My Week in Books – 2nd July 2023

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2023.

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. 

Friday – I published my review of Banyan Moon by Thao Thai. 

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month (and can you believe we’re already halfway through the year?) means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme. This month’s starting book was winner of the International Book Prize, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov.

New arrivals

A Day of ReckoningA Day of Reckoning (A Time of Swords #3) by Matthew Harffy (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

AD 796. Sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates.

After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the jewels of the Emirate of Al-Andalus and the true destination of their voyage.

Hunlaf believes the Emir’s lands hold the key to his search, but there are dangerous games at play. To achieve his goal, Hunlaf and his allies must walk a difficult path where friends and enemies alike are not always what they seem – and where a weapon deadlier than any yet seen could change the future of all the kingdoms in Europe.

Byron and ShelleyByron and Shelley by Glenn Haybittle (eARC, Cheyne Walk via NetGalley)

The characters in Glenn Haybittle’s first collection of short stories are all caught in moments of life that bring about a revelation of identity.

A young woman who, after the war, catches sight of the guard who knocked to the ground her blind grandfather on the platform at Auschwitz. The backstory of the man accused of murdering Martin Luther King. The experience of a young girl on Kristallnacht and the subsequent tragic upheavals in her life. A dance teacher accused of sexually abusing one of his young students. A man constrained to return to his mother and look after her while she goes through dementia. A CIA operative grooming a patsy to take the blame for an assassination.

Beautiful, moving and humorous, the stories are set all around the globe – spinning from Kansas City, Jerusalem, London, Venice, Prague and Hamburg to Florence, Memphis, Rome, Paris and Provence.

The Socialite SpyThe Socialite Spy by Sarah Sigal (eARC, Lume Books via NetGalley)

London, 1936. Socialite and journalist Lady Pamela More pens the popular ‘Agent of Influence’ column, writing wittily about fashion and high society. For her latest piece, she interviews Wallis Simpson, the newly crowned king’s American mistress. That’s when she’s approached by MI5. Her mission: spy on the royal couple and report on their connections with Nazi Germany.

As she navigates the treacherous world of international espionage, Pamela uses her skills of observation and intuition to infiltrate Wallis’ inner circle. But Europe is unstable, and international spies lurk on every corner.

Does Pamela have what it takes to survive the currents of espionage? Or is she in over her head?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • My Five Favourite June 2023 Reads
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley
  • Book Review: The Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow 

#6Degrees of Separation From Time Shelter to The Voluble Topsy

whatcathyreadnext9 Comments

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.

Time ShelterThis month’s starting book is the winner of this year’s International Booker Prize, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. It’s a book I haven’t read but from the blurb I understand it’s about a man who opens a ‘clinic for the past’ that offers a treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers, involving transporting patients back in time.

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Macarenhas imagines that time travel has become big business as the result of the creation of a time machine by four female scientists fifty years earlier.

The author’s most recent book, Hokey Pokey, is set in a hotel which is the location for At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie in which Jane Marple’s quiet break turns into something quite different.

Marple is a collection of new stories featuring Miss Marple written by authors including Val McDermid and Kate Mosse.

Kate Mosse is the founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction which this year was awarded to Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

In a Q&A prior to the prize announcement, Barbara Kingsolver revealed she was inspired to write her modern day version of David Copperfield when she stayed at Bleak House in Broadstairs, Kent, the very place in which Charles Dickens wrote his novel. It was also during a stay in Broadstairs, recovering from illness, that John Buchan wrote his adventure story, The Thirty-Nine Steps.

In one of the scenes in The Thirty-Nine Steps its hero, Richard Hannay, has to make an unexpected and unscripted speech at a political meeting. The same happens to Topsy in The Voluble Topsy by A P Herbert, due to be published in July by Handheld Press.

My chain has involved memory and inspiration. Where did your chain take you?