Tag: Read

My Week in Books – 5th July 2026

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On the blog last week

Monday – I shared my review of pacy spy thriller Throw Away the Key by Jason M. Hough, due to be published on 14th July by Crooked Lane Books.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday top was Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2026. I also shared my review of historical novel Daughters of Naples by Diana Giovinazzo, published to be published on 21st July by Crooked Lane Books.

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 June 2026 Wrap-Up.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a book chain from book of the moment Yesteryear to The Psychology of Time Travel. I also joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week.

New on my shelves

Two book club picks…

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty (Picador)

THE HEART IS A LOCKED ROOM

Abigail’s brother Benjamin is dead, and her world has literally been split in two. In one reality Abigail finds herself back at work, navigating the frustrations of well-wishers and busybodies, desperately wondering why her brother has gone. In the other an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer among his circle of close friends.

Is this a murder mystery or something more? What secrets do Benjamin’s friends hold? And can Abigail, immersed in her grief, find out the truth of her beloved brother’s life?

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Penguin)

Sybil Van Antwerp is seventy-three, slowly losing her sight and always writing letters . . .

To her children. Her favourite authors. Her ex-sister-in-law. The journalist poking into her past. Her doctor. Suitors. Kindly neighbours. The infuriating gardening club.

All receive Sybil’s witty, wise correspondence, rich with everyday concerns.

But there is one letter that she has never sent. It concerns the darkest period of her life. To post it, Sybil must find forgiveness within herself.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Where are the Kings by Donal Ryan from my NetGalley shelf, an ARC of The Millionaire Waltz by Anthony Quinn and I’m listening to the audiobook of The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir.

Look out for…

  • Book Review: A Fatal Love by Louisa Treger
  • Book Review: Country People by Daniel Mason
  • Book Review: Land by Maggie O’Farrell

#WWWWednesday – 1st July 2026

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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

Land by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press)

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

What I’ve Just Read

Daughters of Naples by Diana Giovinazzo  (Crooked Lane Books)

What I’ll Be Reading Next

Where Are the Kings by Donal Ryan (Doubleday via NetGalley)

Something terrible has happened to Jack but no one seems to want to talk about it.

His uncles can tell him about everything from quantum physics to how to hunt for deer, but they can’t seem to tell him anything about their own sister or why Jack doesn’t feel sad for her in the way he should, or why Grandad tries to shoot Jack’s dad when he gets out of the hospital.

Still, there’s work to be done in the oily wonderland of his uncles’ garage; there’s his beautiful aunt Rose to hypnotise him and his loving grandparents to console him; then there’s JJ, who wants to fight him one day and save him the next.

But with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, it is difficult for Jack to understand the person he is becoming. How can a simple boy learn to become a king?