Musing Mondays (January 26)

Hosted by Should Be Reading
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

This weeks random question Give a list of 4 books you read last year that you’d recommend to others — and why.

I recommend:
1. Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.  Not only is this a great mystery it is told with a wry sense of humour
2. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith for a look at a sociopath that I had a certain amount sympathy for.
3. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters for a sumptuous and engaging story set in 1920’s Britain.
4. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly which is a psychological thriller in a domestic setting which chilled me to the bone.

I’m currently reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah which was chosen following a fantastic review on An Interior Journey , if you’ve not visited yet, Laurelrainsnow always has a really good selction of books worth checking out.

Blurb

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are. 
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France… but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can… completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime. NetGalley

By coincidence I have just finished another book that centres around WWII in France, in the story of Arnaud and Anna who met during wartime and separated after the end never to speak again. A Fifty Year Silence is written by the couple’s grand-daughter Miranda Richmond Mouillot who tries to fathom what provoked the long-enduring silence.
My review will be posted later this week

Next up is The Exit by Helen FitzGerald which is back to my favourite kind of read, a psychological thriller in a domestic setting.

Blurb

Some people love goodbyes…
23-year-old Catherine is mainly interested in Facebook and flirting, but she reluctantly takes a job at a local care home after her mother puts her foot down – and soon discovers that her new workplace contains many secrets.
One of the residents at the home, 82-year-old Rose, is convinced that something sinister is going on in Room 7 and that her own life is under threat. But Rose has dementia – so what does she actually know, and who would believe her anyway?
As Catherine starts investigating Rose’s allegations, terrible revelations surface about everyone involved. Can Catherine find out what’s really going on before it’s too late? Amazon

What are you reading this week?