Read – Page 972 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of The Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly.

Tuesday – The Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books With Numbers in their Titles and I was inspired to take two different approaches to it in Part 1 and Part 2.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. I also published my review of The Jeweller by Caryl Lewis (translated by Gwen Davies) as part of the blog tour.

Thursday – I shared my review of the latest book in one of my favourite action-packed crime series, Asylum Road by James L. Weaver.

Friday – I shared my Five Favourite Books I read in September.

Saturday – I participated in the 6 Degrees of Separation meme creating a chain from Three Women by Lisa Taddeo to The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.

New arrivals

The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel (uncorrected proof copy, courtesy of Michael Joseph)

A chilling exploration into obsession, reconciliation and revenge in 2020’s must-read.

Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for eighteen years. She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair . . .

Turns out her mum, Patty, is a really good liar.

After five years in prison Patty Watts is finally free. All she wants is to put old grievances behind her, reconcile with her daughter and care for her new infant grandson. When Rose Gold agrees to have Patty move in, it seems their relationship is truly on the mend.

But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty won’t rest until she has her daughter back under her thumb. Which is a smidge inconvenient because Rose Gold wants to be free of Patty. Forever.

Only one Watts will get what she wants. Will it be Patty of Rose Gold? Mother, or daughter?

Conviction by Hope Adams (uncorrected proof copy, courtesy of Michael Joseph)

London, 1841. Two hundred Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.

They’re daughters, sisters, mothers – and convicts. Transported for petty crimes. Except one of their number has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.

When a woman is mortally wounded, the hunt is on for the culprit. But who would harm one of their own, and why?

Based on a true story, Conviction is a sweeping tale of confinement, loss, love, and above all, hope in the unlikeliest of places.

Christmas at Ladywell by Nicola Slade (eARC, courtesy of Crooked Cat Books and Rachel’s Random Resources)

A time for spilling secrets…

Having refurbished her inherited house and upcycled her whole life in the process, Freya – now happily married to Patrick, and with a small child – has to transform her tiny stone barn into a romantic hideaway for a mystery guest who is also looking for change. With Christmas only a week away, things don’t go according to plan…

In the past, old uncertainties are resolved when a woman seeks the truth of a legend on Christmas Eve and confesses to a deception; a Tudor wife listens to a story that must never be repeated and is given a precious relic that must never be displayed; and in the early nineteenth century, an old woman tells a younger one the story of the hares at Ladywell.

Past and present are only a whisper apart when Freya learns of an astonishing discovery that will make Ladywell famous, but while her house is full of unexpected visitors, she has a turkey to cook – and a very special secret of her own that must be told.

Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy (eARC, courtesy of Aria)

AD 838. Deep in the forests of Wessex, Dunston’s solitary existence is shattered when he stumbles on a mutilated corpse.

Accused of the murder, Dunston must clear his name and keep the dead man’s daughter alive in the face of savage pursuers desperate to prevent a terrible secret from being revealed.

Rushing headlong through Wessex, Dunston will need to use all the skills of survival garnered from a lifetime in the wilderness. And if he has any hope of victory against the implacable enemies on their trail, he must confront his long-buried past – becoming the man he once was and embracing traits he had promised he would never return to. The Wolf of Wessex must hunt again; honour and duty demand it.

Joan Smokes by Angela Meyer (ARC, courtesy of Saraband Books)

She used to be someone else, but now she’s arrived in Vegas, where she can start again. It won’t do to let the past leak in. It’s the Sixties now. She’s going to become … Joan. She makes a list: Buy a new dress (fitted, floral). Dye her hair (dark). Curl it. Buy red lipstick. Buy cigarettes and a lighter, too: Joan, she decides, is a smoker. There’s no need to dwell on why she’s here, what went before. She is just moving forward, one foot in front of the other, becoming that new person. Joan. This city of flashing neon, casinos and shows is full of distractions. Finding a job will be quick and easy. Things to do. New people to meet. A clean sheet. She’s certainly not thinking about Jack, or … No. Not anymore. Her new life starts right here, right now. (Winner of the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award 2019).

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: The Blanket of the Dark by John Buchan
Event Review: Michael Joseph Proof Party at Henley Literary Festival 2019
Top Ten Tuesday: Character Traits I Love
Waiting on Wednesday
Blog Tour/Book Review: Rivals by Sam Michaels
Book Review: Welcome to America by Linda Bostrom Knausgard
Blog Tour/Book Review: A Ration Book Childhood by Jean Fullerton
Event Review: David Suchet at Henley Literary Festival 2019
Event Review: Anne De Courcy at Henley Literary Festival 2019
Event Review: Victoria Hislop at Henley Literary Festival 2019

It’s the first Saturday of the month so it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees

This month’s starting book is Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. Links from the book title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

I haven’t read Three Women but the book description tells me it’s about the sex lives of three real American women – Lina, Maggie and Sloane.

Sleeping Through War by Jackie Carreira also tells the stories of three different women. It’s set in 1968, a turbulent time of student demonstrations in Europe, civil rights marches in the United States, political tension in Eastern Europe, and the Vietnam War.

From a book about three women we move to White Houses by Amy Bloom, a book about the relationship between two women, Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist, Lorena Hikock, known as Hick. I loved Hick’s witty wisecracks and waspish putdowns such as, ‘I’d met Wallis Simpson. Twice. She wasn’t pretty. She was a skinny rough-houser from a shitbox Southern town but she had done a phenomenal job of remaking herself, vanquishing good looking rivals, and turning a genial, not stupid, sort of spineless royal into her love-slave.’

Wallis Simpson is the subject of Anna Pasternak’s book Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor in which the author seeks to rehabilitate the reputation of Wallis Simpson, although I suspect she might have had trouble convincing Hick to change her opinion.

Anna Pasternak is the great niece of Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, which leads me to The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott. (Incidentally, Lara Prescott was named for the heroine of Doctor Zhivago.) The book tells the story of how copies of the Russian author’s masterpiece, banned in his own country, were smuggled into the Soviet Union by the CIA.

In Prescott’s book, the ladies of the CIA typing pool act as quirky narrators. Violet, the main character in A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, also works as a typist, for an insurance company in Winchester. She meets and subsequently forms a touching relationship with Winchester Cathedral bell-ringer, Arthur Knight.

Bell ringing plays a key part in the Lord Peter Wimsey crime mystery, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers. Set in the fenland village of Fenchurch St. Paul, there’s a memorable scene where the bell ringers ring in the New Year. The Nine Tailors also appears in the list of books Tracy Chevalier used as research for A Single Thread.

Where did your chain take you this month?