The Intrepid Reader and Baker: This week...

I'm reading

It's been another busy reading and blogging week! I feel like I have had a lot of different books in my hands and this list will confirm that!

I finished The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson as I had to return it to the library. My review is here. This is the second book in the Tea Ladies series and I have already requested the third book.

I had to put Beartown by Fredrik Backman down in order to finish The Cryptic Clue. Once I picked it up again I was absolutely absorbed. This is one of my 20 Books of Winter and counts as a Big Book of Summer. It was a 5/5 read for me and I have already requested the next book in the trilogy.

Then I started a couple of books but I will need to go back to them again this week. I started The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl because of Paris in July. I also started Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, which is another of my 20 Books of Winter reads.

Once again, the library conspired against me and said I couldn't renew Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn so I read that. This was Claire van Ryn's debut novel, but I had already read her second book. I hope to have a review for this one up shortly.

In order to try to get in front of the library I then read Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee who is from South Korea This is also one of my 20 Books of Winter. It's a different read for me but I did like it enough to request the second book in the series. The idea is that in our sleep we all go to the dream store to purchase the dreams that we want. We then pay for them using our emotions.

Finally, I started reading A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan which is the current Cook the Books selection.

I did do a summary of the books that I read for June for the 20 Books of Winter . You can read my recap post here.

Bookish Travel

I did a fair bit of travelling through the pages of books during June. Here's some of the places I visited.

Australia

Melbourne - The Butterfly Women

Sydney - The Cryptic Club

America

Maine- The Mirror

Washington - The Diamond Eye

Michigan/New York - The Page Turner

Europe

England - The Silver Ladies Seize the Day, Once Upon a Thyme, The Storytellers

Scotland - Over the Seas to Skye, the Woman Who Got Her Spark Back

Ukraine/USSR -- The Diamond Eye

France - A Secret Garden in Paris, French Rhapsody, The Girl from Normandy

Greece - The Island of Hope and Dreams, Not My Greek Wedding

Portugal - The Lost Story of Sofia Costello

The Cruise Club (visited several countries!)

Africa

Morocco - Half Truth

Best of June

In June I read 19 books and these 6 are the ones I rated as 4.5/5 reads.

I'm watching

I finished watching Gary Barlow's Wine Tour: Australia. I will finish watching his South Africa show this week I think.

I also re-watched The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan this week. I originally watched it last year as part of the French Film Festival (and I posted about it here). I was surprised to see it on the normal movie channels on our cable provider as normally if I want to watch any foreign language films you have to go searching for it.

Life

After 3 weeks, I still sound a bit husky but finally feel like I am getting better.

We did have a busy weekend as our kids were down from Brisbane for the day on Saturday so Robert was being dad's taxi service driving all over the city while I cooked dinner. Then we had my sister and her family around for dinner on Sunday along with my mum who is over from Adelaide.

Posts from the last week

20 Books of Winter: June

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: July links
Paris in July 2025!

Paris in July/Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Eiffel Tower on the Cover
Paris in July: Since the last Paris in July
The Lost Story of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham