Tag: Read

Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books On My Summer 2019 TBR

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Top Ten Tuesday new

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why. Now, I don’t have any books in my TBR pile I’m avoiding reading because if I was they’d quickly be ejected from my TBR pile and, ideally, found a new, more appreciative home. However, I do have plenty in my TBR pile still unread. Don’t we all? Therefore I’ve decided to revisit an earlier Top Ten Tuesday topic and see how many of my Summer 2019 TBR I actually read. Don’t hold your breath for the words “All of them”!

Links from the book titles will take you to my review or more information about the book.

  1. A Modern Family by Helga Flatland – ‘a beautiful, bittersweet novel of rich insights and extraordinary perception as a family drama creates a quiet earthquake’  A good start as I read and reviewed this one as part of the blog tour.
  2. The Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly – historical crime mystery set in 1940s Cambridge, the follow-up to The Great Darkness. I’ve started this one but I’m only a few chapters in.
  3. Improvement by Joan Silber – ‘a bold and piercing novel about a young single mother living in Harlem, her eccentric aunt, and the decisions they make that have unexpected implications for the world around them’  Hmm, yet to pick this one up
  4. The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle – ‘Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter’  Success! Another one I read and reviewed.
  5. The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey – ‘A novel of loneliness and regret, the legacy of World War II and the ever-changing concept of the American Dream’ Oh dear, another one still sitting untouched on the bookshelf.
  6. Transcription by Kate Atkinson – ‘a bravura novel of extraordinary power and substance’ And another…
  7. Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce – ‘A disturbing, toxic and compelling novel that explores the power of fear and desire, jealousy and betrayal, love and hate’ And another…you can see the way this is going, can’t you?
  8. In My Life by Alan Johnson – ‘this isn’t just a book about music. In My Life adds a fourth dimension to the story of Alan Johnson the man’ Wait a minute, Cathy’s actually read one of the books on her list? Yep, and reviewed it.
  9. Munich by Robert Harris – September 1938. When the stakes are this high, who are you willing to betray? Your friends, your family, your country or your conscience? Thought it was too good to last. This one’s still waiting patiently as well.
  10. Ponti by Sharlene Teo – ‘A radiant, achingly beautiful novel about relationships between women’ (Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From) And this one, unfortunately. Three out of ten. Bet you can’t wait to see my Autumn 2019 TBR list…

#BlogTour #BookReview The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott #TheSecretsWeKept

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott alongside my tour buddies, Lynn at Ellesea Loves Reading and Haley at The Caffeinated Reader.

My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for the inviting me to join the tour and to Hutchinson Books for my review copy.

The Secrets We KeptAbout the Book

TWO FEMALE SPIES. A BANNED MASTERPIECE. A BOOK THAT CHANGED HISTORY

1956 – A celebrated Russian author is writing a book, Doctor Zhivago, which could spark dissent in the Soviet Union. The Soviets, afraid of its subversive power, ban it. But in the rest of the world it’s fast becoming a sensation. In Washington DC, the CIA is planning to use the book to tip the Cold War in its favour.

Their agents are not the usual spies, however. Two typists – the charming, experienced Sally and the talented novice Irina – are charged with the mission of a lifetime: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago back into Russia by any means necessary.

It will not be easy. There are people prepared to die for this book – and agents willing to kill for it. But they cannot fail – as this book has the power to change history.

Sold in twenty-five countries and poised to become a global literary sensation, Lara Prescott’s dazzling first novel is a sweeping page turner and the most hotly anticipated debut of the year.

Format: Hardcover (480pp.)                    Publisher: Hutchinson
Publication date: 5th September 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Hive
*link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Secrets We Kept on Goodreads

My Review

Alternating between events either side of the Iron Curtain over a number of decades and incorporating multiple points of view, the structure of the book does require some concentration on the part of the reader. However, the effort will be amply rewarded.

There are some clever touches. I especially liked the chapters told from the collective point of view of ‘The Typists’, the members of the CIA typing pool. Equally as intelligent (and in many cases, more intelligent) than the male employees of the organisation, their gender sees them confined to administrative roles.   Also how the changing roles of key characters is cleverly reflected in the chapter headings.

The use of impersonal descriptors such as ‘The Muse’, ‘The Applicant’ or ‘The Emissary’ picks up on one of the themes explored in the book, that of identity. As one character observes, “I could become just about anyone”.

The act of writing and the power of literature to reflect, challenge and communicate ideas is a central focus of the book. In writing Doctor Zhivago – ‘the great novel you’ve dreamed of’ – and pursuing its publication, Boris Pasternak sacrifices everything: his freedom, his reputation and ultimately his health.  It also creates collateral damage, not least to Olga, his lover, muse and the inspiration for Lara, the novel’s heroine.

In Sally, Olga and Irina, the author paints portraits of three strong, resilient and resourceful women.  Olga’s experiences are particularly powerfully described. Arguably all the women prove themselves stronger than any of the men who claim to love them. This makes the final chapters revealing the fates of the women surely as chilling and moving as anything in Doctor Zhivago.

With its cast of spies, moles, couriers and double agents, the book conjures up the clandestine world of code words, secret rendezvous and undercover surveillance in the best traditions of John le Carré (think The Russia House or The Spy Who Came In From The Cold). There are also some great set pieces such as the scene in which illicit copies of Doctor Zhivago are distributed to be smuggled into the Soviet Union.

Combining touching love stories with the characteristic elements of a spy novel, as well as intelligently exploring themes such as identity and gender equality, The Secrets We Kept is an intensely satisfying read.

In three words: Clever, compelling, emotional

Try something similar: Tightrope by Simon Mawer (read my review here)

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Lara Prescott Author PicAbout the Author

Lara Prescott was named after the heroine of Doctor Zhivago and first discovered the true story behind the novel after the CIA declassified 99 documents pertaining to its role in the book’s publication and covert dissemination. She travelled the world – from Moscow and Washington, to London and Paris – in the course of her research, becoming particularly interested in political repression in both the Soviet Union and United States and how, during the Cold War, both countries used literature as a weapon.

Lara earned her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband.

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FINAL The Secrets We Kept BT Poster