#WWWWednesday – 22nd January 2025

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!


Front cover of The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and for ever.

Front cover of The House With Nine Locks by Philip Gray

The House With Nine Locks by Philip Gray (eARC, Vintage via NetGalley)

In post-war Flanders, Adelais de Wolf’s family is slowly, inexplicably, falling apart: her mother evermore lost to religious devotion, her father to alcohol. But with the death of a beloved uncle, Adelais finds herself in receipt of an unexpected legacy: a shuttered house in a rundown district and its contents – contents that hold the promise of independence and wealth. All that is required is application, nerve, and a willingness to break the law.

Adelais stifles her doubts and her fortunes are transformed. But with her rise comes complications: her victimless crimes may not be as victimless as she supposed. Nor has she counted on the singular fanaticism of Major de Smet of the Federal Gendarmerie, a brutal detective who never forgives and never forgets.

Caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, will Adelais find that her new life comes at too high a price?


The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus)


Front cover of The Ghosts of Paris by Tara Moss

The Ghosts of Paris (Billie Walker Mystery #2) by Tara Moss (Verve Books) 

It’s 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of the Second World War, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator.

When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant Sam to track down her missing husband, the trail leads Billie back to London and Paris, where Billie’s own painful memories also lurk. Jack Rake, Billie’s wartime lover and, briefly, husband, is just one of the millions of people who went missing in Europe during the war. What was his fate after they left Paris together?

As Billie’s search for her client’s husband takes her to both the swanky bars at Paris’s famous Ritz hotel and to the dank basements of the infamous Paris morgue, she’ll need to keep her gun at the ready, because something even more terrible than a few painful memories might be following her around the City of Lights…

#TopTenTuesday Most Recent Additions To My Book Collection #TuesdayBookBlog

Top 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 Top Ten Tuesday topic is Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection. My list is a combination of gifts from others, gifts to myself, prize wins and recent NetGalley approvals (denoted by asterisks). Links from each title will take you to the book description on Goodreads.

  1. A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill (BBC Books)
  2. The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker)
  3. The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase (Penguin)
  4. A Maigret Christmas And Other Stories by Georges Simenon (Penguin)
  5. The Mouthless Dead by Anthony Quinn (Abacus)*
  6. Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton (Fairlight)*
  7. The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner (Aria)*
  8. The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (William Morrow)
  9. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker)
  10. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (John Murray) *

What’s new on your bookshelves or wishlist?