Currently Reading

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!

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai (ARC, Quercus)

Ann Tran s already at a crossroads when she gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has died. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test.

With both her relationship and her carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House’s attic, long-buried secrets come to light, revealing how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life.

The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (eARC, Mantle via NetGalley)

‘My father had spelt it out to me. Choice was a luxury I couldn’t afford. This is your story, Red. You must tell it well….’

A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.

Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society, but she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . .

Recently finished

The Wall (City of Victory #3) by Adrian Goldsworthy (Head of Zeus)

The Voluble Topsy, 1928-1947 by A. P. Herbert (Handheld Press)

Voices of the Dead (Raven, Fisher & Simpson #4) by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

North Woods by Daniel Mason (eARC, John Murray via NetGalley)

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike.

An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave – only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan, one of the books on the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023. (The winner was announced on Thursday – These Days by Lucy Caldwell.)

Tuesday – For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday I shared Books On My Wishlist.

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 historical novel, The Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy, the final book in the trilogy set in Roman Britain.

Saturday – I joined other keen gardeners with a #SixonSaturday garden update.

New arrivals

The Soldier’s Child by Tetyana Denford (eARC, Bookouture via NetGalley)

“He is mine, he is ours,” she whispers, as the tears in her eyes gather in the corners. She holds her baby tightly, her breath coming out in ragged gasps, knowing that she needs to give her child to her brother forever. But will she ever be able to tell her child the truth about who his real mother is?

Ukraine, 1941 . War has ripped Katya ’s country and heart in two. When two soldiers knock down her door and force her into a truck, she knows deep down that this might be the last time she ever sees home. As she is driven away to a labour camp, she looks out the tiny window at the barren winter landscape and thinks only of her son Alexander , who she was forced to leave behind and may never see again…

Decades later, Katya has tried to rebuild her life after the horrors of war, but she still clings on to the hope of being reunited with her precious son. But whilst Katya has stayed in Ukraine, little does she know that her son moved his family to America years before in search of a better life.

Can she find peace without knowing what happened to him? Will Katya ever be able to reunite with Alexander and tell the truth about who she is? Or will they be defeated by the war that has already taken so much from them?

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (ARC, Hutchinson & Women’s Prize Live)

‘What if we decided to try and find him?’

‘What on earth are you on about?’ she said. ‘How are we going to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, when the police haven’t even managed to?’

I sighed. Her questioning my ideas was a recent and unwelcome element to our friendship. But it was a valid point. How would we catch him? We needed some sort of plan, a way of gathering clues and putting them into order.

I thought about what the policeman had said about structure, and then about Aunty Jean and her notebook, and the idea I had hardened like toffee. I knew exactly what we needed to do.

‘We’ll make a list,’ I said. ‘A list of the people and things we see that are suspicious.

And then . . . And then we’ll investigate them.’

The List of Suspicious Things is a tender and moving coming of age story about family, friendship and community. Sometimes the strongest connections are found in the most unlikely of places.

The Hollow Throne (The Sarmatian Trilogy #3) by Tim Leach (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

180 AD. North of the Wall, Sarmatian warrior Kai and his adopted tribe, the Votadini, struggle for survival, cast into unfamiliar lands by Roman reprisals.

When news arrives that an old enemy is in charge of the Votadini’s hated foes, a confederation of tribes known as the Painted People, and has roused them to action, Kai heads south towards the Wall, hoping to ally with the Romans against this resurgent threat.

Meanwhile, the Romans have heard tales of butchery and mayhem beyond the Wall. Lucius, Legate of the North, believes is is Kai and his allies who are responsible, and sends forth an expedition to capture his old comrade.

Can Kai and his loved ones survive the onslaught – or will the combined might of Rome and the hatred of their enemies spell the end for the warrior and his tribe?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry
Book Review: The Voluble Topsy by A. P. Herbert

Tag: Currently Reading

#WWWWednesday – 21st June 2023