On What Cathy Read Next last week
Blog posts
Monday – I published my review of The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Read In One Sitting.
Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading.
Thursday – I published my review of Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar.
Friday – I shared my review of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.
Saturday – I picked out a few events that have caught my eye in the programme for Henley Literary Festival which takes place in October.
As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.
New arrivals
Cartes Postale from Greece by Victoria Hislop
Week after week, the postcards arrive, addressed to someone Ellie does not know, each signed with an initial: A.
These alluring cartes postales of Greece brighten her life and cast a spell on her. She decides she must see this country for herself.
On the morning Ellie leaves for Athens, a notebook arrives. Its pages tell the story of a man’s odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, A‘s tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture, but also of a desire to live life to the full once more.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo – until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape. But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and so they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain. On the way, Nuri is sustained by the knowledge that waiting for them is Mustafa, his cousin and business partner, who has started an apiary and is teaching fellow refugees in Yorkshire to keep bees.
As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls. Above all – and perhaps this is the hardest thing they face – they must journey to find each other again.
Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek, translated by Leri Price (ARC, courtesy of World Editions)
Rima is a young girl in war-torn Damascus. Her feet seem to work independently, she says. Is this an affluction? Or is she just an inquisitive, adventurous young child? Her exhausted mother keeps her tied with a rope around her wrist to stop her wandering off.
As a young girl, Rima also loses the ability to speak, although she can recite sutras of Qur’an. And she can use her voice to scream – which, tragically, happens more as the story progresses.
Hidden in the library of the school where her mother works as a cleaner, she finds refuge in a fantasy world full of coloured crayons, secret planets, and The Little Prince, reciting passages of the Qur’an like a mantra as everything and everyone around her is blown to bits.
Since Rima hardly ever speaks, people think she’s crazy, but she is no fool – the madness is in the battered city around her. One day while taking a bus through Damascus, a soldier opens fire and her mother is killed. Rima, wounded, is taken to a military hospital before her brother leads her to the besieged area of Ghouta – where, between bombings, she writes her story.
In Planet of Clay, Samar Yazbek offers a surreal depiction of the horrors taking place in Syria, in vivid and poetic language and with a sharp eye for detail and beauty.
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- Blog Tour/Book Review: With Face Aflame by A. E. Walnofer
- Top Ten Tuesday
- WWW Wednesday
- Blog Tour/Book Review: One August Night by Victoria Hislop
This year’s venues include Henley Town Hall, Christ Church, the River and Rowing Museum and, new for 2021, the Baillie Gifford Marquee in the grounds of Phyllis Court. Unfortunately there are no events aboard one of Hobbs of Henley’s river cruisers this year – always a favourite of mine in previous years – but fingers crossed for next year.
Saturday 2nd October
Wednesday 6th October
