memes – Page 122 – What Cathy Read Next…

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023. There are lots I’m looking forward to, some of which I’m lucky enough to have as eARCs via NetGalley. Others are books I’m planning to treat myself to when they’re published. Links from the titles will take you to the full book description on Goodreads/Amazon.

A Gift of Poison (Brontë Sisters Mystery #4) by Bella Ellis (9th February) – ‘It is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt’
Legionary: The Emperor’s Shield by Gordon Doherty (16th February) – ‘A brand new tale of war, heroism and treachery set in the late Roman Empire’
The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce (23rd February) – ‘A deliciously disturbing Gothic tale of a revenge reaching out across the years’
The Spy Across The Water by James Naughtie (2nd March) – ‘The third installment in James Naughtie’s brilliant spy series about three brothers whose lives are all entwined with the intelligence services’
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (21st March) – ‘A dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, grief, and long-buried secrets’
A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson (23rd March) – ‘An unique and beautiful story of love, class and belonging is also a profound and intimate meditation on what it takes to find our place in the world’
A Bitter Remedy (The Oxford Mysteries #1) by Alis Hawkins (23rd March) – ‘Amongst the scholars, secrets and soporifics of Victorian Oxford, the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow….’
Moscow Exile (Joe Wilderness #4) by John Lawton (4th May) – ‘A gripping thriller populated by larger-than-life personalities in a Cold War plot that feels strangely in tune with our present’
The Scarlet Papers by Matthew Richardson (25th May) – ‘Only she knows the truth. Only he can tell the world’
Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas (8th June) – ‘A grand hotel, a famous opera star and a psychoanalyst with a hidden agenda’

background book stack books close up — Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is Beach Read by Emily Henry. As is often the case, it’s a book I haven’t read or, to be honest, am likely to read as it doesn’t really sound my thing.

But picking up on the ‘beach’ element of the title, my first link is to The Beach at Doonshean by Penny Feeny. It tells the story of Julia, a widow, who decides to return to a wild corner of Ireland, the site of a tragedy thirty years before, in an attempt to lay to rest the past.

The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually by Helen Cullen is also set in a remote part of Ireland. It tells the story of married couple, Maeve and Murtagh, and the impact a tragic event has on the members of their family.

Strains in a relationship form the basis for The House of Birds by Morgan McCarthy. Oliver’s girlfriend, Kate, inherits a derelict house. She wants to strip it, sell it and move on but the house holds a mysterious allure for Oliver, as well as a secret.

There’s another house with a mystery associated with it in The House at Helygen by Victoria Hawthorne. When Henry Fox is found dead in his ancestral home in Cornwall the police rule it a suicide but his pregnant wife, Josie, believes it was murder and embarks on a quest to learn the truth.

Staying in Cornwall and the theme of family secrets, in The Birdcage by Eve Chase three half-sisters gather at Rock Point, the Cornish cliff house where they once sat for their father’s most celebrated painting, ‘Girls with Birdcage’.

A painting is also the focus of Molly & The Captain by Anthony Quinn. The portrait of his two daughters – a painting known as ‘Molly & The Captain’ – by famous artist William Merrymount forms a connection between the lives of characters separated by over three hundred years.

My chain has taken me on a journey from a beach house on Lake Michigan to Georgian Bath. Where did your chain take you?