Wednesday, August 18, 2021

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.

8 comments:

Sam said...

Sounds like a lot of enjoyable books. I hope your next books are enjoyable. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!

Carol N Wong said...

Good Luck on your research course!

Janette said...

That's a great selection of books. Good Luck with the research. It sounds really interesting. I hope you enjoyed Rooftoppers. I love all of Katherine Rundell's books.

Cath said...

The E.C.R. Lorac series can be read out of order as they're more like standalones. If memory serves there's no real character progression with the detective in the series. There seems not to be with vintage crime stories. I wonder when crime authors first decided to give their detectives a life?

I read the first Rockton mystery and quite liked it but haven't read any more. I'm kind of sensitive to overuse of the F word too, not because I'm offended but it just gets tedious. I started an Indie writer's sci-fi novel a few days ago with a female main character and it was F word after F word, I abandoned it after 20 pages or so.

Katrina said...

Thos British Library reprints tend to have covers which have been taken from vintage railway posters. This one is apparently designed/painted by Alker Tripp, I've never heard of him. https://www.mediastorehouse.co.uk/national-railway-museum/posters/railway-posters/devon-gwr-poster-c-1930s-10014618.html?prodid=694&nochkip=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgviIBhBkEiwA10D2j1J81YVI9KMtprQYMIsJTBzJLeghHpe_zy74-jNakgTOu4wlbm_eyBoCNG0QAvD_BwE

Lex @ Lexlingua said...

I recall us talking about Streatfeild's books some time back, though I still haven't read any of them. But I *have* read two books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Hot Shot and Ain't She Sweet, both of which were very unique and dealt with some heavy stuff, especially the latter. I should check out her other books too!

TracyK said...

I have only read one of the Rockton series books, but I plan to read more. I like the setting a lot, I hope I continue to enjoy them.

I want to read more books by E.C.R. Lorac, but I don't have a copy of Fire in the Thatch yet. Checkmate to Murder is the only one I have read so far, and I liked it a lot. I don't plan to worry about series order for that one either.

Molly said...

Rooftoppers looks so cute. Middle Grade is helping me out of my most current reading slump one book at a time.