Top Ten Tuesday: Aussie August 2025

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Non-bookish Freebie (The sky is the limit here. Make a top ten list on any topic of your choosing, bookish or not!)

When we have had this kind of theme before I have come up with something but this time I am going rogue. August is Aussie August 2025 on Instagram which is a chance to celebrate Australian authors. So this week I am going to share the last 10 books I have read by Aussie authors. To be transparent, I have read two books by Amanda Hampson so I only included one in my list! One of my goals for this year was to review all of the historical fiction and Aussie author books I read, and from this list I am pleased that I have reviewed all of them except for two. For one, the review will be up tomorrow and the other is the book I only finished a couple of days ago. I will be reviewing that one soon because it was so good!

The Whisky Widow by Karen Brooks - I am kicking myself that I have not previously read Karen Brooks. I own several of her books and now that I enjoyed this one so much I am going to have to move this one up the list!

One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald - This one featured a really interesting main character that I won't forget for a while! My review will be up tomorrow for this book!

Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - I find this author's books really relaxing! I have read a lot of them now! (My review)

Your Friend and Mine by Jessica Dettman - This one featured a fun almost treasure hunt like quest across London! (My review)

Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee - A foodie romance set predominantly in the south of France? Yes please! (My review)

The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson - I read all three books in this series this year and loved them all. Looking forward to the next one. (My review)

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn - I have read both of this author's books so far over the last couple of month. Really enjoyable. (My review)

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary - This novel is set in Melbourne during the gold rush and features four women all connected with the brothels in an area called Little Lon. (My review)

The Girl from Normandy by Rachel Sweasey - WWII France is a setting I will always be attracted to! (My review)

Half-Truth by Nadia Mahjouri - This is a semi-autobiographical story about a woman who heads to Morocco with her young child to find her family. So good! (My review)

So there we have the last ten Aussie authors I have read in honour of #aussieaugust2025

Spell the Month in Books: August

 

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 after that as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month. I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.

The idea is that you use the titles of books to spell the month name. The theme for August is Written by your favorite author(s). To be honest, the two U's in this month have made this a bit tricky. Thankfully these are the last U months for the year. 

It is also Aussie August 2025 and so I have chosen to use only Australian authors. So here are my choices for August

Addition by Toni Jordan - I always love the sound of Toni Jordan's books. She has a new book coming out soon and again it sounds great! (My review)

Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood - This is book number 8 in the Phryne Fisher mystery series. (My review)

Glitter Rose by Marianne de Pierres - This is a bit out of left field for me as I don't remember much about this short story collection. When I did read it, I gave it a 4.5 rating. (My review)

Undercover Billionaire by Amy Andrews - I had a lot of fun reading this book earlier this year. (My review)

Silver Wattle by Belinda Alexandra - I have really enjoyed the Belinda Alexandra books I have read! (My review)

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson - I have read all three books in this series this year and I gave them all 4.5/5! (My review)

September's theme is Something to savor – longer books (define as you will) OR ones that have been on your TBR for a long time. The challenge for September is going to be finding three E books. That is three titles beginning with E, not three ebooks as I have hundreds of them on my Kindle

Will you be joining us?

Weekend Cooking: The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson

 

Hazel, Irene, Betty and the other tea ladies are back and trouble isn't far behind!

In the previous book in the series, which I reviewed here, Hazel Bates had just lost her job as a tea lady at Empire Fashion after being replaced by a coffee machine. After months out of work, she is excited to finally have a new job working as a tea lady at a union office on the docks in Sydney. It's 1967, and the docks are dangerous for anyone, let alone a tea lady. On her first day at work, Hazel even sees a dead body being hauled out of the harbour. 

The docks are under the spotlight due to the ongoing issues with theft, unionism and a very large theft of South African Krugerand (gold coins) which seems to have disappeared into thin air. It's not really a place for someone as eagle eyed and curious as Hazel, and she soon finds herself embroiled in the mystery. 

Betty is now boarding with Hazel which is a much better arrangement than when Irene had moved in. Betty is feeling a bit disillusioned with life, which didn't quite work out the way that she thought it might when she was younger. She meets a much younger woman at work who seems to see her rather than see through her and Betty is drawn into a different world which she doesn't quite understand.

As for Irene, she is still living in the high class brothel but she is beginning to see that the Maltese Mafia is taking an interest in what is going on. When she tries to warn her boss that there might be a turf war coming, her fears are dismissed. However, Irene knows what she knows, and she takes matters into her own hands.  

When things get dangerous and one of them disappears, it is up to the others to use all their detective skills to work out where she and to save her before it is too late!

I really enjoy the fact that our three main characters all get their own storylines to shine in. As always I do find Irene to be a complete hoot! She is definitely a rough diamond, although I am not sure I would want to cross her. 

One of the things that was a bit different in this book is that the ladies don't get to spend as much time together given that they no longer work in such proximity. Snooty Merl also doesn't get as much page time after she gets upset with the way that the Tea Ladies Guild is being run. There is also less food and drink in this book, but the series as a whole does feature lots of cake, home made fruit wine and, of course, tea!

Fashion is still an important part of this story. Young Pixie is trying to get out of her parent's business and set up on her own. With Hazel's help she finds a location, and the assistance she needs to set up a boutique where she can be free to design what she wants, including groovy jumpsuits like the one on the cover.

Another of the secondary characters who are an important part of the story is Hazel's next door neighbour, Maud, who is now training to be a policewoman, which her Catholic parents are not all that happy with. It's always useful to have a policewoman to call upon when needed!

This is the first series in forever that I have read in such quick succession and rated so consistently high. I went to see the author at an event at my local library in April and I have subsequently read all three books in the series. Getting through them so quickly is partially because I read them through the library and I couldn't renew them but it is mostly because I just really enjoyed the stories, especially the characters. I am already looking forward to the next book. Hopefully it will be out next year. 

I am sharing this review with the Foodies Read challenge hosted at Based on a True Story with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. It also counts for Aussie August 2025 on Bookstagram.

Rating 4.5/5

Weekly meals

Saturday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Sunday - Beef and Broccoli Noodles
Monday - tuscan Chicken Pasta bake
Tuesday - Baked beans and eggs on toast
Wednesday - Cajun Chicken Rice (new/)
Thursday - Out for dinner
Friday - Pork Nachos

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

This week...

I'm reading

Last week I finished listening to Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Brendan O'Hea and Dame Judi Dench. What a delight hearing many of the stories about her roles, performances, friends, her sense of fun and about Shakespeare and his continuing relevance today! Dame Judi Dench is voiced admirably by Barbara Flynn, but there are some quotes where it is Dame Judi who is speaking, and there is 45 minutes at the end of the audiobook where there is a conversation between the two authors! I don't read a lot of non fiction so it is fantastic when I do and it is so enjoyable!

I then started Corked by Marc Fennell but put it off to one side to listen to The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. I think Corked was actually a podcast but now it has been packaged up and is showing on Goodreads as a book. So far The Briar Club is an excellent audiobook experience but I do kind of wish I was reading it so I can see the recipes that are included throughout the text. I might swap if I can get the book from the library when I go later this week. 

I finished reading Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen. I really enjoyed all the places in Vietnam that we visited in the book, and ultimately the romance was satisfying, but it did take a long time!

Then I read a couple of books for Paris in July. I read One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater (review here) and then I read Fresh Water for Flowers by French author Valerie Perrin. This was a very unusual book but I did really enjoy it! My review for this one will be up later in the month.

I then started a couple of things which I wasn't really feeling, but then the library helped me prioritise when I couldn't renew two books so I read the third book in Amanda Hampson's Tea Ladies series, The Deadly Dispute. These books are so much fun and I sped through it in one sitting last night!  I have one other book I need to read in the next couple of days but that will be on the list for next week.   

I did reach my Goodreads reading challenge goal for this year last week! I think I will increase it to 150 books which is basically 2 books a week for the rest of the year.

I'm watching


I went to the movies a couple of times last week. The first one I went to see was Grande Maison Paris which is a Japanese movie about a chef who runs a fine dining restaurant in Paris and is desperate to be awarded a third Michelin star. I have written a review which will be up on the weekend as my Weekend Cooking/Paris in July post. Here's the trailer.

The other movie we went to see was called Number 24. It is a Norwegian movie which is showing as part of the Scandinavian Film Festival. It is about a man who was part of the Norwegian resistance in WWII. It was a really interesting movie. It was structured as the elderly main character giving a speech to a group of students and then flashing back to the things that happened during the war. It was very well done. Here's the trailer.

Life

Not much to talk about here! Fingers crossed I have some exciting news to share soon.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Honorifics
Paris in July: French-ish songs
Blog Tour: The Village Cafe in the Loire by Gillian Harvey
Blog Tour: One Summer in Provence by Carol Drinkwater
Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K Runyan
Spell the Month in Books: July 

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

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

Paris in July: Mini Movie Reviews
Blog Tour: The Cruise Club by Caroline James
The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - June
Six Degrees of Separaton: Theory & Practice to Sisters of the Resistance

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

The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson

 

The tea ladies are back, and as usual trouble isn't far behind.

Each of the Tea Ladies books are set in a new year in the 1960s and this time it is 1966. After the events of 1965 which were covered in the previous book (my review), it is still a time of great change in the world of fashion, and this time we are not just talking about clothes. The owners at Empire Fashion are trying to find ways to cut costs whilst still allowing for their own whims, and so they are bringing in a fancy new coffee and tea machine. This will mean that Hazel Bates will no longer have a job. And it's not just happening at Empire Fashion. The new machines are appearing everywhere! It is time for all the tea ladies in the city to come together to fight for their jobs. After all, how will businesses remain productive if they don't get their tea breaks.

Hazel, Irene and Betty also join together with a couple of other tea ladies including the formidable sounding Mrs Li to try and figure out a couple of other mysteries as well save their jobs. Irene's good for nothing husband has sent her a cryptic letter from jail just before he dies suggesting that he might have left her something. Problem is Irene can't work out what the heck he was talking about. There are also some odd things happening up at the local Catholic church too. It's a lot to keep track of. 

If I asked you to think of an iconic image for Australia, chances are that you would think of one of a couple of places. One of those would likely would be Sydney Harbour with the Sydney Harbour Bridge on one side and the Opera House on the other. Looking at it now, it's hard to believe that the decision to build the Opera House was very controversial in itself  at the time and that the building project was beset with issues. The Danish architect who designed the now iconic building even left the project before it was completed and returned to Denmark.

This controversy provides a backdrop to the story, especially when Hazel meets a man who is connected with the project. After her heartbreak in the last book, she's not really ready to meet someone new, but sometimes things happen. I also really enjoyed that Hazel is working on herself and learning to do something which has previously held her back. 

It really is the characters who carry these books. I love Hazel who is the person that draws everyone together even if it is around some of her unusually flavoured home made wine, and Irene makes me laugh a lot. A lot of the time there is a degree of silliness around the things that happen to Irene, such as when her everyday hat gets stuck on her head, but it provides a balance to the rest of the story. I also was in turns amused by and then felt sorry for her trying to work out how the new decimal currency works which was introduced in early 1966. Poor Irene tries very hard to get ahead but her very nature gets in the way of herself!

This is another great entry in this series. I already have the third book out from the library. After I have read that one I will just have to wait impatiently for each new book as it comes out. 

I am sharing this review with the Foodies Read challenge hosted at Based on a True Story, with Weekend Cooking and with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, both of which I host! 

Rating 4.5/5

This week...

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading and reviewing week!

 I started the week by finishing The Girl From Normandy by Rachel Sweasey, which I really enjoyed. This is Rachel's third book and I now own the other two. Hopefully I can fit them in soon! My review is here.

I then read a book called The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary which is set in 1860s Melbourne. There is always something so special about reading a book set in the place you live, where you can recognise the locations mentioned! My review is here.

One of the bonuses of not being able to sleep due to coughing and waking myself up is I picked up The Cruise Club by Caroline James and got through it pretty quickly. Got to look for the silver linings wherever you can find them right. 

I then looked at my review books where I don't have a blog tour date allocated and thought I would just pick one. I was intrigued by The Lost Story of Sophia Costello by Siobhan Curham right from the prologue. I have read a few books by this author now and this might be her best yet. Both this book and The Girl From Normandy count for my read on a theme book club where the theme this month is war. I think I have four books for far, which they are all going to laugh at and call me an over achiever! Oh well! It was always going to be an easy theme for me.

I then started Beartown by Fredrik Backman. It's one of my Twenty Books of Winter and it feels like a dense read so I wanted to give myself time to read it.

However, I got a notification from the library that The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson could not be renewed so it needs to be returned, so I had to drop Beartown and pick up The Cryptic Clue! It's so much fun! I'll get back to Beartown shortly.

Get ready for lots of posts this month as Paris in July starts tomorrow. I have been busy in the background getting some posts prepared in advance ready for the event. 



I'm watching


We watched a few of the things that we had started previously in the last week, but the only thing that we finished was Welcome to Wrexham. We didn't really start anything new.


Life


I am still sick so the only times I left the house in the last week were to go to the doctors and the vet. This is week 3 so I am a bit over it.


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025
A Snowy River Summer by Stella Quinn
Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri
Blog Tour: Once Upon a Thyme by Jane Lovering
Blog Tour: The Girl from Normandy by Rachel Sweasey
The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary


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

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson

 

This month the theme for our read on a theme book club is 1960's. It was very fortuitous that the week before that was announced I had visited our local library for an author talk by Amanda Hampson about her latest release, The Deadly Dispute, the third book in the Tea Ladies series. The series is set in the Sydney garment trade with each book set in a different year. This book, the first in the series, is set in 1965.

In the series, our four tea ladies are Hazel, Merl, Betty and Irene. They all work in different businesses along Zig Zag Lane. They are all very different from each other but they always support each other as best they can! Hazel is the glue that holds the group together. Irene is a bit of a rough diamond and may or may not have her own interesting past, Merl is a bit bossy and Betty is the list maker. I look forward to learning more about them all as I progress in the series

Hazel works at Empire Fashionwear. In her role as tea lady, she not only knows what everyone's preferred biscuit choice is (Shortbread Cream for me thanks Hazel) but she is often called upon to be confidante and sometimes even the peacemaker if there is any dissent between staff members. She has access to all levels of the business from the machinists to the big boss. 

One day Hazel sees a distressed woman in the window of the supposedly abandoned warehouse across the road. The woman is holding up a note but it is in another language so Hazel isn't able to understand it. When the warehouse burns down and the Empire Fashionware bookkeeper is found dead, Hazel and her friends are drawn into the investigation, especially seeing as the police just don't seem to be interested. 

Unwittingly, Hazel finds herself caught up in the dangerous Sydney underworld where crime boss rules the streets, where people she knows are caught up in risky business, you don't know who you can trust and every action she takes could lead to danger. 

That is not the only issue Hazel is facing. She is not sure why but her husband Robert is acting a bit out of character. They are very happy together, and usually have a really set routine but there is something not quite right and she needs to figure it out.

I liked this book a lot, especially the camaraderie between the tea ladies (well, three of them at least). It really captures the feeling of the impact of rapid social change. I guess it is true of most decades, but the 1960s was a decade where there were seismic changes, particularly in the rag trade. The company where Hazel work is very conservative. They produce knee length skirts and tailored jackets in drab colours like brown. When English model Jean Shrimpton shocks the country by wearing a mini dress to the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, fashion changes overnight, but not everyone at Empire Fashionwear wants to change with the times, especially given some of the psychedelic fabric that is around. The orders dry up overnight, and suddenly many of the staff members are facing unemployment if things dont improve. 

As an aside now the dress looks very conservative compared to some of the fashions that are seen at the races but at the time it was very controversial because not only was the dress short, but she also was not wearing a hat, gloves or stockings. 

By the time I started working tea ladies were a thing of the past, but there were still a couple of people who did remember the days when they would work their way through the building, distributing tea or coffee, biscuits and a friendly bit of banter. I do love the idea of having someone like Hazel wandering through the building every day, dispensing biscuits and advice!

I have already requested the next book in the series so will be looking forward to reading more about the Tea Ladies and their adventures!

I am sharing this review with the Foodies Read challenge hosted at Based on a True Story, with Weekend Cooking  and with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, both of which I host! 

Rating 4.5/5

This week....

I'm reading

I finished reading The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang, and liked it. It was a book I picked up on a whim from the library having not heard anything about it. It has a really fun premise, is a bit fantastical and just that little bit different.

I started reading The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. This is the current Cook the Books selection and so I will be reviewing it later this month and finding something to cook from it as well. It's not as foodie as most of the other selections are so I am not sure what I will make yet.

I read One More Day of Us by Shari Low, which I am due to review this week. I also started The House on the River by Rachel Burton which is also due for review this week. I actually have another book that I need to squeeze in before Friday but I haven't started that yet. 

A couple of weeks ago I went to an author event at my local library to see Australian author Amanda Hampson talk about her latest book, The Deadly Dispute, which is the third book in the Tea Ladies series. I just finished reading the first book in the series, called The Tea Ladies, and it was a fun tea-cosy mystery! It is set in the garment trade in 1965 so it is also a great choice for my read on a theme book club this month as the theme for that is the 60s.

On audio, I finished listening to Away with the Fairies which is the 11th book in the Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood. I hadn't actually read any of the series for many years, but it didn't take me long to get back into that world! I then started listening to Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. Is there a more perfect author/narrator combination than Emily Henry and Julia Whelan? I'm not sure there is!

I did also go to one author event last week. I drove to a small country town called Gisborne which is about 40 minutes away from me to hear Natasha Lester talk about her new book, The Madamoiselle Alliance which is based on a real person. What a woman! I was ready to drop anything and just start reading that book straight away. I will read it next week as it is one of the book club selection for the readers retreat I am going to in a couple of weeks.

I did share my April highlights on Instagram which were the books below. There are reviews for three of them up on the blog already, and a fourth will be up this weekend. These are the books I rated as 4.5 or 5 star reads with Pictures of You being the 5 star read for this month.

I'm watching


Masterchef Australia is back! Yay! This is a show that my husband and I enjoy watching together. This year it is a Back To Win series, meaning that all of the contestants have been on the show once or twice before but never won! I think I would prefer a show with new contestants but this will still be good.

I watched the first three episodes of a new show called The Secret DNA of Us. The idea is that a couple of hundred people from a town all come together and get DNA tested and then they come back together once the results are in and talk about what connects them. In some cases they find out that they might be fourth cousins, or that at some point they had an ancestor from a part of the world they had no idea about. There is also a reporter who is a researcher and she has come up with some very interesting stories to connect the DNA results with history. It's my kind of show!

I need to say thank you to Erin from Still Life, with Cracker Crumb and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings who are hosting the Springtime in Paris movie event. I have been meaning to watch the French movie The Intouchables starring Omar Sy for the longest time and I never quite got around to it! It was this week's selection for the event, and I loved it!

The Intouchables is about a young unemployed man named Driss who just needs someone to sign his paper to say that he attended for a job interview and was unsuccessful so he can get his unemployment benefit. The job is to look after a man named Philippe who is a quadriplegic. No one is more surprised than Driss is when he is offered a trial period. Philippe is an aristocrat who lives in an amazing house in Paris, Driss grew up in the projects. Philippe loves classical music and expensive art. Driss grew up living off his wits and getting by however he could. What sets Driss apart from everyone else is that he doesn't see Philippe as just a quadriplegic man, he sees him as a man. A man who used to love extreme sports, a man who now has an accessible van to move around in but has a very expensive, fast car just sitting in the driveway.

The movie is a touching look at care and compassion and about seeing the best in each other, and it is even more touching given that it is based on a true story I am so pleased to have watched it now. 

Here's the trailer

The last movie for the event is Charade which I hope to watch this week.

Life

I went to aqua class for the first time in forever last week. In fact, I went twice and I am going again this morning. It's a friendly enough group, who clearly have all known each other for a long time. The first class I did I was thinking that it wasn't really pushing me, until later that day when I could definitely feel it in my legs. 

On Wednesday night we went to see German composer Hans Zimmer live in concert. My husband loves listening to movie soundtracks while he is working and Hans Zimmer is one of his favourites so this was his birthday present! It was a really good show, different to what I was expecting really. I wasn't familiar with everything but I still enjoyed the show. There was music from movies like Gladiator, Inception, Dune and much more. The highlight for me was music from The Lion King.

On Saturday it was our federal election. In Australia it is compulsory to vote, or should I say it is compulsory to turn up to the polling station and get your name crossed of. If you are lucky, your polling station will have a barbecue set up where you by what is known as a democracy sausage. It is a sausage in white bread, sometimes with onion, and with the sauce of your choice. Australians do get excited about the democracy sausage on election day. My polling station doesn't have a barbecue. I think we are going to have to find one that does for the next election.


Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word Cafe in the Title
Blog Tour: The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer
Blog Tour: A Greek Island Gift by Mandy Baggot
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - May Links
The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley
Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - April
Six Degrees of Separation: Rapture to The Swan Maiden



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 did a lot of starting books this week! Some finishing but nowhere near as many as I started!

One book that I finished was the audio of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker, the final book in the Seven Sisters series. I have listened to all of these on audiobook. Given that each of these books is more than 20 hours long that's a lot of listening time! I started listening to the first book more than 6.5 years ago, so it has been a bit commitment! This final book was narrated by Richard Armitage for Pa Salt's parts and Tuppence Middleton for the modern story. It feels like this book did what it needed to do in terms of tying all the origin stories together, and telling Pa's story, so I was satisfied with the end of the series. I did have one question about what happened on the luxury super yachts (IFYKYK) but overall it was good. 

I then started listening to Away with the Fairies by Kerry Greenwood. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Kerry Greenwood had passed away recently, so I thought it would be a good time to go back to the next Phryne Fisher book. It did surprise me a little that is 16 years since I read one of the books but I think I have slipped back into the world quickly. After listening to Richard Armitage for so long it did take me a little while to get used to the sound of a new narrator but I think I am there now!

We did a bit of a roadtrip on the Friday and Saturday of the Easter weekend, and I convinced my husband that we could listen to a book while we drove. It needed to be something that he would enjoy too, so I chose The World According to Kaleb by Kaleb Cooper. Kaleb Cooper is a young British farmer who is now a bit of a celebrity thanks to his appearances on Clarkson's Farm, a reality TV show featuring well known British....presenter I guess is the best word....Jeremy Clarkson. It is only a short book at around 2.5 hours and it was amusing. Kaleb is a young man who knows exactly what he likes (farming) and what he doesn't like (sheep among other things!). 

As that book was so short, we then started listening to The Satsuma Complex which is both written and narrated by Bob Mortimer. Bob Mortimer is a British comedian who appears regularly on panel shows such as Would I Lie to You and he makes us laugh a lot every time he is on! He's a great oral storyteller. We will listen to this when we are in the car together for the next little while!

In terms of books I was reading myself, I finished The Best Days of Our Lives by Helen Rolfe. The review for that will be up this week. 

I then read The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer, which is another super interesting book by her! It's a bit of a genre bender but I will say more when I review it next week!

I also started The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson which is going to be my read on a theme book club selection this time around. The theme is 1960s and this book is set in 1966 so it fits the theme beautifully. 

I also started The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer. I picked it up on a whim when I went to the library last week, but I can only borrow it for a week so I needed to get going with that one sooner rather than later!

Finally, I didn't take the physical books I was reading with me when we went away so started The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods. I am a bit torn now as to which book to finish first as I did get sucked into this one pretty much straight away!


I'm watching


We are big fans of the archeological show Time Team here in my house. It is often on the Real History channel at around dinner time so we will watch it if it is on, even if we have seen the episode multiple times before. I was a bit surprised to find that over the last couple of years they have been making Time Team specials that are only on Youtube! This week we watched one called Digging Band of Brothers which was an excavation of the camp where the US 101st Airborne Division was based in Britain. There are a few other specials that we will watch now! If you are interested this is the link.

We also started watching a new series of  the American Baking Show which is the first one I have seen where Paul and Prue are the judges.

I also watched How to Steal a Million as part of the Springtime in  Paris event hosted by  Erin from Still Life, with Cracker Crumb and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings. What a fun movie! It starred the beautiful and ethereal Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, who was very handsome as a young man.  The premise is that Audrey Hepburn's father is a serial art forger. He agrees to hand over a famous statue to display in a museum without realising that he has agreed to have the piece authenticated. If it is tested, then it will be revealed as a fake then he will be found out. Hepburn's character then enlists the help of a man she caught stealing a painting from her own house (or so she thought) and hijinks ensue. The movie had such charm and naivety. I couldn't help but think if the movie was made today how very different it would be! I am planning to watch the next couple of movies for the event this week.


Life

I had to go to the funeral of a friend last week. He was a larger than life character who drew people to him. It was a reminder to live life to the best of your ability as you don't really know how long you have. Also #$%$ cancer.

In Australia, Easter is a four day weekend with public holidays on both Good Friday and Easter Monday. A lot of people choose to go away for the weekend. Originally, we were planning to go away overnight next weekend, but then my son is going interstate that weekend so we decided to go on Friday and come back on Saturday.

You probably recall that we like a good art silo, and this trip we managed to see 4 full size ones, plus a collection of smaller ones. The main reason for heading up the highway was to go to the Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum. During WWII, Lake Boga was a secret base for the repair of flying boats like the Catalina aircraft and saw Australian, American and Dutch planes landing on the lake.  It was also a key point in the communications between the Allies. It was a fascinating place, and I think it might be a place that we go back to should we be up that way again. Recently there has been a new art silo done at Lake Boga, which reflects this history. The other photo is of a silo at a place called Sea Lake, which was cool because in the day you can see the image below, but at night they projects some films onto the silos taking about the farming and the dark sky environs around which means amazing stargazing

One of the highlights of the trip was going to a nearby lake called Lake Tyrrell which is the largest salt water lake in the state of Victoria.  We went at sunset the first night and it was spectacular. I took so many photos. The next morning we went at about 8am and we were pretty much the only ones there. Well...us and the flies. 

We had to come back on Saturday as we had a show from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival featuring another British comic, Tom Allen! He is on various UK show and he was very entertaining. This was the only show we got to go to in this year's festival as we were away for most of it!


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: What I Read on Holidays
Blog Tour: Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn
Blog Tour: Secrets Under a Riviera Sky by Jennifer Bohnet

Weekend Cooking: What We Ate on Holidays: Japan and South Korea - the Sweet Edition

Spell the Month in Books - April





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 - Books I Read About Vacations

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. 

This week the theme is Books I Read on Vacation. It might surprise you to know that when I am on holidays, I don't really read a lot. I read a Rachel Johns book when we were on our way to Vanuatu and I read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi when I went to Africa a few years ago, but other than that I can't really read while on holidays.

So my list today is books about holidays/vacations

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes -  This one isn't really about a holiday, but the word is in the title so it counts!

You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry - Poppy and Alex have done several trips together but this one just feels different!

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson - I love the cover on this one.

Sixty Summers by Amanda Hampson - Three friends travel around Europe for a summer.

Almost French by Sarah Turnbull - A holiday fling turns into a whole new life in Paris for this Australian woman.

A Wedding in Tuscany by Sandy Barker - This is the fifth book in a series which is called The Holiday Romance series

The Jam Queens  by Josephine Moon - Whilst the title doesn't suggest it is about a holiday, one of the big parts of this book is a trip on the Ghan train from Darwin to Adelaide. That's a trip I would love to do.

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary - I do enjoy a good road trip myself.

Along for the Ride by Mimi Grace - This isn't really a holiday story, but the start of the story is two people who dislike each other going on a road trip across country.

How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns - Features a woman who goes on an extended holiday to New Orleans! Bought back lots of memories of my own holiday there a few years ago.

Thanks for stopping by my Top Ten Tuesday post.