Category: WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday 8 October 2025

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

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?

I haven’t done a WWW Wednesday post since July! Where has the time gone? We’re now in October and it’s definitely Autumn – colder but stil some bright sunny days. The leaves are now falling, soon our garden will be covered by them – we have a lot of trees.

Currently I’m reading one of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels – Blood from a Stone, which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’m not surprised by that as I’ve enjoyed all of the Brunetti books I’ve read. He is one of my favourite detectives, maybe even the favourite.

In this one Brunetti is investigating the death of one of the vu cumprà, illegal immigrants selling fake designer handbags from sheets on the ground. He was killed one cold night near Christmas when two men entered Venice’s Campo Santo Stefano and shot him five times. The only witnesses are some American tourists.

I’m also reading Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), which I think is such a strange book, definitely not a children’s book as I had thought. First published in 1726, it’s a satire on human nature and the imaginary travellers’ tale literary subgenre about Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon who travels to four strange and distant lands. I’ve nearly finished it and I’ll write more about it in a later post.

The last book I read was West with Giraffes by Linda Rutledge, a novel based on a true story which I loved.

Description from Goodreads

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

What will I read next? It could be The Case of the Canterfell Codicil Anty Boisjoly Mysteries Book 1) by P.J. Fitzsimmons, a locked room mystery.

Description from Goodreads

In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph. 

But when the time comes to start another book it could be something completely different.

WWW Wednesday: 23 July 2025

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

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 Small Wars by Sadie Jones, a book I’ve had for years ( I bought it in 2011!). It’s historical fiction set mainly in Cyprus in the late 1950s where Major Hal Treherne and his wife Clara and their baby daughters are stationed during the ‘enosis’ (union with Greece) uprising. It’s tense, gripping and I’m now about halfway into the book and thinking I’ll have to stop reading my other book to concentrate on finishing this one.

That other book I’m currently reading is a NetGalley review copy of The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry. This is also historical fiction, set in 1854 in Edinburgh, a mix of fact and fiction incorporating the social scene, historical and medical facts. It’s the 5th book in the Raven and Fisher Mystery series. Dr Will Raven is no longer working with Dr Simpson but is setting up his own medical practice with the financial assistance of Sarah Fisher. They are investigating the disappearance of Sarah’s young niece, the suicide of Will’s father in law and the blackmailing of Dr Simpson.

The last book I read was Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. This is set in the dark underworld of Brighton, where a gang war is raging. Seventeen year old gang leader Pinkie Brown, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. What follows is truly terrible, horrifying and full of violence. And yet I felt compelled to read it, fearful about how it would end. I’ll be writing more about it in a later post.

What will I read next? It could be All That Matters by Sir Chris Hoy, his memoir.

In elite sport, the margin between victory and defeat is miniscule, and the pressure is immense. Chris has built a glittering sporting career on understanding these how to feel for them, how to cope with them, how to make them count.

Last year, he faced another life-changing moment. He found out that the ache in his shoulder was in fact a tumour, and that he had Stage 4 cancer.

He will be living with this disease for the rest of his life.

WWW Wednesday: 14 May 2025

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

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 The Boy With No Shoes: a Memoir by William Horwood, the author of The Duncton Chronicles an allegorical tale about the moles of Duncton Wood. It’s about his childhood in south-east England after the Second World War – the unwanted child of a mother who rejects him, and whose other children bully him.

I’m also reading The House of Lost Whispers by Jennie Kerr, a mix of historical fiction and magical realism. It begins in 1912 when thirteen-year-old Olivia goes to live at Merriford Manor with her guardians after her parents were drowned when the Titanic sank. She hears a voice through her bedroom wall. A voice from a man called Seth. At first she thinks he’s a ghost. But it soon becomes clear that he lives in an overlapping world that is just a shudder in time away from her own. I wasn’t too sure about the mix of genres, but it’s working well so far.

The last book I read was Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which is over 1000 pages full of description and lots of characters, about the complex and long-drawn out lawsuit of Jarndyce v Jarndyce. I’ll be writing more about it in a later post.

What will I read next? I’m thinking of reading The Curious Case of the Village in the Moonlight by Steve Wiley, a novella about Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh painted Starry Night whilst living in an asylum, near the village of Saint-Rémy, where a lamplighter is doing his rounds in the village. It will be his last round before electricity is installed during green hour — an absinthe-drenched celebration in his honour. The curious hour would transform the night from familiar to fantastical, with the village street lamps mysteriously vanishing.

But when the time comes I may find myself reading something different, as the mood takes me.

WWW Wednesday: 12 March 2025

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

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)

WWW Wednesday: 5 February 2025

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

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’m reading Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine.

This is the second Loch Down Abbey Mystery, to be published on 13 February. Set in 1930’s Scotland the story revolves around Loch Down Abbey which has now been turned into a hotel. The Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball, including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen family, the Abbey’s former owners. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour. Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

The last book I read was The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

This is the first in a new series – an Ali Dawson Mystery to be published on 13 February. I loved it. It’s the first in a new series. It’s not like her other books, but it’s still a murder mystery. You do need to suspend your disbelief because she heads a cold case team who investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

I do hope there are more Ali Dawson books in the pipeline. The way this one ends it looks as though there will be at least one more.

What will I read next? I’m not sure. At the moment I think it won’t be crime fiction as I fancy a change.

So it might be Greek Lessons by Han Kang, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, a new-to-me author. This is a new translation by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won, of the 2011 novel that explores how a teacher losing his sight and a pupil losing her voice form a poetic bond. It is a short book, of just 149 pages narrated by the two unnamed characters, one a woman grieving for her mother and her son, now in the custody of her ex-husband. She is also experiencing the loss of her ability to speak. The other is a man losing his connection to place and family, as well as the loss of his eyesight.  They meet when the woman attends his Ancient Greek lessons.

Or it could be something else.

WWW Wednesday: 8 January 2025

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

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’m reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, annotated by David M. Shapard. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors and I’ve read all of her novels, beginning with Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve reread over the years many times, and watched TV and film adaptations. This year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, so this is an ideal time to reread some of her books and I’m joining Brona at This Reading Life in her Austen 2025 project to reread her books, along with the Classics Club’s Sync Read (or readalong).

I first read Sense and Sensibility when I was at school but have never reread it. It’s about the three Dashwood sisters and their widowed mother as they leave their family estate at Norland Park after their father’s death when their half-brother John inherited the estate.

The last book I read was There’s a Reason for Everything by E R Punshon, the 21st in the Bobby Owen mystery series, first published in September 1945. Bobby Owen had recently been promoted from Inspector to the Deputy Chief Constable of Wychshire. I enjoyed this complicated novel with murders, a missing painting allegedly by Vermeer, dodgy fine art dealers and an abandoned country mansion, Nonpareil, once the home of the Tallebois family, and known as a haunted house.

What will I read next? I’m not sure, there are so many I want to read. It will probably be The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths as I have a NetGalley proof copy and the book is due to be published on the 13th of February. It’s the first in a new series – An Ali Dawson.

Description on Amazon:

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…

Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?

Or it could be something else.