Hosted by Should be Reading
FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).
Well a mixed bag this week so I’ll lead with a surprise; Real Readers sent me a copy of The Iron Necklace by Giles Waterfield. I’m not sure whether I’ll enjoy this or not but it is set in wartime with family at the centre it looks promising.
“The wedding of Thomas, an idealistic German architect, and Irene, an English artist, brings together the Curtius and Benson families. But their peace is soon shattered by the outbreak of war in Europe. While Irene struggles to survive in a country where she is the enemy, her sister Sophia faces the war as a nurse on the Western Front. For their brother Mark, diplomatic service sees him moving between London, Washington and Copenhagen, all the while struggling to confront his own identity. Against a backdrop of war and its aftermath relationships are tested, sacrifices are made and Irene and her siblings strive to find their place in an evolving world.” Amazon
As I enjoyed The Paying Guests so much I ordered myself a copy of The Night Watch by Sarah Waters which I unaccountably missed out on reading when it was published back in 2011.
Blurb
Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons, sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the work of a truly brilliant and compelling storyteller.
This is the story of four Londoners: three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching. Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret. Viv, a glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover. Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and their secrets, connect in sometimes startling ways.
War leads to strange alliances. Tender, tragic and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. The Night Watch is a thrilling and towering literary achievement. Goodreads
And a lovely bookish friend lent me a copy of The Secrets of the Lighthouse by Sara Montefiore, as you know I am a sucker for a dark family secret.
Ellen Trawton is running away from it all – quite literally. She is due to get married to a man she doesn’t love, her job is dragging her down and her interfering mother is getting on her nerves. So she escapes to the one place she know her mother won’t follow her – to her aunt’s house in rural Ireland. Once there, she uncovers a dark family secret – and a future she never knew she might have.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Macausland is mourning the future she can never have. She died tragically in what the village thinks is suspicious circumstances, and now she is stuck in a limbo, unable to move on.
And between the two of them is an old lighthouse – the scene of so much tragedy. Can each woman find the peace she so desperately longs for? And can they find the way to live again? Goodreads
It’s looking a lot like a crime free Friday Finds this week!
What have you found to read, please share!
Your posts aways give me good reading ideas, I want to read all of these now. Thx :-). My kindle is very appreciative
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Thank you – what a lovely comment and I hope both you and your kindle enjoy the choices. 🙂
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I have not read Sarah Waters “The Paying Guests” yet (it is on my Kindle), but if I enjoy that one I am sure I will read her other stuff. I look forward to seeing your thoughts on it. 🙂
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Thank you – I loved The Paying Guests and have read most of the others years ago.
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You’ve got some interesting finds, Cleo. I like the sense of history in them, as I do enjoy historical novels. I’ll be interested in what you think of them.
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It’s funny how I got a selection of these at the same time, when I’m not reading about murder I love a good historical novel.
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It’s a good way to learn about history, reading historical fiction. I often find I want to read more on the period and place once I’ve read the book. The Miniaturist did that! Finished it last night, and loved it, although I think it’ll be a hard book to review, because I’m still trying to work out why I enjoyed it so much!
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I just wasn’t convinced I’d like The Miniaturist so you must review it so I can see! (please) 🙂
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I think you’d really enjoy it…tbh I was trying to resist the hype (despite the fact the book looks gorgeous!) but it was £1.80 on Kindle over Christmas so I thought, well at that price…(a common thought pattern in my head, justifying buying books!) I’m still ruminating over it, but I will definitely review it. Sometimes when a book’s really good I feel there’s less to say than if it’s not so great – there are only so many superlatives! (I had that problem with The Paying Guests too.)
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You are so right – it is hard to right a good review if a book is good, I tend to read mine and think they sound so gushing (something I try hard to avoid but fail abysmally at)
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Oh me too – and I feel I’m too generous with stars, so I’ve kind of omitted them recently. But obviously we select what we want to read, so we’re obviously going to pick books we’d like. Obviously if you were paid to write reviews (what heaven!) you’d doubtless get a lot more books not to your taste. But there are a lot of fantastic books about, esp in the last year or two. Or maybe I’m just getting better at picking out ones I like!
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As I mentioned on my 2014 book choices I don’t worry too much about star ratings – I am going to pick books I enjoy so it’s only natural that most books fall in the four star range and quite a few in the five star. The words in my review are designed for other readers to decide if they will like it too!
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I loved The Night Watch (I think it’s my favourite of hers!) so I’ll be interested to hear what you think. I rather like dark family secrets too. Quite a restrained week Cleo!
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Thank you – I am trying to cut down so I’m quite proud of myself!
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I’m delighted to say I think I may be able to resist them all this week – I think that might be a first!! Hope you enjoy them though… 😀
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🙂 I can’t say I’m surprised with your comments this week! A departure from the norm!
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I love books set in wartime (esp. WWII), so The Iron Necklace is the most intriguing of these to me.
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I’m really looking forward to seeing what The Iron Necklace is all about especially as I hadn’t heard of it or its author before.
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Nice picks for the week. The Iron Necklace sounds good. Here’s a link to my Friday Finds: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2015/01/friday-finds-68.html
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Thank you for leaving your link 🙂
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Secrets of the Lighthouse looks really good, I’ll be adding that to my to read list! Thanks for stopping by my page!
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You’re very welcome – my friend really enjoyed it and I trust her judgement 🙂
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You always have such interesting reads to share! I need to check some of these out. Here’s my FF: https://darcysbookblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/friday-finds-jan-23/
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Thank you what a lovely comment! Thanks for leaving your link too. 🙂
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Secret of the Lighthouse sounds so good! I’ll be adding that to my ever growing / never going to finish tbr shelf haha
My FF: http://bookenthral.com/2015/01/23/friday-find-2/
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I was bit bummed that the first book’s blurb makes no mention of the iron necklace, although I suspect it has to do with bravery during the war. I like the sound of the last book. I would love to go to Ireland one day.
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Yes I’m hoping the link is clear in the book. I’ve been to Ireland a couple of times, it is beautiful with lots of different types of landscapes, it does have a tendency to rain though.
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Secrets of the Lighthouse intrigues me. Most of the books I find are animal books. I’m always looking for books to review for our local pet club.
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