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: New to Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

 

I read 38 new to me authors last year. Now, I could do a Top Ten Tuesday post with 38 different books, but I decided to narrow it down a bit by only including the new to me authors who I graded as either 4.5 or 5 out of 5 reads.

Here we go:

Erin Littekin - The Lost Daughters of Ukraine was so good. I am definitely intending to go back and read her debut novel! (my review)

Pip Williams - The Book Binder of Jericho - I haven't read Dictionary of Lost Words yet but I need to get onto it as we are going to go and see the play at the end of February.

Anthea Hodgson - My first book by this author was The War Nurses. I also listened to The Drifter which was great too. 

Jane Lovering - I read The Recipe for Happiness. Lucky for me there is quite a backlist available from this author (my review)

Durian Sukegawa - Sweet Bean Paste was so good! (my review)

Lauren Westwood - I loved The Little Paris Toyshop so much. (my review)

Bonnie Garmus - I was a bit late to the party when it comes to reading Lessons in Chemistry. I am supposed to be going to hear her talk soon too. Must check when that is. (review)

Rebecca Yarros - I really enjoyed Fourth Wing, and have since read Iron Flame. I am curious to read more but all of the other books she has written look completely different from these two books.

Kim Fay - Really enjoyed Love and Saffron by this author (my review)

Juliet Greenwood - The Last Train from Paris was really good and I will be trying to read more from this author's backlist as well. (my review)

Have you read any of these authors?

Top Ten Tuesday: Just Some of the Most Reviewed Books from the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Bookish Goals for 2024. However, don't really have that many goals, other than tryig to review all the historical fiction novels I read, and I am already behind on that goal! I am therefore going rogue and instead sharing some of the books that were reviewed multiple times during the 2023 Historical Fiction Challenge. On the weekend, I revealed  the book that was reviewed most during the challenge (five times) and the three books that were reviewed  four times. You can see those books here along with other statistics.

Today, I will be sharing the five books that were reviewed three times, and then five (out of the 75) books that were reviewed twice.

First off, here are five books that were reviewed three times:

A Marriage of Fortune by Anne O'Brien - It has been an age since I read any historical fiction with a medieval setting.

Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb - This book tells the story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor - This sounds like a very interesting story

The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau - Love this cover!

The Romantic by William Boyd - This book was longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

And here are five books  that were reviewed twice which I have picked for various reason to share today

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - I loved, loved,loved this book when I read it a couple of years ago.

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane - This is another book that was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. She is an Australian author, and I feel like she probably goes under the radar a little bit here.

Weyward by Emilia Hart - This was the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Historical Fiction in 2023.

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

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson - I keep on being reminded that I really need to read this book!

If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, why not join us. t's not too late to join this year's challenge. All the sign up details are here!

Top Ten Tuesday: Best 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 Favourite Books of 2023.

I read four books that I rated 5/5 stars and they were 

The Lost Daughters of Ukraine by Erin Littekin - I hadn't read any WWII fiction set in the Ukraine before (my review)

The Book Binders of Jericho by Pip Williams - I went to hear Pip Williams speak at Melbourne Writers Festival this year which prompted me to read this book. I still need to read Dictionary of Lost Words, hopefully before I go see the play in a couple of months.

Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland - I loved this book so much! Haunting and evocative. (my review)

The Little Paris Toyshop by Lauren Westwood - I read this as part of a blog tour and I was blown away by it! (my review)

In exciting news, I have already read my first 5 star read for 2024!!

Here are just some of the books I rated 4.5/5 in 2023

The War Nurse by Anthea Hodgson - I was lucky enough to hear Anthea Hodgson talk about this book at the book club retreat I went to earlier this year.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - I was a bit late to the party on this one, but I loved it. I just finished watching the TV adaptation too. (My review)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - I expect to see this on quite a few lists this week!

The Martian by Andy Weir - After watching bits of the movie approximately 2,735,478 times I finally got around to reading/listening to this book. And it was good!!

The Last Train from Paris by Juliet Greenwood - I really need to read more of this author's books now. (my review)

Without Further Ado by Jessica Dettmann - When I read this book I felt like I really need to go and watch the Emma Thompson/Kenneth Brannagh version of Much Ado About Nothing. I still must do that!

This list is a bit of a mix of Australian and non-Australian authors, books I read for fun and for blog tours, some I reviewed and some I didn't and different genres!

Are any of these books on your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Historical Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a genre freebie, so I am choosing to share the last ten Historical Fiction novels I have read.

Escape to Tuscany by Kat Deveraux - A dual timeline WWII novel set in Tuscany (review)

The Girl from Venice by Siabhon Daiko - A dual timeline WWII novel set in Venice (review)

The War Nurses by Anthea Hodgson - Another WWII novel, but this time it is not dual timeline and is set in the Pacific theatre

The Book Binders of Jericho by Pip Williams - Not even WWII! This one is a companion book to The Dictionary of Lost Words

The Girl Who Escaped by Angela Petch - A novel set in WWII Italy. There's a bit of a theme happening this year apparently (review)

The Forgotten Palace by Alexandra Walsh - This is a dual timeline set in Crete in the late 1899s (review)

My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor - a mystery set in WWII Italy - really good read!

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan - This is a WWII novel about 4 women competing in a cooking competition on the radio (review)

The Flame Tree by Siobhan Daiko - Another WWII novel, this time set in Hong Kong (review)

The Proxy Bride by Zoe Boccabella - The story of an Italian woman who migrates to Australia just before WWII and her descendants.

It would appear that I am reading a lot of books set in Italy and WWII books, as well as women in red dresses on the cover!! Have you read any of these books? What's the last historical fiction book you read?

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Titles

 

 

 

 

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

s Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!). I am going to twist the theme a little bit and make my list the last 10 books that I have read that were published prior to 2020. Here we go!

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - published in 2013

The Red Notebook by Antoine Durain - published in 2015

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - published in 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir - published in 2011

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - published in 1872

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - published in 1958

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - published in 1996

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes - published in 2016

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - published in 2015

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - published in 2019

Have you read any of these?