#WWWWednesday – 7th October 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

Two books from my Henley Literary Festival 2020 reading list and a book for the #1956Club.

The Push Ashley AudrainThe Push by Ashley Audrain (ARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph)

What if your experience of motherhood was nothing like what you hoped for – but everything you always feared?

‘The women in this family, we’re different…’

The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day of my life. It was meant to be a fresh start. But as soon as I held her in my arms I knew something wasn’t right. I have always known that the women in my family aren’t meant to be mothers.

My husband Fox says I’m imagining it. He tells me I’m nothing like my own mother, and that Violet is the sweetest child. But she’s different with me. Something feels very wrong. Is it her? Or is it me? Is she the monster? Or am I?

The Wild Silence Raynor WinnThe Wild Silence by Raynor Winn (eARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph via NetGalley)

Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth. After walking 630 homeless miles along The Salt Path, living on the windswept and wild English coastline; the cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home.

Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but against all medical odds, he seems revitalized in nature. Together on the wild coastal path, with their feet firmly rooted outdoors, they discover that anything is possible.

Now, life beyond The Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls, but the sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult – until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything.

A chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills; rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow.

The Wild Silence is a story of hope triumphing over despair, of lifelong love prevailing over everything. It is a luminous account of the human spirit’s instinctive connection to nature, and how vital it is for us all.

9781844089611The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault 

Athens and Sparta, the mighty city states of ancient Greece, locked together in a quarter century of conflict: the Peloponnesian War.

Alexias the Athenian was born, passed through childhood and grew to manhood in those troubled years, that desperate and dangerous epoch when the golden age of Pericles was declining into uncertainty and fear for the future.

Of good family, he and his friends are brought up and educated in the things of the intellect and in athletic and martial pursuits. They learn to hunt and to love, to wrestle and to question. And all the time his star of destiny is leading him towards the moment when he must stand alongside his greatest friend Lysis in the last great clash of arms between the cities.


Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review

Hunter Killer by Brad Taylor 

Green Hands by Barbara Whitton

Those Who Know (Teifi Valley Coroner #3) by Alis Hawkins (ARC, courtesy of The Dome Press)

Hunter Killer Brad TaylorThose Who KnowGreen Hands


What Cathy (will) Read Next

Betrayal CoverBetrayal byLilja Sigurðardóttir(eARC, courtesy of Orenda Books)

Burned out and traumatised by her horrifying experiences around the world, aid worker Úrsula has returned to Iceland. Unable to settle, she accepts a high-profile government role in which she hopes to make a difference again.

But on her first day in the post, Úrsula promises to help a mother seeking justice for her daughter, who had been raped by a policeman, and life in high office soon becomes much more harrowing than Úrsula could ever have imagined. A homeless man is stalking her – but is he hounding her, or warning her of some danger? And why has the death of her father in police custody so many years earlier reared its head again?

As Úrsula is drawn into dirty politics, facing increasingly deadly threats, the lives of her stalker, her bodyguard and even a witch-like cleaning lady intertwine. Small betrayals become large ones, and the stakes are raised ever higher…

My Week in Books – 4th October 2020

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of Dear Child by Romy Hausmann as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – My take on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Book Titles That Are Quotations 

Wednesday – It wouldn’t be “hump day” without WWW Wednesday, 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 shared my review of Green Hands by Barbara Whitton as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I joined the blog tour for Hunter Killer by Brad Taylor, sharing my review.

Saturday – For this month’s 6 Degrees of Separation I created a chain of books from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James to Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie.

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


New arrivals

A Conspiracy of SilenceA Conspiracy of Silence (DI Gillian Marsh #5) by Anna Legat (eARC, courtesy of Headline via NetGalley)

When a body is found in the grounds of a prestigious Wiltshire private school, DI Gillian Marsh takes on the case. The young groundsman, Bradley Watson, has been shot dead, pierced through the heart with an arrow.

As the investigation gathers pace, DI Marsh is frustrated to find the Whalehurst staff and students united in silence. This scandal must not taint their reputation. But when Gillian discovers pictures of missing Whalehurst pupil, fifteen-year-old Rachel Snyder, on Bradley’s dead body – photos taken on the night she disappeared, and he was murdered – the link between the two is undeniable.

But what is Whalehurst refusing to reveal? And does Gillian have what it takes to bring about justice?

How Beautiful We WereHow Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue (eARC, courtesy of Canongate via NetGalley)

“We should have known the end was near.”

Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company.

Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations to the villagers are made – and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interest. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle would last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told through the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold onto its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Autumn Vibes
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Those Who Know by Alis Hawkins
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Book Review: The Magic Walking Stick by John Buchan
  • My Five Favourite September Reads
  • Book Review: This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik