#WWWWednesday – 1st September 2021

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 Senator's Darkest DaysThe Senator’s Darkest Days by Joan E. Histon (ebook, Top Hat Books)

40AD and despite the threat of bloodshed, Senator Vivius Marcianus travels to Jerusalem to investigate the delay in erecting the Emperor’s statue in the temple. Failure is not an option.

When Vivius is wounded and imprisoned, it is left to Dorio to rescue his heavily pregnant sister and her children and set about proving Vivius’s innocence.

AnythingIsPossibleAnything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (proof copy, Viking)

Short story collection Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.


Recently finished

Gallowstree Lane (Collins & Griffiths #3) by Kate London

The Unfortunate Englishman (Joe Wilderness #2) by John Lawton 


What Cathy (will) Read Next

Three Words for GoodbyeThree Words For Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb (review copy, William Morrow)

Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . .

New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe – together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.

Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity to develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.

Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and  Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey. 

My Week in Books – 29th August 2021

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of The Late Train To Gipsy Hill by Alan Johnson.

Tuesday This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time.

WednesdayWWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading. 

Thursday – I shared my publication day review of Planet of Clay by Samar Yazbek, translated by Leri Price.

Friday – I published my review of Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks.

Saturday – I shared my thoughts on The Unfortunate Englishman (Joe Wilderness #2) by John Lawton, book 19 of my 20 Books of Summer 2021.

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


New arrivals

Daughters of War CoverDaughters of War (Daughters of War #1) by Dinah Jefferies (eARC, HarperCollins)

France, 1944. Deep in the river valley of the Dordogne, in an old stone cottage on the edge of a beautiful village, three sisters long for the end of the war.

Hélène, the eldest, is trying her hardest to steer her family to safety, even as the Nazi occupation becomes more threatening.

Elise, the rebel, is determined to help the Resistance, whatever the cost.

And Florence, the dreamer, just yearns for a world where France is free.

Then, one dark night, the Allies come knocking for help. And Helene knows that she cannot sit on the sidelines any longer. But bravery comes at a cost, and soon the sisters’ lives become even more perilous as they fight for what is right. And secrets from their own mysterious past threaten to unravel everything they hold most dear…


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Beloved Girls by Harriet Evans
  • Book Review: Gallowstree Lane by Kate London
  • WWW Wednesday
  • My Five Favourite August Reads
  • Book Review: The Senator’s Darkest Days by Joan E. Histon
  • #6Degrees of Separation
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Hidden Child by Louise Fein