#WWWWednesday – 2nd June 2021

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

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (audiobook)

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip, and when she learns that the word means “slave girl,” she begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.

Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré (paperback)

Nat, a veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, thinks his years as an agent runner are over. But MI6 have other plans. To tackle the growing threat from Moscow Centre, Nat is put in charge of The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. His weekly badminton session with the young, introspective, Brexit-hating Ed, offers respite from the new job. But it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Nat down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all.

This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech (eARC, courtesy of Orenda Books and Random Things Tours)

Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely. Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants. Violetta is a high-class escort, who steps out into the night thinking only of money. Of her nursing degree. Paying for her dad’s care. Getting through the dark. When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.


Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my review.

The Baby Is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite 

Everyday Magic by Charlie Laidlaw

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson 

Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes


What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Serpent KingThe Serpent King by Tim Hodkinson (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus)

The fight for vengeance has no victors…

AD 936. The great warrior, Einar Unnsson, wants revenge. His mother’s assassin has stolen her severed head and Einar is hungry for his blood. Only one thing holds him back. He is a newly sworn in Wolf Coat, and must accompany them on their latest quest.

The Wolf Coats are a band of fearsome bloodthirsty warriors, who roam the seas, killing any enemies who get in their way. Now they’re determined to destroy their biggest enemy, King Eirik, as he attempts to take the throne of Norway. Yet, for Einar, the urge to return to Iceland is growing every day. Only there, in his homeland, can he avenge his mother and salve his grief.

But what Einar doesn’t know is that this is where an old enemy lurks, and his thirst for vengeance equals Einar’s…

 

#TopTenTuesday My Bookish Resolutions – An Update

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 a Freebie so we’re invited to choose any past topic or come up with one of our own. I decided to revisit my Bookish Resolutions from the Top Ten Tuesday topic on 12th January 2021 in order to see what progress I’ve made.


  1. Read the remaining 7 books on my Classics Club list – I have only three to go now – Business As Usual, Vanish In An Instant and Mrs Palfrey At the Claremont.
  2. Complete the What’s In A Name and When Are You Reading? challenges –  I’ve only managed to read 2 books that fit the six categories of the What’s In A Name challenge but I’m making much better progress with the When Are You Reading? challenge as I need only two more book to match all of the time periods.
  3. Take part in the 20 Books of Summer 2021 reading challenge – I posted my list of books I hope to read for the challenge which commences today.
  4. Read and review the 24 books on my NetGalley shelf with publication dates prior to 31st December 2020 – Unfortunately blog tour deadlines means I’ve had to concentrate on more recent arrivals so I still have 22 to go.
  5. Retain my 80% plus feedback ratio on NetGalley – I’m doing OK with this one as I’m at 88% currently and if I can make some progress with the previous resolution and resist requesting more titles, you never know I might be able to hit 90%!
  6. Read the 5 books on The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021 shortlist before the winner is announced -This one’s looking unlikely as, so far, I’ve only read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville and I’m still working my way through the audiobook version of The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.
  7. Read and review the 7 books won from Readers First published prior to 31st December 2020 – I have 6 to go, all of which are on my 20 Books of Summer list
  8. Reduce the number of titles on my Want To Read shelf on Goodreads from 857 to 500 or fewer – Thanks to a radical approach I’ve adopted recently, deleting anything added prior to May 2018 that I don’t own a copy of, I’ve achieved this. OK, it still totals 497! I plan to work through the shelf using the same approach every month from now on.
  9. Read and review the remaining 6 books received from authors before I paused accepting new review requests – Unfortunately for the authors concerned, I still have five to go.
  10. Visit a literary festival in person – I’m hopeful the full relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in the months ahead will make a visit to Henley Literary Festival in October possible.

If you made any bookish resolutions for this year, how are you getting on?