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
Dwell by Rue Baldry (ARC, Northodox Press)
For a while they are within a painting, both openly staring, with the only movement the glittering of dust motes. Light halos the marble-white figure on the floor, burnishing his hair, sharpening his features with shadows…
January 1919. A new gardener at a snowbound boys’ boarding school catches everyone’s attention. There is a rumour that he is a war hero.
Nineteen-year-old Albert is haunted by his experiences in The Great War, and fighting the temptation of one particular prefect. What they want is illegal. Being caught would ruin them both.
When Albert’s past catches up to him, their quest for a place where love can safely dwell comes under even greater threat.
Dwell uncovers those experiences of ordinary gay men in the early twentieth century which had to be kept secret in their lifetimes. It is a tender, evocative coming-of-age love story exploring themes of privilege and oppression, healing from trauma, redemption, belonging, and hope.
Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo (Chatto & Windus)
1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she grows up swimming with dolphins. After her parents and infant sister die, her brother, Joseph, leaves to find work as a sailor. Abandoned and desperate for a life at sea, Ishmaelle disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to New York.
As the American Civil War breaks out in 1861, Ishmaelle boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors in Polynesian harpooner, Kauri, and Taoist monk, Muzi, whose readings of the I-Ching guide their quest.
Through the bloody male violence of whaling, and the unveiling of her feminine identity, Ishmaelle realises there is a mysterious bond between herself and the mythical white whale, Moby Dick.
What I’ve Just Read
Prey by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)
1943. The war is turning against the Third Reich, but the Luftwaffe are eagerly exploiting a lethal blind spot in the RAF’s Lancaster bombers with their innovative upward-firing cannon.
MI5’s Tam Moncrieff lobbies ceaselessly for a solution in the face of officials’ indifference. His quest sees him accompanying a bombing raid deep into Nazi Germany that will change the course of the war.
The target is the Nazis’ flagship city of Nuremberg. With bright moonlight and clear visibility, the conditions are perfect. for the enemy. The Luftwaffe are jubilant as they take out plane after plane.
With so many men dead or captured, can RAF Bomber Command overcome their darkest hour, when the predators have become the prey? (Review to follow)
What I’ll Be Reading Next
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie (Harper Audio)
Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.
Yet, it was the incident in the parlour that confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme….
