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
Fake Like Me is a buddy read organised by publishers, riverrun, taking place over four weeks. You can follow the discussion every Monday evening on Twitter using the hashtag #FakeLikeUs. Set in the art world, it’s a great read so far. The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale is a book that has lingered far too long in my author review pile. It always feels great to start a book that an author has been waiting a long time for a review. You can find out more about the book in my Q & A with the author..
Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland (paperback, review copy courtesy of riverrun)
After a fire decimates her studio, including the seven billboard-size paintings for her next show, a young, no-name painter is left with an impossible task: recreate her art in three months-or ruin her fledgling career.
Homeless and desperate, she flees to an exclusive retreat in upstate New York famous for its outrageous revelries and glamorous artists. And notorious as the place where brilliant young artist Carey Logan-one of her idols-drowned in the lake.
But when she arrives, the retreat is a ghost of its former self. No one shares their work. No parties light up the deck. No one speaks of Carey, though her death haunts the cabins and the black lake, lurking beneath the surface like a shipwreck. As the young painter works obsessively in Carey’s former studio, uncovers strange secrets and starts to fall–hard and fast–for Carey’s mysterious boyfriend, it’s as if she’s taking her place.
But one thought shadows her every move: What really happened to Carey Logan?
The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale by Rebecca Stonehill (ebook, courtesy of the author)
1967 – Handsome but troubled, Jim is almost 18 and he lives and breathes girls, trad. jazz, Eel Pie Island and his best friend, Charles. One night, he hears rumours of a community of young people living in caves in Matala, Crete. Determined to escape his odious, bully of a father and repressed mother, Jim hitchhikes through Europe down to Matala. At first, it’s the paradise he dreamt it would be. But as things start to go wrong and his very notion of self unravels, the last thing Jim expects is for this journey of hundreds of miles to set in motion a passage of healing which will lead him back to the person he hates most in the world: his father.
Taking in the counter-culture of the 1960’s, the clash of relationships between the WW2 generation and their children, the baby boomers, this is a novel about secrets from the past finally surfacing, the healing of trauma and the power of forgiveness.
Recently finished
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle (paperback, courtesy of Readers First)
“We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.”
At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen?
When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.
Razia by Abda Khan (ebook, review copy courtesy of Unbound and Random Things Tours)
Farah is a young lawyer living and working in London. She’s just ended a long relationship, and her parents are looking for a husband – whether Farah wants one or not. So far, so normal. But at a work dinner, hosted by a dangerously powerful man, she comes across a young woman called Razia, who Farah soon realises is being kept as a domestic slave.
We follow Farah’s daring investigations from the law courts of London to the brick kilns of Lahore, as she begins to uncover the traps that keep generation after generation enslaved. Everywhere she turns there is deep-rooted oppression and corruption, and when the authorities finally intervene, their actions have dire consequences. Farah teams up with a human rights lawyer, Ali, and the two become close… but can she trust him; can they help Razia and others like her; and will they ever discover the explosive secret behind these tragic events? (Review to follow as part of blog tour)
What Cathy (will) Read Next
The Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly (hardcover, review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby)
Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack. The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boy’s death and the attack at the factory. As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?
Motive X by Stefan Ahnhem (hardcover, review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus)
A WOUNDED DAUGHTER. Detective Fabian Risk’s daughter is in a coma at Helsingborg hospital. It’s Risk’s fault for getting her involved in his last investigation – and the guilt is crippling.
A MURDERED BOY. A young Syrian refugee has been killed. It looks like a racist attack – but then more people die across Sweden and Denmark. There’s no link between any of the victims. Is this a serial killer who strikes at random?
A DESPERATE HUNT. In Denmark, Police Chief Astrid Tuvesson must abandon her AA program to lead the investigation. And in Sweden, Fabian Risk is called from his daughter’s bedside and forced back into service. But even with a united team, tracking a random killer is next to impossible…
HOW DO YOU CATCH A KILLER… WHO NEVER STRIKES THE SAME WAY TWICE?
What Cathy Read Next... 