WWW Wednesday: 12 March 2025

Published on by Margaret

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I am reading Resistance by Owen Sheers, The Likeness by Tana French and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. They’re all what I call ‘wordy’ books and are taking me quite a while to read.

Resistance is an alternative history novel by Welsh poet and author Owen Sheers. The plot centres on the inhabitants of the isolated Olchon valley in the Black Mountains of south-east Wales close to Hereford and the border.  It’s set in 1944–45, shortly after the failure of Operation Overlord and a successful German counterinvasion of Great Britain.  It has beautiful descriptions of the Welsh countryside and farming life. I’m enjoying it but finding it slow reading.

The Likeness by Tana French, book 2 of the Dublin Murder Squad. I enjoyed reading the first book In the Woods, in 2014 but I don’t remember the details. No matter it reads well as a standalone. Detective Cassie Maddox is shocked to find out that a murdered girl is her double. At nearly 500 pages this will take me a while to read!

Bleak House by Charles Dickens is another chunkster, over 1000 pages full of description and lots of characters, about the complex and long-drawn out lawsuit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. I’m only on page 43. I love the beginning – London in the fog.

The last book I read was Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape by Cal Flyn, a remarkable book, about abandoned places: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and fortress islands – and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.

I began reading this book in October and have been reading it slowly since then, only finishing it yesterday. It’s not a book to read quickly, but rather one to take your time to take in all the details. It’s fascinating, thoroughly researched and beautifully written.

What will I read next? As I’m currently reading the three novels shown above, which will probably take me until the end of the month and beyond I’m not planning to start any more novels. However, I like to have a nonfiction book on the go to read with my breakfast, so tomorrow I’ll start reading Wintering by Katherine May. It’s described as  ‘a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.’ (Amazon UK)

11 thoughts on “WWW Wednesday: 12 March 2025”

  1. I am so pleased to see Owen Sheers! I think he is such an underrated author. Pink Mist will always be my favourite war poetry! I read it ages ago and still think about it to this day. Wintering is on my TBR as well I heard nothing but good things about it. Definitely, I need to check the other books :)

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      1. I have only read Pink Mist of his work, and I really loved it. If you would like to venture into other poetry authors, I would recommend Rupi Kaur Milk and Honey. I also love this collection, but bear in mind it tackles difficult topics that are related to her traumatic childhood. Hence, it is authentic and cuts deep, and leaves a mark.

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  2. I hope you’re enjoying The Likeness, Margaret. In my opinion, Tana French is very talented and tells a good story. Bleak House has so many interesting characters in it, and some people claim that it’s a sort of proto-detective story. I hope you’re liking it!

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  3. I really loved Islands of Abandonment and was really surprised by some of the findings in the book The photos were stunning too. I read Bleak House last year and was very glad that I had seen the TV series a few years ago as it helped me keep moving through the book. I do enjoy Dickens’ stories but he is very wordy!!!

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    1. I’ve just finished Islands of Abandonment – such a surprising book as you say. Cal Flyn visited so many places! She writes so well and gave much food for thought. I’m not sure I can do it justice when I come to write about it.

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  4. I also love Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series – loosely connected. The Likeness is a good one. Been a few years since I read it. Hope you enjoy it. Faithful Place, the book after that one, is definitely one of my favorites in the series.

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