Top Ten Tuesday: Get a Job!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books With Occupations in the Title (Submitted by Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)

The Postmistress by Alison Stuart - A young woman moves to a small country town in Victoria in the 1870s and starts working as the postmistress. (My review)

The Map Maker's Promise by Catherine Law - This is a WWII novel which follows a woman whose top secret job is to update the maps with new information following bombing runs. (My review)

The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy - I'm pretty sure I could find a lot of baker titles, but I am going to limit to just two. This one is one of the earliest WWII novels that is like the novels you would expect to read today. (My review)

The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller - I read this a couple of years ago as part of Cook the Books. (My review)

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin - I really enjoyed this WWII novel which is set in both Portugal and France. (My review)

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley - It was only when I read this book that I found out that The King's Messenger is a very specific role, and it still exists. (My review)

The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens - I have really enjoyed all of Mary-Lou Stephens historical fiction foodie novels set in Tasmania (My review)

The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner - This is another WWII novel where a dancer becomes caught up in resistance activities. (My review)

The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain - What happens when the president leaves his hat in a Paris restaurant. Quite a lot actually. (My review)

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - The food detective help bring the memories of past meals back to life. (My review)

Top Ten Tuesday: May Flowers

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is May Flowers - Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with flowers on the cover, flower names in the title, characters whose names are flower names, stories involving flowers/gardeners).

Here are some flowers that I have received this week!

Back in April, the theme was April Showers and rather than do showers, I thought I would share 10 years worth of April reads. I thought I would do the same with this week's theme. So here are 10 books I read in May over the last few years.

2024 - The Shakespeare Sisters by Juliet Greenwood - I am currently reading this book. I have the second book in the series to read soon too.

2023 - The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson - I really liked this one when I read it last year.

2023 - A Taste of Italian Sunshine by Leonie Mack - The first book I read by Leonie Mack was set in Paris, this one in the vineyards of Italy, and the last one in the mountains of France. I already have the next book to read by her and this one is set in Spain

2022 - The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - This was a long, but enjoyable read.

2021 - The Dressmakers of Yarrandarah Prison by Meredith Jaffe - this one is a 5/5 read for me!

2021 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells - I don't read a lot of sci-fi but this series is a lot of fun!

2020  - The Postmistress by Alison Stuart - Australian historical fiction set in a fictitious town inspired by an actual town a few hours away from me that I would love to visit

2020 - The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan- I do mix things up a little bit genre wise! This is crime fiction!

2019 - The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary - Still the best book by this author that I have read.

2018 - Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick - This is one of my favourite historical fiction authors and yet I don't often read her. Must rectify that!

Top Ten Tuesday: Twisted Sisters?

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Favorite Character Relationships (These can be platonic or not. Romantic relationships, parent/child, siblings, family bonds, friendships, found families, pet/human, etc.) but I am twisting it to just be about sisters.

The Starfish Sisters by Barbara O'Neal - I haven't read this yet, but I really want to!

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney - I remember reading this book in one afternoon many years ago.

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey - What would you do if your sister disappeared in WWII France?

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley - I could have chosen any one of the Seven Sister

Outback Sisters by Rachael Johns - The fourth book in the Bunyip Bay series

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart - There's lots of books about various occupations sisters

Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington - I have read this, although I am not sure I remember much about it

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen - I love this cover!

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett - Never miss an opportunity to post a book about Pratchett

My Sisters Keeper by Jodie Picoult - Can't tell you how much I disliked the ending of this book.

Can you think of any other sisters books?

Top Ten Tuesday: Green and Gold

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Book Covers In the Colors of My Country’s Flag (It’s the 4th of July in the USA today, so tell us what country you live in and share book covers that match the colors of your country’s flag!)

Now technically the colours of our flag are red, white and blue but generally the Australian colours are green and gold. So today I bring you green and gold books!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Evergreen Falls by Kimberly Freeman

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart

The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood

The Golden Oldie's Bookclub by Judie Leigh

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Poseidon's Gold by Lindsey Davis

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Most Anticipated Books Being Released in the First Half of 2023

Happy Place by Emily Henry -  April.

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker - May

The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson - April

The Homecoming by Alison Stuart - January

Homecoming by Kate Morton - April

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See - June

Snowy Mountains Promise by Alissa Callen - February

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune- April

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes - February

The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick - April

April is looking like a big month for new releases! Are you looking forward to any of these?

Six Degrees of Separation: The True History of the Kelly Gang to The Goldminer's Sister

 

 

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

The starting point for this month is The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair - My first choice based on a true story that didn't come to light until the early 2000s. This book tells the story of the women who worked out of a garage in suburban Brisbane breaking codes.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn - Another book based on the hidden history of codebreakers, this time based in Bletchley Park in the UK.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn - Myconnection is really that this another Kate Quinn novel, but it doesn't hurt that this book features  a femail pilot which links it back to The Codebreakers too.

Black Diamonds by Kim Kelly - Speaking of diamonds.....

The Diamond Hunter by Fiona McIntosh- and sticking with the diamond theme

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart - My final selection moves away from diamonds towards gold. Another name for someone who hunts for diamonds and gold is a miner.

So there we have six choices that  are all historical fiction which often gives us a fictionalised version of history.

The starting poing for next month is Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason.

Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors in 2020

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is New to me Authors I read in 2020. 

When I looked at my stats for last year, it revealed that I read books by 40 authors I hadn't read before, which gives my plenty of scopes for today's theme. However, today is officially Australia Day so I am going to focus on Australian authors that were new to me last year.

I was very lucky last year to read lots of great books by Australian authors. Three of the four books that I gave the ultimate grade of 5/5 were by Australians, and they were all new to me authors. 

Minnie Darke - The Lost Love Song is Minnie Darke's second book and it was a lovely read. I believe that it was being released in the US so hopefully other people will get to experience this lovely book too. (review here)

Alison Stuart - I actually read a couple of books by Alison Stuart during 2020, and quite frankly it was about time. I have signed copies of her books on my shelves for many, many years. I first read The Postmistress, which I gave a really good grade, but the sequel got top marks. (review here)

Steven Conte - I don't remember ever hearing about Steven Conte, but that might not be all that surprising given that there was a gap of 13 years between his last book, The Zookeeper's Daughter and this book. The Tolstoy Estate was an exceptional read! (review here)

Having never read them before last year, I read multiple books by the following authors

Ella Carey  - I read four books by Ella Carey last year, with three of those being part of the Paris Time Capsule trilogy about an apartment located in Paris that was abandoned during WWII and only opened again after 70 years. (tag here)

Lily Malone - Another trilogy, this time a rural romance series, I really enjoyed reading about the small town in the south of Western Australia, especially seeing as I was able to travel through the area in December 2019.(tag here)

Rebecca Raisin - I have shared a number of quotes from Rebecca Raisin during 2020 as I just love the way that she writes about food, books and Paris!

The following four books are all books that I rated very highly. All of them except for the last one got 4.5/5 and so I definitely highly recommend them.

Julian Leatherdale - This author died in 2020, having left behind 3 novels. I enjoyed this one a lot so I do intend to read more.

Meg Keneally - The Wreck is a book that was this close to getting a 5/5. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I do need to read her first solo novel, Fled. She has also written a mystery series with her dad, Thomas Keneally, and I have a least one of those books here to read too. (review here)

Tania Blanchard - I had seen Tania Blanchard's books around before but I hadn't read them. I still need to.

Katye Nunn - This book had a gothic feel to it, which I enjoyed, and I do intend to go back and read her other books. I saw recently that her next book is out at the end of March and it sounds fascinating. It's called The Last Reunion. (review here)