#WWWWednesday – 3rd April 2024

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

Sword of the War GodSword of the War God by Tim Hodkinson (ARC, Head of Zeus) 

436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome’s legions, for the Empire is weak. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before. But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.

Many years later, the Huns, led by the fearsome Attila, have become the deadliest enemies of Rome. Attila seeks the Burgundars’ treasure, for it includes the legendary Sword of the War God, said to make the bearer unbeatable.

No alliance can defeat Attila by conventional means. With Rome desperate for help, a one-eyed old warlord from distant lands and his strange band of warriors may have the answers… but oaths will be broken and the plains of Europe will run with blood before the end.

Bonjour, SophieBonjour, Sophie by Elizabeth Buchan (eARC, Corvus via NetGalley)

It’s 1959 and eighteen-year-old Sophie is determined that now is the time for her real life to start. Her existence in the village of Poynsdean, Sussex, with her austere foster-father, the Reverend Osbert Knox, and his frustrated wife Alice, is stultifying. She finds brief excitement in an illicit love affair, but soon realizes that if she wants to live life on a bigger canvas she must take matters into her own hands.

She dreams of escape to Paris, the wartime home her mother fled before her birth. Getting there will take spirit and ingenuity, but also offers the chance to discover more about her family background, and perhaps find a place where she can finally belong.

When Sophie eventually arrives in the city of her dreams it’s both everything she imagined, and not at all what she expected.


Recently finished

A Better PlaceA Better Place by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing) Longlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024

The old people in the district would often say that Roy was not quite the same after he come back. There was a brother. A twin brother, Tony. Tony Mitchell, different boy but a good rugby player. Bit of a mental case, they said, but Roy would have none of it. He always stayed close to Tony when they were growing up. They both went off to fight, must have been 1940. Only the one come back, though.

Crete, they thought. We lost Tony over there. (Review to follow)


What Cathy Will Read Next

Girl Friends NewGirl Friends by Alex Dahl (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

THEY CAN BUILD YOU UP

Charlotte has it all: the successful career, the loving family. But, secretly, she is dangerously bored of her life. So when she meets free-spirited Bianka, it feels like fate – Bianka is exactly the person that Charlotte needs.

OR TEAR YOU DOWN

On a girls’ trip to Ibiza, home is forgotten as Charlotte dives head first into a life that is looser, wilder. She feels free, but there are devastating consequences: someone doesn’t return home.

As the aftermath of the holiday rips through her life back in London, Charlotte soon regrets ever breaking out of her carefully constructed routine – and begins to wonder whether meeting Bianka was really an accident at all…

#TopTenTuesday April Showers #TuesdayBookBlog

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.

Untitled design (1)This week’s topic is April Showers. We’re invited to create a list of books that have anything to do with rain: in their title, on their cover or in their storyline. My list comprises book titles involving rain, the lack of it or weather conditions associated with rain.  

The Rain Never Came by Lachlan Walter
The Dry by Jane Harper
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner
The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence
Umbrella by Will Self
Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes
The Storm by Amanda Jennings
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
The Night of the Flood by Zoe Somerville