memes – Page 322 – 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

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.

Pre-order The Dollmaker from Amazon UK (link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme)

Sunwise by Helen Steadman (advance review copy, courtesy of Impress Books)

When Jane’s lover, Tom, returns from the navy to find her unhappily married to his betrayer, Jane is caught in an impossible situation. Still reeling from the loss of her mother at the hands of the witch-finder John Sharpe, Jane has no choice but to continue her dangerous work as a healer while keeping her young daughter safe.

But, as Tom searches for a way for him and Jane to be together, the witch-finder is still at large. Filled with vengeance, John will stop at nothing in his quest to rid England of the scourge of witchcraft.

Inspired by true events, Sunwise tells the story of one woman’s struggle for survival in a hostile and superstitious world.

Pre-order Sunwise from Amazon UK (link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme)

Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan by Ursula Buchan (hardcover, advance review copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Publishing)

John Buchan’s name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the past one hundred years the classic thriller has never been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film, television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by Alfred Hitchcock.

Yet there was vastly more to ‘JB’. He wrote more than a hundred books, fiction and non-fiction and about a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and imperial proconsul – given a state funeral when he died, a deeply admired and loved Governor-General of Canada.

His teenage years in Glasgow’s Gorbals, where his father was the Free Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors, fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life contains, at its heart, an enduring love story.

Ursula Buchan, his granddaughter, has drawn on recently discovered family documents to write this comprehensive and illuminating biography. With perception, style, wit, and a penetratingly clear eye, she brings vividly to life this remarkable man and his times.

Pre-order Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan from Amazon UK (link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme)

Recently finished (click on title for review)

The American Agent (Maisie Dobbs #15) by Jacqueline Winspear (uncorrected proof copy courtesy of Allison & Busby and Random Things Tours)

When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. He is accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice – Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie get out of Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death.

As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend – and the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby (advance review copy, courtesy of No Exit Press and Random Things Tours)

Cora was born in a prison. But is this where she belongs?

Birmingham, 1885. Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her. Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood. Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora…?

With the power and intrigue of Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions and Sarah Schmidt’s See What I Have Done, Carolyn Kirby’s stunning debut takes the reader on a heart-breaking journey through Victorian Birmingham and questions where we first learn violence: from our scars or from our hearts.

What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Storyteller by Pierre Jarawan, trans. Rachel McNicholl & Sinead Crowe (paperback, advance review copy courtesy of World Editions)

Samir leaves the safety and comfort of his family’s adopted home in Germany for volatile Beirut in an attempt to find his missing father. His only clues are an old photo and the bedtime stories his father used to tell him.

The Storyteller follows Samir’s search for Brahim, the father whose heart was always yearning for his homeland, Lebanon. In this moving and gripping novel about family secrets, love, and friendship, Pierre Jarawan does for Lebanon what Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan. He pulls away the curtain of grim facts and figures to reveal the intimate story of an exiled family torn apart by civil war and guilt. In this rich and skilful account, Jarawan proves that he too is a masterful storyteller

Pre-order The Storyteller from Amazon UK (link provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme)

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 Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book. I toyed with a number of approaches to the topic, such as what makes me pick up a book in a bookshop, in the library or browse a book online. In the end though, I decided to create my list around the things that make me pick up a book next. In other words, what makes me select a particular book from my TBR pile. I’ll confess that in reality I should simply repeat the first item on my list ten times. I suspect there are other book bloggers who know the feeling… However, I’m going to imagine a time when the said schedule doesn’t dominate my reading decisions, such as when I’m holiday.

My reading schedule – I simply couldn’t operate my blog without my plan (a spreadsheet with different tabs and plenty of colour coding, if you’re wondering), especially as I live in constant dread of missing blog tour slots or publication date deadlines I’ve agreed to. My WWW Wednesday posts are a good insight into my reading schedule.

Blog tours – I’ve been introduced to so many brilliant books that I may not otherwise have come across or read through invitations from blog tour organisers. (A recent example is The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear, the latest in a series I’d been aware of but never got around to reading until invited on the tour by the lovely Anne at Random Things Tours.) Of course, blog tours do come with deadlines – hence the necessity for item one above.

Reviews by book bloggers – I’ve been lucky enough to find so many brilliant book bloggers to follow since I started blogging that I’m constantly inspired to add books to my wishlist, TBR pile or pick books off my shelf by reading reviews. (A book that falls into this category recently is Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce which I bought following some fabulous reviews by bloggers.)

Genre – Like a lot of readers, I have favourite genres (mine is historical fiction) but in the same way you probably wouldn’t eat the same flavour of ice-cream all the time (unless it’s rum and raisin, of course) I’ll occasionally crave something completely different for my next read. If I’ve read a few historical fiction novels one after the other, then I’ll mix it up with some crime fiction, like Poetic Justice by R.C. Bridgestock or a non-fiction book like Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart.

A book by a favourite author – A new book by a favourite author is always welcome. I recently devoured the latest book by Philip Kazan, The Phoenix of Florence.

Reading challenges/projects – Taking part in reading challenges or personal reading projects helps keep me motivated on reducing my TBR pile, apart from anything else. My Buchan of the Month reading project means at least one book from my collection of books by John Buchan gets place in my reading schedule each month, such as March’s book, The Path of the King. Without that motivation, they’d just sit on the shelf.

Readalongs – I’d had The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo on my NetGalley shelf for some time but it was the #NightTigerTogether buddy read organised by publishers, Quercus, that ensured I read the book. Plus there was the enjoyment of sharing thoughts on the book with other readers and with the author.

Format – Sometimes travel or holiday plans mean an ebook title or audiobook is a more convenient choice than a physical book. Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson was a book I read on my Kindle while sitting on a sun lounger by the pool in Barbados.

Literary prize lists – As a fan of historical fiction, I always look out for the announcement of the longlist and shortlist for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The longlist was announced recently and the shortlist was announced earlier today and Warlight by Michael Ondaatje has made it through to the latter. I have a copy sitting on my bookshelf so that’s moved up the pile as I’ll try to read all the shortlisted books before the winner is announced in June.

Literary festivals – My local literary festival is Henley Literary Festival and I like to support it by attending events and reading books by the authors appearing at the Festival. Last year that resulted in me reading, among others, Dear Mrs. Bird by A. J. Pearce and Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, both of whom spoke at the Festival.

What prompts you to pick up your next book?