Tag: to read

#WWWWednesday – 11th November 2020

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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

A proof copy, an ARC from Readers First and a book for Nonfiction November.

The Push Ashley AudrainThe Push by Ashley Audrain (ARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph)

What if your experience of motherhood was nothing like what you hoped for – but everything you always feared?

‘The women in this family, we’re different…’

The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day of my life. It was meant to be a fresh start. But as soon as I held her in my arms I knew something wasn’t right. I have always known that the women in my family aren’t meant to be mothers.

My husband Fox says I’m imagining it. He tells me I’m nothing like my own mother, and that Violet is the sweetest child. But she’s different with me. Something feels very wrong. Is it her? Or is it me? Is she the monster? Or am I?

Blitz WritingBlitz Writing: Night Shift & It Was Different At The Time by Inez Holden (Handheld Press)

Emerging out of the 1940-1941 London Blitz, the drama of these two short works, a novel and a memoir, comes from the courage and endurance of ordinary people met in the factories, streets and lodging houses of a city under bombardment.

Inez Holden’s novella Night Shift follows a largely working-class cast of characters for five night shifts in a factory that produces camera parts for war planes. It Was Different At The Time is Holden’s account of wartime life from April 1938 to August 1941, drawn from her own diary. This was intended to be a joint project written with her friend George Orwell (he was in the end too busy to contribute), and includes disguised appearances of Orwell and other notable literary figures of the period.

The experiences recorded in It Was Different At The Time overlap in period and subject with Night Shift, setting up a vibrant dialogue between the two texts.

The Stasi GameThe Stasi Game (Karin Müller #6) by David Young (eARC, courtesy of Zaffre via NetGalley)

A man’s body is found buried in concrete at a building site in the new town district. When People’s Police homicide captain Karin Müller arrives at the scene, she discovers that all of the body’s identifiable features have been removed – including its fingertips.

The deeper Müller digs, the more the Stasi begin to hamper her investigations. She soon realises that this crime is just one part of a clandestine battle between two secret services – the Stasi of East Germany and Britain’s MI6 – to control the truth behind one of the deadliest events of World War II.

Recently finished

Links from the titles will take you to my reviews

Hell Gate (Ingo Finch Mystery #3) by Jeff Dawson

The Forgers by Bradford Morrow

When I Come Home Again by Caroline Scott

The Coral Bride (Detective Morales #2) by Roxanne Bouchard, trans. by David Warriner

How To Belong by Sarah Franklin

Jo grew up in the Forest of Dean, but she was always the one destined to leave for a bigger, brighter future. When her parents retire from their butcher’s shop, she returns to her beloved community to save the family legacy, hoping also to save herself. But things are more complex than the rose-tinted version of life which sustained Jo from afar.

Tessa is a farrier, shoeing horses two miles and half a generation away from Jo, further into the forest. Tessa’s experience of the community couldn’t be more different. Now she too has returned, in flight from a life she could have led, nursing a secret and a past filled with guilt and shame.

Compelled through circumstance to live together, these two women will be forced to confront their sense of identity, and reconsider the meaning of home. (Review to follow)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Three Women and a BoatThree Women and a Boat by Anne Youngson (eARC, courtesy of Doubleday via NetGalley)

Meet Eve, who has departed from her thirty-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally, who has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia: defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller, suddenly vulnerable as she awaits a life-saving operation.

Inexperienced and ill-equipped, Sally and Eve embark upon a journey through the canals of England, guided by the remote and unsympathetic Anastasia. As they glide gently – and not so gently – through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of canal boat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds.

Disarmingly truthful and narrated with a rare, surprising wit, Three Women and A Boat is a journey over the glorious waterways of England and into the unfathomable depths of the human heart.

Nonfiction November 2020: My Year in Nonfiction #NonficNov

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nonficnov1_smallNonfiction November 2020 runs from 2nd to 30th November 2020.  This year it’s hosted by Katie at DoingDewey, Rennie at What’s Nonfiction, Julz of JulzReads and Leann at Shelf Aware.

As in previous years, they’ll be posting a discussion question and link-up on the Monday of each week.  Check out this post for the full schedule and proposed prompts. You can read my response to the first week’s prompt below.

My Year in Nonfiction

Leann asks: Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Here are the nonfiction books I’ve read since last year’s Nonfiction November, grouped roughly by subject matter. Links from the titles will take you to my reviews. I would say my favourite was The Salt Path, Raynor Winn’s account of her journey along the South West Coast Path with her husband, Moth. I have also read a number of Holocaust memoirs. They never make easy reading but are invariably incredibly inspiring.

Memoir
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
One Hundred Miracles: A Memoir of Music and Survival by Zuzana Ruzickova & Wendy Holden
Living Among the Dead: My Grandmother’s Holocaust Survival Story of Love and Strength by Adena Bernstein Astrowsky

History
Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way by Amin Maalouf
A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys by John Buchan
Homilies and Recreations by John Buchan
The Last Secrets: The Final Mysteries of Exploration by John Buchan

Here are the nonfiction books I hope to read in November. It will be good to get them off my TBR pile and Nonfiction November gives me the perfect push to do that!  Click on the title to view the full book description on Goodreads.

In A Time of Monsters: Travels Through A Middle East in Revolt by Emma Sky – won in a Readers First giveaway, this has been on my shelf for way too long.  It promises to make ‘a complex region more comprehensible’.  I shall look forward to that.

The King’s Grace by John Buchan – his portrait of Britain during the reign of George V published in 1935 to mark the 25th anniversary of the King’s accession.

It Was Different At The Time by Inez Holden – published by Handheld Press alongside the author’s novella Night Shift (so perfect for next week’s book pairing prompt), It Was Different At The Time is Holden’s account of wartime life from April 1938 to August 1941, drawn from her own diary.

Are you taking part in Nonfiction November?