Tag: Currently Reading

My Week in Books – 3rd January 2021

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MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.

Tuesday –  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was the always tough Favourite Books of 2020. 

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. 

Thursday – I took a look at how I got on with My 2020 Reading Challenges.

Friday – I shared the books I might read for the What’s In A Name 2021 reading challenge.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month and the year means it’s time for #6Degrees of Separation.  This month’s starting book was Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

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

New arrivals

Nineteen MinutesNineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (audiobook)

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens – until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened in front of her own eyes – or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

The Diplomat's WifeThe Diplomat’s Wife by Michael Ridpath (advance review copy, courtesy of Corvus and Reader’s First)

1936: Devastated by the death of her beloved brother Hugh, Emma seeks to keep his memory alive by wholeheartedly embracing his dreams of a communist revolution. But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one of Hugh’s old comrades reappears, asking her to report on her philandering husband, and her loyalties are torn.

1979: Emma’s grandson, Phil, dreams of a gap-year tour of Cold War Europe, but is nowhere near being able to fund it. So when his beloved grandmother determines to make one last trip to the places she lived as a young diplomatic wife, and to try to solve a mystery that has haunted her since the war, he jumps at the chance to accompany her. But their journey takes them to darker, more dangerous places than either of them could ever have imagined…

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • When Are You Reading? 2021 Sign-Up 
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated 2021 Releases 
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Book Review: The Push by Ashley Audrain
  • Book Review: Elmet by Fiona Mozley
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Last Flight to Stalingrad by Graham Hurley
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Children’s Fate by Carolyn Hughes

#WWWWednesday – 30th December 2020

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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

A book from my review pile and a book for a blog tour…

ConnectednessConnectedness (Identity Detective #2) by Sandra Danby (ebook, courtesy of the author)

Justine’s art sells around the world, but does anyone truly know her? When her mother dies, she returns to her childhood home in Yorkshire where she decides to confront her past. She asks journalist Rose Haldane to find the baby she gave away when she was an art student, but only when Rose starts to ask difficult questions does Justine truly understand what she must face.

Is Justine strong enough to admit the secrets and lies of her past? To speak aloud the deeds she has hidden for 27 years, the real inspiration for her work that sells for millions of pounds. Could the truth trash her artistic reputation? Does Justine care more about her daughter, or her art? And what will she do if her daughter hates her? This tale of art, adoption, romance and loss moves between now and the Eighties, from London’s art world to the bleak isolated cliffs of East Yorkshire and the hot orange blossom streets of Malaga, Spain.

9781788547543Last Flight to Stalingrad by Graham Hurley (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Berlin, 1942: For four years, the men in field grey have helped themselves to country after country across Western Europe. For Werner Nehmann, a journalist at the Promi – the Ministry of Propaganda – this dizzying series of victories has felt like a party without end. But now the Reich’s attention has turned towards the East, and as winter sets in, the mood is turning. Werner’s boss, Joseph Goebbels, can sense it. A small man with a powerful voice and coal-black eyes, Goebbels has a deep understanding the dark arts of manipulation. His words, his newsreels, have shaken Germany awake, propelling it towards its greater destiny and he won’t let – he can’t let – morale falter now. But the Minister of Propaganda is uneasy and in his discomfort has pulled Werner into his close confidence. And here, amid the power struggle between the Nazi Chieftains, Werner will make his mistake and begin his descent into the hell of Stalingrad. 

Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my reviews

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult 

Elmet by Fiona Mozley

Daniel is heading north. He is looking for someone. The simplicity of his early life with Daddy and Cathy has turned sour and fearful. They lived apart in the house that Daddy built for them with his bare hands. They foraged and hunted. When they were younger, Daniel and Cathy had gone to school. But they were not like the other children then, and they were even less like them now. Sometimes Daddy disappeared, and would return with a rage in his eyes. But when he was at home he was at peace. He told them that the little copse in Elmet was theirs alone. But that wasn’t true. Local men, greedy and watchful, began to circle like vultures. All the while, the terrible violence in Daddy grew. (Review to follow)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The ProphetsThe Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (proof copy, courtesy of Quercus)

The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love – away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs – where they can be alone together.

But, Amos – a fellow slave – has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul’s gospel, he betrays them.