Tag: Currently Reading

My Week in Books – 3rd December 2023

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine, a book towards the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Set in X and I went for Books Set in Eurovision Countries.   

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I published my review of The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, the December pick for BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub.

Friday – I shared my #NetGalleyNovember Wrap-Up.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain to The Night Manager by John le Carré. 

New arrivals

At last, some new books! 

A Good Scent from a Strange MountainA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (No Exit)

The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama.

Butler’s literary ventriloquism, as he mines the experiences of a people with a great literary tradition of their own, is uncanny; but his talents as a writer of universal truths is what makes this a collection for the ages.

A Dry Spell PBA Dry Spell by Clare Chambers (Cornerstone)

In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them.

And repercussions are exactly what Guy doesn’t need. His wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane’s sanity, and now even God’s gone quiet on him.

As for Nina, she’s having enough trouble with her son, James. He’s got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he is on drugs. Nina certainly won’t welcome any ghosts from the past…

Life isn’t going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Binding by Bridget Collins
  • Book Review: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
  • My Five Favourite November 2023 Reads

#WWWWednesday – 29th November 2023

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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 TBR pile and my final NetGalley title for the #NetGalleyNovember reading challenge.

The Forgotten Letters of Esther DurrantThe Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn (Orion)

An abandoned woman…

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison but soon becomes her refuge.

A forbidden love…

2017. When free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker is forced to take shelter on a far-flung island off the Cornish Coast during a research posting, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel is determined to find the intended recipient.

A dangerous secret…

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years. 

Three women bound together by a heartbreaking secret. A love story that needs to be told.

the bindingThe Binding by Bridget Collins (ebook, The Borough Press via NetGalley)

Emmett Farmer is a binder’s apprentice. His job is to hand-craft beautiful books and, within each, to capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory.

If you have something you want to forget, or a secret to hide, he can bind it – and you will never have to remember the pain it caused.

In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books – and secrets – are meticulously stored and recorded.

Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of the volumes has his name on it.

Recently finished

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, trans. by Jeremy Tiang (Head of Zeus)

The Diver and the Lover by Jeremy Vine (Hodder & Stoughton)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Leftover WomanThe Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok (Viper)

asmine Yang thought her daughter was dead at birth. But five years after she was taken from her arms, she learns that her controlling husband sent the baby to America to be adopted, a casualty of China’s one-child-policy. Fleeing her rural Chinese village, Jasmine arrives in New York City with nothing except a desperate need to find her daughter. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her child.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Whitney seems to have it a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardise not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble.

Two women in a divided city, separated by wealth and culture, yet bound together by their love for the same child. And when they finally meet, their lives will never be the same again…