memes – Page 319 – What Cathy Read Next…

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

Last week was dominated by reading for blog tour commitments – OK, I’ll admit it, last minute reading. I’m hoping to make some progress on NetGalley ARCs and then get ahead with reading for May blog tour commitments. Sounds like a plan anyway…

Where the Hornbeam Grows: A Journey in Search of a Garden by Beth Lynch (eARC, courtesy of Orion and NetGalley)

What do you do when you find yourself living as a stranger? When Beth Lynch moved to Switzerland, she quickly realised that the sheer will to connect with people would not guarantee a happy relocation.

Out of place and lonely, Beth knows that she needs to get her hands dirty if she is to put down roots. And so she sets about making herself at home in the way she knows best – by tending a garden, growing things. The search for a garden takes her across the country, through meadows and on mountain paths where familiar garden plants run wild, to the rugged hills of the Swiss Jura. In this remote and unfamiliar place of glow worms and dormice and singing toads she learns to garden in a new way, taking her cue from the natural world. As she plants her paradise with hellebores and aquilegias, cornflowers and Japanese anemones, these cherished species forge green and deepening connections: to her new soil, to her old life in England, and to her deceased parents, whose Sussex garden continues to flourish in her heart.

Where the Hornbeam Grows is a memoir about carrying a garden inwardly through loss, dislocation and relocation, about finding a sense of wellbeing in a green place of your own, and about the limits of paradise in a peopled world. It is a powerful exploration by a dazzling new literary voice of how, in nurturing a corner of the natural world, we ourselves are nurtured.

The Long Take by Robin Robertson (audiobook)

Walker, a young Canadian recently demobilised after war and his active service in the Normandy landings and subsequent European operations. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and unable to face a return to his family home in rural Nova Scotia, he goes in search of freedom, change, anonymity and repair. We follow Walker through a sequence of poems as he moves through post-war American cities of New York, Los Angles and San Francisco.

Midwinter by John Buchan (hardcover)

In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebel army is marching south into England. Alastair Maclean, one of the Prince’s most loyal supporters, is sent ahead to carry out a secret mission.

He is befriended by two extraordinary men-Dr. Samuel Johnson, an aspiring man of letters, and the shadowy figure known only as “Midwinter.”

Recently finished (click on title for review)

Someone thought it was a good idea to commit to a number of reviews for blog tours in a short space of time. Oh, that would have been me. But I managed it…by the skin of my teeth.

The Dollmaker by Nina Allen (eARC, courtesy of Quercus and NetGalley)

Stitch by perfect stitch, Andrew Garvie makes exquisite dolls in the finest antique style. Like him, they are diminutive but graceful, unique, and with surprising depths. Perhaps that’s why he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector’s magazine.

Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped, and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.

On his journey through the old towns of England, he reads the fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin – potent, eldritch stories which, like her lifelike dolls, pluck at the edges of reality and thread their way into his mind. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice – to break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.

A love story of two very real, unusual people, The Dollmaker is also a novel rich with wonders: Andrew’s quest and Bramber’s letters unspool around the dark fables that give our familiar world an uncanny edge. It is this touch of magic that, like the blink of a doll’s eyes, tricks our own.

The New Achilles by Christian Cameron (eARC, courtesy of Orion and NetGalley)

Meet the greatest Greek general you’ve never heard of: Philopoemen. In his day, a leader as skilled and as dangerous as Hannibal: a ferocious fighter, a superb general, and credited as the inventor of modern ‘special operations’. More importantly, he was a brilliant political leader.

He commanded Greek forces at the turn of the third century BC, when mighty Rome, fresh from the destruction of Carthage, and Imperial Macedon, the greatest power of the day, chose Greece as their battlefield.

In a world of rival empires, slave-taking cartels, piracy, terrorism and failed states, will Philopoemen be able to hold anything together?

Dark Sky Island (Jennifer Dorey Mystery #2) by Lara Dearman (eARC, courtesy of Orion and NetGalley)

There’s a killer on the island – and someone knows who…

When human bones are found in a remote bay in the Channel Islands, DCI Michael Gilbert is plunged into an investigation to find out who they belong to. The remains are decades old – but after another body is discovered, the police realise they could be dealing with a serial killer.

Journalist Jennifer Dorey is desperate for answers, driven by a secret of her own – but it soon becomes clear that nobody on the island is quite what they seem. Will anyone tell the truth before it’s too late? Or will the killer on the island strike again…?

A Clean Canvas (A Lena Szarka Mystery #2) by Elizabeth Mundy (ebook, courtesy of Constable)

Crime always leaves a stain…

Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner, dusts off her detective skills when a masterpiece is stolen from a gallery she cleans with her cousin Sarika. When Sarika goes missing too, accusations start to fly.

Convinced her cousin is innocent, Lena sweeps her way through the secrets of the London art scene. But with the evidence against Sarika mounting and the police on her trail, Lena needs to track down the missing painting if she is to clear her cousin.

Embroiling herself in the sketchy world of thwarted talents, unpaid debts and elegant fraudsters, Lena finds that there’s more to this gallery than meets the eye.

Call Me Star Girl by Louise Beech (ebook, courtesy of Orenda Books)

Tonight is the night for secrets…

Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago – and her killer hasn’t been caught.

Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers.

Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after twelve years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father …

What Stella really wants to know is more about the mysterious man calling the station … who says he knows who killed Victoria, and has proof.

Tonight is the night for secrets, and Stella wants to know everything…

With echoes of the chilling Play Misty for Me, Call Me Star Girl is a taut, emotive and all-consuming psychological thriller that plays on our deepest fears, providing a stark reminder that stirring up dark secrets from the past can be deadly.

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Inside City by Anita Mir (eARC, courtesy of Unbound and Random Things Tours)

As India hurtles towards Partition, in Lahore’s ancient inside city, Amrau Dar is not thinking about politics. She is waiting for a prediction about her son, Awais, to come true. Awais discovers not a secret garden but a secret city and his beloved sister, Maryam, discovers the world of maths.

Fearing that the prediction has gone wrong, Amrau takes a series of decisions that will change all their lives.

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 (First Ten) Books I Reviewed. Although I’d left short reviews of books I’d read on Goodreads for a few years before starting my blog in November 2016, I decided to construct my list from the first ten reviews I published on my blog. I’d like to think my more recent reviews are are little better constructed than some of these early ones…

Click on the book title to view the book description on Goodreads.

The Hour of Daydreams by Renee M. Rutledge (posted 24^th November 2016)

Weaving fantasy and fable into the story of Tala and Manolo’s meeting and marriage, I can see I admired the ‘lyrical, fairytale quality’ of the writing in The Hour of Daydreams but struggled with some of the extended metaphors. For me, the fantasy element confused rather than enhanced the narrative. Read my full review here.

World’s End by Upton Sinclair (posted 24^th November 2016)

The first in the author’s Lanny Budd series, I clearly wasn’t afraid of tackling big books back in 2016 as this comes in at a whopping 600 pages. I commented in my review that, at times, it seems more straight history than historical fiction but that Lanny’s Forrest Gump-like ability to be at the centre of important events stop it from feeling completely like a college course. Read my full review here. I’m afraid to say I’ve never got around to reading further books in the series…

Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar (posted 24^th November 2016)

‘Space adventure, chronicle of recent Czech history and love story all rolled into one’, this was an uncharacteristic choice of book for me but I blame it on only recently having been approved as a NetGalley member. And, as it turned out, I really loved the book. I described is as ‘strange, imaginative, moving’ but you can read my full review here.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson (posted 26^th November 2016)

At first sight, a straightforward period detective mystery for me this book had elements that raised it to another level: the authentic feel of the period setting; the great cast of supplementary characters; and the multi-layered nature of the novel, exploring questions of identity and reinvention. In my review (which you can read here), I noted that at the end of the book there are unanswered questions that I’d like to think were deliberate on the part of the author or (even better) threads to be woven into a future book. Sadly, no sign of a second book yet.

Operation Finisterre by Graham Hurley (posted 29^th November 2016)

Set towards the end of World War II at the point where Germany is facing the prospect of defeat, the novel (now titled simply Finisterre) is structured around two separate stories and it’s not until over two thirds of the way through the book that the connection between the two is made clear. For me one of the stories was more compelling than the other. Read my full review here.

The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey (posted 1^st December 2016)

Now this is a lovely reminder of a book I really enjoyed but which I was disappointed to realise – after I’d started reading it – was the third in a three-volume series of books. However, I still felt it worked well as a standalone read, describing it as ‘although bleak at times…an engrossing read’. Read my full review here.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (posted 6th December 2016)

Set in Nigeria, I loved this story about Yejide, a smart, sassy, well-educated woman who runs her own business but doesn’t have the one thing she desires and her family expect – a child. I enjoyed the combination of emotional bombshells, humour in the cast of supporting characters and fascinating insights into Nigerian/Yoruba culture. Read my full review here.

Legacy of the Lynx by Clio Gray (posted 7th December 2016)

Regular followers of what Cathy Read Next will know I love my historical fiction, particularly with a mystery element, but unfortunately this was a book that just didn’t work for me. Despite having a large and imaginative cast of characters and lots of action, much of the latter seemed extraneous to the main plot, the the search for the lost library. Read my full review here.

Hell’s Gate by Laurent Gaudé (posted 10th December 2016)

I described this as ‘a strangely unnerving little book, blending a story of loss and vengeance with elements of magical realism and questions about the nature of life and death’. It powerfully depicts the impact on Matteo and his wife, Guiliana, of their son’s death. Matteo embarks on a Dantesque journey in the company of four companions in pursuit of the idea that life and death are not distinct states but that portals exist to allow travel between the two, blending elements of a Miltonic view of Hell with the mythology of the Greek underworld. Read my full review here.

The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin (posted 10th December 2016)

Titled The Divided City in some editions, this is the third in the series of stories featuring Gregor Reinhardt, an Inspector in the post-war Berlin police force. I really enjoyed this extremely well-crafted historical detective story. (In fact, I can recommend the whole series). Like all the best books, I was torn between wanting to find out what happened and not wanting it to end. Read my full review here.