This Week in Books is a feature hosted by Lipsy at Lipsyy Lost and Found that allows bloggers to share:
- What they’ve recently finished reading
- What they are currently reading
- What they are planning to read next
A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words.
The last book I finished reading was Orbital by Samantha Harvey.
Life on our planet as you’ve never seen it before
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
I’ve just started reading Dragonhart by Abbie Eaton.
The dragons are gone, and the kingdoms are falling. Not even the gods can save them now…
Arla Reinhart, personal assassin to the King of Hadalyn, doesn’t believe in the gods and their dragons who once served the people – not after they abandoned her when she needed them most. But when shipments start going missing and the kingdoms begin to crumble, they may be the only ones who can help.
Forced into working with the arrogant – yet unmistakably handsome – ambassador of the kingdom that killed her parents, Arla must place her hatred for Hark Stappen to one side as they journey across kingdoms, dining with royalty and fighting in taverns, and make an alarming discovery that shatters her heart and forces her to question everything – and everyone – she knows…
My next read might be Mare by Emily Haworth-Booth.
For a long time I had not been that person. For a long time horses had not occurred to me at all.
For a long time, she and her husband have their dog and she almost certainly doesn’t want to have a child. But then the dog dies and she learns she can’t have a child even if she wanted to, and she begins to think about horses again. When she hears about a mare who needs looking after part-time, it sounds like an ideal arrangement. Something to care for two days a week, without getting in too deep. But as she brushes and feeds and rides the horse, affection grows into obsession and she must confront what it means to love a being who did not come from her body and who does not belong to her.
Emily Haworth-Booth’s award-winning debut novel is a bold and beautiful exploration of contemporary (non)motherhood and the surprising ways in which desire can enthral us and set us free.
And that’s my week in books! What are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments! 😎
Jo's Book Blog 
Fab selection, Jo, hope you’re enjoying them? x
So far, so good! x
At least I’ve heard of Orbital or I would have had to drag you off the path again 😉. Happy reading! xx
🤣 “Not all those who wander are lost”
Fair point! 😂