memes – Page 9 – What Cathy Read Next…

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 Silence of Scheherazade by Defne Suman, trans. by Betsy Göksel (Apollo via NetGalley)

On an orange-tinted evening in September 1905, Scheherazade is born to an opium-dazed mother in the ancient city of Smyrna.

At the very same moment, a dashing Indian spy arrives in the harbour with a secret mission from the British Empire. He sails in to golden-hued spires and minarets, scents of fig and sycamore, and the cries of street hawkers selling their wares. When he leaves, seventeen years later, it will be to the heavy smell of kerosene and smoke as the city, and its people, are engulfed in flames.

But let us not rush, for much will happen between then and now. Birth, death, romance and grief are all to come as these peaceful, cosmopolitan streets are used as bargaining chips in the wake of the First World War.

Told through the intertwining fates of a Levantine, a Greek, a Turkish and an Armenian family, this unforgettable novel reveals a city, and a culture, now lost to time.

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris (Cornerstone)

Dusk is gathering as a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, rides across a silent land.

It’s a crime to be out after dark, and Fairfax knows he must arrive at his destination – a remote village in the wilds of Exmoor – before night falls and curfew is imposed.

He’s lost and he’s becoming anxious as he slowly picks his way across a countryside strewn with the ancient artefacts of a civilisation that seems to have ended in cataclysm.

What Fairfax cannot know is that, in the days and weeks to come, everything he believes in will be tested to destruction, as he uncovers a secret that is as dangerous as it is terrifying …

Recently finished

The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner (The Borough Press)

1944, Germany. Ernst Beck’s new job marks an end to months of unemployment. Working for Erfurt’s most prestigious engineering firm, Topf Sons, means he can finally make a contribution to the war effort, provide for his beautiful wife, Etta, and make his parents proud. But there is a price.

Ernst is assigned to the firm’s smallest team – the Special Ovens Department. Reporting directly to Berlin his role is to annotate plans for new crematoria that are deliberately designed to burn day and night. Their destination: the concentration camps. Topf’s new client: the SS.

As the true nature of his work dawns on him, Ernst has a terrible choice to make: turning a blind eye will keep him and Etta safe, but that’s little comfort if staying silent amounts to collusion in the death of thousands. (Review to follow)

What Cathy Will Read Next

The Ghosts of Paris (Billie Walker Mystery #2) by Tara Moss (Verve Books)

It’s 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of the Second World War, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator. When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant Sam to track down her missing husband, the trail leads Billie back to London and Paris, where Billie’s own painful memories also lurk. Jack Rake, Billie’s wartime lover and, briefly, husband, is just one of the millions of people who went missing in Europe during the war. What was his fate after they left Paris together?

As Billie’s search for her client’s husband takes her to both the swanky bars at Paris’s famous Ritz hotel and to the dank basements of the infamous Paris morgue, she’ll need to keep her gun at the ready, because something even more terrible than a few painful memories might be following her around the city of lights . . .

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 Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books On My Winter 2024/25 To-Read List. Looking ahead at the books I’m hoping to read next year is one of my favourite things and there are already a number of enticing titles on my NetGalley To-Read shelf . Links from each title, which are listed in publication date order, will take you to the full book description on Goodreads.

Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips – “an unforgettable story of loss, displacement, belonging, and the triumph of Black resilience – epic in scope and yet profoundly intimate; and a radical and timely portrait of immigrant London”
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen – “An epic tale of one couple spanning decades as world events pull them together and apart”
The Bookseller (DS Cross #7) by Tim Sullivan – “Someone’s about to turn their last page…”
The House with Nine Locks by Philip Gray – “a compelling and sweeping historical suspense novel that follows a master forger, the menacing detective on their tail, and an ambitious young woman who becomes embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse”
The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay by Flora Johnston – “Three women, a fearless aviatrix, a jaded wife and a secretive academic strain to reach for their dreams on the cusp of an uncertain future”
A Cold Wind from Moscow by Rory Clements – “At the dawn of the Cold War, a new breed of spy is born…”
The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor – “A beautifully written and expertly crafted historical suspense novel bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters”
The Café with No Name by Robert Seethaler, trans. by Katy Derbyshire – “An unforgettable novel about how we carry each other through good and bad times, and how even the most ordinary life is, in its own way, quite extraordinary”
Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident by Martin Davies – “The latest in the bestselling series inspired by the great detective’s housekeeper at 221B Baker Street”
The Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway – “A mother and son embark on a journey of personal discovery and as past traumas are exposed, they begin to understand what has shaped them and who they really are”