#WWWWednesday – 16th March 2022

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

YinkaYinka, where is your huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (Viking)

Yinka wants to find love. The problem is she also has a mum who thinks she’s better qualified to find it for her.

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she’s sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she’s a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too…

When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find A Date for Rachel’s Wedding. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs is to find herself?

The Woman with the MapThe Woman with the Map by Jan Casey (Aria via NetGalley)

February 1941. The world is at war and Joyce Cooper is doing her bit for the effort. A proud member of the ARP, it is her job to assist the people of Notting Hill when the bombs begin to fall. But as the Blitz takes hold of London, Joyce is called upon to plot the devastation that follows in its wake. Each night she must stand before her map and mark the trail of turmoil inflicted upon the homes and businesses she knows so well.

February 1974. Decades later, from her basement flat Joyce Cooper watches the world go by above her head. This is her haven; the home she has created for herself having had so much taken from her in the war. But now the council is tearing down her block of flats and she’s being forced to leave. Could this chance to start over allow Joyce to let go of the past and step back into her life?


Recently finished

The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville (Apollo)

Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant (Handheld Press)

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay (Aries Fiction)

Lean On Me by Serge Joncour, trans. by Louise Rogers Lalaurie and Jane Aitken (Gallic Books)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

China RoomChina Room by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker) 

Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family’s ‘china room’, sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk.

Spiralling around Mehar’s story is that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its ‘china room’ locked and barred. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence – his experiences of addiction, racism, and estrangement from the culture of his birth – he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery, finally gathering the strength to return home.

My Week in Books – 13th March 2022

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson.  

Tuesday – As part of the blog tour, I published my review of Crow Court by Andy Charman, a historical mystery told in the form of interlinked short stories.

Wednesday – I shared my review of Viking age historical adventure A Night of Flames by Matthew Harffy as part of the blog tour. 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 – For Throwback Thursday I revisited my reviews of the books that make up The Meonbridge Chronicles by Carolyn Hughes.   

Friday – I published my review of The Marsh House by Zoe Somerville.

Saturday – Indulging my other love besides books – gardening – I took part in the weekly #SixonSaturday meme.


New arrivals

All books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022.

FortuneFortune by Amanda Smyth (Peepal Tree Press)

Eddie Wade has recently returned from the US oilfields. He is determined to sink his own well and make his fortune in the 1920s Trinidad oil-rush. His sights are set on Sonny Chatterjee’s failing cocoa estate, Kushi, where the ground is so full of oil you can put a stick in the ground and see it bubble up.

When a fortuitous meeting with businessman Tito Fernandez brings Eddie the investor he desperately needs, the three men enter a partnership. A friendship between Tito and Eddie begins that will change their lives forever, not least when the oil starts gushing. But their partnership also brings Eddie into contact with Ada, Tito’s beautiful wife, and as much as they try, they cannot avoid the attraction they feel for each other.

Fortune, based on true events, catches Trinidad at a moment of historical change whose consequences reverberate down to present concerns with climate change and environmental destruction. As a story of love and ambition, its focus is on individuals so enmeshed in their desires that they blindly enter the territory of classic Greek tragedy where actions always have consequences.

News of the DeadNews of the Dead by James Robertson (Hamish Hamilton)

Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time.

In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach.

Generations later, in the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb is drawn to the Glen, and into the big house at the heart of its fragile community.

In the present day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of a ghost he thinks he has seen. Reflecting on her long life, Maja believes him, for she is haunted by ghosts of her own.

Blue PostcardsBlue Postcards by Douglas Bruton (Fairlight Books)

Once there was a street in Paris and it was called the Street of Tailors. This was years back, in the blue mists of memory.

Now it’s the 1950s and Henri is the last tailor on the street. With meticulous precision he takes the measurements of men and notes them down in his leather-bound ledger. He draws on the cloth with a blue chalk, cuts the pieces and sews them together. When the suit is done, Henri adds a finishing touch: a blue Tekhelet thread hidden in the trousers somewhere, for luck. One day, the renowned French artist Yves Klein walks into the shop, and orders a suit.

The Sunken Road PBThe Sunken Road by Ciaran McMenamin (Vintage)

Annie, Francie and Archie were inseparable growing up, but in 1914 the boys are seduced by the drama of the Great War. Before leaving their small Irish village for the trenches, Francie promises his true love Annie that he will bring her little brother home safe.

Six years later Francie is on the run, a wanted man in the Irish war of Independence. He needs Annie’s help to escape safely across the border, but that means confronting the truth about why Archie never came back….


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant 
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay 
  • Book Review: Lean on Me by Serge Joncour
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Yinka, where is your huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn