Tag: Read

My Week in Books – 2nd March 2025

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On the blog last week

Monday – I published my review of Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Set in Another Time.

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 Q&A with Amanda K. Jaros, author of In My Boots: A Memoir of Five Million Steps Along the Appalachian Trail.

Friday – I published an extract from The First Avocado by Greg Schindler.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme.

New on my shelves

Front cover of Days of Light by Megan Hunter

Days of Light by Megan Hunter (Picador via NetGalley)

She marvels at the way a single day can unravel everything, like ribbon pulled from a present.

Easter Sunday, 1938. Ivy is nineteen and ready for her life to finally begin. At Cressingdon, her sprawling, bohemian family and their friends gather for lunch and to await the arrival of a longed-for guest. Britain is on the cusp of war, but in the idyllic Sussex countryside anything feels possible.

It is a single, enchanted afternoon that ends in tragedy and will change Ivy’s life forever.

Chronicling six pivotal days across six decades, Days of Light moves through the Second World War and into the twentieth century on a radiant journey through a life lived in pursuit of love and in search of an answer.

Front cover of Defender of the Wall by Chris Thorndycroft

Defender of the Wall (Dragon of the North #1) by Chris Thorndycroft (eARC, courtesy of the author)

Britain, 390 A.D. As a barbarian prince fostered by a Roman family below Hadrian’s Wall, Cunedag’s loyalties have always been conflicted. His own people despise the Romans with a passion, yet he has grown to manhood among them and is now a cavalry officer stationed on the Wall.

But Rome’s grip on Britain is slipping and the north, sensing weakness, explodes in all-out rebellion. As the Picts sweep down to harry the frontier, the province marshals its forces to fight back. And Cunedag is presented with a difficult choice; continue to defend Rome or rule his people as a free king.

A Roman military novel packed with action and adventure, Defender of the Wall is the first part of a thrilling historical fiction trilogy which tells the story of the legendary King Cunedag; a dark age warlord who went on to build the Kingdom of Gwynedd from the ashes of post-Roman Britain.

Front cover of One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter (Allison & Busby via NetGalley)

Italy, 1941. Lili Passigli is studying at the University of Ferrara when Mussolini’s Racial Laws deem her of ‘inferior’ Jewish descent. As Hitler’s strength grows, Lili’s world begins to shrink around her, with the papers awash in Fascist propaganda and the city walls desecrated with antisemitic slurs.

When Germany invades northern Italy, however, Lili and her best friend Esti find themselves alone in Nazi-occupied territory. With the help of the resistance, they flee with Esti’s two-year-old son Theo in tow, traveling south toward the Allies and freedom. On this journey through war-torn Italy, they will face untold challenges and devastating decisions.

Front cover of Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree)

Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: feckless, jobless, in need of a distraction.

Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads. They’re fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost: they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food. And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry.

It’s audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life – love, friendship, art itself – it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of. What could possibly go wrong?

Front cover of A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh (Tinder Press)

Ellen Lark is on the verge of marriage when she receives a visit from Alexander Graham Bell.

Once she believed she was important to Mr Bell. As one of his deaf students, she was among the first to learn of his dream to transmit a human voice along a wire: the telephone. Now Mr Bell’s idea is a reality, and he is beset by problems – and he expects Ellen to use her voice on his behalf.

But Ellen has a story of her own: of a man she loved, a language she discovered, and a community Bell betrayed. It is a story no one around her wants to hear – but there may never be a more important time for her to tell it.

Munichs by David Peace (Faber & Faber)

February 6, 1958, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on take-off at Munich Airport. On board were the young Manchester United team, ‘the Busby Babes’, and the journalists who followed them. Twenty-one of the passengers died instantly, four were left fighting for their lives while six more were critically injured.

Munichs is the story of the crash and its aftermath, of those who survived and those who did not, of how Britain and football changed, and how it did not; a novel of tragedy, but also of hope.

What I’m currently reading

Look out for…

  • My Five Favourite February 2025 Reads
  • Extract: Defender of the Wall by Chris Thorndycroft
  • Interview with Ken Steele, author of The Promise of Unbroken Straw
  • Book Review: The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner
  • Interview with Jordan Gray, author of In the Joining of Souls
  • Book Review: Agricola: Warrior by Simon Turney

#WWWWednesday – 26th February 2025

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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!

What I’m Currently Reading

Front cover of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking)

It’s 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is well and truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel’s life is as it should be: led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis delivers his graceless new girlfriend, Eva, at Isabel’s doorstep-as a guest, there to stay for the season…

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: sleeps late, wakes late, walks loudly through the house and touches things she shouldn’t. In response Isabel develops a fury-fuelled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house-a spoon, a knife, a bowl-Isabel’ suspicions spiral out of control. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to desire – leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva – nor the house in which they live – are what they seem.

Agricola: Warrior by Simon Turney (Aries via NetGalley)

In Nero’s Rome, ambition is a dangerous thing…

Agricola has won renown for his military exploits in Britannia. Now returned to Rome with his new family, he seeks to rise further – but life in the greatest city on earth proves more difficult than he expected. Roman politics are on a knife-edge – often literally. The Emperor Nero is unpredictable, the manner of his rule unstable.

Agricola soon finds himself posted to the troublesome province of Asia Minor. The local governor is ambitious and dangerous. Falling foul of such a man could mean certain death… and yet a rebellious young warrior like Agricola cannot stay silent for long.

When Agricola experiences personal tragedy, he seeks revenge. Rome, meanwhile, burns in a great fire… but further tumult is to come in the wake of Nero’s death. Agricola must tread a careful path to stay alive through the Year of the Four Emperors… a year of blood and ruin throughout the empire.

What I’ve Just Read

Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton (Fairlight)

The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner (Aria)

Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she’s forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.

New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.

As Miriam uncovers Esther’s life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future. (Review to follow)

Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton (Fourth Estate)

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan. (Review to follow)

What I’ll Be Reading Next

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

It is spring in Baker Street, and London is preparing itself for the wedding of the year. It will be an international spectacle in which the young and popular Count Rudolph Absberg, a political exile from his native land, will take the hand of the beautiful and accomplished Princess Sophia Kubinova. A lot depends on the marriage, for it is hoped that the union will ensure the security and independence of their homeland.

When the princess subsequently disappears in dramatic circumstances, members of the British establishment are quick to call on Mr Sherlock Holmes. He, in turn, needs the gifts of long-standing housekeeper Mrs Hudson and her able assistant, housemaid Flotsam, to solve this puzzling case on which rests the fate of nations.

The continuation of the intricately crafted Holmes & Hudson series is a treat for fans of the great detective’s original cases while they offer an inspired take on the rest of the famous Baker Street household.