – the country’s first – is launched into space to investigate a mysterious dust cloud covering Venus.

Another book set in what is now the Czech Republic is HHhH by Laurence Binet. It’s the fictionalised account of Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of high-ranking SS officer Reinhard Heydrich by two members of the Czech resistance in 1942.

An attempt to assassinate a prominent figure, in this case French President Charles de Gaulle, forms the plot of The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. (President de Gaulle survived an actual assassination attempt in 1962.)

The assassin in The Day of the Jackal is unnamed as is the narrator of Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household in which an Englishman attempts to assassinate the dictator of a European country. The dictator is not named but since the book was published in 1939 his identity is fairly obvious.

Fatherland by Robert Harris is set in an alternate world in which Hitler won the Second World War and has lived long enough to celebrate his 75th birthday.

False Lights by K. J. Whittaker (republished in 2021 under the title Game of Hearts) imagines a scenario in which Napoleon triumphed at the Battle of Waterloo and England is under French occupation and presided over by the Empress Josephine.

My chain has taken me from outer space to a reimagined Europe. Where did your chain take you?