#WWWWednesday – 22nd December 2021

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

ThePigeonTunnelThe Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life by John le Carré (Penguin)

From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War to a career as a writer, John le Carré has lived a unique life.

In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive – reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he’s interviewing a German terrorist in her desert prison or watching Alec Guinness preparing for his role as George Smiley, this book invites us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood.

Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer’s journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.

Love After LoveLove After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Faber)

Meet the Ramdin-Chetan family: forged through loneliness, broken by secrets, saved by love.

Irrepressible Betty Ramdin, her shy son Solo and their marvellous lodger, Mr Chetan, form an unconventional household, happy in their differences, as they build a home together. Home: the place where your navel string is buried, keeping these three safe from an increasingly dangerous world. Happy and loving they are, until the night when a glass of rum, a heart to heart and a terrible truth explodes the family unit, driving them apart.


Recently finished

Links from titles will take you to my review

Hitler’s Taster by V. S. Alexander (Avon)

The Last of Our Kind by Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre (Hodder & Stoughton)

Little by Edward Carey (Gallic Books)


What Cathy (will) Read Next

Blue Shoes and HappinessBlue Shoes and Happiness (No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #7) by Alexander McCall Smith (Abacus)

Life is good for Mma Ramotswe as she sets out with her usual resolve to solve people’s problems, heal their misfortunes, and untangle the mysteries that make life interesting. And life is never dull on Tlokweng Road.

A new and rather too brusque advice columnist is appearing in the local paper. Then, a cobra is found in the offices of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Recently, the Mokolodi Game Preserve manager feels an infectious fear spreading among his workers, and a local doctor may be falsifying blood pressure readings. To further complicate matters, Grace Makutsi may have scared off her own fiance.

Mma Ramotswe, however, is always up to the challenge. 

#TopTenTuesday Books I Hope Santa Brings

Top Ten Tuesday new

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.

Christmas 4This week’s topic is Books I Hope Santa Brings. Although there are loads of books I’d be happy to unwrap on Christmas Day, in reality I’m unlikely to receive any actual books because my family and friends wouldn’t know what to buy as I have so many books already, and I don’t like being that specific with Christmas lists. However, in the expectation of some gift cards turning up under the Christmas tree, here are some book I’d spend the money on.  (Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads.)

The Streets by Anthony Quinn – I read my first book by this author – Eureka – recently and as a result I’m keen to explore more of his back catalogue. This one caught my eye because it was shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2013.

Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth MacNeal – I read the author’s debut novel, The Doll Factory, recently. This book is also set in Victorian times and sounds like it has a similarly intriguing plot as its predecessor.

Falling Creatures by Katherine Stansfield – This is the first book in the author’s ‘Cornish Mysteries’ series. I’ve read the two subsequent books, The Magpie Tree and The Mermaid Calls, but I’d love to find out how it all began.

The Girl in the Maze by Cathy Hayward – Having read some great reviews of this debut novel, I immediately added it to my wishlist. 

Little Boy Lost by Margharita Laski – I can’t recall which book blogger I have to thank for making me add this book, originally published in 1949, to my wishlist but it was probably a Persephone Books fan.

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson – This was a book on the longlist for this year’s Booker Prize that caught my eye, alongwith The Fortune Men (which I’ve read), The Sweetness of Water (which I’ve yet to read) and…

An Island by Karen Jennings – As well as being intrigued by the storyline, I also love it when a small publisher makes it to the longlist of a major literary prize.  

Not One Of Us by Alis Hawkins – This is the latest book in the author’s ‘Teifi Valley Coroner’ historical crime series which I’ve followed from the beginning, although I still have to read book two in the series, In Two Minds. 

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson – Another book I’ve seen a lot of love for, one reviewer describing it as an ‘astonishingly exquisite debut novella’.

Resistance by Mara Timon – I loved the author’s first book, City of Spies, so I’m keen to read this one as I cannot resist (get it?) a novel set in World War 2.