Tag: new arrivals

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Tuesday – I published my review of The Settlement by Jock Serong, one of the books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a rewind (choose an old topic you missed) and I went with One Word Book Titles.  

Wednesday – I shared my review of The Romantic by William Boyd, another book on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023. And 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 published my review of psychological thriller, Birthright by Charles Lambert. 

Saturday – I gave a progress update on my 2023 Reading Challenges. 

---

New arrivals

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor (eARC, Harper Collins via NetGalley) 

1940, Kent: Alice King is not brave or daring—she’s happiest finding adventure through the safe pages of books. But times of war demand courage, and as the threat of German invasion looms, a plane crash near her home awakens a strength in Alice she’d long forgotten. Determined to do her part, she finds a role perfectly suited to her experience as a schoolteacher—to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas.

1940, London: Lily Nichols once dreamed of using her mathematical talents for more than tabulating the cost of groceries, but life, and love, charted her a different course. With two lively children and a loving husband, Lily’s humble home is her world, until war tears everything asunder. With her husband gone and bombs raining down, Lily is faced with an impossible choice: keep her son and daughter close, knowing she may not be able to protect them, or enroll them in a risky evacuation scheme, where safety awaits so very far away.

When a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the S. S. Carlisle carrying a ship of children to Canada, a single lifeboat is left adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic. Alice and Lily, strangers to each other—one on land, the other at sea—will quickly become one another’s very best hope as their lives are fatefully entwined.

---

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Book Review: Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry
• Book Review: A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfař
• Book Review: God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu
• Book Review: Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical mystery, No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books On My Spring 2023 To-Read List.

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 shared my review of espionage thriller, The Spy Across the Water by James Naughtie as part of the blog tour. 

Friday – I published a feature on the books longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2023. 

Saturday – I shared my review of historical novel, A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson.

---

New arrivals

God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu (Wieldenfeld & Nicolson) Longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2023

In this stunning debut from one of Nigeria’s most promising young writers, the stakes of love meet a society in flux.

A man revisits the university campus where he lost his first love, aware now of what he couldn’t understand then. A daughter returns home to Lagos after the death of her father, forced to face her past – and future – relationship with his longtime partner. A young musician rises to fame at the risk of losing himself and the man who loves him.

Generations collide, families break and are remade, languages and cultures intertwine, and lovers find their ways to futures; from childhood through adulthood; on university campuses, city centres and neighbourhoods where church bells mingle with the morning call to prayer.

These nine stories of queer male intimacy brim with secrecy, ecstasy, loneliness and love in their depictions of what it means to be gay in contemporary Nigeria.

The Monk by Tim Sullivan (ARC, Head of Zeus)

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

THE QUESTION
The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

THE PAST
Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son – he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all…

---

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Book Review: The Romantic by William Boyd 
• Book Review: Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry
• Book Review: The Settlement by Jock Serong
• Book Review: Birthright by Charles Lambert