My Week in Books – 27th December 2020

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Hope Santa Brings. (Spoiler: He didn’t.)

WednesdayWWW 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. Before signing off for the Christmas break, I also published my review of my last Buchan of the Month for 2020, The Long Traverse by John Buchan.

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


New arrivals

9781471196805When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler (ARC, courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

Three friends. Two sides. One memory.

Vienna, 1936. Three young friends – Leo, Elsa and Max – spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness, and that events soon mean that they will be cruelly ripped apart from each other. With their lives taking them across Europe – to Germany, England, Prague and Poland – will they ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?  

Inspired by a true story, When The World Was Ours shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.

9781472235947The Drowned City (Daniel Pursglove #1) by K.J. Maitland (eARC, courtesy of Headline via NetGalley)

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God’s vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.

In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel’s skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.

For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan’s lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy – and in pursuit of a killer.
 

9780241423301The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea (eARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph via NetGalley) 

Orkney, 1940. On a remote island, a prisoner-of-war camp is constructed to house five hundred Italian soldiers. Upon arrival, a freezing Orkney winter and divided community greets them. Orphaned sisters Dorothy and Constance volunteer to nurse the men. Dot is immediately drawn to Cesare, a young man fighting on the wrong side and broken by war and destruction.

The soldiers spend their days building a secret barricade between the islands. By night, however, they construct a reminder of their native land – an exquisite chapel. As tensions between the islanders and outsiders grow, the sisters’ loyalty is tested. Will Dot choose love, or family?

Outlook-23wc5vhfShe Came To Stay by Eleni Kyriacou (eARC, courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley)

In a city of strangers, who can you trust?

London, 1952. Dina Demetriou has travelled from Cyprus for a better life. She’s certain that excitement, adventure and opportunity are out there, waiting – if only she knew where to look. Her passion for clothes and flair for sewing land her a job repairing the glittering costumes at the notorious Pelican Revue. It’s here that she befriends the mysterious and beautiful Bebba.

With her bleached-blonde hair and an appetite for mischief, Bebba is like no Greek Dina has ever met before. She guides Dina around the fashionable shops, bars and clubs of Soho, and Dina finally feels life has begun. But Bebba has a secret. And as thick smog brings the city to a standstill, the truth emerges with devastating results. Dina’s new life now hangs by a thread. What will be left when the fog finally clears? And will Dina be willing to risk everything to protect her future?

9780704374515Saving The World- Women: The Twenty-First Century’s Factor for Change by Paola Diana (review copy, courtesy of Quartet Books and Midas PR)

A passionate call for international gender equality by a leading entrepreneur; this smart, accessible and inspiring book makes the case for why all nations need more women at the top of politics and economics.

“The status of women is a global challenge; it touches every human being without exception. How is it possible that countries where women have achieved political, economic and social rights after exhausting struggles remain seemingly indifferent to the egregiousness of other nations where the status of women is still tragic? The time has come to help those left behind.”


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult 
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2020
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Book Review: Elmet by Fiona Mozley
  • #6Degrees of Separation

#WWWWednesday – 23rd December 2020

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 NetGalley ARC and an audiobook…

Small Great ThingsSmall Great Things by Jodi Picoult (audiobook)

Ruth Jefferson is a labour and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family – especially her teenage son – as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others – and themselves – might be wrong.

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

The Diabolical Bones (Brontë Sisters Mystery #2) by Bella Ellis 

Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson, trans. by David Warriner 

The Long Traverse by John Buchan 


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.