Top Ten Tuesday: Last 10 Author Events I Have Been To!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Thanksgiving/Thankful Freebie. It took me a little while to think of something, but I got there in the end.

I am very lucky and yes, thankful, to live in a city with a very active book scene. There are always events on. Some times they are big named authors who attract a crowd of thousands, and sometimes it is a small event at a local library with just a handful of people. Then there are multiple festivals in various country towns and suburban areas. Sometimes I know lots of people in the room and other times not. One thing you do know when you go to an author event is that if nothing else you can talk about books! 

My post this week is the last ten author events I have been too. Usually if I attend an event I will buy the book and get it signed. Sometimes there are goodies, sometimes tasty treats, but the events are always fun!

Holly Brunbauuer - Just last week Bree from All the Books I Can Read went to our local library to hear this author talk about her debut novel, What Did I Miss? It was a very interactive session!

Rachael Johns (twice) - A couple of weeks ago I went to see Rachael Johns talk about The Lucky Sisters (my review) both at my even localler local library and then to a Books in Bars events in a regional city about an hour away from me.

Helen Goh - This was an event in the city where we not only got to listen to the conversation but also got to try some of the recipes from her latest cookbook, Baking and the Meaning of Life.

Steph Vizard - It was standing room only at this event which was the launch of her latest book,  A Smart Girl's Guide to Second Chances. 

January Gilchrist - By contrast, this was a very intimate conversation about January Gilchrist's debut novel,  The Final Chapter, which was held in what is in effect a sales office at a new residential development. This night was so much fun because it was such a small gathering! I took a friend with me who had never been to an author event before.

Madeleine Cleary and Anne Freeman - This was a fun night where these two authors spoke about their two books which both feature sex workers. One was set in 1850s Melbourne, The Butterfly Women (my review) and the other is a modern story about an online sex worker, Me That You See.

Emma Mugglestone - This launch for In the Long Run was held in a bar around half an hour or so away from me. There was even a delicious cocktail!

Alli Sinclair - This was a drive up the highway for an hour or so to an event in Ballarat to hear Alli Sinclair talk about her new book, A Woman's Voice.

Joanne Miller (The Eights), Chloe Adams (The Occupation) and Michelle See-Toh (Jade and Emerald) - This was an event held in a library about half an hour away from me, and featured three debut authors from Penguin. 

Alli Parker - This was a fun launch for Until the Red Leave Fall. It was held in a super cool bar. The mood was set with 1950s music and the crowd was buzzing! And there were these super cute cupcakes

Wow, that has surprised me. That only takes me back to the end of July this year. Oh, and I just realised I missed one too! Sorry Christine Newel! I suspect that there will be only one more event this year which I am going to on Thursday, but bring on next year, when it will start all over again!

This week....

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading this week with books read and author events attended! 

I read Waves of Change in Pelican Cove by Maggie Christensen who is definitely a comfort read author for me. My review will be up later this week!

I also finished reading The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina which is an absolutely delightful read. She is an Italian author who has lived in Japan for 20 years. The book felt like a Japanese book, and I can't wait to read more from her. This book will count as a read for Women in Translation Month.

I finished listening to The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. What a book! I really need to find someone to talk to about parts of the book. I will have a review up later in the month, but I can't talk about some of the things that happened as they are major spoilers! Anyone up for a chat about this book?

I then started listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt. I am only a short way in but I already know I am going to love this book too! I love Marcellus the Octopus! I am also already looking forward to the movie adaptation. 

The book that has taken most of my reading time is The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. It's a big book at nearly 600 pages, but so good - a five star read for me! I have now read all of her books which means I just have to wait for the next one. She does tend to have pretty big gaps between books but it will be worth the wait I am sure.

I did also start reading Kelly Rimmer's new book, The Midnight Estate. It is only early days but I am enjoying it so far.

Now I have to work out what my new normal looks like seeing as I won't have as much reading and blogging time going forward. 

At the end of each month I share where my reading has taken me. Before I do that though, I found this quote in the Author's Note for Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen and it sums up bookish travel perfectly!

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot.

You might note a lot of books set in France. I was participating in Paris In July and making the most of it!

Europe

Sweden - Beartown

France - The Magic of Provence, A Bakery in Paris, The Paris Novel, The Village Cafe in the Loire, One Summer in Provence, Fresh Water for Flowers, Eat Your Heart Out

United Kingdom - Your Friend and Mine, One Snowy Day, The Summer Before the War

Iceland - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Italy - A Place in the Sun

Asia

Vietnam - Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour

Australia

Tasmania - The Secrets of the Huon Wren

Sydney - The Deadly Dispute

Queensland - Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing

I also share my favourite reads for the month on Bookstagram and here. I read 18 books in July. Beartown and Eat Your Heart Out were both 5 star reads and the others shown were all 4.5 star reads! Not a bad reading month.

I attended a couple of author events this week. The first was the launch for Alli Parker's new book Until the Red Leaves Fall which was held in a super cool bar with 1950s music playing and there were these adorably cupcakes. It was such a fun night.

The second was an event at a nearby library run by Penguin which featured three of their debut authors, Joanne Miller (The Eights), Chloe Adams (The Occupation) and Michelle See-Toh (Jade and Emerald). It was such an interesting discussion. I ended up buying two of the three books.

There are a couple of theme for August and I am going to be participating in them to some degree or another. The first is Women in Translation and on Instagram also Aussie August 2025 which is a focus on Aussie authors. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of crossover there. After all I shouldn't need Australian translated for me, but I will do my best to read for both of them! 

Have you seen that Lisa from Hopewell has a new monthly link party called A Cup of Tea and a Good Book. The idea is that you can add any bookish links to her link party. All she asks in return is that you visit a couple of other people's links during the month. I am going to be participating where I can.

I'm watching

We finally finished watching season 2 of Andor. The last few episodes were amazing!

We also finished watching the Great Canadian Bake-off. Just in time too, as the Great Australian Bake-off started this week!

We went and saw The Stolen Painting which is a French movie about a painting that was thought to be lost during WWII being found. It was based on a true story. In the movie, a young factory work buys a house, contents and all and it turns out one of the paintings is a masterpiece. Here's the trailer

Life


I spent the last week trying to get some of the things done that I have been meaning to do while I wasn't working. 

I went to the National Gallery of Victoria and took one of their free collections highlight tour. I go to the NGV quite regularly for their big exhibitions but I don't often look at any of the other rooms outside the major exhibition spaces. The tour was super interesting as the guide told us stories behind the pictures, and explained a lot of the symbolism in the painting.  She mainly concentrated on 17 and 18th century pictures but there were some later pictures too. I am definitely going to go and do more of these tours.

On Thursday I went for a very nice massage and facial experience which included a hammam and I could stay in the pool and spa for as long as I wanted to.  

On Friday we went for a drive to the Yarra Valley for a lovely lunch at a winery and a visit to the locat Chocolaterie. It was a lovely way to spend my last weekday before I get back into the working life.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Sunset Colours

Paris in July: Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

Paris in July: French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition
Paris in July: The End
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: August links
The Storytellers by Sue Heath
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - July
Six Degrees of Separation: The Safekeep to I Knew You Were Trouble


I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

This week...

 I'm reading

I mentioned in my post last week that I was starting to read Pictures of You by Emma Grey! I ended up reading it in one sitting. It was that good and I think I now have a bit of a book hangover. I have picked up a few things but nothing has really caught my attention, even authors I have tried and enjoyed before. Some of them I have to read, so I will just need to pick them up again.

One of the books I picked up is the upcoming book by Alli Parker, Until the Red Leaves Fall. I am struggling with this one a bit, not because of the book itself, but because the publisher doesn't allow you to send to Kindle on Netgalley. I am therefore trying to read it on my phone or my laptop, but the PDF format is a bit odd and you have to resize the page every time you changes pages as it doesn't remember the setting! It's very frustrating and doesn't make it a great reading experience. I will, however, persist with it as I really want to read the book. 

I did go to a couple of author events this week. The first was with Vanessa McCausland and Ali Lowe and it was in a city called Ballarat which is normally about an hour away from me. However, I had a meeting on the other side of the city before it, so I had to drive 90 minutes to get to the meeting which lasted an hour, then drive 2 and a half hours to get to the author event. Needless to say I was a bit tired, so luckily my husband came and met me and drove home. The event itself was a lot of fun. 

I have loved both of Vanessa McCausland's books that I have read, and they are both 5 star reads for me, so this was a great chance for me to get her latest book, The Last Illusion of Paige White, signed. I look forward to reading it. Ali Lowe is a new to me author, but her books sound like a lot of fun!

The other author event I went to was for author Amanda Hampson who came to my local library to talk about her latest book, The Deadly Dispute, which is set in the 1960s and features a group of tea ladies.

It was also my read on a theme book club meeting this weekend. The theme was Spy and the group read a lot of great sounding books. I wasn't the only one this time who read more than one book. Pictured are just some of the books that people read. I was interested to see the Nelson DeMille book as I went through a real phase of reading his books back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and I do remember the premise of The Charm School as well. I actually have quite a few of his books on my shelves as I never quite could let them go,. Having said that, I am not sure how well they would hold up age wise!

The theme for the next meeting is 1960s! Lucky for me, as I now have the first of the Tea Ladies series by Amanda Hampson out from the library, so I already know what I am going to read.

I'm watching

This week I discovered the Dish Podcast, which you can also watch on Youtube! I watched about 6 episodes in one day, and I will be watching more. Luckily, I am late to the party so there is a big backlist of episodes for me to watch. Each show is about 30 minutes or so, and features celebrity guests who come in and talk about food and what they are doing. It's so much fun! Here's one of the episodes

We also watched the last couple of episodes from Rogue Soldiers. The show ended just as the D Day landings were about to start. Thankfully season 3 is already announced and will cover the landings. We will be waiting for it in anticipation


Life


This week was our first opportunity to go and watch my son play basketball for his new team. He is now playing in the NBL1, which is the second highest level of basketball in the country. It's a bit weird cheering for another team after cheering for his old one for more than a decade, but it's a great career step for him, and he looked like he definitely belonged at that level.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Autumny Covers

Blog Tour: Safe Harbour in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen
What We Ate on Holidays - Japan and Korea - The Savoury Edition

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March statistics


I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Degrees of Separation

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)

I am not really feeling this as a topic so I have decided to be a fool in a different way. Every month, I participate in a meme called Six Degrees of Separation. It 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.

You can choose to make the links between books in any way that you like. It could be from a word in the title, part of the authors name, a cover that reminds you of another book, the subject of the book. It really is just a big game of association. In order to start things off, I am going to choose to use the last book I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post and see where that takes me using 10 books instead of the normal 7!

So how does this make me foolish? Because I am doing the wrong meme!

My starting point is White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton as it was the last book that I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post. 

One of the main characters names in Daughters of Tuscany by Siobhan Daiko is Rosa which connects nicely to the author's name for the previous book. (my review)

I am choosing to use the fact that the main setting for Still Life by Sarah Winman is Florence which is  the capital city of Tuscany This book is almost a love letter to the city.

From there I am choosing to use the word Life from the title and choose Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 

Another Kate whose writing I enjoy is Kate Forsyth who writes phenomenal fairy tale retellings wrapped up in historical fiction. Normally I would pick Bitter Greens but this time I am going with The Beast's Garden which is set against the backdrop of WWII.

Next I am choosing Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. This is another fairytale retelling I enjoyed, once again set during WWII. There are even some similar motifs on the cover of both of these books. (my review)

Using the word Rose and the WWII setting as the links I am choosing The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, which is about the codebreakers working at Bletchley during WWII. 

Still focusing on WWII settings, and the work of codebreakers, this time Australian women who were based in Brisbane, I have chosen The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair

I hadn't really intended to have so many WWII connections, but here is another one. My main link though is that both authors have the same first name. I have therefore chose At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker as my next link.  

And finally, I am using the word tree as my link to Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak . (my review)

So there we have it! 10 books linked by various different means taking us from a Korean woman living in Japan in the lead up to WWII to a book where the Cypriot characters are living in London following years of conflict on their island. I inadvertently ended up with quite a few WWII books, as well as several books with roses on the cover!

I would mention that there are lots of option with every level of this there are multiple different ways you could go. For example, I saw Sarah Winman at Melbourne Writers Festival a few years ago now, so I could have picked any other author who I have seen at MWF as my next choice and the chain would have ended up looking very different, and everyone's chains are always unique. Do you think you would have fun doing this exercise?

Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors I Discovered in 2024

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 Discovered in 2024

I read 44 new to me authors las tyear, so I have had to try to figure our how to pick just ten. Interestingly I only had three 5 star reads last year and they were all from new to me authors, so that was an easy decision. 

The next four choices are people who I read more than one book or story from, and then I chose three Aussie authors who didn't fit into either of the previous categories!

Melissa Ashley - The first book I read last year was The Naturalist of Amsterdam and therefore it was my first 5/5 read for 2024 (my review)

Sue Heath - I loved The Secret Ingredient from this author. I am really hoping that we get something new from her in 2025. I'll be reading it. (my review)

Laura Pearson - I loved The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine so hard! I also read The Last List of Mabel Beaumont and bought just about all her other books. I will be reading her new book in the next week or so! (my review)

Hisashi Kashiwai - read both of the books that are available in English from the Kamogawa Food Detectives series last year. You can read my review of the first book here.

Gisele Stein - I read both The Anywhere Hotel and the associated short story called How Captain Found The Anywhere Hotel in quick succession

Jennifer Bohnet - I read two of Jennifer Bohnet's books set in France last year. The first was  A French Adventure (review here) and A French Country Escape (review here)

Helen Rolfe - Helen Rolfe's Skylark series is set in an Air Ambulance station and this provides a great backdrop to the stories. I read the third book this year as well. You can see my reviews for all three at this link

Sophie Beaumont - I really loved The Paris Cooking School (my review). I have her latest book, A Secret Garden in Paris to read on my Kindle.

Alli Parker - I have been talking about this author's book, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree, quite a bit recently. (my review)

Tess Woods - I read The Venice Hotel late last year and really enjoyed it!

Have you read any of these authors?

Sunday Salon: Spell the Month in Books - January

 

Reviews From the Stacks

For 2025 I have decided to have a go at Spell the Month in Books which is hosted at Reviews From the Stacks. The link party opens on the first Saturday of the month, but I won't be posting until the third Sunday as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month.

The idea is that you use the title of books to spell the month name. There is also a theme each month, with the theme for January being New.

The Jam Queens by Josephine Moon - I read this back in 2021, and it was the first book I read from this author which made her a new author to me.  I had owned another book for a while, and still do! (My review)

At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker - I listened to this book at the beginning of last year. It was my first book by this author, and told the story of her grandparents, and in particular her Japanese grandmother starting a new life here in Australia

A New Dawn at Owl's Lodge by Jessica Redland - This was my first book from this author, and I couldn't resist using the word new given the theme for this month! (My review)

Under a Summer Skye by Sue Moorcroft - This is the first book in Sue Moorcroft's The Skye Sisters trilogy. We visited Isle of Skye last year which was a new destination for me (My review)

The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman - This short story was my first read from a new to me author (My mini review)

A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas - This book features a character moving to Switzerland to learn new skills as a chocolate maker and to make a new start (My review)

Yellowface by R F Kuang - I bought this recently which makes this a new book on my TBR pile.

That was actually harder than I expected, especially the letter Y! And there's another Y in February so I have a few weeks to work out how I am going to approach that as I would prefer to not repeat the books I use very often. The theme for next month is Valentines Day/Something sweet on the cover.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Trees

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature (covers/titles with things like trees, flowers, animals, forests, bodies of water, etc. on/in them) (Submitted by Jessica @ a GREAT read) I am choosing to focus on trees for my post!

At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker - Listened to this on audio this year and it was really good! It is a fictionalised story of how her grandparents met just after WWII in Japan.

The Flame Tree by Siobhan Daiko - If you are looking for a WWII story set in the Pacific theatre of war, then this could be a good option.

Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - This was one of my favourite reads of 2022.

Under the Christmas Tree by Robyn Carr - This is part of the Virgin River series.

The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman - I have read a number of this author's books but it has been a while.

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky - I don't remember anything about this book. To be fair, I did read it back in 2008.

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan - This is another author I haven't read for a long time.

The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay - I often think about the love story in this book.

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now.

The Cedar Tree by Nicole Alexander - This is one that has been sitting on my Kindle for a while! The description does sound good.

This week....

I'm reading

This week has been a good reading week. I finished listening to At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker, which I really enjoyed.  

I then started listening to Before the Memory Fades which is the third book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I also finished The Austrian Bride by Helen Parusel, which I reviewed last week.

Now I am reading The Secrets of Creswell  Hall by Alexandra Walsh. I read a book by her last year which is called The Forgotten Palace which I really enjoyed so I eagerly volunteered for this blog tour. this book is about The Gunpowder Plot and so far is really interesting!

I'm watching

Nothing in particular

Life

On the weekend, my husband and I journeyed  to a small coastal town called Apollo Bay. We drove down on Friday night, and then he was going on a deep sea fishing trip on the Saturday morning. I had quite a few different options that I could have done, including sleeping in and doing not much, but I decided to drive about an hour away and visit The Twelve Apostles which is an iconic Australian location, which gave me some quality audiobook listening time. I had to drop Robert at the port before 7am which meant that I got to the Twelve Apostles just after 8am which was amazing because there were literally six other people there when I arrived. When you arrive later in the day there are often hundreds of people crowded around trying to get the perfect picture!

I spent ages trying to get a photo where you can see the spray on the top of the waves

And then this is Lochard Gorge which is very close by

I am going to be doing a day trip back to the Apostles in a couple of weeks, but that's okay because it's a view that never gets old!!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Some of the Most Reviewed Books from the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

The Austrian Bride by Helen Parusel

Weekend Cooking: Sweet Bean Paste

Sunday Salon: 2023 in Review

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This Week....

I'm reading

I didn't get a huge amount of reading done this week so I am still reading Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros and listening to At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker.

I also started reading The Austrian Bride by Helen Parusel which I need to finish ready to review later this week.

It was book club this weekend. Our book club is a read on a theme book club and the next theme is "outside your comfort zone" so I need to think of something to read! I did think about going to a second hand bookstore but we will see. 

I'm watching

We finished watching the third season of Starstruck this week. Time to find another new series. Pretty sure we will find something.

We did go to the movies this weekend and saw Next Goal Wins which is the new Taika Waitita film which tells the story of the American Samoa soccer team. They had the worst ever result in World Cup qualifying history when they lost to Australia 31-0 back in 2001. Fast forward a couple of years and they needed a new coach and this movie is that story. It is a very Taika movie with his kind of humour but it was a lot of fun.

We also watched a very old South African nature film called Animals are Beautiful Peoplel. It was made in 1974 by the same person who made the film The Gods Must Be Crazy. It was a lot of fun, although very dated!

We also started watching season 2 of Muster Dogs, which is an Australian series which features a litter of puppies which are bred to be working dogs. The dogs are sent to various trainers and then come together at the end to see which is the best dog/trainer. We loved season 1 and we are excited to watch more over the coming weeks. Here's a trailer

The thing I spent the most time watching was actually a 3x3 Super Premier basketball event from Sendai Japan because my son was competing in it!

Life

We booked a cruise to South Korea  and Japan for the cherry blossoms in March 2025 - only 430 sleeps to go

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Most anticipated books releasing in the first 6 months of this year

Weekend Cooking: Vale Bill Granger

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge December and 2023 statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This week

I'm reading

It's been a while since I have done one of these weekly posts but I realised that I missed being able to look back so I am back!

The theme for my read on a theme bookclub this month is a book with a city name in the title. When I looked on my Kindle I had about 45 options for this theme, and that didn't include books with the word Paris in the title. In the end I decided to read Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley. I originally started it a couple of months before it was published when the bookclub theme was science, but I put it down because it was too early and ended up reading Lessons in Chemistry.  This was, however, the perfect chance to read it, and I absolutely loved it.  This is therefore my first book of the year for 2024. Sheila from Book Journey always has a first book of the year event, but I read this on my Kindle and didn't even have a cover image on it so I haven't shared it there.

I am also reading The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai for the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted at Dolce Bellezza during January and February. I have a feeling I am going to love this book as well. Expect to see a post about this book for Weekend Cooking in the coming months. This will also count for the Books in Translation Reading Challenge hosted at The Introverted Reader.

Finally I am listening to At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Australian author Alli Parker. This is her debut novel and is based on her grandparents story.  I haven't had much listening time recently so I am looking forward to getting back to listening soon!

I'm watching

This week we finished watching two series. The first was the TV adaptation of Lessons in Chemistry. As I mentioned above I read the book last year and really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the TV series too. Obviously it was different to the book, but it was a good watch. I am also going to go and hear the author, Bonnie Garmus, talk at a live event in a couple of months which should be interesting!

We also watched the final episodes of Attack on Titan which is a Japanese anime series we have been watching with my son.

As I am sitting here writing this post I am also watching a documentary called A Year in Champagne.

Life

On New Year's Eve in 2022 we were at Mont St Michel and enjoyed a fabulous night with the locals,, eating an amazing dinner, drinks and dancing. This year was a little more ....quiet. My sister and her family came around for dinner, and then we were watching the live concert from Sydney Harbour, but their dog got freaked out by the illegal fireworks going off all around us to they ended up going home at about 10pm. Robert and I watching until the end of the fireworks and then went to bed. 

Whilst I am working over the Christmas/New Year period, Robert is not. He's given himself a list of things to do from putting the TV on the wall, to sorting out the garage, and a few other things. I get tired just watching him.

A couple of days ago we put together our new bookshelves in our study. Look at the possibilities of all these empty shelves!! We did start putting books on the shelves today, but there are still a few boxes to go and I am pretty sure we don't have enough shelves. We'll see.

Max

Max really seems to not particularly like having his photo taken, but I still persist!

The 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge is now love! If you love historical fiction please consider joining us. You can find all the details at the sign up post which is here.

Posts from the last week

Festive Treats 2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Most Recent Additions to my TBR pile

Bookish Books Reading Challenge

Weekend Cooking: Best of 2023

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: January links

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date