Tag: memes

Six Degrees of Separation – 3rd March ’18

whatcathyreadnext11 Comments

Here’s how it works: on the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: ‘Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.’

This month’s starting book is The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Click on the book titles to read the description on Goodreads or my review, as appropriate.

 

Wolf’s ‘beauty myth’ is the obsession she sees with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in ‘an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfil society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty”’.  I can’t think of any occupation that defined women more by their appearance than a Las Vegas showgirl, which is the subject of Elizabeth J. Church’s historical novel, All the Beautiful Girls.  In the book, Lily escapes a traumatic upbringing with a dream of finding fame as a dancer in Las Vegas but ends up instead as a showgirl, prized for her beauty and voluptuous figure.

Lily makes her escape from her hometown in Kansas which naturally made me think of another Kansas resident, Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  Unlike Lily, however, Dorothy concludes ‘there’s no place like home’. It may not be home to the Emerald City or be inhabited by munchkins but Australia is often referred to as ‘Oz’.  Lachlan Walter’s novel, The Rain Never Came, immerses the reader in the post-apocalyptic setting of a drought-stricken Australia.

Too much rain is one of the disasters that beset Wang Lung and his family in The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, forcing them to flee to the city in search of food and employment.  However, Wang Lung’s belief that ownership of land is the key to the survival and prosperity of his family never leaves him.  There is a similar theme in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, whose heroine, Chris Guthrie, the daughter of a tenant farmer in the fictional estate of Kinraddie in the north-east of Scotland, struggles between her love of the land and her desire to escape the harshness of farming life and seek an education. A notable feature of the landscape in which the book is set is The Standing Stones.

This led me to The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements.  In the book, set in 17th century Yorkshire, a stone circle known as the White Ladies, where macabre happenings are said to have occurred, casts an eerie presence over the inhabitants of Scarcross Hall.

So, commencing with Wolf’s seminal feminist work of literature, we’ve travelled to Las Vegas, Australia, rural China, Scotland and Yorkshire by way of The Land of Oz.

Next month’s starting book is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

 

WWW Wednesdays – 28th February ’18

whatcathyreadnext24 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

Memento MoriMemento Mori by Muriel Spark (paperback, giveaway prize)

n late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each, “Remember you must die.” Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavouries like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more.

KILLED COVER AW 2.inddKilled (Henning Juul #5) by Thomas Enger (ebook, review copy courtesy of Orenda Books)

Henning Juul sits in a boat on a dark lake. A man with a gun sits opposite him. At the man’s feet is a body that will be soon be dumped into the water. Henning knows that the same fate awaits him. And he knows that it’s his own fault. Who started the fire that killed Henning’s young son? How is his sister, Trine, involved? Most importantly, who can be trusted? Packed with tension and unexpected twists, Killed is the long-waited finale of the internationally renowned series featuring conflicted, disillusioned but always dogged crime reporter Henning Juul, and one of the most chilling, dark and moving crime thrillers you may ever read.

Recently finished (click on title for review)

TheFragileThreadofHopeThe Fragile Thread of Hope by Pankaj Giri (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

In the autumn of 2012, destiny wreaks havoc on two unsuspecting people – Soham and Fiona.

Although his devastating past involving his brother still haunted him, Soham had established a promising career for himself in Bangalore.  After a difficult childhood, Fiona’s fortunes had finally taken a turn for the better. She had married her beloved, and her life was as perfect as she had ever imagined it to be.  But when tragedy strikes them yet again, their fundamentally fragile lives threaten to fall apart.

Can Fiona and Soham overcome their grief? Will the overwhelming pain destroy their lives?

TheRainNeverCameThe Rain Never Came by Lachlan Walter (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

In a thirsty, drought-stricken Australia, the country is well and truly sunburnt. As the Eastern states are evacuated to more appealing climates, a stubborn few resist the forced removal. They hide out in small country towns – where no one would ever bother looking.

Bill Cook and Tobe Cousins are united in their disregard of the law. Aussie larrikins, they pass their hot, monotonous existence drinking at the barely standing pub. When strange lights appear across the Western sky, it seems that those embittered by the drought are seeking revenge. And Bill and Tobe are in their path. In the heat of the moment secrets will be revealed, and survival can’t be guaranteed.

John MacnabJohn Macnab by John Buchan (hardcover)

Three high-flying men – a barrister, a cabinet minister and a banker – are suffering from boredom. They concoct a plan to cure it.

They inform three Scottish estates that they will poach from each two stags and a salmon in a given time. They sign collectively as ‘John Macnab’ and await the responses.

 

The Secret Life of Mrs LondonThe Secret Life of Mrs London by Rebecca Rosenberg (ebook, review copy courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours)

San Francisco, 1915. As America teeters on the brink of world war, Charmian and her husband, famed novelist Jack London, wrestle with genius and desire, politics and marital competitiveness. Charmian longs to be viewed as an equal partner who put her own career on hold to support her husband, but Jack doesn’t see it that way…until Charmian is pulled from the audience during a magic show by escape artist Harry Houdini, a man enmeshed in his own complicated marriage. Suddenly, charmed by the attention Houdini pays her and entranced by his sexual magnetism, Charmian’s eyes open to a world of possibilities that could be her escape.

As Charmian grapples with her urge to explore the forbidden, Jack’s increasingly reckless behaviour threatens her dedication. Now torn between two of history’s most mysterious and charismatic figures, she must find the courage to forge her own path, even as she fears the loss of everything she holds dear. (Review to follow 1st March)

All the Beautiful GirlsAll the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church (eARC, NetGalley)

A powerful novel about a gutsy showgirl who tries to conquer her past amongst the glamour of 1960s Las Vegas–and finds unexpected fortune, friendship, and love.

It was unimaginable. When she was eight years old, Lily Decker somehow survived the auto accident that killed her parents and sister, but neither her emotionally distant aunt nor her all-too-attentive uncle could ease her grief. Dancing proves to be Lily’s only solace, and eventually, she receives a “scholarship” to a local dance academy–courtesy of a mysterious benefactor.

Grown and ready to leave home for good, Lily changes her name to Ruby Wilde and heads to Las Vegas to be a troupe dancer, but her sensual beauty and voluptuous figure land her work instead as a showgirl performing everywhere from Les Folies Bergere at the Tropicana to the Stardust’s Lido de Paris. Wearing costumes dripping with feathers and rhinestones, five-inch heels, and sky-high headdresses, Ruby may have all the looks of a Sin City success story, but she still must learn to navigate the world of men–and figure out what real love looks like. (Review to follow 5th March)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Waking IsabellaWaking Isabella by Melissa Muldoon (ebook, review copy courtesy of Italy Book Tours)

Set in Arezzo, a small Tuscan town, the plot unfolds against the backdrop of the city’s antique trade and the fanfare and pageantry of its medieval jousting festival. While filming a documentary about Isabella de’ Medici – the Renaissance princess who was murdered by her husband – Nora, an assistant researcher, begins to connect with the lives of two remarkable women from the past. Unravelling the stories of Isabella, the daughter of a fifteenth-century Tuscan duke, and Margherita, a young girl trying to survive the war in Nazi-occupied Italy, Nora begins to question the choices that have shaped her own life up to this point. As she does, hidden beauty is awakened deep inside of her, and she discovers the keys to her creativity and happiness. It is a story of love and deceit, forgeries and masterpieces—all held together by the allure and intrigue of a beautiful Tuscan ghost.

TheThingsWeLearnWhenWereDeadThe Things We Learn When We’re Dead by Charlie Laidlaw (paperback, review copy courtesy of the author)

With elements of The Wizard of Oz, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Lovely Bones, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead shows how small decisions can have profound and unintended consequences, and how sometimes we can get a second chance.

On the way home from a dinner party, Lorna Love steps into the path of an oncoming car. When she wakes up she is in what appears to be a hospital – but a hospital in which her nurse looks like a young Sean Connery, she is served wine for supper, and everyone avoids her questions. It soon transpires that she is in Heaven, or on HVN. Because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional spaceship, and God the aging hippy captain. She seems to be there by accident… Or does God have a higher purpose after all?  At first Lorna can remember nothing. As her memories return – some good, some bad – she realises that she has decision to make and that maybe she needs to find a way home.