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My Week in Books – 10th April 2022

April 10, 2022April 9, 2022 whatcathyreadnext

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical mystery Traitor in the Ice by K. J. Maitland.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday was a freebie so I shared a list of 10 Things To Do Once You’ve Finished A Book.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is my weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of The Sunken Road by Ciarán McMenamin, one of the books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022.

Friday – I shared an updated version of my review of No Way To Day by Tony Kent to mark its publication in paperback.

Saturday – Indulging my other love – gardening – I took part in the #SixonSaturday meme with a few highlights from my horticultural week.

The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small by Neil Jordan (Lilliput Press)

From multi-award-winning author and film director Neil Jordan comes The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small. Blending the drama of real events with Jordan’s inimitable storytelling ability, this work spotlights a long-forgotten chapter in Ireland’s history.

The tale is related by Tony Small, a runaway slave who becomes Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s manservant and friend. While the details of Lord Edward’s life are well-documented, little is known of Tony Small who rescued Fitzgerald after the Battle of Eutaw Springs during America’s War of Independence and returned with him to Europe. In this gripping narrative his characters considers the ironies of empire, captivity and freedom, mapping Lord Edward’s journey from being a loyal subject of the British Empire to becoming a 1798 rebellion leader.

This story embraces a rich cast of characters as action weaves from the Carolinas to London and Dublin, from the ferment of Paine and Robespierre’s revolutionary Paris to Tournai and Hamburg, returning to Ireland for its tragic, inevitable conclusion.

The Transfer Problem by Adam Saint (eARC, Deixis Press)

Ethan, an introverted banker with a traumatic past, falls in love with Anna, an enigmatic scientist with whom he shares an academic interest in the philosophy of existence and consciousness. But with the reappearance of Ethan’s rogue brother Robert – a hacker who is forbidden from using technology – the hypothetical turns all too real: Robert convinces Ethan to let Anna transfer a conscious mind into Ethan’s trading algorithms.

But when Anna’s experiment goes well – too well, in fact, with world-altering consequences – Ethan finds himself on the run, searching for answers to Anna’s mysterious past and looking desperately for a way to give humanity its future back.

With nail-biting action and smart, technical themes, The Transfer Problem asks what it means to exist, to be real, and to be human. But it also asks an even bigger question: how far would you go to avenge yourself?

The Helot’s Tale: Downfall and Redemption by David Cairns (eARC)

Downfall: In the smog-laden streets of the slums of London and the impoverished fields of rural England at the beginning of the 19th century, Mary Ann Goulding and Robert Bright are caught up in this maelstrom and find themselves all but slaves in the New World. The despair of Newgate prison, a death sentence, public hangings, riots, the resurrectionists and a hellish journey for months on the open sea to serve their sentences on an island prison begin their incredible true story.

Redemption: Mary Ann Goulding and Robert Bright continue their adventures. Transported to Van Diemen’s Land to serve their sentences we join them as they work their time as assigned ‘servants’, actually little more than slaves on this island prison. The momentous discovery of massive gold deposits sees huge disruption and changes all around as they live through the era of bushrangers like Ned Kelly, the massacre at the Eureka Stockade and the growing confidence of a new land with the birth of new cities and historic events such as the first Australia vs England test match and the first running of the Melbourne Cup.

Devorgilla Days by Kathleen Hart (ARC, Two Roads)

Eight years ago, Kathleen Hart was diagnosed with breast cancer. Further complications led to a protracted recovery and months spent in hospital, where Kathleen had to learn how to walk again. While recuperating, she came across a small whitewashed cottage for sale in Wigtown, Scotland. Driving hundreds of miles on nothing more than a few photographs and an inkling, she bought it that very same day, and named it Devorgilla after the formidable 13th century Scottish princess.

Devorgilla Days is the story of how Kathleen left behind her old life to begin again in Scotland’s book capital. From renovating her cottage to exploring the seemingly quiet, but actually bustling town, she encounters a whole community of book lovers, beekeepers, artists and writers – and Lobster Fishermen. Kathleen starts wild swimming, a ritual that brings peace and clarity to her mind as her body heals. And, with the support of her virtual worldwide community who know her as PoshPedlar on Instagram, she rebuilds her life again.

Heartwarming and deeply moving, Devorgilla Days is an inspiring tale of one woman’s remarkable journey, a celebration of community, and a call-to-arms for anyone who has ever dreamt of starting over.

Until We Meet by Camille Di Maio (Forever)

Can one small act change the course of a life?

New York City, 1943. Margaret Beck is proud of her work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard sewing stars onto the Stars and Stripes, but she yearns to contribute to the war effort more meaningfully. She’s angling for a promotion to the mechanic section, but she doesn’t want to wait to make a difference. So with her two best friends, she decides to start a knitting club, where they will knit socks for the boys at the front. Thinking of the young men so far from the comforts of home, Margaret slips a note into her first pair of socks, offering a connection to an unknown soldier that will forever change her life.

For Thomas Powell serving his country was not only his duty but an honor, and he wore his Army uniform with pride. Yet being on the frontlines, witness to unspeakable tragedy and despair, has shaken him. The one shining light is Margaret’s letters – written to his best friend William. When William is killed, Tom doesn’t have the heart to write the warm, generous, and hopeful Margaret and tell her the news. Not about William’s death and not about the way he’s fallen in love with her – across an ocean, amidst the darkness of war, and through the letters she never intended for him.

Instead, he picks up his pen and responds to Margaret’s latest letter, signing it William. As the war intensifies, so does the affection between Tom and Margaret, and Tom knows he owes her the truth. But as he heads out for his most dangerous mission yet, Tom wonders – will he ever get the chance to tell her?

Little Drummer by Kjell Ola Dahl, trans. Don Bartlett (eARC, Orenda Books)

When a woman is found dead in her car in a Norwegian parking garage, everyone suspects an overdose… until a forensics report indicates that she was murdered. Oslo Detectives Frølich and Gunnarstranda discover that the victim’s Kenyan scientist boyfriend has disappeared, and their investigations soon lead them into the shady world of international pharmaceutical deals.

While Gunnarstranda closes in on the killers in Norway, Frølich and Lise, his new journalist ally, travel to Africa, where they make a series of shocking discoveries about exploitation and corruption in the distribution of foreign aid and essential HIV medications.

When tragedy unexpectedly strikes, all three investigators face incalculable danger, spanning two continents. And not everyone will make it out alive…

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Extract: Until We Meet by Camille Di Maio
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Lost Boy of Bologna by Francesca Scanacapra
Book Review: The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey
Book Review: The Physician’s Daughter by Martha Conway
Blog Tour/Book Review: The Fall by Rachael Blok

My Week in Books – 3rd April 2022

April 3, 2022April 2, 2022 whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I made another trip Down The TBR Hole in an effort to weed out some of the books on my To-Read shelf on Goodreads.

Tuesday – I shared my review of historical novel Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu as part of the blog tour. And this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics.

Thursday – I published my review of Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson.

Friday – I shared My Five Favourite March 2022 Reads.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a bookish chain that took me from sea to sky.

New arrivals

Nothing at all last week and then all these!

Mr Bunting at War by Robert Greenwood (ARC, Imperial War Museum)

George Bunting, businessman, husband and father, lives a quiet life at home in Laburnam Villa in Essex, reading about the progress of the war in his trusty Siren newspaper and heading to work every day at same the warehouse where he has been employed for his entire adult life. Viewed with an air of slight amusement by his three children, Mr Bunting’s war efforts comprise mainly of digging for victory and reluctantly erecting a dugout in the garden. But as the Second World War continues into the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain rages in the skies and the bombs begin to rain down on London, this bumbling ‘everyman’ is forced to confront the true realities of the conflict. He does so with a remarkable stoicism, imbuing him with a quiet dignity.

Mailed Fist by John Foley (ARC, Imperial War Museum)

In April 1943, newly commissioned John Foley is posted to command Five Troop and their trusty Churchill tanks Avenger, Alert, and Angler – thus begins his initiation into the Royal Armoured Corps.

Covering the trials of training, embarkation to France and battle experience through Normandy, the Netherlands, the Ardennes campaign and into Germany, Foley’s intimate and detailed account follows the fate of this group of men in the latter stages of the Second World War.

The Lost Boy of Bologna by Francesca Scanacapra (eARC, Silvertail Books)

Bologna, Italy, 1929. A newborn baby boy is abandoned by his desperate unmarried mother, who believes he is dead and that she is to blame. Heartbroken, she leaves her child, accepting that her actions will haunt her for the rest of her days. But unbeknown to her, the kindness of a stranger means the starving baby survives. And so begins the extraordinary life of Rinaldo Scamorza…

Following several years in an orphanage, where Rinaldo still holds onto the hope that his mother will come to claim him, he is entrusted to a heartless foster-mother who treats her charges as nothing more than financial opportunities. Yet amidst the cruelty and violence of this loveless environment Rinaldo meets fellow orphan, Evelina, and the two children create a bond which they believe will never be broken.

Rinaldo holds tight to the few people who show him love, and he becomes a loyal, intelligent and kind boy. But his life is shattered when aged barely 13, Evelina is sold into prostitution by their foster-mother.

As he grows up and becomes more resourceful, Rinaldo finds work as an errand boy in a brothel, where he encounters Evelina once again. But in his efforts to help her escape her life of exploitation, another dark misfortune pulls them apart and she disappears.

When at last Italy begins to emerge from the shadows of World War II and Bologna’s economy recovers, Rinaldo uses his intimate knowledge of the city to change his life for the better. But through everything, the successes and the moments of loneliness and misery, the women he yearns to see again – Evelina and his mother – are always on his mind…

The Witch’s Tree by Elena Collins (eARC, Boldwood)

A tale as old as time. A spirit that has never rested.

Present day. As a love affair comes to an end, and with it her dreams for her future, artist Selena needs a retreat. The picture-postcard Sloe Cottage in the Somerset village of Ashcombe promises to be the perfect place to forget her problems, and Selena settles into her new home as spring arrives. But it isn’t long before Selena hears the past whispering to her. Sloe Cottage is keeping secrets which refuse to stay hidden.

1682. Grace Cotter longs for nothing more than a husband and family of her own. Content enough with her work on the farm, looking after her father, and learning the secrets of her grandmother Bett’s healing hands, nevertheless Grace still hopes for love. But these are dangerous times for dreamers, and rumours and gossip can be deadly. One mis-move and Grace’s fate looks set…

Separated by three hundred years, two women are drawn together by a home bathed in blood and magic. Grace Cotter’s spirit needs to rest, and only Selena can help her now.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (eARC, William Morrow)

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son – but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper – a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC – until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson (eARC, Hodder & Stoughton)

Helen leaned close enough to fog the mirror with her breath and whispered, ‘You, my girl, are a qualified medical almoner and at eight o’clock tomorrow morning you will be on the front line of the National Health Service of Scotland.’ Her eyes looked huge and scared. ‘So take a shake to yourself!”

Edinburgh, 1948. Helen Crowther leaves a crowded tenement home for her very own office in a doctor’s surgery. Upstart, ungrateful, out of your depth – the words of disapproval come at her from everywhere but she’s determined to take her chance and play her part.

She’s barely begun when she stumbles over a murder and learns that, in this most respectable of cities, no one will fight for justice at the risk of scandal. As Helen resolves to find a killer, she’s propelled into a darker world than she knew existed, hardscrabble as her own can be. Disapproval is the least of her worries now.

The Belladonna Maze by Sinéad Crowley (eARC, Aria)

An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, Belladonna. If you know the way through, it’s magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don’t, it’s a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again.

Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her. Who is the woman she sometimes glimpses in an upstairs window? Or the apparition who keeps showing up unexpectedly, pleading, ‘Find me’. And how can she fight her growing attraction to Skye’s father?