My Week in Books – 2nd June 2024

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My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Was Excited To Get But Still Haven’t Read. 

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 Zone of Interest by Martin Amis. 

Friday – I made another visit Down The TBR Hole as a result of which my TBR pile is three (yes, a whole three!) books lighter.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for #6Degrees of Separation. My book chain took me from Butter by Asako Yuzuki to The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.

New arrivals

Two book club picks…

Normal Rules Don't ApplyNormal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson (Penguin)

In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him.

With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination, a constantly changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems.

The HousekeepersThe Housekeepers by Alex Hay (Headline)

UPSTAIRS, MADAM IS PLANNING THE PARTY OF THE SEASON.

All eyes are on the grandest house in Mayfair as the countdown to their lavish summer ball begins. Everything must be perfect. But with the chandeliers gleaming and the cellars stocked, loyal housekeeper Mrs King is suddenly dismissed.

DOWNSTAIRS, THE SERVANTS ARE PLOTTING THE HEIST OF THE CENTURY.

As the clock strikes twelve on the night of the ball, Mrs King will return to strip the house of its riches – right under the nose of her former employer. And she knows just who to recruit to pull off the impossible: a bold alliance of women with nothing left to lose and every reason for revenge.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • My Five Favourite May 2024 Reads
  • Book Review: The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear 
  • Book Review: Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from Butter to The Signature of All Things

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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.

ButterThis month’s starting book is Butter by Asako Yuzuki. As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read but the blurb tells me it’s about a female gourmet cook and serial killer, and is inspired by a true story. Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Picking up the dairy theme of the title, my first link is to Milkman by Anna Burns which is set in Belfast during the period in Northern Ireland’s history known as ‘The Troubles’.

These Days by Lucy Caldwell is also set in Belfast but during the Second World War and, in particular, on four days during which the heaviest bombardment by German aircraft took place.

Lucy Caldwell has recently published a short story collection, Openings, as has Kate Atkinson. Normal Rules Don’t Apply consists of eleven interconnected stories.

In North Woods by Daniel Mason the connection that runs through the book is with the woods of the title and the people, animals and insects that inhabit it over the centuries. One of the latter is a ‘lusty beetle’.

The search for a very special beetle is the subject of Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce in which spinster Margery Benson abandons her job as a schoolteacher and sets out on an expedition to prove the existence of the golden beetle of New Caledonia.

New Caledonia is an archipelago in the South Pacific and The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert also features an expedition to the South Pacific, this time to Tahiti by fictional nineteenth-century botanist, Alma Whittaker.

My chain has taken me from Japan to Tahiti. Where did your chain take you this month?
#6Degrees of Separation June 2024