Top Ten Tuesday: My current library checkouts

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week theme is Books on My Summer 2026 To-Read List.or in my case, the Winter to read-list. 

For the most part, my winter TBR list should be dictated by the books that I nominated for the 20 Books of Winter which I have shared in previous TTT posts here and here. It is, however, inevitable that as soon as I create a list I will start reading books that are not on that listj! Often those books are library books, so today I am sharing the next ten library books I plan to read, some of which are on my 20 books list, and some which are not. There is also a fair chance that at least one or two of these might go back unread but hopefully not too many!

A Far Flung Life by M L Stedman - I have heard a lot of good things about this book!

And Now Back to You by B K Borison - This is the second book in the Heart Strings series.

In the Weeds by B K Borison - Yes, I really do have two B K Borison books out from the library at the same time.

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak - This will be my third Elif Shafak read and I have high hopes for this one too!

Careful He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliot - This is my Classics Spin choice

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida - I actually finished this one today after I put this list together.

Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson - I will be all caught up on this series once I read this one.

The Palace Women by Jennifer Ryan - I picked this up on a whim on a recent visit to the library.

The Island of Mists and Miracles by Victoria Mas  - I really enjoyed the last book I read by Victoria Mas.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - This should be a quick read at least!

Top Ten Tuesdays: 20 Books of Winter (part 2)

  Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favorite Secondary/Minor Characters. However, I am following on from last week's post and giving you the second part of my 20 Books of Winter list.

Here are the second group of ten books that I am intending to read before the end of August.

The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin - I really enjoy this author's books. I already had it on my list as a review book but now I am going to be on the blog tour for it in July.

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - I am attending the Rachel John's Bookclub Readers Retreat in June and this is one of the two book club reads. 

The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier - This is the second book club read

The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien - This is a blog tour read for July

The Nile Cruise by Caroline James - Another July blog tour read

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak - This is a library book that I have borrowed a couple of times now. Hopefully I will read it this time!

First Time Caller by B K Borison - I have really enjoyed the two B K Borisin books I have read so I am looking forward to this one!

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - This is a historical fiction novel that has had good reviews since it's been released

Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson - This will be a book I read for the Goodreads challenge

Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott - This is my Classics Spin selection

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: November stats

Before I get started with this month's statistics, I wanted to mention that I have announced the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2026! You can find all the details in this post. If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, I hope you will join us!

Now, onto the November statistics

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing!

In terms of the books read in November, there were 42 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 16 participants. There were 39 individual titles reviewed, written by 38 different authors, There were 3 reviewers who reviewed 2 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 8 or just 1.

So which books were reviewed more than once? There were three.

The first book Murder at Cottonwood Creek by Clara McKenna which was reviewed by Mark at Carstairs Considers and Laura from Laura's Reviews. This is the seventh book in the Stella and Lyndy series set at the beginning of the 20th century.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is the second book to have been reviewed more than once this month. Actually, I should say that it is a novella which was listed for the Booker Prize. It was reviewed by Kay at What Me Read and Davida from Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog. 

The final book to mention this month is The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard. This sounds like a really fun read. It was reviewed by Laura from Laura's Review and Margaret at Books Please. 

Agatha Christie makes a comeback this month with Shellie from Shellie Loves Books reviewing both Cat Among the Pigeons and They Came to Baghdad.

Next month I will be back with both the statistics for December and for the whole of 2025! I have had a bit of a sneak peek and as at now there are 2 books that are tied for the honour of being reviewed the most times for this year's challenge. Let's see if that changes during December!

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

Six Degrees of Separation: Seascraper to The Four Dutchmen

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 and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is a novella called Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was fitting given that there was an event called Novellas in November. 

Keeping with short stories/novellas and the word wood, I am choosing The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke.  This was an Audible original short story that I listened to last year. 

I am focussing on the word yellow for my next selection and choosing Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan, which was a short story collection. I really enjoyed Margo Lanagan's writing but she disappeared of the publishing scene years ago now, which is a real shame.

A full length novel from the same author is Sea Hearts. I did think about going down the route of books which have different titles in different markets as this one was called Brides of Rollrock Island elsewhere. 

However, I couldn't resist sticking with the sea connection so I have chosen Never Want to Sea You Again by Leonie Mack. This short story was a fun read from earlier this year. One thing about this story is that you can choose your own spice level, so if you like closed door action you can choose one version and if you like it spicy you can read the open door version 

If I think of the sea, the one thing we know is that there are plenty of fish in the sea, and so I have chosen The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe. (my review)

The Fish Girl was inspired by a character from a short story called The Four Dutchmen by W Somerset Maughan. In Vaughan's story, the character is a nameless "Malay trollop", whereas in The Fish Girl she is given a name and a whole backstory. 

Next month is a wildcard to begin the year so we need to start with the book you finished this month’s chain with. That will be interesting given I haven't actually read The Four Dutchmen. I actually found this month a bit challenging so hopefully next month's will be a bit easier!

See everyone next year!