#WWWWednesday – 5th June 2024

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 Heart in WinterThe Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry (eARC, Canongate via NetGalley)

October, 1891. Butte, Montana. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers.

Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and balladmaker, but also a doper, a drinker and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington.

A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho. Briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunsmen are soon in hot pursuit of the lovers, and closing in fast . . .

Book cover A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter MurrayA Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray (Hutchinson Heinemann)

Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder.

My name is Al. I live in wealthy people’s second homes while their real owners are away. I don’t rob them, I don’t damage anything. I’m more an unofficial house-sitter than an actual criminal.

Life is good. Or it was – until last night, when my friends and I broke into the wrong place, on the wrong day, and someone wound up dead.

And now … now we’re in a great deal of trouble.


Recently finished

The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear (Allison & Busby) 

French Windows by Antoine Laurain (Gallic Books)

Nathalia, a young photographer, has been seeing a therapist. Having accidentally photographed a murder, she finds that she can no longer do her job.  Instead, Doctor Faber suggests that she write about the neighbours she idly observes in the building across the street. But as these written snapshots become increasingly detailed, he starts to wonder how she can possibly know so much about them. With each session, Doctor Faber and his mysterious patient will get closer and closer to the truth. But are the stories Nathalia submits each week as she claims… (Review to follow)


What Cathy Will Read Next

AlvesdonAlvesdon by James Holland (eARC, Transworld via NetGalley)

The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the stormclouds of war in Europe. As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the prospect of their lives being transformed beyond recognition the moment Britain declares war on Germany.

When the inevitable happens and Britain finds itself at war, the younger members of the family and farm workers are called up to fight and those who remain must battle to keep the home fires burning and the farm afloat. The gentle certainties of rural life are replaced by the urgent clamour of war, in the air, at sea and on land, where events unfold with dizzying rapidity and unexpected consequences.

#TopTenTuesday ‘I Second That Emotion’ – Book Titles Containing Feelings #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten TuesdayTop 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 Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I Had Very Strong Emotions About.  The only emotion I like to talk about when it comes to books is love so the easy option would be to list some of my favourite books. Instead, I’ve gone for books with an emotion in the title.  Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

  1. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
  2. The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear
  3. The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan
  4. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
  5. This Is Happiness by Niall Williams
  6. Everything Is Everything: A Memoir of Love, Hate & Hope by Clive Myrie
  7. Fortress of Fury by Matthew Harffy
  8. A Sea of Sorrow by David Blixt
  9. The Alphabet of Heart’s Desire by Brian Keaney
  10. H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O’Brian