#WWWWednesday – 17th July 2024

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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

West Heart KillWest Heart Kill by Dann McDorman (ARC, Raven Books)

You.
Yes, you, reading this.
Get in the car.

Sit in the back – you’re joining the detective and the other guy who’s driving. They’re both in the front. Don’t think about the other guy. He’s not important.

You’re going to the West Heart clubhouse. The country club that’s so swanky it’s in the title of this book. Kill. It’s not that kind of kill. Or maybe it is, after all.

You arrive, it’s the Fourth of July weekend and look – there’s cocktails on the lawn. What’s your poison?

Don’t flick forward. You just have to wait. Especially for the part when you find out what happens on page XX.

Magpie MurdersMagpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Orion)

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the tattered manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has little idea it will change her life. She’s worked with the revered crime writer for years and his detective, Atticus Pund, is renowned for solving crimes in the sleepy English villages of the 1950s. As Susan knows only too well, vintage crime sells handsomely. It’s just a shame that it means dealing with an author like Alan Conway…

But Conway’s latest tale of murder at Pye Hall is not quite what it seems. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but hidden in the pages of the manuscript there lies another story: a tale written between the very words on the page, telling of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder.

Recently finished

The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite (Penguin)

What Cathy Will Read Next

In the Garden of SorrowsIn the Garden of Sorrows by Karen Jewell (MindStir Media)

Isabel Fuller, a strong, once passionate woman, is deadened with grief by the death of her oldest son in the First World War, haunted by visions of him dying alone, and bitter at her husband for encouraging him to enlist.

When a young, charismatic preacher arrives for a revival one summer, he awakens in Isabel an intense attraction and feelings long forgotten. When she finally succumbs to his seduction, their affair pushes Isabel’s marriage to the breaking point.

In the Garden of Sorrows is a gripping, erotically charged story of loss and sorrow, anger and recrimination, and the redemptive power of love.

#TopTenTuesday Ten Things I Loved About… The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks #TuesdayBookBlog

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Top Ten TuesdayTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Ten Things I Loved About [Book Title], a topic suggested by me!  The book I’ve chosen is one I read a few months ago, The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks. I could have come up with lots more reasons why I loved it but here are just ten:

  1. Set in 2030, it depicts – through the medium of fiction – the havoc that extreme climate change might cause, including changes to our lifestyles and limitations on our freedoms
  2. It explores the various ways society responds to those who are different: acceptance, curiosity, exploitation, intrusion, prejudice, fear
  3. It is about the unconditional love of a parent for a child
  4. It poses the ethical question, just because you are able to do something does that mean you should? 
  5. It highlights the danger of what can happen when technology, power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals
  6. It brilliantly evokes what it’s like to be a person who is uniquely different from everyone else
  7. As well as dealing with serious issues it’s also a moving love story
  8. It taught me a lot about the evolution of our species
  9. The ending left me with tears running down my cheeks
  10. I had the opportunity to tell Sebastian Faulks just that before he signed my copy of the book at last year’s Henley Literary Festival