Tag: memes

#TopTenTuesday Books I Read In One Sitting

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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.

This week’s topic is Books I Read In One Sitting (Or Would Have If I Had The Time). I can’t recall many books I’ve read in one sitting, which I’m defining as starting and finishing a book on the same day. For one thing, with most books being 300 pages at least, it means carving out a significant amount of time. In addition, I like to reflect on what I’ve read so reading in chunks over the space of a few days works better for me. Therefore, I’ve concentrated on the ‘or would have if I had the time’ part of the topic in coming up with my list. However, I’ve included some short books that even I – if I had the inclination – could read in a day.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (it’s only 128 pages long)
The Power-House by John Buchan (it’s a classic page-turner, written before the more well-known The Thirty-Nine Steps)
Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar (a modern classic by an author known for her ‘surprise’ endings)
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller (this one’s on my 20 Books of Summer 2021 list and, at less than 300 pages, is a good candidate for ‘in one sitting’ if reviews are anything to go by)
Together by Luke Adam Hawker (a beautiful book of illustrations accompanied by thoughtful words)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (a masterclass in brevity and storytelling)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (a poignant and closely observed little gem)
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (a chilling ghost story with plenty of thrills despite its size) 
The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”)
Call For The Dead by John le Carré (the first appearance by George Smiley but in a murder mystery) 

#WWWWednesday – 14th July 2021

whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

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

Hurley_KYIV_HBKyiv by Graham Hurley (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

On Sunday 22nd June 1941 at 03.05, three-and-a-half million Axis troops burst into the Soviet Union along a 1,800-mile front to launch Operation Barbarossa. The southern thrust of the attack was aimed at the Caucuses and the oil fields beyond. Kyiv was the biggest city to stand in their way.

Within six weeks, the city was under siege. Surrounded by Panzers, bombed and shelled day and night, Soviet Commissar Nikita Krushchev was amongst the senior Soviet officials co-ordinating the defence. Amid his cadre of trusted personnel is British defector Bella Menzies, once with MI5, now with the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

With the fall of the city inevitable, the Soviets plan a bloody war of terror that will extort a higher toll on the city’s inhabitants than the invaders. As the noose tightens, Bella finds herself trapped, hunted by both the Russians and the Germans.

As the local saying has it: life is dangerous – no one survives it.

Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri (review copy, courtesy of Manilla Press and Readers First)

For Lord & Land (The Bernicia Chronicles #8) by Matthew Harffy

The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Reading ListThe Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (eARC, courtesy of Harper Collins via NetGalley)  

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.