#TopTenTuesday The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten Tuesday ChristmasTop 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 topic is The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf. Santa didn’t bring any of these, sadly. Links from the titles will take you to the full book description on Goodreads.

  1. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet – The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae.
  2. Closed Casket (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #2) by Sophie Hannah – “What I intend to say to you will come as a shock…” With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford – one of the world’s most beloved children’s authors – springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will.
  3. Paris Spring (Will Flemyng #2) by James Naughtie – Paris in 1968, seething with revolutionaries and spies, sees Will Flemyng’s world turned upside down, after a mysterious encounter on the metro and a chance revelation from a rival operative.
  4. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. 
  5. Munich Wolf by Rory Clements – Munich in the 1930s is a magnet for young, rich, aristocratic Brits. What they don’t see – or choose to ignore – is the cold, brutal, underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home.
  6. Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières – Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the novel traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia – a town in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully for centuries.
  7. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler – The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama. 
  8. A Dry Spell by Clare Chambers – In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.
  9. The Shadow Network (Dempsey & Devlin #5) by Tony Kent – How do you take down an enemy when no one believes they exist?
  10. The Teacher (DS Cross #6) by Tim Sullivan – An eighty-year-old man is found murdered in his home. His age and standing in the community makes finding his killer difficult – why would anyone harm an elderly man? What threat could he possibly be to anyone?

What books have you added to your TBR pile recently? 

My Week in Books – 24th December 2023

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared My Five Favourite November 2023 Reads. 

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday was Books I Hope Santa Brings.   

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 shared my review of The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan. 

Friday – I published my review of The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.


New arrivals

A book for Radio 4’s Bookclub, a Christmas present and a couple of charity shop finds from my wishlist

His Bloody ProjectHis Bloody Project by Graham Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae.

A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country’s finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence.

Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.

The Midnight LibraryThe Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate)

Between life and death there is a library.

When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

Paris SpringParis Spring (Will Flemyng #2) by James Naughtie (Head of Zeus)

Paris, April 1968.  The cafes are alive with talk of revolution, but for Will Flemyng – secret servant at the British embassy – the crisis is personal.  A few words from a stranger on the metro change his life. His family is threatened and he faces the spy’s oldest fear: exposure. 

A bizarre murder draws him into a web of secrets and lifelong loyalties are tested as never before. The streets of Paris become a smoke-filled battleground, and Felmyng learns that when secrets are at stake, no one is safe. 

Closed CasketClosed Casket (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #2) by Sophie Hannah (Harper Collins)

“What I intend to say to you will come as a shock…”

With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford — one of the world’s most beloved children’s authors — springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live.

Among Lady Playford’s visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited — until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why — when the crime is committed despite Poirot’s best efforts to stop it — does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
  • Book Review: Back Trouble by Clare Chambers 
  • Book Review: The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller