Tag: Currently Reading

My Week in Books – 4th September 2022

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – This week’s topic was a freebie on an educational theme and (rather predictably) I went with Books Set in Schools. 

Blackstone FellWednesday – I published my review of historical crime mystery Blackstone Fell by Martin Edwards as part of the blog tour. 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. 

20-books-of-summerThursday – I published my wrap-up for the 20 Books of Summer 2022 reading challenge. Spoiler alert: It’s a story of failure. 

Friday – I chose my Five Favourite August Reads. 

Saturday – The first Saturday on the month means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation. My bookish chain took me from The Quiet People by Paul Cleave to The Illumination of Ursula Flight by Anne-Marie Crowhurst.

New arrivals

Sleep When You're DeadSleep When You’re Dead by Jude O’Reilly (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Elite assassin and spy-for-hire Michael North is the man you call when there’s nothing left to lose. His tradecraft is unparalleled, he executes every mission with determination, skill and a certain amount of flair. There’s just one problem: the bullet lodged in his brain. If it moves, he will die – and so will the mission.

Now North’s been sent to infiltrate a doomsday cult on the Isle of Skye. Their leader is planning a terrorist attack on the mainland, and it’s North’s job to stop him. Together with teen hacker FangFang – the only person in the world he cares about – North must face down the forces of evil on behalf of his country.

Best of FriendsBest of Friends by Kamila Shamsie (Proof copy courtesy of Bloomsbury via Readers First)

Sometimes it was as though the forty years of friendship between them was just a lesson in the unknowability of other people.

Maryam and Zahra. In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome.

Zahra and Maryam. In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it. Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
  • Book Review/Blog Tour: Sometimes People Die by Simon Stephenson
  • Book Review: At the Breakfast Table by Defne Suman
  • Guest Post: The Man From Mittelwerk by M. Z. Urlocker
  • Guest Post: Richard Eager: A Pilot’s Story by Barbara Evans Kinnear

#WWWWednesday – 31st August 2022

whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

WWWWednesdays

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!

Currently reading

At the Breakfast TableAt the Breakfast Table by Defne Suman, trans. by Betsy Göksel (eARC, Head of Zeus)

Buyukada, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Shirin Saka. It ought to be a time of fond reminiscence, looking back on a long and fruitful artistic career, on memories spanning almost a century.

But the deep past is something Shirin has spent a lifetime trying to conceal. Her grandchildren, Nur and Fikret, and great-grandchild, Celine, do not know what she’s hiding, though they are intimately aware of the secret’s psychological consequences. The siblings invite family friend and investigative journalist Burak along to interview Shirin – in celebration of her centenary, and also in the hope of persuading her to open up.

Eventually Shirin begins to express her pain the only way she knows how. She paints a story onto her dining room wall, revealing a history wiped from public consciousness and generations of her family’s history.

IslandofSecretsIsland of Secrets by Patricia Wilson (Zaffre)

‘The story started at dawn on the fourteenth of September, 1943 . . .’

All her life, London-born Angelika has been intrigued by her mother’s secret past. Now planning her wedding, she feels she must visit the remote Crete village her mother grew up in.

Angie’s estranged elderly grandmother, Maria, is dying. She welcomes Angie with open arms – it’s time to unburden herself, and tell the story she’ll otherwise take to her grave.

It’s the story of the Nazi occupation of Crete during the Second World War, of horror, of courage and of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children. And it’s the story of bitter secrets that broke a family apart, and of three enchanting women who come together to heal wounds that have damaged two generations.

Sometimes People DieSometimes People Die by Simon Stephenson (eARC, Harper Collins)

The year is 1999. Returning to practice after a suspension for stealing opioids, a young Scottish doctor takes the only job he can find: a post as a senior house officer in the struggling east London hospital of St Luke’s.

Amid the maelstrom of sick patients, over-worked staff and underfunded wards a darker secret soon declares itself: too many patients are dying.

Which of the medical professionals our protagonist has encountered is behind the murders? And can our unnamed narrator’s version of the events be trusted?

Life TimeLife Time: The New Science of the Body Clock by Russell Foster (Penguin)

In the twenty-first century, we increasingly push our daily routines into the night, carrying out work, exercise and our social lives long after dark. But we have forgotten that our bodies are governed by a 24-hour biological clock which guides us towards the best time to sleep, eat and think. New science has proven that living out of sync with this clock is not only disrupting our sleep, but leaving us more vulnerable to infection, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mental illness.

In Life Time, Professor Russell Foster shares his life’s work, taking us on a fascinating and surprising journey through the science of our body clocks. Using his own studies, as well as insights from an international community of sleep scientists and biologists studying circadian rhythms, he illustrates the surprising effects the time of day can have on our health:

– how a walk outside at dawn can ensure a better night’s sleep
– how eating after sundown can affect our weight
– the extraordinary effects the time we take our medication can have on our risk of life-threatening conditions, such as strokes

In the modern world, we have neglected an essential part of our biology. But with knowledge of this astonishing science, we can get back into the rhythm, and live healthier, sharper lives.

Recently finished

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (Hodder & Stoughton)

Blackstone Fell by Martin Edwards (Head of Zeus)

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (Titan Books)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

ThePlagueCharmerThe Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland (Headline)

1361. An unlucky thirteen years after the Black Death, plague returns to England.

When the sickness spreads from city to village, who stands to lose the most? And who will seize this moment for their own dark ends?

The dwarf who talks in riddles?
The mother who fears for her children?
The wild woman from the sea?
Or two lost boys, far away from home?

Pestilence is in the air. But something much darker lurks in the depths.