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 theme for this month is Giftable. The biggest challenge is finding three E books!
D - Dinner by Nagi Maehashi - We have been cooking out of this cook book for more than a year every week and I am sure anyone could find recipes to cook out!
E - Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - This book is funny, irreverent and the start of a series, so you could give someone the next book next year as well! (my review)
C - I am cheating with this one but picked it because it is a lot of fun and is now part of my Christmas tradition. I think I totally get away with it because after all the C in December sounds like an S anyway! Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson
E - Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - This is an older book but it was on that gives you all the feels. It is also a YA book so would work for a range of giftees. (my review)
M - Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - Another book with all the feels. I have read, and loved, this a few times now! (my review)
B - Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This might be something a little different but it gives Japanese foodie charm vibes. (my review)
E - Emma by Jane Austen - maybe a lovely special edition in honour of Jane Austen's 250th birthday.
R - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt - I would recommend the audio of this one. The guy who does the voice of the octopus was exceptional and he is voicing in it the upcoming movie!
I hope that you all get the books you want as gifts this year!
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I’d Like to Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)
I am not normally a re-reader so originally I was thinking that I would do something different this week and actually have a post started on a different theme where I have got 10 books selected. Then when I thought about it some more I did wonder if I could make it to a list of 10 books that I have re-read, and I could! I guess that means my next freebie post is pretty much already done! Yay for me!
Here are 10 books I have re-read.
Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I could actually include most of the Virgin River series in this post, with the exception of the last book which I still haven't read yet. I read all the original books in the series back in 2010-2011, and then proceeded to re-read the first 7 books in the series over the course of two weeks in 2012. Here is apost about the whole series and how it made me break several of my own rules
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - I have re-read this book three times so far, twice by reading the book and once on audio with the most recent time being earlier this year, and I still loved it! Note the words so far. There is every chance I will read this again at some point. It is a bit odd though. I have other Kearsley books that I have loved but I haven't re-read any of those. Maybe I should. Here is my most recent post about this book
Hogfather by Terry Pratchell - Listening to this in the lead up to Christmas has become one of my Christmas traditions over the last four years. I first read it back in 2007 which means that so far I have read it 5 times.
The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - This is now part of my Christmas tradition too. I first listened to in 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I forced my husband to listen to it too so in the end I listened to it twice in a week. My original post about this book is here
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas - Ah, Sebastian and Evie! What a book. What an author! I wish she was still writing. (my review)
The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Ah, Thomas Mackee, you break my heart. I have actually read a few of Melina Marchetta's books a couple of times but my favourite thing is to listen to the audiobook of The Piper's Son. I have listened to it five times now, including three times in about a month. It just affected me that much! I haven't listened to it for a few years now, but I have thought about listening to it again.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - If I had to describe my idea of aural bliss it is Richard Armitage narrating Georgette Heyer's books. I have relistened to Venetia three times and Sylvester four times after initially reading it! (original review)
Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie - I had forgotten that I had re-read this one until I was searching through my blog looking for inspiration for this post. (My review)
Relish by Lucy Knisley - I had read this years ago and then it was selected for Cook the Books a couple of years ago. I did enjoy revisiting it! (My Cook the Books post)
Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - Years ago I read and loved the first three books in the series. A couple of years ago I decided that it was time to read the whole series. I started by rereading the first two book and never got any further. One day I will read that whole series. One day! (my original review)
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a freebie so we can pick topic whatever we like. I am choosing to share the last ten short stories I have read or listened to, as the case maybe
The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - I listened to this last year, but decided to listen to it again this year. There's every chance that this might become an annual event. It's full of really interesting facts about the history of Christmas.
The Ex Proposal by Rachael Johns - This was originally published in an anthology but the author has just got the rights back so published it for her fans to read. It's available from her author facebook page.
The Christmas Book Hunt by Jenny Colgan - I got this as part of Amazon First Reads. I think it is now released and it was a bit of fun.
The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke - This was an Audible only book, with about 4 hours of listening time.
Amelia's Shadow by Marie Benedict - This is part of a collection called Blaze about lesser known but interesting female characters. This one was about Ruth Nichols who was close friends with Amelia Earhart
The Tasting Menu by Stuart Macbride - I was tempted because this was set in Scotland, where I was when I read the story, and it was foodie, but it was a bit too much horror for me.
The Forgotten Chapter by Pam Jenoff - Another entry in the Blaze collection.
Barriers to Entry by Ariel Lawhon - This is another Blaze book and I really enjoyed it. This one was about a woman who changes the way that people thought about criminal investigations.
The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman - I haven't read any of Alice Hoffman's full length books, but I have enjoyed these linked short stories
How Captain Found the Anywhere Hotel by Gisele Stein - Last year I read an imaginative book called The Anywhere Hotel and Captain was the dog in the book. This story tells how he came to be at the hotel. I think this was only available to newsletter subscribers so I can't find a cover image for this one.
Last week I started reading Last Night in London by Karen White. It's not the book I intended to read, but never mind! I enjoyed it nonetheless. I did pick the major twist in the story pretty early on, but I was a little bit surprised by one of the other twists.
Next up I read a super short and sex story by Rachael Johns called The Ex Proposal. It was originally released as part of an anthology, but now the authors have the rights back and so Rachael released it. The link is available on her author Facebook page.
Next up I read A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen. I really enjoy everything I read by Maggie Christensen and this was no exception. My review will be up in a couple of days
I then started reading Judie Leigh's new book, The Silver-Haired Sisterhood. The review for this one will also be up later this week. Then I have one more review due and then a month or so before the next one. Of course I will be reading to get ahead of due dates, but there will also be some time for me to just read whatever I like which I am looking forward to!
I was listening to The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley, but I have put that aside for now. Last year I listened to the Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson twice, and I felt like listening to it again, so I did. It's full of very interesting Christmas facts! I then began my annual listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Once I have finished this I will go back to The Missing Sister. I did recently hear that Richard Armitage narrates the next book in the series, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, so I will need to get onto that asap! But I also have the new Nora Roberts book waiting for me, and so many other audiobooks too!
I'm watching
SailGP is back! We therefore watched the first race last week. Last year we went to Sydney to watch a live SailGP race, and the year before we went to Christchurch but this year we will only be watching from home.
We finished watching Nobody Wants This which was a lot of fun. It stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. I think I will try to start the new Ted Danson series next or maybe we should continue with some of the series we already have on the go?
I also watched Meet Me Next Christmas which was a fun Christmas movie. I am hoping to watch more Christmas movies, but I don't really seem to have enough time which is a bit weird!
Life
How on earth did I ever have time to work. The second half of last week was super busy, featuring a brunch on Thursday, lunch at Geelong, people around for lunch on Saturday, and then visiting a Christmas market on Sunday.
The other thing that we did on Friday night was to go and visiting the Da Vinci exhibition at Lume. We had seen it before, but this time there was a quintet from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing which made it a really nice experience.
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 Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes. I don't usually get anything other than cookbooks for Christmas so instead I am sharing the last ten Christmassy books I have read.
The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker - Last year I shared ten Christmas books on my Kindle that I hadn't yet read. This is the only one that I have since read, and that was just over the last few days!! And yes, I have added more!
Christmas Feasts and Treats by Donna Hay - I was given this cookbook a couple of days ago and I have flicked through and picked out a few things to try
The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - I listened to this on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, my husband and I then listened to it together in the car the week after!!
The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft - I enjoyed this book about family secrets being revealed at Christmas (my review)
In the Greek Midwinter by Mandy Baggot - I've never thought of Athens as a Christmas destination, but this book could have influenced me to think otherwise (my review)
Celebrations in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - This is the latest entry in the Bellbird Bay series (my review)
Finding Love at the Christmas Markets by Jo Thomas - If there is one author who I might choose to fit another Christmas read in by it would be Jo Thomas!
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - Listening to this audio has become a Christmas tradition for me. I am currently listening to this one after listening to it for the last two years.
The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley - This was a lot of fun to read! Think Celebrity Bake Off at Christmas time (my review)
Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - I really need to get back to reading Karen Swan
At this time of year there are lot of messages for us all. Things like you need to spend a lot of money on gifts to have the perfect Christmas, or that the perfect Christmas needs to look and feel a certain way, that there are certain traditions that must be upheld. If we go back to the original Christmas story, there were the messages from the angels to Mary, to the shepherds. There's a lot of messages. This week, I have been getting my own message. And that message is ..... Lebkuchen.
Before I get to what exactly what lebkuchen is/are, I thought I would explain the how I am getting the message.
Last week I was listening to Bill Bryson's Audible original The Secret History of Christmas, in which Bryson answers all the questions that you didn't even know you needed to ask about the history of Christmas. Examples might include how did a 4th century bishop from what is now modern day Turkey transform over time to become integral to so many Christmas stories around the world? Has Christmas always been the big deal it is now? Not really. Who are the biggest spenders when it comes to Christmas, and when did many of the things that we consider traditional now actually become traditional. The answer to that one may surprise you. There are things that are generally known that are debunked like the fact that Prince Albert bought the Christmas tree to England when he married Queen Victoria.
As you would expect, there are lots of facts and stories about food, because let's face it, food is important in every holiday. He talks about what traditional foods are around the world. Actually I should say this is very European centric but I guess that is not wholly unexpected. There were a few things I learned. One I already knew was that it is now traditional in Japan for families to eat KFC at Christmas time. Another example was that it was traditional in some parts of Poland for the main meal to be carp which was kept in the bathtub until it was time to cook it so that it would be really fresh when cooked up. Without wanting to steal a joke from the book, it does make you wonder how fresh the family was!
This is a really short audiobook, around 3 hours, and it was really fun to listen to. I already listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett every year, but I could see myself listening to this again at some point. In fact, I just suggested to my husband that maybe we could listen to it in the car together while we are out and about, so I could be listening to it again as soon as this week.
I have also started reading to the Secret History of Christmas Baking by Linda Raedisch. Actually the full title is The Secret History of Christmas Baking: Recipes & Stories from Tomb Offerings to Gingerbread Boys, and from this you can possibly tell that this book is not all tinsel and mistletoe. In this book there has been quite a lot of material around the prevalence of honey cakes, all the way back to Egypt which have then morphed into some of the familiar flavours we are used to. The author is of German descent, and so the various different versions of lebkuchen throughout Europe is discussed.
Some of the history is very interesting. For example, when I think of Christmas-y flavours things like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger come to mind, but these are flavours that had to be imported to Europe at some point. The author talks a bit about this, particular in the context of the actions of institutions such as The Dutch East Indies Company where there is evidence of the atrocities that were committed in the name of obtaining these spices.
The content is primarily food related but there are also some craft related activities interspersed in the pages.
I am looking forward to learning more!
The final prompt I have is because of a cookbook I bought a while ago called Advent by Anja Dunk. Again, this one has a full title which is Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas. So far, I am really loving this book which is separated into 24 different chapters (one for each day of Advent) with all different types of bakes for each chapter. The author talks about a Bunter Teller which translates as "colourful plate" and in this context means a colourful plate of Advent biscuits. Part of the reason why the book is broken into these different chapters is that there would be a specific order in which you bake the colourful array of biscuits.
The order in which they are baked acts as a calendar; a countdown measured in biscuits. The butter-less biscuits, many of them old-fashioned varieties such as Lebkuchen, which keep the longest, are baked first, followed by nut biscuits, then macaroons and meringues. We bake butter-rich ones such as Vanillekipferl after all of the aforementioned, and finally the last things we make are all the sweets and truffles. The biscuit are usually stored in a towering stack of tins kept at the ready to plate a selection up whenever neighbours and friends pop round.
It's my kind of advent calendar, although not if I have to do ALL the cooking!!
The second chapter is for several different versions of lebkuchen including how to make your own spice mix, lebkuchen hearts (filled and unfilled), old-fashioned honey lebkuchen and more.
I have made a soft gingerbread biscuit several times previously which is inspired by lebkuchen. I tend to take them to work to share with my colleagues and they are always a hit! I shared this recipe a few years ago! They are honey and orange-y morsels of goodness!
Throughout the book the chapter divides are Christmassy lithographs which the author created herself, and all the photos are her own as this book was created during lockdowns. As I flick through the book there are so many things which look utterly delicious. There are cakes, biscuits, desserts and more. It's a lovely book!
I can see myself spending a lot more time looking at this book. But only after I have decided which lebkuchen recipe (or inspired recipe as the case may be) I am going to bake this week.
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
.png)
.png)
