WWW Wednesday - December 3

WWW Wednesday is hosted 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?

Currently Reading: I am not sure why my friend chose The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903) for our book group’s holiday gathering on Monday but I started it on the subway this morning and it was SO disturbing! It’s about a dog that is stolen away from home and family and sold into a brutal life in the Yukon as a sled dog. He is whipped, starved, and forced to fight the other dogs (and wolves) to survive. All I can say is that they must have done a lot of editing to make this story suitable for a Disney audience!  Harrison Ford was not a bad choice to play Jack, the man who saves the dog's life.

On a happier note (I hope), I am listening to Time of the Child by Niall Williams (2024). Actually, I think my book group read this a year or so ago during a month when I was away and now a different book group is reading it, which likely means we are too predictable. The main character is a weary widower, whose life is about to be interrupted by a baby. This reminded me of The Children on the Top Floor, also set at Christmas.

Just Finished: For Nonfiction November, I chose The Music Barn by John Gennari (2025), a fascinating look at a jazz mecca in Western Massachusetts in the 1950s (my review). 

Over the weekend, I read A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny, which I had been saving so long I’d forgotten I hadn’t read it! Some of the story goes back to when Gamache first met Jean-Guy Beauvoir, which I especially enjoyed.

Up Next: I am looking forward to Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb (2024), which juxtaposes the young Queen Elizabeth II continuing the Christmas Day radio broadcast with the story of two old friends, Jack and Olive, whose paths cross during the Christmas season.

Someone read my review of Beyond That, the Sea and recommended a book called The Star and Shamrock by Jean Grainger (2019), first in a trilogy about a German woman, who sends her Jewish children away to safety in 1939, and Elizabeth Klein, who takes the children into her Northern Ireland home. I was surprised the library had it but it turned up quickly at my branch (so much for concentrating on the piles of books on the floor). 

You know how it is - every time you swear you are taking a rest from WWII historical fiction, something suddenly appears from one's library hold list!