TBR Thursday 357…

Episode 357

A few books in and a few books out in the couple of weeks since I last reported. Result – the TBR remains stuck on 167!

Here are a few more that I should pull out soon…

Vintage Horror

Our Haunted Shores edited by Emily Alder, Jimmy Packham and Joan Passey

Courtesy of the British Library. Next up in my bumper crop of anthologies is this one from the BL’s Tales of the Weird series. This sounds like it’s going to be a mix of real horrors – shipwrecks, etc – alongside the usual spooky fare…

The Blurb says: From the unsettling expanses of mud flats to foreboding cliffs and treacherous reefs, the coasts of the British Isles have provided inspiration for storytellers for millennia, creating a rich literary and cultural significance for these spaces in between the land and sea. The shoreline can be a destination for pleasure, but it is also the rife with peril. In this new collection, the founders of the Haunted Shores Research Network have curated a chilling literary tour of the coasts of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, including tales of woeful shipwreck, lighthouse terrors and uncanny revenants amid the bustle of the harbourside.

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Fiction

Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash

Courtesy of Canongate via NetGalley. This is one of the couple of remaining books that have been sitting for years on my NetGalley shelf, back from when my self-control collapsed and I requested far more books than I could possibly read – in this case it’s been there since 2016! I acquired it after enjoying Rash’s The Cove, though since then I’ve had a much less positive experience with his Serena. So this one will be the decider…

The Blurb says: Nothing else comes so I set the notebook beside me. What else is here? I ask myself and listen. This section of stream purls and riffles amid small stones. What word might be made for what I hear . . .

Above the Waterfall is the story of Sheriff Les Clary. A man on the verge of retirement, he is plunged into deep and dangerous waters by one final case. A case that will draw him to the lyrical beauty of his surroundings and, in doing so, force him to come to terms with his own past.

Echoing the heartbreaking beauty of William Faulkner and the spiritual isolation of Michel Faber, Above the Waterfall is as poetic as it is haunting.

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Spanish Civil War Thriller

The Gate of the Sun by Derek Lambert

I’m determined to finish the last two books for my Spanish Civil War challenge before the end of the year, which will be harder than it sounds since they’re both stonking doorsteps! I’ve enjoyed a couple of Lambert’s politically-tinged thrillers before, written under his pseudonym Richard Falkirk, so I have high expectations for this one.

The Blurb says: On the bitter battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, an unlikely friendship is forged. Tom Canfield and Adam Fleming are from different countries and on opposing sides, yet they have one thing in common – a passionate love for Spain…

With a fervour to match their own, a woman is battling in the same bloody struggle. She is Ana, the Black Widow; young, beautiful, bereaved – and a dangerous freedom fighter.

The end of the armed conflict will not end the conflicting emotions that draw these people together. For over forty turbulent years, from the dark days of Franco’s victory to the birth of modern Spain, they will be bound together in an intricate web – of love, betrayal, ambition and revenge…

Derek Lambert, who knew and loved Spain for many years, uses his unique understanding of Spanish history and character in this sweeping novel which encompasses some of the most crucial events of twentieth-century Europe, creates characters of extraordinary depth and humanity, and tells a story of compelling power and vitality.

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Fiction on Audio

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières read by Michael Maloney

There was a time when everyone was reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – except me! Time to find out what I missed…

The Blurb says: It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician. When the local doctor’s daughter’s letters to her fiancé go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as the war gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?

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NB All blurbs and covers taken from Goodreads, Amazon UK or Audible UK.

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So…what do you think? Are you tempted?