New arrivals
Another week of (relative) self-restraint…
The Sixth Man by Rupert Colley (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)
Sometimes we all make the wrong choice. 1943 Nazi-occupied France. Six Frenchmen are in a Nazi prison: a doctor, a postman, a policeman, a soldier, a teacher and a priest. After six months of prison, they are a desperate looking set of men. But, despite their circumstances, they are happy – for tonight is their last night of incarceration. Tomorrow, they will be free men. But then – there’s a change of plan. The French resistance have blown up a German train. Five German soldiers lie dead. Tomorrow, five of the six prisoners will be executed in reprisal. They have until dawn to decide which one of them should be allowed to live. Six happy men are now six desperate frightened souls, victims of the Nazi’s arbitrary justice. The doctor, the postman, the policeman, the soldier, the teacher and the priest. Only one of them will live to see another day. Who will be The Sixth Man? The Sixth Man is a novel about the difficult choices we have to make and living with the consequences.
The Sacrifice by Indrajit Garai (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)
In this collection, meet: Guillaume, who gives up everything to protect his child; young Matthew, who stakes his life to save his home; and François, who makes the biggest sacrifice to rescue his grandson.
More Than A Soldier by D. M. Annechino (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)
Feeling a patriotic duty to defend his country after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, seventeen year old, Angelo J. DiMarco, enlists in the U.S. Army. Severely short of frontline fighters, the Army rushes Angelo through Ranger training and sends him to Italy as part of the 1st Ranger Battalion. Their objective: stop the German invasion. Fighting on the front lines in Italy, the German’s teach Angelo a sobering lesson on life when they capture him during the bloody battle of Cisterna. The poor living conditions and ill-treatment in the German prison camps quickly convince Angelo he has to find a way out. Against insurmountable odds, Angelo miraculously escapes in a way that stretches the imagination. He survives behind enemy lines for over five months, hiding from the Germans and trying to outmanoeuvre them. He begs for food, sleeps in barns and suffers from many ailments, including dehydration, malnutrition, malaria and exposure to the elements.
A Reluctant Warrior by Kelly Brooke Nicholls (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)
When Luzma’s brother, Jair, unwittingly uncovers the plan by Colombia’s most notorious drug cartel to smuggle an unprecedented cocaine shipment into the US, it puts their family in grave danger. Jair’s kidnapping by the cartel forces Luzma to go face to face with vicious paramilitary leader, El Cubano, and General Ordonez, ruthless head of the military – men who will stop at nothing to protect their empires. But for Luzma, nothing is more important than saving her family – not even her own life.
A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson (ebook, 99p)
Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, boards a train, preoccupied and flustered in the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel; rather, he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.
Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith(ebook, 99p)
For eleven years the clock has been ticking for Russell Gaines as he sat in Parchman penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. His time now up, and believing his debt paid, he returns home only to discover that revenge lives and breathes all around. On the day of his release, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate under the punishing summer sun. Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a motel room for the night, a night that ends with Maben running through the darkness holding a pistol, and a dead deputy sprawled across the road in the glow of his own headlights. With dawn, destinies collide, and Russell is forced to decide whose life he will save – his own or that of the woman and child?
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (ebook, 99p)
Profoundly moving and gracefully told, PACHINKO follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them. Betrayed by her wealthy lover, Sunja finds unexpected salvation when a young tubercular minister offers to marry her and bring her to Japan to start a new life. So begins a sweeping saga of exceptional people in exile from a homeland they never knew and caught in the indifferent arc of history. In Japan, Sunja’s family members endure harsh discrimination, catastrophes, and poverty, yet they also encounter great joy as they pursue their passions and rise to meet the challenges this new home presents. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, they are bound together by deep roots as their family faces enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.
On What Cathy Read Next last week
Book Reviews
On Tuesday, as part of the Blog Tour, I published my review of Across Great Divides by Monique Roy and today’s review was of an entertaining mystery thriller, Exodus ’95 by Kfir Luzzatto.
Other posts
On Monday, I published a Q&A with Diney Costeloe, author of The Married Girls and Wednesday saw a guest post ‘Secrets of Romney Marsh’ from A.J. MacKenzie, author of The Body in the Ice. On Thursday, I welcomed to my blog Jeannie Zokan for a guest post about the real-life locations used in her novel, The Existence of Pity. Saturday saw another Q&A, this time with Lesley Thomson, author of The Dog Walker, the fifth book in her The Detective’s Daughter series. Finally, today, a more light-hearted post: 10 (More) Tips to Beat Reviewer’s Block.
Challenge updates
- Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 49 out of 78 books read (2 more than last week)
- Classics Club – 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
- NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 – 24 ARCs reviewed out of 25 (same as last week)
- From Page to Screen – 6 book/film comparisons completed (same as last week)
- NEW The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – 2 out of 7 read
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- Excerpt/Q&A: The Dream Shelf by Jeff Russell
- Review: Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King
- Review: The Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Blog Tour/Q&A: The Summer House Party by Caro Fraser
- Book Blitz: Debutante by Marie Silk
Reviews to be added to NetGalley
- The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet
How was your Week in Books? Literary sensation or remainder pile?
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (ebook, NetGalley)
The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh (eARC, NetGalley)
The Beaufort Bride: The Life of Margaret Beaufort (Beaufort Chronicles #1) by Judith Arnopp (ebook, 99p)
How To Be Brave by Louise Beech (ebook, 99p)
Widdershins by Helen Steadman (paperback, proof copy courtesy of Impress Books)
What Cathy Read Next... 