Category: WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday: 31 July 2024

Published on by Margaret6 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 The Women of Troy by Pat Barker. this is the second book on The Women of Troy trilogy, a retelling of the classic Greek myth. I’ve recently read the first book, The Silence of the Girls (my review will follow shortly) which I loved. So far this second book looks as though it will be just as good. Troy has fallen but high winds are keeping the Greeks from sailing home.

Description from Goodreads:

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war—including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.

It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles’s slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam’s aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

I’m also reading Into the Tangled Bank by Lev Parikian, non fiction about nature. It’s easy reading, Parikian writes with humour, in a chatty style, but also richly descriptive. I’m loving it, it is compulsive reading. He is a storyteller, so there are lots of anecdotes and stories, plus his thoughts on nature and how we view it. Amongst many other topics he ponders about the ethics of zoos – something that puzzles me too – and wonders if the definition of a nature lover is becoming that of one who loves nature programmes. There’s a lot packed into this book.

The last book I read was Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, a review copy. My review will follow after the book is published on 22 August 2024. I have very mixed feelings about this book from loving parts of it to frustration at other parts.

Synopsis from Amazon:

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed. 
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

What will I read next? At the moment I have no idea.

WWW Wednesday: 19 June 2024

Published on by Margaret4 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?

The books in this post are all from my 20 Books of Summer list.

Currently I’m reading The Children’s Book by A S Byatt. I’ve started this book a few time before but now I am at last settled into reading it.

Description from Amazon UK:

‘Famous author Olive Wellwood writes a special private book, bound in different colours, for each of her children. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world – but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and their friends, the son and daughter of a curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets. 

They grow up in the golden summers of Edwardian times, but as the sons rebel against their parents and the girls dream of independent futures, they are unaware that in the darkness ahead they will be betrayed unintentionally by the adults who love them. This is the children’s book.’

The last book I read was The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffeoner. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s about a group of people on the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston. It’s a story of s routine journey that takes a terrifying turn.

Next, I’m thinking of reading Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

Synopsis from Amazon:

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed. 
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

WWW Wednesday: 12 June 2024

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?

The books in this post are all from my 20 Books of Summer list.

Currently I’m reading The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe. This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for ages, so I am really pleased that at long last I am reading it. I’m up to page 147 out of 263, so I’m making good progress. It’s set on the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London, Euston. Some of the passengers are on their way to work, some going on holiday, one family off to a wedding and some hoping to escape from the demands of their family, wanting a new start and one person is desperate to get back home to her little girl. It’s a tense journey full of daily life – until it moves into tragedy.

Another book I’m reading is Where Water Lies by Hilary Tailor. I’ve only read the opening chapter so far, so there’s a long way to go yet. But I reckon I can start another novel at the moment. (see below)

The last book I read was The Innocent by Matthew Hall, a prequel to his series of books about Jenny Cooper, a coroner. I read the first one several years ago and just came across this novella (226 pages). Before Jenny was a coroner, she was a lawyer and in this book Hall writes about why she became a coroner. I really enjoyed it.

Next, I’m planning to read The Silence of the Girls. It is the first book in Pat Barker’s Troy series, historical fiction retelling the story of the Trojan war from the point of view of the women. I put this on my 20 Books of Summer list because it’s a book I’ve been thinking of reading for years – and I reckon the time has come.Pat

Synopsis from Amazon:

There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan War whose voice has been silent – until now. Discover the greatest Greek myth of all – retold by the witness that history forgot . .

Briseis was a queen until her city was destroyed. Now she is a slave to the man who butchered her husband and brothers. Trapped in a world defined by men, can she survive to become the author of her own story?

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.

WWW Wednesday: 5 June 2024

Published on by Margaret6 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?

It’s been several weeks since I wrote a WWW Wednesday post. The books in this post are all from my 20 Books of Summer list.

Currently I’m reading Black Roses by Jane Thynne, a book I bought 10 years ago. It’s set in Germany in 1933 as Hitler came to power. Clara Vine, an attractive young Anglo-German actress, arrives in Berlin to find work at the famous Ufa studios. Through a chance meeting, she is unwillingly drawn into a circle of Nazi wives, among them Magda Goebbels, Anneliese von Ribbentrop and Goering’s girlfriend Emmy Sonnemann. (Goodreads). I’m enjoying this book so far, although it’s moving very slowly and I am getting a bit confused by the minor characters.

The last book I read was Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde, subtitled on the cover, An Evocation. I couldn’t resist the cover of this book when I spotted it at a bookstall at the local village fair in July 2010. When I read the opening words in the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book I knew I wanted to read it:

An evocation, this, of the happiest days of my childhood: 1930 – 34. The world was gradually falling apart all around me, but I was serenely unaware. I was not, alas, the only ostrich. (page vii)

It has been sitting on my bookshelves since then. and I’m kicking myself that I took so long to get round to reading it because I loved it. I’ll be writing more about this book soon.

Next I’m planning to read Where Water Lies by Hilary Tailor. I put this on my 20 Books of Summer list because I loved her first book The Vanishing Tide.

Synopsis from Amazon UK

Eliza has lived two lives – one before she fell into an obsessive teenage friendship with Eric and Maggie, and the one after it was destroyed in a single afternoon. To Eliza, Eric and Maggie were irreplaceable, so she hasn’t. Instead, drifting through life alone, she spends every morning diving into her memories as she swims in Hampstead Ponds, her guilt never far below the surface.

Twenty years might have passed, yet Eliza still can’t help searching for Maggie everywhere. Then one day she spots a woman who looks just like her. Eliza has spent half her life wondering what really happened that afternoon and if Maggie’s back, will it help her finally get answers?

But memories are like ripples on water, and can be deceptive. As the past and present collide, Eliza begins to wonder: will learning the truth set her free – or will it only drag her down deeper?

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.

WWW Wednesday: 10 April 2024

Published on by Margaret3 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 The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin, written while Crispin was an undergraduate at Oxford.I wrote about its beginning and an extract from page 56 in my Book Beginnings post here. It’s the first Gervase Fen Mystery, a locked room mystery, first published in 1944.

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of (Robert) Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978). His first crime novel and musical composition were both accepted for publication while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford. After a brief spell of teaching, he became a full-time writer and composer (particularly of film music. He wrote the music for six of the Carry On films. But he was also well known for his concert and church music). He also edited science fiction anthologies, and became a regular crime fiction reviewer for The Sunday Times. (from Goodreads)

The last book I read was Nero by Conn Iggulden, an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley; the expected publication date is 23 May 2024. It’s the first in a new trilogy, historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, telling of Nero’s birth and early years, so it’s more about his mother Agrippina than about Nero. It doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the age, particularly those of Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius, who was easily as ruthless as his predecessors. I read and watched the TV series I Claudius and Claudius the God years ago and this book is making me want to re-read those books. I find the period absolutely fascinating. I’ll be writing more about nearer to its publication.

I’m never sure what I’ll be reading next but it could be: Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 by Ian Black because I want to understand more about the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Synopsis from Amazon UK

A century after Britain’s Balfour Declaration promised a Jewish ‘national home’ in Palestine, veteran Guardian journalist Ian Black has produced a major new history of one of the most polarising conflicts of the modern age.

Drawing on a wide range of sources – from declassified documents to oral testimonies and his own decades of reporting – Enemies and Neighbours brings much-needed perspective and balance to the long and unresolved struggle between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land.

Beginning in the final years of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate period, when Zionist immigration transformed Palestine in the face of mounting Arab opposition, the book re-examines the origins of what was a doomed relationship from the start. It sheds fresh light on critical events such as the Arab rebellion of the 1930s; Israel’s independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (Nakba in Arabic) of 1948; the watershed of the 1967 war; two Intifadas; the Oslo Accords and Israel’s shift to the right. It traces how – after five decades of occupation, ever-expanding Jewish settlements and the construction of the West Bank ‘separation wall’ – hopes for a two-state solution have all but disappeared, and explores what the future might hold.

Yet Black also goes beyond the most newsworthy events – wars, violence and peace initiatives – to capture thereality of everyday life on the ground in Jerusalem and Hebron, Tel Aviv,Ramallah, Haifa and Gaza, for both sides of an unequal struggle. Lucid, timelyand gripping, Enemies and Neighbours illuminates a bitter conflict that shows no sign of ending – which is why it is so essential that we understand it.

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.

WWW Wednesday: 5 April 2023

Published on by Margaret6 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 four books:

The Children’s Book by A S Byatt. I started this in February and am taking it slowly. It spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centres around a famous children’s book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves. I’m still not very far into this book (chapter 7). I’m also reading Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Philip Pullman, a beautiful book my son bought me for Mother’s Day. It’s a collection of his essays and I’m dipping into it choosing an essay at random. The third book I’m reading is Asking for the Moon by Reginald Hill, four novellas about Dalziel and Pascoe. I’ve read the first one, The Last National Service Man which is about their first meeting. And the final book is The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, a follow-up to his Notes from a Small Island, seeing how Britain had changed twenty years later. I’m nearing the end of this book

The last book I read (on Kindle) is Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks, set mainly in Austria from the years before the First World War to 1933. I found parts of it very slow with too much about Freud. Anton and Lena are the main characters and I much preferred Lena’s story. I may write about it in more detail later on.

Next I’ll be reading – Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, my Spin book for the Classics Club.

Although this is a weekly meme I’m only taking part occasionally.