new arrivals

My Week in Books

June 10, 2018June 10, 2018 whatcathyreadnext

Sugar Money by Jane Harris (ebook)

Martinique, 1765, and brothers, Emile and Lucien, are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back the 42 slaves claimed by English invaders at the hospital plantation in Fort Royal. While Lucien, barely in his teens, sees the trip as a great adventure, the older and worldlier Emile has no illusions about the dangers they will face. But with no choice other than to obey Cleophas – and sensing the possibility, however remote, of finding his first love Celeste – he sets out with his brother on this ‘reckless venture’.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (ebook)

Manhattan Beach opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to the house of a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. Anna observes the uniformed servants, the lavishing of toys on the children, and some secret pact between her father and Dexter Styles.

Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that had always belonged to men. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. She is the sole provider for her mother, a farm girl who had a brief and glamorous career as a Ziegfield folly, and her lovely, severely disabled sister. At a night club, she chances to meet Styles, the man she visited with her father before he vanished, and she begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life.

Grace by Paul Lynch (ebook)

Early one October morning, Grace’s mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, ‘You are the strong one now.’ With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits Grace in men’s clothing and casts her out. When her younger brother Colly follows after her, the two set off on a life-changing odyssey in the looming shadow of the Great Famine.

To survive, Grace will become a boy, a bandit, a penitent and finally, a woman. A meditation on love, life and destiny, Grace is an epic coming-of-age novel, and a poetic evocation of the Irish famine as it has never been written.

The Year of the Snake by M. J. Trow & Maryanne Coleman (eARC, NetGalley)

Sometimes, a snake is just a snake. And sometimes…

First-century Rome. Senator Gaius Lucius Nerva is taken ill at a dinner party and dies a few days later. His heartbroken wife, Flavia, is told it was a natural death. Calidus, Nerva’s recently freed slave, suspects otherwise. As he embarks upon the funeral ceremonies, Calidus becomes more and more convinced that his master was murdered and begins an investigation, seeking out everyone who had attended the dinner party.

His enquiries lead him to rub shoulders with the ‘great and good’ of Rome; senators, soldiers, even the ruthless and mercurial Emperor Nero. And his former lover, Julia Eusabia, who seems intent on rekindling their romance and luring him away from his wife and daughter. Calidus’ quest is by no means easy or safe as he encounters the darkest and most dangerous people in Rome. But he knows he must keep searching for the person responsible, to bring justice to the master he had loved.

This racy historical whodunit brings to life the sights, smells and sounds of ancient Rome, with sharp humour and a Christie-style finale to boot.

A Gathering of Ghosts by Karen Maitland (eARC, NetGalley)

The year is 1316 and high on the wilds of Dartmoor, hidden by the mist, stands the isolated Priory of St Mary, owned by the Sisters of the Knights of St John. People travel from far and wide in search of healing at the ancient holy well that lies beneath the chapel.

But the locals believe the well was theirs long before Christianity arrived and there are those who would do anything to reclaim their sacred spring… As plagues of frogs cascade from the well and the water turns to blood, is there witchcraft afoot? Or is the Old World fighting back at last?

Connectedness (Identity Detective #2) by Sandra Danby (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, ARTIST JUSTINE TREE HAS IT ALL… BUT SHE ALWAYS HAS A SECRET THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING

Justine’s art sells around the world, but does anyone truly know her? When her mother dies, she returns to her childhood home in Yorkshire where she decides to confront her past. She asks journalist Rose Haldane to find the baby she gave away when she was an art student, but only when Rose starts to ask difficult questions does Justine truly understand what she must face.

Is Justine strong enough to admit the secrets and lies of her past? To speak aloud the deeds she has hidden for 27 years, the real inspiration for her work that sells for millions of pounds. Could the truth trash her artistic reputation? Does Justine care more about her daughter, or her art? And what will she do if her daughter hates her?

This tale of art, adoption, romance and loss moves between now and the Eighties, from London’s art world to the bleak isolated cliffs of East Yorkshire and the hot orange blossom streets of Málaga, Spain.

Sheriff and Priest by Nicky Moxey (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Wimer could have become a monk. Instead, his decision to become a Chaplain – to make his way in the wider world of men – has put his soul in mortal danger. In 12th century East Anglia, poor Saxon boys stay poor. It takes an exceptional one to win Henry II’s friendship, and to rise to the job of High Sheriff of all Norfolk and Suffolk. Falling foul of the stormy relationship between Henry and his Archbishop, he is excommunicated three times, twice by Thomas a’Becket, and once by the Pope.

He also falls in love with the King’s Ward, Ida. Before he plucks up the courage to do anything about it, the King takes her as his mistress, and Ida needs Wimer’s support to survive that dangerous liaison. Although he is eventually reinstated in the Church, his problems with his religious superiors, and his love for Ida, will guarantee him a place in Hell, unless he can find land and resources to do something spectacular in the way of penance…

The Blood Road (Legionary #7) by Gordon Doherty (eARC, courtesy of the author)

381 AD: The Gothic War draws to a brutal climax, and the victor’s name will be written in blood…

The great struggle between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Gothic Horde rumbles into its fifth year. It seems that there can be no end to the conflict, for although the Goths are masters of the land, they cannot topple the last of the imperial cities. But heralds bring news that might change it all: Emperor Gratian readies to lead his Western legions into the fray, to turn matters on their head, to crush the horde and save the East!

The men of the XI Claudia legion long for their homeland’s salvation, but Tribunus Pavo knows these hopes drip with danger. For he and his soldiers are Gratian’s quarry as much as any Goth. The road ahead will be fraught with broken oaths, enemy blades… and tides of blood. (Cover to be revealed)

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Tuesday – I joined the blog tour for A Woman’s Lot by Carolyn Hughes, the second in her Meonbridge Chronicle series set in a medieval Hampshire village. I shared my review and an extract from the book.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next. I also published my review of a lovely little book, The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees by Adrian Lawson and Geoff Sawers.

Thursday – I reviewed After the Party by Cressida Connolly. Set just before and during the Second World War, it tells through the experiences of one family the little known story of those who opposed Britain’s involvement in the war.

Friday – I published my review of Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat, a fast-paced and dramatic historical novel set at the time of the French Revolution. It was also time for another of my Fact in Fiction Friday features where I pick out interesting things I’ve learned through reading novels this week.

Sunday – I shared my review of Sugar Money by Jane Harris, one of the six books shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2018. The winner of the prize will be announced on 16^th June.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge – 86 out of 156 books read, 4 more than last week
Classics Club Challenge – 15 out of 50 books read, same as last week
NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018 (Gold) – 31 ARCs read and reviewed out of 50, 1 more than last week
From Page to Screen– 10 book/film comparisons out of 15 completed, same as last week
2018 TBR Pile Challenge – 5 out of 12 books read, same as last week
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2018 – 43 books out of 50 read, 3 more than last week
When Are You Reading? Challenge 2018 – 7 out of 12 books read, same as last week
What’s In A Name Reading Challenge – 1 out of 6 books read, same as last week
Buchan of the Month – 5 out of 12 books read, same as last week
20 Books of Summer Challenge – 2 out of 20 books read, 2 more than last week

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Blog Tour/Review: Forsaking All Other by Catherine Meyrick
Blog Tour/Review: Summer of Love by Caro Fraser
Buchan of the Month: Introducing….The Half-Hearted by John Buchan
Book Review: Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
Book Review: The Poison Bed by E. C. Fremantle
Blog Tour/Guest Post: The Reading Party by Fenella Gentleman

My Week in Books – 3rd June ’18

June 3, 2018 whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals

Hmm, it could be the start of a new Kindle Monthly Deal selection on Amazon. Possibly…

The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees by Adrian Lawson and Geoff Sawers (paperback)

Three hundred years ago, an acorn germinated at the edge of a field; today a mighty oak stands in the middle of a congested roundabout. What has it witnessed and what can we discover from it?

The stories of towns are so often told in terms of their architecture, or the humans that have lived in them. This book brings trees to the fore, with evocative illustrations and beautifully told stories of the natural wonders of Reading.

The Visitor by Katherine Stansfield (ebook)

Cornwall. 1880. Pearl, Jack and Nicholas play among the fishing boats of Skommow Bay, not understanding the undercurrents beneath their games. As they grow older, the choices they make shape the pattern of their lives.

1936 and everything has changed. The fish have stopped coming and the Pilchard Palace is abandoned. Pearl, exiled in favour of holidaymakers, turns to the memory of her great love, and her greatest loss. She’s waiting for her own visitor. Will he come for her? The sea’s ghosts are stirring. The past can be more alive than the present…

A cliff top romance in the style of Daphne Du Maurier and set in a fictional village based on St Ives, The Visitor is a novel steeped in the coast and people of Cornwall. It shivers and flashes with visions as elusive as the fish at the centre of its story.

Downed Over Germany (War Girl #0.5) by Marion Kummerow (ebook, new subscriber giveaway)

Tom Westlake is a Britsh RAF pilot. His struggle to survive starts the moment his fighter-bomber is shot down over Germany in 1943. Follow his adventures and find out if he manages to stay alive despite Gestapo hunting him down.

The Incendium Plot (Christopher Radcliff #1) by Andrew Swanston (paperback, review copy courtesy of the author)

England in 1572 is a powder keg of rumour, fanaticism, treachery and dissent. All it would take is a single spark . . .

In the England of Elizabeth I, the fear of plague and invasion, and the threat of insurrection are constant. As the Earl of Leicester’s chief intelligencer, lawyer Dr Christopher Radcliff is tasked with investigating rumours of treachery at home and the papist threat from abroad. And with heresy and religious unrest simmering beneath the surface of a country on the brink, Radcliff is under pressure to get results.

Then two brutal and seemingly motiveless killings point alert Radcliff to the whisper of a new plot against the queen. There are few clues, and all he and his network of agents have to go on is a single word: incendium. But what does it mean – and who lies behind it? Christopher Radcliff must find out before it’s too late . . .

The Reading Party by Fenella Gentleman (advance review copy courtesy of Muswell Press and Random Things Tours)

It is the 1970s and Oxford’s male institutions are finally opening their doors to women…

Sarah Addleshaw – young, spirited and keen to prove her worth – begins term as the first female academic at her college. She is, in fact, its only female ‘Fellow’.

Impulsive love affairs – with people, places and the ideas in her head – beset Sarah throughout her first exhilarating year as a don, but it is the Reading Party that has the most dramatic impact.

Asked to accompany the first mixed group of students on the annual college trip to Cornwall, Sarah finds herself illicitly drawn to the suave American Tyler. Torn between professional integrity and personal feelings, she faces her biggest challenge yet.

A German Requiem (Bernie Gunther #3) by Philip Kerr (ebook)

In postwar Vienna, the term ‘peace’ is relative – the Americans, British and Russians govern the city in an uneasy truce, and the main difference is that now it’s the Soviet secret police making people disappear rather than the Nazis. When Bernie is asked by a high-ranking Soviet official to clear an old Kripo colleague’s name of the murder of an American officer, he quickly realises he’s in over his head.

Bernie’s ex-colleague Becker was working for a secret society of Nazi hunters, tracking down and executing war criminals who faked their own deaths to escape the noose at Nuremberg. Infiltrating the group, Bernie finds himself face to face with men he thought he’d never see again. They’ve cheated justice once – now Bernie must see that they don’t get away a second time.

Different Class by Joanne Harris (ebook)

After thirty years at St Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go – the clowns, the rebels, the underdogs, and those he calls his Brodie boys. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy capable of twisting everything around him. A boy with hidden shadows inside.

With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new broom has arrived at the venerable school, bringing Powerpoint, sharp suits and even sixth form girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist this march to the future, a shadow from his past is stirring. A boy who even twenty years on haunts his teacher’s dreams. A boy capable of bad things.

Tin Man by Sarah Winman (ebook)

It begins with a painting won in a raffle: fifteen sunflowers, hung on the wall by a woman who believes that men and boys are capable of beautiful things.

And then there are two boys, Ellis and Michael, who are inseparable.

And the boys become men, and then Annie walks into their lives, and it changes nothing and everything.

The Road to Newgate by Kate Braithwaite (eARC, courtesy of the author)

What price justice?

London 1678. Titus Oates, an unknown preacher, creates panic with wild stories of a Catholic uprising against Charles II. The murder of a prominent Protestant magistrate appears to confirm that the Popish Plot is real. Only Nathaniel Thompson, writer and Licenser of the Presses, instinctively doubts Oates’s revelations. Even his young wife, Anne, is not so sure. And neither knows that their friend William Smith has personal history with Titus Oates. When Nathaniel takes a public stand, questioning the plot and Oates’s integrity, the consequences threaten them all.

Root of the Tudor Rose by Mari Griffith (ebook, review copy courtesy of Accent Press)

When King Henry V and his bride, Catherine de Valois, are blessed with the birth of a son, their happiness is short-lived. Henry’s unexpected death leaves Catherine a widow at the age of twenty-one. Then her father, King Charles of France, also dies, and her son inherits both crowns. Henry VI, King of England and France, is just ten months old and needs all his mother’s watchful care to protect him from political intrigue.

The queen, an attractive young widow, is a foreigner at the English court and now finds herself regarded with suspicion, particularly by the Duke of Gloucester, who will seemingly stop at nothing to protect his own claim to the throne. But lonely, vulnerable Catherine has found true friendship with another foreigner at court, a young Welshman named Owen. Their friendship deepens, but their liaisons must be kept secret at all costs, because Catherine, Queen of England and forbidden to remarry, is in love with a servant…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my review of historical fiction novel, War Girl Ursula by Marion Kummerow. Set in World War 2 Germany, the book is first in the author’s War Girl series which charts the experiences of a family of sisters. I’m grateful to the author for sending me a review copy.

Tuesday – I published my review of The Last Day by Claire Dyer, sharing ten of the many things I loved about the book. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want To Live In. My list seemed pretty scary to me but on reflection gave me an all too chilling sense that fiction may be reflecting reality. What do you think?

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next. I also published my review of May’s Buchan of the Month, A Lost Lady of Old Years. Although I call myself a Buchan fan this is a book of his I’d never read. Set against the backdrop of the Jacobite Rebellion, it follows the exploits of a troubled young man, Francis Birkenshaw. I also shared my list for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. I enjoyed putting together my list and I’ve enjoyed even more seeing other people’s lists!

Thursday –My Throwback Thursday book was The Dream Shelf by Jeff Russell in which a son seeks clues to his father’s past using as a starting point the objects stored on the titular ‘dream shelf’.

Friday – I published my review of The Concubine’s Child by Carol Jones, a fascinating historical fiction novel set in Malaysia in the 1930s and the present day. It was also time for another of my Fact in Fiction Friday features where I pick out interesting things I’ve learned through reading novels. This week my list included Scots dialect words, ‘self-combed’ women, and how some wartime brides ended up getting married to a steel helmet!

Saturday – I shared my Five Favourite of the books that I read in May. I also took part in the Six Degrees of Separation meme. This month’s starting book was The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell which proved quite a challenge for a few of us.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge – 82 out of 156 books read, 3 more than last week
Classics Club Challenge – 15 out of 50 books read, 1 more than last week
NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018 (Gold) – 30 ARCs read and reviewed out of 50, 1 more than last week
From Page to Screen– 10 book/film comparisons out of 15 completed, same as last week
2018 TBR Pile Challenge – 5 out of 12 books read, same as last week
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2018 – 40 books out of 50 read, 3 more than last week
When Are You Reading? Challenge 2018 – 7 out of 12 books read, same as last week
What’s In A Name Reading Challenge – 1 out of 6 books read, same as last week
Buchan of the Month – 5 out of 12 books read, 1 more than last week
NEW 20 Books of Summer Challenge – 0 out of 20 books read