#TopTenTuesday Books On My Spring 2022 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday

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 Books On My Spring 2022 TBR. Where do I start? Okay, here are just ten with the emphasis on those I need to read for blog tours and books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022. The shortlist in announced at the beginning of April so I need to get a move on…

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson – The winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2021, this is March’s pick for my book club. 

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu – Described as ‘a moving debut novel about war, migration, and the power of telling stories’ following three generations of a Chinese family on their search for a place to call home.

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota – On the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize, it combines the story of Mehar, a young bride in rural Punjab in 1929 and that of a young man who in 1999 travels there from England in enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence.  

Traitor in the Ice by K. J. Maitland – Historical crime novel set in 1607 by a favourite author of mine, the follow-up to The Drowned City.

The Magician by Colm Tóibín – Another book on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize, it’s the story of the life of writer Thomas Mann.

Still Life by Sarah Winman – A Walter Scott Prize longlisted book, in which young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, and middle-aged art historian, Evelyn Skinner, meet in Tuscany in 1944 setting off a chain of events. 

The Fall by Rachael Blok – A simple case of suspected suicide turns into an investigation into a long-buried past, involving a mental hospital, a pregnant woman, and fifty years of silence.

The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer – The eighth in the Benny Griessel series of crime novels by an author described by Wilbur Smith no less as ‘the undisputed champion of South African crime’.

The Birdcage by Eve Chase – Set on the Cornish coast, it’s the story of Kat, Flossie and Lauren, half-sisters who share a famous artist father – and a terrible secret.

Fortune by Amanda Smyth – Another book on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize. Set in 1920s Trinidad, and based on a real-life event, it’s described as a novel about love, money, greed and ambition.

 


#WWWWednesday – 9th March 2022

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

Lean On MeLean On Me by Serge Joncour, trans. by Louise Rogers Lalaurie and Jane Aitken (Gallic Books)

When a flock of crows invades their shared apartment block, farmer-turned-debt collector Ludovic and fashion designer Aurore speak for the first time. With nothing but the birds in common, the two are destined for separate lives, yet are drawn inexplicably together.

Though their story is set in Paris, the tale of Ludovic and Aurore is far from an idyllic romance. With one trapped in an unhappy marriage and the other lost in grief, the city of love has brought each of them only isolation and pain. As Aurore faces losing her business and Ludovic questions the ethics of his job, they begin a passionate affair. Love between such different people seems doomed to failure, but for these two unhappy souls trapped in ruthless worlds, perhaps loving one another is the greatest form of resistance.

From the award winning author of Wild Dog, Lean on Me explores the realities of unlikely love, and how connection and intimacy offer us an escape from all that is harsh and cold in our modern day lives.

The Marsh HouseThe Marsh House by Zoë Somerville (Apollo via NetGalley)

December, 1962. Desperate to salvage something from a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast for Christmas. But once there, the strained silence between her and her daughter, Franny, feels louder than ever. Digging for decorations in the attic, she comes across the notebooks of the teenaged Rosemary, who lived in the house years before. Though she knows she needs to focus on the present, Malorie finds herself inexorably drawn into the past…

July, 1930. Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken truths and rumours. So when the glamorous Lafferty family move to the village, she succumbs easily to their charm. Dazzled by the beautiful Hilda and her dashing brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger that lurks beneath their bright façades…

As Malorie reads on, the boundaries between past and present begin to blur, in this haunting novel about family, obligation and deeply buried secrets.


Recently finished

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson (Atlantic Books via Readers First)

Crow Court by Andy Charman (Unbound)

A Night of Flames (A Time For Swords #2) by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

China RoomChina Room by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker) 

Mehar, a young bride in rural 1929 Punjab, is trying to discover the identity of her new husband. She and her sisters-in-law, married to three brothers in a single ceremony, spend their days hard at work in the family’s ‘china room’, sequestered from contact with the men. When Mehar develops a theory as to which of them is hers, a passion is ignited that will put more than one life at risk.

Spiralling around Mehar’s story is that of a young man who in 1999 travels from England to the now-deserted farm, its ‘china room’ locked and barred. In enforced flight from the traumas of his adolescence – his experiences of addiction, racism, and estrangement from the culture of his birth – he spends a summer in painful contemplation and recovery, finally gathering the strength to return home.