Tag: Reviews

#WWWWednesday – 30th March 2022

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WWWWednesdays

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!

Currently reading

Traitor in the IceTraitor in the Ice by K. J. Maitland (Headline)

Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead. Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London.

Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide – for deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. But one lone figure he senses only in the shadows, carefully concealed from the world. Could the notorious traitor Spero Pettingar finally be close at hand?

As more bodies are unearthed, Daniel determines to catch the culprit. But how do you unmask a killer when nobody is who they seem?

The Sunken Road PBThe Sunken Road by Ciarán McMenamin (Vintage)

Annie, Francie and Archie were inseparable growing up, but in 1914 the boys are seduced by the drama of the Great War. Before leaving their small Irish village for the trenches, Francie promises his true love Annie that he will bring her little brother home safe.

Six years later Francie is on the run, a wanted man in the Irish war of Independence. He needs Annie’s help to escape safely across the border, but that means confronting the truth about why Archie never came back….

Recently finished

Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu (Headline)

A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17) by Jacqueline Winspear (Allison & Busby)

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

FortuneFortune by Amanda Smyth (Peepal Tree) 

Eddie Wade has recently returned from the US oilfields. He is determined to sink his own well and make his fortune in the 1920s Trinidad oil-rush. His sights are set on Sonny Chatterjee’s failing cocoa estate, Kushi, where the ground is so full of oil you can put a stick in the ground and see it bubble up. When a fortuitous meeting with businessman Tito Fernandez brings Eddie the investor he desperately needs, the three men enter into a partnership. A friendship between Tito and Eddie begins that will change their lives forever, not least when the oil starts gushing. But their partnership also brings Eddie into contact with Ada, Tito’s beautiful wife, and as much as they try, they cannot avoid the attraction they feel for each other.

#TopTenTuesday 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics

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Top Ten Tuesday

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 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics, a topic suggested by Lisa at Hopewell’s Library of Life. 

This is a fascinating topic which, of course, begs the question ‘What is a classic?’ My own thoughts are that a ‘classic’ is a book that will stand the test of time, that will continue to be read and discussed for many years to come. I also think it must have some element that sets it apart from other books, either in terms of subject matter, structure or writing style. I’ve only read four of the books on my list but the others are all ones I’ve heard enough about to make me think they fit my criteria.

Which books would you have chosen?

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – the first in the author’s Tudor era trilogy based on the life of Thomas Cromwell, it won the 2009 Booker Prize and the 2010 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – described as ‘an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance’, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2015

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart – described as a book that ‘lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride’ it won the 2020 Booker Prize

The Road by Cormac McCarthy – described as ‘a searing, post apocalyptic novel’, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, it’s the story of three generations of a family starting in the time of the Civil War.

 

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry – winner of the 2017 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, it’s the story of two men and the makeshift family they create with a young Sioux girl

Small Island by Andrea Levy – winner of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction, it’s the story of two couples in postwar London, one of which are immigrants from Jamaica 

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – winner of the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, it’s the heart-breaking story about the suffering of the people of Biafra told from the point of view of three different characters

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides – described as ‘a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire’, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – described as ‘a murder mystery novel like no other’, the book’s narrator is Christopher Boone, a fifteen-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome