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 Off Target by Eve Smith. I'll be sharing my review as part of the blog tour next week.

When a one-night stand leads to a long-desired pregnancy, Susan will do anything to ensure her husband won't find out… including the unthinkable. But when something horrendous is unleashed around the globe, her secret isn't the only thing that is no longer safe…

A longed-for baby
An unthinkable decision
A deadly mistake

In an all-too-possible near future, when genetic engineering has become the norm for humans, not just crops, parents are prepared to take incalculable risks to ensure that their babies are perfect … altering genes that may cause illness, and more…

Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when an impulsive one-night stand makes her dream come true, she'll do anything to keep her daughter and ensure her husband doesn't find out … including the unthinkable. She believes her secret is safe. For now.

But as governments embark on a perilous genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms – even taking their own lives – something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common, and people are starting to ask questions…

Bestselling author of The Waiting Rooms, Eve Smith returns with an authentic, startlingly thought-provoking, disturbing blockbuster of a thriller that provides a chilling glimpse of a future that's just one modification away…

My current read is The Ghost of Frédéric Chopin by Éric Faye, translated by Sam Taylor.

The third book in the Walter Presents Library: a bewitching Prague-set mystery about a woman who claims to transcribe music from the ghost of Chopin

Prague, 1995: journalist Ludvík Slaný is assigned to make a documentary about a truly bizarre case. Věra Foltýnova, a middle-aged woman with no musical training, claims she has been visited by the ghost of great composer Frederic Chopin - and that he has been dictating dozens of compositions to her, to allow the world to hear the sublime music he was unable to create in his own short life.

With media and recording companies taking the bait, Ludvík enlists the help of ex-Communist secret police agent Pavel Černý to expose Věra as a fraud. Soon, however, doubt creeps in, as he finds himself irrationally drawn towards this unassuming woman and the eerily beautiful music she plays. Could he be witnessing a true miracle?

An intricately plotted mystery imbued with the dusky atmosphere of autumnal Prague, The Ghost of Frédéric Chopin is an engrossing story of art, faith and the quiet accompaniment of the past.

My next read will probably be Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia.

Five generations of women, linked by blood and circumstance, by the secrets they share, and by a single book passed down through a family, with an affirmation scrawled in its margins: We are force. We are more than we think we are.

1866, Cuba: María Isabel is the only woman employed at a cigar factory, where each day the workers find strength in daily readings of Victor Hugo. But these are dangerous political times, and as María begins to see marriage and motherhood as her only options, the sounds of war are approaching.

1959, Cuba: Dolores watches her husband make for the mountains in answer to Fidel Castro's call to arms. What Dolores knows, though, is that to survive, she must win her own war, and commit an act of violence that threatens to destroy her daughter Carmen's world.

2016, Miami: Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, is shocked when her daughter Jeanette announces her plans to travel to Cuba to see her grandmother Dolores. In the walls of her crumbling home lies a secret, one that will link Jeanette to her past, and to this fearless line of women.

From nineteenth-century cigar factories to present-day detention centres, from Cuba to the United States to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt follows Latina women of fierce pride, bound by the stories passed between them. It is a haunting meditation on the choices of mothers and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their truth despite those who wish to silence them.

And that's my week in books! What are you reading this week? Let me know in the comments! 😎