#WWWWednesday – 7th February 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

Two NetGalley eARCs and a physical ARC. Thanks to the respective publishers.

SufferanceSufferance by Charles Palliser (eARC, Guernica Editions via NetGalley)

When his nation is invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy, a well-intentioned man persuades his wife that they should give temporary shelter to a young girl who is at school with their daughter. He has no idea that the girl belongs to a community against whom the invader intends to commit genocide.

Days stretch into weeks and then months while the enemy’s pitiless hatred of the girl’s community puts all of the family in danger. Nobody outside the family can be trusted with the dangerous secret and the threat from outside unlocks a darkness that threatens to derail them all. 

Remember, RememberRemember, Remember by Elle Machray (eARC, HarperNorth via NetGalley)

1770. Delphine lives in the shadows of London: a secret, vibrant world of smugglers, courtesans and small rebellions. Four years ago, she escaped enslavement at great personal cost. Now, she must help her brother Vincent do the same.

While Britain’s highest court fails to administer justice for Vincent, little rebellions are no longer enough. What’s needed is a big, explosive plot – one that will strike at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade. But can one Black woman, one fuse and one match bring down an Empire?

The Shadow NetworkThe Shadow Network (Devlin & Dempsey #5) by Tony Kent (ARC, Elliott & Thompson)

How do you take down an enemy when no one believes they exist? 

When the lawyers of alleged war criminal Hannibal Strauss are caught up in a terror attack in The Hague, barrister Michael Devlin immediately suspects all is not what it seems. Teaming up once more with Agent Joe Dempsey, they must find who’s behind it all before any more innocent lives are lost.

With their key witness on the run and assassins on their tail, their only lead is a the Monk, a legendary and mysterious foreign agent with a fearsome reputation. But what is his stake in this dangerous game? And just who is part of his shadowy network of spies? Caught in a complicated web of lies, secrets and double agents, there’s no one Dempsey and Devlin can trust but themselves.


Recently finished

Where the Winds Calls Home by Samar Yazbek, translated by Leri Price (World Editions)

The Serpent Sword (The Bernicia Chronicles #1) by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus)

All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman (Gallic Books)

When war widow Irene Sandle goes to work in New Zealand’s tobacco fields in 1952, she hopes to start a new, independent life for herself and her daughter – but the tragic repercussions of her decision will resonate long after Irene has gone.

Each of Irene’s children carries the events of their childhood throughout their lives, played out against a backdrop of great change – new opportunities emerge for women, but social problems continue to hold many back. Headstrong Belinda becomes a successful filmmaker, but struggles to deal with her own family drama as her younger siblings are haunted by the past. (Review to follow)


What Cathy Will Read Next

The List of Suspicious ThingsThe List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (ARC, Penguin)

Yorkshire, 1979. Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, drainpipe jeans are in, and Miv is convinced that her dad wants to move their family Down South. Because of the murders.

Leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option, no matter the dangers lurking round their way; or the strangeness at home that started the day Miv’s mum stopped talking.
Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all?

So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don’t. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighbourhood, within their families – and between each other – than they ever thought possible.

What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?

#TopTenTuesday Small Things Like These: 10 Quick Reads #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 topic is Top Ten Quick Reads, defined as books that are 150 pages or less. Here are ten short books that you could polish off in a day – or an afternoon/evening, depending on how fast you read. Links from the title will take you to my review.

  1. Together by Luke Adam Hawker (64 pages) – a gentle and philosophical look at the events of 2020, the year of lockdown, through the eyes of a man and his dog
  2. Joan Smokes by Angela Meyer (76 pages) – packs a powerful emotional punch with its haunting story of rejection, loss and trying to start over
  3. El Hacho by Luis Carrasco (82 pages) – a timeless evocation of inheritance, duty and our relationship to the landscape that defines us
  4. Christmas at Ladywell by Nicola Slade (97 pages) – having refurbished her inherited house, Freya has to transform her tiny stone barn into a romantic hideaway for a mystery guest 
  5. A Stranger from the Storm by William Burton McCormick (110 pages) – who is the mysterious figure haunting the catacombs below the streets of Odessa?
  6. A Devil Comes to Town by Paolo Maurensig, translated by Anne Milano Appel (118 pages) – when the devil turns up in a black car claiming to be a hot-shot publisher, unsatisfied authorial desires are unleashed and the village’s former harmony is shattered
  7. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (128 pages) – as Bill Furlong, coal and timber merchant, does his rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church
  8. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (128 pages) – had the dogs not taken exception to the strange van parked in the royal grounds, the Queen might never have learnt of the Westminster travelling library’s weekly visits to the palace
  9. Welcome to America by Linda Boström Knausgård, translated by Martin Aitken (128 pages) – a dark and scintillating portrait of a sensitive, strong-willed child and a young mind in the throes of trauma, a family on the brink of implosion, and the love that threatens to tear them apart
  10. The Former Chief Executive by Kate Vane (150 pages) – a taut psychological study of grief, secrets and trying to leave behind your past

What quick reads can you recommend?