Tag: Reading Challenges

My Week in Books – 4th February ’18

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MyWeekinBooks

New arrivals  

In Strangers' HousesIn Strangers’ Houses by Elizabeth Mundy (eARC, NetGalley)

There are some crimes you can’t sweep under the carpet . . .

Lena Szarka, a Hungarian cleaner working in London, knows all too well about cleaning up other people’s messes. When her friend Timea disappears, she suspects one of her clients is to blame. However, the police don’t share her suspicions and it is left to Lena to turn sleuth and find her friend.

Searching through their houses as she scrubs their floors, Lena desperately tries to find out what has happened. Only Cartwright, a police constable new to the job, believes that this will lead to the truth – and together they begin to uncover more of Islington’s seedy underbelly than they bargained for.

But Lena soon discovers it’s not just her clients who have secrets. And as she begins to unravel Timea’s past she starts to wonder if she really knew her friend at all.

The Summer Will Come by Soulla Christodoulou (eARC, courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources)

Set in 1950s Cyprus, EOKA, British rule, the fight for Enosis – unity with Greeve.  Two Cypriot families, living in different villages on the island, are coping with the unpredictability of this fractious time.  Circumstances over a five year period push both families to emigrate to London where, as immigrants, they struggle to settle, face new challenges, trauma and cope with missing their homeland’s traditions and culture.  Both families’ lives cross paths here and it seems that a happier future could be theirs.  But at what cost?

A story of passion for a country in turmoil, family love, loyalty and treachery and how, sometimes, starting over isn’t always as imagined. (Temporary blurb, cover not yet available)

Mrs Saint and the DefectivesMrs. Saint and the Defectives by Julie Lawson Timmer (ebook)

Markie, a fortysomething divorcée who has suffered a humiliating and very public fall from marital, financial, and professional grace, moves, along with her teenage son, Jesse, to a new town, hoping to lick her wounds in private. But Markie and Jesse are unable to escape the attention of their new neighbor Mrs. Saint, an irascible, elderly New European woman who takes it upon herself, along with her ragtag group of “defectives,” to identify and fix the flaws in those around her, whether they want her to or not.

What Markie doesn’t realize is that Mrs. Saint has big plans for the divorcée’s broken spirit. Soon, the quirky yet endearing woman recruits Markie to join her eccentric community, a world where both hidden truths and hope unite them. But when Mrs. Saint’s own secrets threaten to unravel their fragile web of healing, it’s up to Markie to mend these wounds and usher in a new era for the “defectives”—one full of second chances and happiness.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I took part in the blog tour for Court of Lions by Jane Johnson, celebrating its publication in paperback.   I also featured The Secret Life of Mrs London by Rebecca Rosenberg, which I’m looking forward to reading as part of the upcoming blog tour.

Tuesday – I shared my Top Ten Tuesday list of books I enjoyed despite them being out of my comfort zone.   I also took part in the blog tour for An Argument of Blood by Matthew Willis & J. A. Ironside, the first part in a duology about William the Conqueror.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just finished reading, what I’m reading now and what I’ll be reading next.   I also published my review of The Power-House by John Buchan, the first book in my Buchan of the Month reading project.

Thursday – I took part in the blog tour for Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik, one of my favourite books of 2017.  I shared a fascinating Q&A with Rachel about the book and its inspiration.  My Throwback Thursday post was my review of The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan, a coming-of-age story set in Colombia (Kindle edition currently available for £0.99.)

Friday – I shared my Five Favourite January Reads.

Saturday – I took part in the blog tour for The Renaissance Club by Rachel Dacus, an imaginative time travel romance set in Italy.

Sunday – I published my review of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar, a wonderful historical romp not without darker undertones.

Challenge updates

  • Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge – 17 out of 156 books read, 3 more than last week
  • Classics Club Challenge – 9 out of 50 books read, same as last week
  • NetGalley/Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2018 (Silver) – 5 ARCs read and reviewed out of 25, 1 more than last week
  • From Page to Screen– 10 book/film comparisons out of 15 completed, same as last week
  • 2018 TBR Pile Challenge – 3 out of 12 books read, 1 more than last week
  • Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2018 – 10 books out of 50 read, 1 more than last week
  • When Are You Reading? Challenge 2018 – 4 out of 12 books read, same as last week
  • What’s In A Name Reading Challenge – 0 out of 6 books read, same as last week
  • Buchan of the Month – 1 out of 12 books read, same as last week

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Buchan of the Month: Introducing John Macnab
  • Review: The Optickal Illusion by Rachel Halliburton
  • Blog Tour/Excerpt: The Once and Future Queen by Nicole Evelina
  • Throwback Thursday: The Somme Legacy by M J Lee
  • Excerpt: The Circumstantial Enemy by John R Bell
  • Blog Tour/Q&A: The Runaway Wife by Rosie Clarke
  • Excerpt: Fred’s Funeral by Sandy Day

Buchan of the Month: The Power-House by John Buchan

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Buchan of the Month

The Power-House 1stAbout the Book

When his friend Charles Pitt-Heron vanishes mysteriously, Sir Edward Leithen is at first only mildly concerned. But a series of strange events that follow Pitt-Heron’s disappearance convinces Leithen that he is dealing with a sinister secret society. Their codename is ‘The Power-House’. The authorities are unable to act without evidence. As he gets deeper involved with the underworld, Leithen finds himself facing the enemy alone and in terrible danger.

N.B. The details below are for the collected edition of the Leithen stories.  The Power-House is also widely available as a standalone book.

Format: ebook, paperback (348 pp.)  Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 1st July 2010                        Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

 

Find ‘The Power-House’ in The Leithen Stories on Goodreads

My Review

The Power-House is the first book in my Buchan of the Month reading project.  In this case, it is a reread as it’s a book I’ve read several times before.  For a spoiler-free introduction to The Power-House, click here.

Our narrator is Sir Edward Leithen, in his first appearance in a Buchan adventure.  A barrister and Member of Parliament, he describes himself as ‘a placid, sedentary soul’.  In fact, his friend Tommy Deloraine observes acutely, ‘Life goes roaring by and you only hear the echo in your stuffy rooms.’  This all changes when, by a series of seemingly unconnected events, Leithen is drawn into investigating the unexplained disappearance of Charles Pitt-Heron.   Like Leithen, the reader’s interest has by now been aroused: ‘…for every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.’

In his dedication to The Thirty-Nine Steps, Buchan said that his aim was to write ‘romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.’  Well, it has to be said that the author pushes to the limits the boundaries of the possible in The Power-House.  As Leithen himself admits, ‘I had collected by accident a few odd, disjointed pieces of information, and here by the most amazing accident of all was the connecting link.’

That link resides in the person of a man, Mr Andrew Lumley. Lumley is an example of one of the characteristic features of a Buchan “shocker” (his term for his adventure stories); the concept of an immense intellect unconstrained by common notions of morality.  Similar, if you like, to Professor Moriarty in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Furthermore, the idea of an underground global organisation, subtly wielding the levers of power for malevolent ends but whose members possesses a cloak of respectability.

As events progress, Leithen comes to realise the perceived safety of the London he knows so well is a mere facade.  Not only is he being watched but his watchers likely have more sinister objectives.  In some of the most brilliant scenes in the book, Buchan describes how Leithen comes close to falling into the hands of the secret organisation known as the Power House even as he walks the crowded streets of the city.  He observes, ‘Now I saw how thin is the protection of civilisation.’  The fragility of civilisation is another frequent theme of Buchan’s adventure stories.  As Lumley warns Leithen: “You think that a wall as solid at the earth separates civilisation from barbarism.  I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass.” Kate Macdonald, an acknowledged expert on Buchan, explores this idea in more detail in her article ‘Hunted Men in John Buchan’s London’.

The Power-House is an entertaining story that features many of the elements that would reappear a few years later in Buchan’s most well-known and successful book, The Thirty-Nine Steps.  A relatively short book, The Power-House is an easy read thanks to Buchan’s effortless prose.  It should probably be considered a rehearsal, a first attempt, to master the style of the type of adventure story that would later make his name.

My next Buchan book is completely different in tone – it’s John Macnab.  I’ll be posting an introduction to it shortly with my review due at the end of February.  Why not read along with me…

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In three words: Entertaining, well-paced, adventure

Try something similar…Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household

About the Author

John Buchan (1875 – 1940) was an author, poet, lawyer, publisher, journalist, war correspondent, Member of Parliament, University Chancellor, keen angler and family man.  He was ennobled and, as Lord Tweedsmuir, became Governor-General of Canada.  In this role, he signed Canada’s entry into the Second World War.   Nowadays he is probably best known – maybe only known – as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  However, in his lifetime he published over 100 books: fiction, poetry, short stories, biographies, memoirs and history.

You can find out more about John Buchan, his life and literary output by visiting The John Buchan Society website.