Tag: memes

#TopTenTuesday Just The Two Of Us #TuesdayBookBlog

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Top Ten Tuesday

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.

We’re left to come up with our own topic this week so I’ve chosen to focus on books that feature couples – friends, lovers, siblings, even works of art. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Thea and Denise by Caroline Bond – Two women. An open road. The trip of a lifetime.
Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell – Two young aerial stuntmen unlock long-held family secrets during the US internment of Japanese citizens in World War II.
Byron and Shelley by Glen Harbittle (due for publication October 2023) – A collection of short stories featuring characters caught in significant moments in life 
Ike and Kay by James MacManus – A fictionalized account of the real life relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby.
Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn – A celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters. The portrait, known as “Molly & the Captain”, becomes instantly famous, its fate destined to echo down the centuries, touching many lives.
Kezia and Rosie by Rebecca Burns – A collection of linked short stories told from the perspective of seven-year old Kezia who, along with her sister, is sent to live with her grandparents for reasons she can’t initially understand
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton – An idol of Afro-punk. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever.
Birdie & Jude by Phyllis H. Moore – Birdie offers Jude, a stranger, shelter from an approaching hurricane and in doing so forms a bond that will change their lives forever.
Louis & Louise by Julie Cohen – Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final ‘e’.
Juliet & Romeo by David Hewson – Shakespeare’s well-known play turned into a gripping romantic thriller with Juliet as the focus of the narrative. 

#WWWWednesday – 5th July 2023

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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

TS_EP21 In Defence of the Act Proof CoverIn Defence of the Act by Effie Black (eARC, époque press)

Are we more like a coffee bean, a carrot or an egg? What happens to us when we are boiled in the trials and tribulations of life?

Jessica Miller is fascinated by the somewhat perplexing tendency of humans to end their own lives, but she secretly believes such acts may not be that bad after all. Or at least, she did.

Jessica is coming to terms with her own relationships, and reflecting on what it means to be queer, when a single event throws everything she once believed into doubt. Can she still defend the act?

The Painter of SoulsThe Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan (Orion)

Beauty can be a gift…or a wicked temptation…

So it is for Filippo Lippi, growing up in Renaissance Florence. He has a talent – not only can he see the beauty in everything, he can capture it, paint it. But while beauty can seduce you, and art can transport you – it cannot always feed you or protect you.

To survive, Pippo Lippi, orphan, street urchin, budding rogue, must first become Fra Filippo Carmelite friar, man of God. His life will take him down two paths at once. He will become a gambler, a forger, a seducer of nuns; and at the same time he will be the greatest painter of his time, the teacher of Botticelli and the confidante of the Medicis.

So who is he really – lover, believer, father, teacher, artist? Which man? Which life? Is anything true except the paintings?

An extraordinary journey of passion, art and intrigue, The Painter of Souls takes us to a time and place in Italy’s history where desire reigns and salvation is found in the strangest of places.

Recently finished

The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)

Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Para BellumPara Bellum by Simon Turney (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

AD 381. Five years have gone by since a Roman governor ordered the deaths of a Gothic king and his attendants at a feast in their honour. This disastrous act led to warfare in the Roman Empire and the death of the Emperor Valens.

Now, the Empire is calm once more, but for the eight legionaries who committed the killings, the bloodshed is only just beginning. Fritigern, brother of the murdered king, has sworn revenge on his brother’s killers. Now king of a powerful Gothic tribe, he will not rest until the men are hunted down.

Flavius Focalis is one of those legionaries. Surviving an attack at his villa, he realises the danger he and his family are in, and seeks to warn his former comrades, for he knows Fritigern will give them no quarter. So begins a deadly game of cat-and-mouse across the Empire, as, by land and sea, the former soldiers face the wrath of their implacable enemy, and return to the scene of the greatest battle of their Adrianople. For war is coming again – and the only question is, do they die now, or die later?