What (am I currently reading)?

I am currently reading The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins.  Fiction, published by Tinder Press in June 2020.

Blurb (taken from: amazon.co.uk)

Ireland, 1959. Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well: his mother’s death in childbirth.

The wandering life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle briefly, in a town, where Christy and his cousin can receive proper schooling. But still, always, they are treated as outsiders.

As Christy struggles with his new classmates, he starts to question who he is and where he belongs. But then the discovery of an old newspaper photograph, and a long-buried secret, changes his life for ever.

Why (have I chosen to read it)?

I read, and enjoyed (despite the controversy) American Dirt by the same author, so thought I’d try a second of her novels.   I do enjoy reading about lives very different from my own. 

While (I  am reading it) 

Our new 3 year old cat continues to bring mice in.  Mouse catching skills are improving fast (both the cat’s and the humans’) and no mouse has been physically hurt yet – though we’re all traumatised; the cat because her mice are being taken back outdoors, and the mice and humans from the drama of each event.   We now have mouse catching equipment throughout the house, which consists of a large top and bottom-less box, for putting over the mouse initially and a smaller Tupperware for transporting the mouse outside.   

Here’s a picture of one of the recent mouse catching events – naturally the cats are locked in a separate room before the serious mouse catching begins!   The cat in the background is the mouser!

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If you would like to tell me What you are reading, Why you are reading that book, and what you’re doing While you’re reading it, then let me know via    the Guest Blog page on EmmabBooks.com  and maybe I’ll blog about it 🙂 . 

All the best, Emma