Reviews – Page 489 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of Nothing Else by Louise Beech as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – I published my review of historical crime mystery, Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books on my Summer 2022 To-Read List.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is my 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 published my review of dual time novel, The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I shared My Five Favourite June 2022 Reads.

Saturday – I took part in the monthly #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Wintering by Katherine May to On the Beach by Nevil Shute.

New arrivals

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd (ARC, Canongate)

1629. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship’s busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.

1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a teenager struggling with a dark past and Gil’s actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.

After She’d Gone by Alex Dahl (eARC, Head of Zeus)

Liv loves her son, Adrian. That’s why she keeps a low profile in Sandefjord, Norway: just another tired single mother, trying to make ends meet. She has never told her son about the secrets she carries or the life she lived before he was born. She will do anything to keep him safe.

Anastasia’s life is transformed when she moves from Russia to Milan and starts modelling. Suddenly, she’s rich. She’s desired. But then she begins to see the dark side of her new life: the high-pressure catwalk shows; the glamorous, drink-fuelled after-parties; the sun-baked Italian palazzos owned by powerful men. She will do anything to escape

Selma is a feature journalist in Oslo. She’s horrified to uncover an unsavoury and dangerous underworld when she writes an article looking into the modelling industry. Then, a woman goes missing in Sandefjord…

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Book Review: Storyland by Amy Jeffs
Book Review: Think of Me by Frances Liardet
Blog Tour/Book Review: Katastrophe by Graham Hurley

background book stack books close up — Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means 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 Wintering by Katherine May. As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read but it’s a memoir which, according to the blurb, ‘teaches us to draw from the healing powers of the natural world and to embrace the winters of our own lives’.

Another memoir about the power of nature to aid both physical and mental recovery is Devorgilla Days by Kathleen Hart. Recuperating from treatment for breast cancer, the author moves to a small cottage in Wigtown, Scotland. She names the cottage ‘Devorgilla’ after a 13th century Scottish princess.

Devorgilla of Galloway was married to John, 5th Baron of Balliol who founded Balliol College, Oxford. One of its alumni was Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World.

Elspeth Huxley, the wife of Aldous’s cousin, was the author of The Red Rock Wilderness in which a young Scotsman travels to Congo in search of a Nobel prize-winning biologist.

Elspeth was a friend of Joy Adamson, the author of Born Free, the story of how Adamson and her husband raised a lion cub (whom they named Elsa) in captivity and later returned her to the wild.

The actress Virginia McKenna played Joy Adamson in the film Born Free and also starred in the film adaptation of wartime drama A Town Like Alice based on the novel by Nevil Shute.

Another of Nevil Shute’s novels was made into a film, this time starring Gregory Peck. On the Beach, published in 1957, is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe.

My chain has taken us from a restorative winter to a nuclear winter by way of Africa and Australia. Where did your chain take you?