books – Page 312 – What Cathy Read Next…

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 topic is Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon. Oh my goodness, how do I narrow it down to just ten? Rather than pick out some of my oldest unread books (that would be way too embarrassing), I’m focusing on books I need to – as well as want to – read soon. So my ten comprise the seven books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction that I haven’t yet read, two books that publish next month and my book club’s pick for May. I can get through those, can’t I? Hollow laughs all round…

For Thy Great Pain, Have Mercy on my Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie
Music in the Dark by Sally Magnusson
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Mister Timeless Blyth by Alan Spence
In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas
Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain
Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke
The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley
The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

Which books from your TBR pile do you hope to read soon?

Book cover of Estella's Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

Book cover of The Small Museum by Jody Cooksley

Book cover of The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared review of Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson, a coming-of-age story set in Jamaica.

Tuesday – I went off-piste for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday with a list of Books I’ve Read That Have Won Literary Prizes.

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 Q&A with Gary Corbin about his latest crime novel, Under the Banner of Valor, which will be published on 7th May 2024.

Friday – I published my review of historical novel, The Paris Peacemakers by Flora Johnston, as part of the blog tour.

Saturday – I shared my review of A Better Place by Stephen Daisley, one of the books on the longlist for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Book cover of Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson

Book cover of Under the Banner of Valor by Gary Corbin

New arrivals

Two souvenirs from the Verve Books book bloggers event on 17th April.

The War Widow by Tara Moss (Verve Books)

WWII may be over, but journalist Billie Walker’s search for a missing young man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she’d left behind in Europe.

It’s 1946, and though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be back home in glamorous Sydney, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance of her husband, Jack. To make matters worse, newspapers are now sidelining her reporting talents to prioritise jobs for returning soldiers.

Determined to take control of her future, she reopens her late father’s private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking. At first, Billie’s work consists of tailing cheating husbands. But when a young man goes missing, Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead her to the highest levels of Sydney society, and down into its underworld. As the risk mounts, Billie realises that there is much more than one man’s life at stake. Though the war was won, it is far from over.

The Damages by Genevieve Scott (Verve Books)

What I remember best about that week in January is trying to keep track of all the lies I told…

1997. Ontario has been hit by a days-long, life-endangering ice storm, and on Regis University campus, with classes cancelled, the students are partying. In the midst of it all, eighteen-year-old Ros’s roommate Megan goes missing. As a panicked search ensues, Ros is blamed for not keeping a closer eye on Megan, and the incident casts a shadow over the next two decades of her life.

2020. Ros’s former partner, Lukas, the father of her eleven-year-old son, is accused of a sexual assault. The accusation brings new details of an old story to light, forcing Ros to revisit a dark moment from her past. Ros must take a hard look not only at the father of her child, but also at her own mistakes, her own trauma, and at the supposedly liberal period she grew up in.