WWW Wednesday – August 18, 2021

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?

I am currently reading Noel Streatfeild: A Biography by Angela Bull, a respected author in her own right. This is for a project I am working on about Streatfeild’s orphans and their ambitions. I have enjoyed my rereads of some of my favorite Streatfeilds: Ballet Shoes, The Children on the Top Floor, Dancing Shoes, Skating Shoes, and Theatre Shoes. Somehow I had never read the Gemma series at all and enjoyed those for the first time during the pandemic.

I just finished several books I won’t have time to review. When Stars Collide by Susan Elizabeth Phillips is about a veteran quarterback and an opera singer, who meet on a promotional tour and do not, initially, get along. I have been an SEP fan since the early 90s when she began her Chicago Stars series and I much prefer her athletic heroes to her grittier ones (such as in The Great Escape) so this was a fun summer read, although there wasn’t much of a plot.

In addition, I listened to the first two books in Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series, City of the Lost and A Darkness Absolute. It’s about a remote town in the Yukon and the new detective who arrives to find a string of murders. I really enjoyed the first and liked the second despite some inconsistencies and am now listening to the third one as I drive to work. I wish there weren’t quite so much use of the F word but maybe it is more noticeable because I am hearing it instead of reading it? I can’t help feeling an author can get the message across in other ways.

I also read Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, a children’s book set on the rooftops of Paris. Once I figure out if this was a fantasy or not, I will write my review, as this is one of my 20 Books of Summer.

Next up: Fire in the Thatch by E.C.R. Lorac – I don’t like to start a series in the middle but only a few of her books are available in the US; I was surprised my library had this one at all. Someone may be able to tell me if this cover was designed by Brian Cook or if it is just a well-done imitation.

I am also excited that the sequel to Dear Mrs. Bird just arrived! Yours Cheerfully by A.J. Pearce continues the story of Emmy Lake during WWII. Dear Mrs. Bird was my favorite book of 2019.

The fall semester of graduate school starts a week from tonight so I know I will have less time to read soon. I am just taking one class but it is an intense research course.