Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List. The first two are NetGalley ARCs (advanced reader copies) and the rest are from my 20 Books of Summer 2024 list.

First the NetGalley books:

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, her 6th Jackson Brodie book, will be published 22 August 2024. I’ve read the first four books, and somehow missed the fifth. I’m expecting this to be good in which Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, to investigate the theft of stolen art works, and eventually a murder.

Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards, the 4th Rachel Savernack Mystery, will be published on 12 September 2024.  I’ve enjoyed lots of his books before, including the first two Savernack books.

Then the books from my 20 Books of Summer 2024:

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker – historical fiction, retelling the story of the Trojan war from the point of view of the women. 

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith – a psychological thriller about two men whose lives become entangled after one of them proposes they ‘trade’ murders. I haven’t read any of her books but have heard that this is very good.

Killing the Lawyers by Reginald Hill – the 3rd book in the Joe Sixsmith series about a redundant lathe operator turned private eye from Luton. I’ve read several of his Dalzeil and Pascoe books, but this will be my first Joe Sixsmith.

I’ll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier – her 2nd novel about a young writer in Paris who is obsessed by his love for a young music student.

Unnatural Death by Dorothy L Sayers – the 3rd book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series in which a wealthy old woman died much sooner than the doctor expected. Did she suddenly succumb to illness–or was it murder?

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. I’m keen to read this psychological thriller with a killer ending, because I enjoyed two of her other books. Isolated on their private island in Cornwall, the Darker family have come together for the first time in over a decade. But one of the family is a killer . . .

The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi, the fourth book featuring the enigmatic and courteous investigator Hermes Diaktoros. He visits a remote island to see an ancient icon famed for its miraculous powers. He gets involved in a case of forgery, betrayal and superstition, and dealing with the consequences of an all-consuming rage.

Where Water Lies by Hilary Tailor. A novel about Eliza and her friendship with Maggie, who she last met twenty years earlier. One day she spots a woman who looks just like her. Eliza has spent half her life wondering what really happened that afternoon, but memories are like ripples on water, and can be deceptive.

20 Books of Summer 2024 Reading Challenge – Revised List

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Cathy over at 746Books is hosting her 20 Books of Summer challenge for the tenth year. You can choose to read 20, 15 or 10 books from your TBR shelves and the challenge begins on Saturday 1 June and finishes on Sunday 1 September. You can find the rules and sign up details for this year here.

This is my second list, mainly because I realised that I’d included two books of over 600 pages and with the best will in the world I can’t see me managing to read both of them, so I’m saving Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace by Kate Summerscale for later this year and substituting Beowulf by Michael Murpurgo. I’d also included a book I’d already read a few years ago, Put On By Cunning by Ruth Rendell and substituted The Tree of Hands.

  1. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
  2. Great Meadow by Dirk Bogarde
  3. The Children’s Book by A S Byatt
  4. The Black Tulip by Alexander Dumas
  5. Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
  6. The Innocent by Matthew Hall
  7. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
  8. Killing the Lawyers by Reginald Hill
  9. Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
  10. The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
  11. I’ll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  12. Beowulf by Michael Murpurgo
  13. The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell
  14. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L Sayers
  15. The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe – currently reading
  16. Where Water Lies by Hilary Tailor
  17. Black Roses by Jane Thynne
  18. Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
  19. A Murder of Crows by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
  20. The Lady of Sorrows by Anne Zouroudi

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Published on by Margaret29 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Bookish Wishes. List the top 10 books you’d love to own. In no particular order these are the books on my Amazon Wish List:

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

4*

The Black Tulip is historical fiction, a love story, mixing historical characters with fictional ones. It was first published in 1850. I loved The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, so I was hoping to enjoy The Black Tulip too. I did, but not quite as much. I think it’s because I don’t know much about Dutch history and so I found the early chapters, about the brothers Cornelius and Johan de Witt, a bit difficult to follow. They were Dutch statesmen, accused of treason, who were brutally killed by a mob in the Hague in 1672, during a period of political upheaval, when they escaped from prison.

The story centres on Cornelius von Baerle, the fictional godson of Cornelius de Witt and his desire to grow a black tulip. He became involved in the de Witts’ affairs when Cornelius de Witt left a sealed parcel of his correspondence with the French war minister, with him for safekeeping. He didn’t open the parcel and didn’t know what it contained.

When the Tulip Society of Haarlem offered a prize of a hundred thousand guilders for the development of a tulip ‘without a spot of colour‘, this set the tulip growers into a frenzy of activity, including Van Baerle and his neighbour, Isaac Boxtel. Boxtel spied on Van Baerle’s experiments to grow a black tulip, which were having more success than his own efforts. Indeed Boxtel was obsessed with what Van Baerle was doing, neglecting his own tulips to wither and rot as he observed, through a telescope, what his neighbour was doing both in his garden and in his laboratory.

Whilst observing Van Baerle’s laboratory, Boxtel had seen the meeting between Cornelius de Witt and Van Baerle when he entrusted his papers to his godson. On hearing that the de Witt brothers had been arrested Boxtel realised he could inform against Van Baerle and get him arrested, thus giving himself the opportunity to steal the bulb Van Baerle had produced. And the hundred thousand guilder prize would be his.

And so Van Baerle was thrown into prison, wrongly convicted of treason and under sentence of death. However William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland granted him his life but condemned him to imprisonment for life. He was sent to the fortress of Loewestein and there kept in solitary confinement. What follows is a dark and somewhat farcical tale, as aided by the jailer’s daughter Rosa he continues to cultivate his tulip bulbs. He and Rosa fall in love, despite all the difficulties that assault them.

It’s a great story, full of drama and emotion. It’s a love story, a story about passion, hatred, jealousy, obsession and injustice. After the difficulties I had with the first four or five chapters (I had to re-read them to work out how the rest of the story was connected) I found it difficult to put down, keen to find out what would happen next. I didn’t love it like I loved The Count of Monte Cristo, but I really liked it.

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.