#WWWWednesday – 26th August 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 for blog tours and my Buchan of the Month.

Somerville_The Night of the Flood_HBThe Night of the Flood by Zoë Somerville

Summer, 1952. Verity Frost, stranded on her family farm on the Norfolk coast, is caught between two worlds: the devotion of her childhood friend Arthur, just returned from National Service, and a strange new desire to escape it all. Arthur longs to escape too, but only with Verity by his side.

Into their world steps Jack, a charismatic American pilot flying secret reconnaissance missions off the North Sea coast. But where Verity sees adventure and glamour, Arthur sees only deception. As the water levels rise to breaking point, this tangled web of secrets, lies and passion will bring about a crime that will change all their lives.

Taking the epic real-life North Sea flood as its focus, The Night of the Flood is at once a passionate love story, an atmospheric thriller, and a portrait of a distinctive place in a time of radical social change.

A Prince of the CaptivityA Prince of the Captivity by John Buchan

Adam Melfort is an officer and a gentleman with a brilliant career ahead of him until he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.

Afterwards, he embarks on daring missions in the service of his country including espionage and dangerous work behind enemy lines in World War One.

The Museum Makers - front coverThe Museum Makers by Rachel Morris

Museum expert Rachel Morris had been ignoring the boxes of family belongings for decades.

When she finally opened them, an entire bohemian family history was laid bare. The experience was revelatory – searching for her absent father in the archives of the Tate; understanding the loss and longings of the grandmother who raised her – and transported her back to the museums that had enriched her lonely childhood.

By teasing out the stories of those early museum makers, and the unsung daughters and wives behind them, and seeing the same passions and mistakes reflected in her own family, Morris digs deep into the human instinct for collection and curation.

Part memoir, part detective story, part untold history of museums – this is a fascinating and moving family story.


Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review.

A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

The Night of Shooting Stars (Martin Bora #7) by Ben Pastor

The Bitch by Pilar Quintana

 


What Cathy (will) Read Next

V For Victory CoverV For Victory by Lissa Evans

It’s late 1944. Hitler’s rockets are slamming down on London with vicious regularity and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. Allied victory is on its way, but it’s bloody well dragging its feet.

In a large house next to Hampstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by, with a herd of lodgers to feed, and her young charge Noel ( almost fifteen ) to clothe and educate. When she witnesses a road accident and finds herself in court, the repercussions are both unexpectedly marvellous and potentially disastrous – disastrous because Vee is not actually the person she’s pretending to be, and neither is Noel.

The end of the war won’t just mean peace, but discovery…

My Week in Books – 23rd August 2020

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of The Girl From Vichy by Andie Newton as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books That Would Make Great Movies. I also featured a memoir about the ups and downs of a family’s move to France, What Have We Got Toulouse? by Nikki McArthur.

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. I also shared my review of The Wanderers by Tim Pears, the second book in his Walter Scott Prize nominated West Country trilogy.

Thursday – I published my publication day review of A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson.

Friday –  I introduced my Buchan of the Month for August, A Prince of the Captivity by John Buchan.

Saturday – I published my review of The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce, book number 16 on my 20 Books of Summer list, the annual reading challenge hosted by Cathy at 746Books. It was also the last book I needed to complete the When Are You Reading? Challenge hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

Phew! What a busy week… As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or so generously shared my blog posts on social media.


New arrivals

9781785769108Charlotte by Helen Moffett (Hardcover, courtesy of Manilla Press and Readers First)

Everybody thinks that Charlotte Lucas has no prospects. She is twenty-seven years old, unmarried, plain, and seemingly without ambition. When she stuns the neighbourhood by accepting the proposal of buffoonish clergyman Mr Collins, her best friend Lizzy Bennet is angry at her for undervaluing herself. Yet the decision is the only way Charlotte knows to provide for her future, and marriage will propel her into a new world, of duty, marriage, children, grief and ultimately illicit love, and a kind of freedom.

Jane Austen cared deeply about the constraints of women in Regency England. This powerful reimagining takes up where Austen left off, showing us a woman determined to carve a place for herself in the world. Charlotte offers a fresh, feminist addition to the post-Austen canon, beautifully imagined, and brimming with passion and intelligence.

Talland House Front coverTalland Houseby Maggie Humm (eARC, courtesy of She Writes Press and Random Things Tours)

Royal Academy, London 1919: Lily has put her student days in St. Ives, Cornwall, behind her – a time when her substitute mother, Mrs. Ramsay, seemingly disliked Lily’s portrait of her, and Louis Grier, her tutor, never seduced her as she hoped he would. In the years since, she’s been a suffragette and a nurse in WWI, and now she’s a successful artist with a painting displayed at the Royal Academy.

Then Louis appears at the exhibition with the news that Mrs. Ramsay has died under suspicious circumstances. Talking to Louis, Lily realizes two things: she must find out more about her beloved Mrs. Ramsay’s death (and her sometimes-violent husband, Mr. Ramsay); and she still loves Louis.

Set between 1900 and 1919 in picturesque Cornwall and war-blasted London, Talland House takes Lily Briscoe from the pages of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and tells her story outside the confines of Woolf’s novel – as a student in 1900, as a young woman becoming a professional artist, her loves and friendships, mourning her dead mother, and solving the mystery of her friend Mrs. Ramsay’s sudden death.

Talland House is both a story for our present time, exploring the tensions women experience between their public careers and private loves, and a story of a specific moment in our past – a time when women first began to be truly independent.

 


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Night of Shooting Stars by Ben Pastor
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Questions I’d Ask Authors
  • Book Review: The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Night of the Flood by Zoe Somerville
  • Blog Tour/Extract: Son of Escobar – First Born by Roberto Sendoya Escobar
  • Buchan of the Month/Book Review: A Prince of the Captivity by John Buchan