Posted in Weekly Posts

This Week in Books (January 25)

This Week In Books

Hosted by Lipsyy Lost & Found my Wednesday post gives you a taste of what I am reading this week. A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words

My current read is The Good People by Hannah Kent which will be published on 9 February 2017. This is a much anticipated read following the brilliance which was Burial Rites.Burial Rites

the-good-people

Blurb

County Kerry, Ireland, 1825.
NÓRA, bereft after the sudden death of her beloved husband, finds herself alone and caring for her young grandson Micheál. Micheál cannot speak and cannot walk and Nóra is desperate to know what is wrong with him. What happened to the healthy, happy grandson she met when her daughter was still alive?
MARY arrives in the valley to help Nóra just as the whispers are spreading: the stories of unexplained misfortunes, of illnesses, and the rumours that Micheál is a changeling child who is bringing bad luck to the valley.
NANCE’s knowledge keeps her apart. To the new priest, she is a threat, but to the valley people she is a wanderer, a healer. Nance knows how to use the plants and berries of the woodland; she understands the magic in the old ways. And she might be able to help Micheál.
As these three women are drawn together in the hope of restoring Micheál, their world of folklore and belief, of ritual and stories, tightens around them. It will lead them down a dangerous path, and force them to question everything they have ever known.

My latest read is The Day That Never Comes by Caimh McDonnell the second in the second in the very funny Dublin Trilogy. If you haven’t yet read the first, A Man With One of Those Faces, it is just 99p or 99c until 30 January 2017 on Amazon.

the-day-that-never-came

Blurb

Remember those people that destroyed the economy and then cruised off on their yachts? Well guess what – someone is killing them.

Dublin is in the middle of a heat wave and tempers are running high. The Celtic Tiger is well and truly dead, activists have taken over the headquarters of a failed bank, the trial of three unscrupulous property developers teeters on the brink of collapse, and in the midst of all this, along comes a mysterious organisation hell-bent on exacting bloody vengeance in the name of the little guy.

Paul Mulchrone doesn’t care about any of this; he has problems of his own. His newly established detective agency is about to be DOA. One of his partners won’t talk to him for very good reasons and the other has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth for no reason at all. Can he hold it together long enough to figure out what Bunny McGarry’s colourful past has to do with his present absence?

When the law and justice no longer mean the same thing, on which side will you stand? Amazon

Next up is The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman which has been on the TBR since September 2015.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Blurb

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women’s health, both physical and mental.

Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband (John) has rented an old mansion for the summer. Foregoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment she is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency”, a diagnosis common to women in that period. She hides her journal from her husband and his sister the housekeeper, fearful of being reproached for overworking herself. The room’s windows are barred to prevent children from climbing through them, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, though she and her husband have access to the rest of the house and its adjoining estate. Amazon

I think that has to be the widest spread of genres I’ve ever managed in one of these posts!

So what are you reading this week? Go on you know you want to share!

Author:

A book lover who clearly has issues as obsessed with crime despite leading a respectable life

54 thoughts on “This Week in Books (January 25)

  1. All these books are new to me but they do sound quite interesting and they all seem to be set about 1800s. I look forward to your reviews. Happy reading!

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  2. Oh, I am interested in what you think of The Good People, Cleo. And I’m intrigued by The Yellow Paper, too. That sounds like the sort of book I might really enjoy, Those journal entries… 🙂

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  3. I want to read Hannah Kent’s books and I figured out that I do have BURIAL RITES. It’s on my upcoming list. THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is something I’ve heard about, but I don’t know that realized what the story was about. I have a feeling that it would make me made. Looks forward to hearing what you think.

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  4. Quite different and thought-provoking reads you’ve got lined up this week! The Yellow Wallpaper was a book which stunned and saddened and angered me when I was a teenager (and part of the reason I became a feminist). Look forward to hearing what you think. I won’t be doing another post this week, but am currently reading ‘Stasi Wolf’ by David Young – as you know, I’m obsessed with East Germany or Communism in general (well, not in a positive way, but you know what I mean). I’ve just finished the strange Argentinian novel ‘Kill the Next One’, which was good in parts but also confusing. And I’ll get cracking with Rachel Cusk’s Outline, which I’d started but set aside for some urgent review books.

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    1. I think you were one of the bloggers that recommended The Yellow Wallpaper to me Marina – I haven’t read Stasi Wolf but I want to – will await your thoughts on this one before adding yet more books to the enormous TBR!

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      1. Ha, quite possible! I forget too if I don’t make a note of it at the time and then I don’t know whom to thank if I enjoy a book! Just finished Stasi Wolf this morning. Discovered in the acknowledgements that some parts were horrifyingly true…

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  5. I’ve just started reading Web of Darkness the second in the LA Dark Series by Paris Andren which the author kindly made available to me ahead of publication on the 7th February.

    By contrast I’m also reading Jill by Philip Larkin, his first novel … of another time, the writing wonderful.

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  6. “The yellow wallpaper” was recommended to me by a friend years ago. I have it on my Kindle. Sadly I still haven’t gotten to it yet… Thanks for the reminder.

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  7. The Yellow Wallpaper is brilliant – I love Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s writing. I hope you enjoy reading it, there is so much depth to it that it’s worth reading it more than once. I’m envious of you reading The Good People, it sounds like a brilliant read. I’m going to try and restrain from buying it until I’ve read Burial Rites though. Happy reading!
    Here’s my week in books post: https://rathertoofondofbooks.com/2017/01/25/www-wednesday-25-jan/

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  8. I am currently reading Fiona Barton’s THE WIDOW which is about the last few years in the life of a man suspected of, but never convicted of, the abduction of a child. It’s briskly-paced and compulsively readable (Ive been reading it until I couldn’t keep my eyes open the last two nights). I was surprised that this was Barton’s first novel because she moves effortlessly between two timelines (during the investigation and after the suspect’s death) and different points of view: a journalist who covered the original crime, the detective who berates himself for failing to get a conviction, and the widow–an unreliable narrator, doling out information in small increments. I’m really enjoying it and would highly recommend it if this type of book is your “catnip”.

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    1. I thoroughly enjoyed The Widow Deb and I’m not at all surprised that you couldn’t believe it was Fiona Barton’s debut novel – I felt the same. A fascinating subject that interests me enormously, truly a woman behind the headlines – I hope you enjoy the rest of the book!

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  9. I really enjoyed Burial Rites but for some reason the sound of this one isn’t speaking to me. I’ll wait to hear your thoughts before I decide whether to buy it I think. Thanks in advance 😉

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