Tag: Currently Reading

My Week in Books – 5th February 2022

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books with Character Names in the Titles.

Wednesday –  WWW Wednesday is my 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 publication day review of The Silver Wolf by J. C. Harvey.

Friday – I published my review of The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs as part of the blog tour. 

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation with my chain taking me from No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I joined fellow gardeners for the Six On Saturday meme. 

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

A Night of FlamesA Night of Flames (A Time For Swords #2) by Matthew Harffy (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

A wild land. A lethal fanatic. A violent revolt.

Northumbria, AD 794. Those who rule the seas, rule the land. None know the truth of this more than the Vikings. To compete with the seafaring raiders, the king of Northumbria orders the construction of his own longships under the command of oath-sworn Norseman, Runolf.

When the Vikings attack again, the king sends cleric turned warrior, Hunlaf, on a mission to persuade the king of Rogaland into an alliance. But Hunlaf and Runolf have other plans; kin to seek out, old scores to settle, and a heretical tome to find in the wild lands of the Norse.

Their voyage takes them into the centre of a violent uprising. A slave has broken free of his captors and, with religious fervour, is leading his fanatical followers on a rampage – burning all in his path. Hunlaf must brave the Norse wilderness, and overcome deadly foes, to stop this madman. Can he prevent a night of flames and slaughter?

Lean On MeLean On Me by Serge Joncour, trans. by Jane Aitken (ARC, Gallic Books)  

When a flock of crows invades their shared apartment block, farmer-turned-debt collector Ludovic and fashion designer Aurore speak for the first time. With nothing but the birds in common, the two are destined for separate lives, yet are drawn inexplicably together.

Though their story is set in Paris, the tale of Ludovic and Aurore is far from an idyllic romance. With one trapped in an unhappy marriage and the other lost in grief, the city of love has brought each of them only isolation and pain. As Aurore faces losing her business and Ludovic questions the ethics of his job, they begin a passionate affair. Love between such different people seems doomed to failure, but for these two unhappy souls trapped in ruthless worlds, perhaps loving one another is the greatest form of resistance.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Dust Bowl Orphans by Suzette D. Harrison
  • My Five Favourite January 2022 Reads
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The City of Tears by Kate Mosse
  • Book Review: They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
  • Book Review: The Reading Party by Fenella Gentleman

#WWWWednesday – 2nd February 2022

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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

The Dust Bowl OrphansThe Dust Bowl Orphans by Suzette D. Harrison (eARC, Bookouture via NetGalley)

The dust cloud rolls in from nowhere, stinging our eyes and muddling our senses. I reach for my baby sister and pull her small body close to me. When the sky clears, we are alone on an empty road with no clue which way to go…

Oklahoma, 1935. Fifteen-year-old Faith Wilson takes her little sister Hope’s hand. In worn-down shoes, they walk through the choking heat of the Dust Bowl towards a new life in California. But when a storm blows in, the girls are separated from their parents. How will they survive in a place where just the color of their skin puts them in terrible danger?

Starving and forced to sleep on the streets, Faith thinks a room in a small boarding house will keep her sister safe. But the glare in the landlady’s eye as Faith leaves in search of their parents has her wondering if she’s made a dangerous mistake. Who is this woman, and what does she want with sweet little Hope? Trapped, will the sisters ever find their way back to their family?

California, present day. Reeling from her divorce and grieving the child she lost, Zoe Edwards feels completely alone in the world. Throwing herself into work cataloguing old photos for an exhibition, she sees an image of a teenage girl who looks exactly like her, and a shiver grips her. Could this girl be a long-lost relation, someone to finally explain the holes in Zoe’s family history? Diving into the secrets in her past, Zoe unravels this young girl’s heartbreaking story of bravery and sacrifice. But will anything prepare her for the truth about who she is…?

The Porcelain DollThe Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch (ARC, Allison & Busby) 

‘She was called Kukolka,’ he says. Little doll. It’s an unwelcome reminder of Mum’s porcelain prisoners back in London. Of all the things we could have brought with us from Russia – and we weren’t able to bring very much – she chose them.

Rosie’s only inheritance from her reclusive mother is a book of Russian fairy tales. But there is another story lurking between the lines.

Not so long ago, Rosie lived peacefully in Moscow and her mother told fairy tales at bedtime. But one summer night, all that came abruptly to an end when her father and sister were gunned down. Years later, Rosie is a doctoral student at Oxford, with a fiancé who knows nothing of her former life and an ailing, alcoholic mother lost to a notebook full of eerie, handwritten little stories.

Desperate for answers to the questions that have tormented her, Rosie returns to her homeland and uncovers a devastating family history which spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges and beyond. At the heart of those answers stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions reverberate across the century.

Recently finished

Late City by Robert Olen Butler (No Exit Press)

The Silver Wolf by J. C. Harvey (Allen & Unwin )

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs (Simon & Schuster) 

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The City of TearsThe City of Tears (The Burning Chambers #2) by Kate Mosse (Pan Macmillan)

Paris, August 1572. Minou Joubert and her family are in Paris for a Royal Wedding, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and the Huguenot King of Navarre intended to bring peace to France after a decade of religious wars. So too is their oldest enemy, Vidal, still in pursuit of a relic that will change the course of history. But within days of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the streets and Minou’s beloved family will be scattered to the four winds and one of her beloved children will have disappeared without trace…

A breath-taking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, sweeping from Paris and Chartres to the City of Tears itself – the great refugee city of Amsterdam – this is a story of one family’s fight to stay together, to survive and to find each other, against the devastating tides of history . . .