My Week in Books – 8th December 2024

My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared My Top 5 November Reads.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie and my choice was Books with Periods of Time in the Title.  

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a 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. 

Friday – I looked back at the Bookish Goals I set myself in 2024.

Saturday – I joined the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from Sandwich by Catherine Newman to Talland House by Maggie Humm.


New arrivals

The House with Nine LocksThe House with Nine Locks by Philip Gray (eARC, Vintage via NetGalley)

In post-war Flanders, Adelais de Wolf’s family is slowly, inexplicably falling apart: her mother evermore lost to religious devotion, her father to alcohol. But with the death of a beloved uncle, Adelais finds herself in receipt of an unexpected legacy: a shuttered house in a rundown district and its contents – contents which hold the promise of wealth and independence. All that is required is application, nerve, and a willingness to operate outside of the law.

Adelais stifles her doubts and her fortunes are transformed. But with her rise comes complications: her victimless crimes may not be as victimless as she supposed. Nor has she counted on the singular fanaticism of Major de Smet of the Federal Gendarmerie, a brutal detective who never forgives and never forgets.

Caught in a dangerous game of cat and mouse, will Adelais find that her new life comes at too high a price?

Mrs Hudson and the Capricorn IncidentMrs Hudson and the Capricorn Incident by Martin Davies (eARC, Allison & Busby via NetGalley)

It is spring in Baker Street, and London is preparing itself for the wedding of the season – an international spectacular in which the young and popular Duke of Krasnow, a political exile from his native land, is due to take the hand of the beautiful and accomplished Princess of Rovenia – a union that will heal the divisions between her family and the duke’s. But the stakes are high.

When the princess disappears in dramatic circumstances, other members of the British establishment are quick to call on Mr Sherlock Holmes and he, in turn, looks to his redoubtable housekeeper Mrs Hudson, and housemaid Flotsam, to assist in this puzzling case.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Time of the Child by Niall Williams
  • Book Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

My Week in Books – 1st December 2024

My Week in Books

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – I published my review of Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton, one of the books on my reading list for Novellas in November.  And my take on this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic – Thanksgiving – was Books Set in Turkey.  

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a 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 Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.

Friday – I made another trip Down the TBR Hole.


New arrivals

A Beautiful Way To DieA Beautiful Way to Die by Eleni Kyriacou (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

PLAY THEIR GAME
Hollywood, 1953. Young actress Ginny Watkins is turning heads. Even the legendary – and married – actor Max Whitman can’t resist the allure of the hottest new starlet. He promises Ginny the world, in return for the right favour.

DO WHAT THEY SAY
London, 1954. Stella Hope, once the most famous actress in Hollywood, has been ousted to Ealing Studios after her divorce from the powerful Max. Just as she accepts her fate, she receives a letter, blackmailing her for a mistake she made many years ago.

OR THEY’LL BURY YOU
Two women on either side of stardom find themselves in the orbit of the same beguiling man. And one night, in the shadows of a glamorous Oscars afterparty, their lives are changed forever…

Eden's ShoreEden’s Shore by Oisín Fagan (eARC, John Murray via NetGalley)

In the late 18th century, Angel Kelly sets sail from Liverpool aboard the Atlas, with the intention of setting up a Utopian commune in Brazil. Before he arrives, there is a mutiny on the ship, and he and the crew are left stranded upon the coast of an unnamed Spanish colony in Latin America.

Angel is rescued by a local Amerindian child named Esa, and brought to her settlement where all the crew are cared for, but later the crew conspire with a local colonist to displace their Amerindian hosts so as to make way for a mine.

Eight years later, Esa is looking for revenge, using the revolutionary fervour of the times to stage an uprising against the Spanish colonists, but she ends up finding herself trapped in a deadly game of espionage and proxy war between the European empires.

The Language of RememberingThe Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway (ARC, epoque press)

Returning from Brazil with his wife and daughter, Oisín is looking to rebuild a life in Ireland and reconnect with his mother, Brigid, who has early onset Alzheimer’s. As her condition deteriorates, she starts to speak Irish, the language of her youth, and reflects on her childhood dreams and aspirations.

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.

The Language of Remembering asks how we connect to the people we love and how we move on from the past to find meaning in the present.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Time of the Child by Niall Williams
  • Book Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey