Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Animal Companions (These animals can be real or fantasy!) (submitted by P.S. I Love Books)
I was thinking about just doing a post with the word dog in the title, but it turns outI already did that a couple of years ago and I would have used a lot of the same titles! Instead, I am choosing books where there are dogs in the books. First though, here's a recent picture of our good boi, Max.
Now, onto the books!
A Snowy River Summer by Stella Quinn - Features a black labrador named Herbert.
Snowy Mountain's Daughter by Alissa Callen - There is a kelpie named Bundy in her series who just moves from place to place around town, whereever he is needed! (My review)
The Woman Who Met Herself by Laura Pearson - One of the characters, Debbie, starts walking a dog called Bonnie. (My review) The Recipe for Happiness by Jane Lovering - Seren finds herself temporarily owning a Collie called Kez. Or is it temporary? (My review)
The Mirror by Nora Roberts - Mooks, Jones and Yoda! With all the books that Nora Roberts has written how on earth does she come up with character names and then have multiple dogs in the story too! I'm listening to this one at the moment!
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - How could anyone forget Six-Thirty the dog? (My review)
Starting over at Starlight Cottage by Debbie Viggiano - Tilly tells her dog Cindy all her secrets. I mean, I talk to Max. I am not sure that he is that good at keeping secrets. (My review)
Hopefuly Hearts at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - Gladys the labrador plays a big part in this book. (My review)
A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - When Molly the dog gets sick, Rachel takes her to the vet and meets the vet locum, Luke, who just happens to be her first love. (My review)
Muster Dogs: From Pups to Pros by Lisa Millar- I haven't actually read this but it is the book that accompanies the Muster Dog TV series, which I adore!
This week I was lucky enough to go to an event at Melbourne Town Hall where "global phenomenon" Bonnie Garmus was the guest author. This was a very popular event with around 2000 people in attendance.
In case this name doesn't ring any bells, Garmus is the author of the hugely successful novel Lessons in Chemistry. I read the book and watched the TV series last year.
Now, full disclosure, the food aspect of Lessons in Chemistry was barely even mentioned, which was a bit disappointing, but I thought I would still share. I do wonder if the session had been a bit longer this topic would have come up. Given how popular the session clearly was, I do wonder why it couldn't have been longer than an hour, but I guess that they had to allow enough time for the book signing as well.
The main focus of the conversation related to the feminist themes in the book. The author talked about how she wrote the first chapter after a particular day at work where she experience discrimination in the workplace. After a meeting where her work waspresented by a man as his own, she was dismissed and told to go back to her desk and finish a menial task. Instead, she went back to her desk feeling incredibly angry and bashed out the first chapter of the book that would in time become Lessons in Chemistry.
Along the way she touched on a few different interesting topics. When asked what her mother, who was a nurse, would have thought about the book she said she wouldn't liked the swearing or the fact that Elizabeth is an atheist. When asked what her kids thought about it, she mentioned that they didn't really realise that the book was a big deal until Garmus went to a huge event and was described as a global phenomenon, and from that point on that is what they had her down as in their contacts on the phone.
Garmus also talked about that whilst it might feel like Lessons in Chemistry came out of nowhere, it isn't actually the first book that she had written. She had a previous book which was 700 pages long, which no publishers would touch. And interestingly, before she even started, she had already written part of a story where Maddie Zott was the main character, but as a grown up. She talked about how that made it easier to write the child version of Maddie because she already knew who Maddie grew up to be.
Another story that Garmus shared was about signing with her agent, Felicity Blunt. She told a story of being somewhat embarassed when she was talking to Blunt, who mentioned that her husband is an actor and her response was a somewhat dismissive question of "would I have heard of him". Given that Felicity Blunt is the sister of actress Emily Blunt and is married to Stanley Tucci, chances are that the answer is yes!
Whilst I was surprised that they didn't talk about the role of food in the novel there is no way that we could have gone through the whole conversation without mentioning Six-Thirty the dog. Appparently the presence of the dog was a source of contention between the author and Felicity Blunt. Luckily she won the battle, as it is difficult to imagine Lessons in Chemistry without the dog being present.
There is much more that I could share but hopefully this is a good taste of the conversation.
One thing I thought I would mention that at each of the last two author events I have been to, there have been hardcover special editions available that are absolutely gorgeous. Here is the cover for Lessons in Chemistry. I didn't end up buying it but it was definitely tempting.
I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Pea and ham soup, bread Sunday - Singoalese chicken, salsa and tortillas Monday -Chicken, Bacon, Zucchine, Mushroom pasta Tuesday - Takeaway Wednesday -Spaghetti Bolognaise Thursday - Pork chop, mash, beans and gravy Friday - Takeaway
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
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Movies/TV Shows That Would Have Made Amazing Books (Submitted by Sabrina @ Notes From a Paper Plane Nomad) but I am going to do the most recent examples of where I have seen a movie or TV series based on a book or read a book associated with a series, or a couple of can't wait for the TV series.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - I have recently watched two French movies based on the books. They were really good adaptations
One Day by David Nicholls - I started watching this series a few weeks ago. I need to get back to it.
Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn - I am looking forward to season 3 coming out soon very soon
Masters of the Air by Donald Miller - We just finished watching this series last week.
Lessons in Chemistry - I read the book late last year and then watched the TV series
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency - I am very close to finishing my current audio book which is book no. 10000 in the series of the same name. I watched the TV adaptation many years ago and very much enjoyed it!
All the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doerr- We watched this TV series recently.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - I have read another of Amor Towles books, but not this one yet, but I will be watching this!
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - The movie is just called Sweet Bean
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams - This is a bit of a curve ball because whilst I did watch this it was a play rather than on a screen!
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’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around (I love re-reading, but there are some books that hit so perfectly and I loved so much that I worry reading them again wouldn’t be the same. Or maybe the books I read when I was younger wouldn’t be favorites anymore. Or maybe some books just don’t age well?).
I don't reread that much, except for certain audiobooks like Hogfather by Terry Pratchett and two Georgette Heyer books which are narrated by Richard Armitage.
Instead this week, I am going to share some of the books that I have read for my read on a theme book club. What is a read on a theme book club? And is it book club, bookclub or book-club? My book club meets approximately every 6 weeks and at each meeting we decide on a theme for the next choice. You then read whatever book you like that meets the theme rather than the more traditional method of picking a specific book that everyone then has to read
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - This is the current theme which is Crime: Fact or Fiction. It seemed the perfect time to read a book I have had on my TBR for a while now.
The Anywhere Hotel by Gisele Stein - The theme for this was Out of My Comfort Zone, which for me was a new to me self published author. I missed the meeting for this as I was away for the weekend which was a shame as one of the other ladies read all three Fifty Shades books and the conversation was apparently hilarious.
The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley - The theme for this one was A Book with a City in its name
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - The theme for this one was Science and it was one of the few occasions where a couple of us read the same book.
Spring Clean for the Peach Queen by Sasha Wasley - The theme was Colour in the Title
The Last of the Apple Blossom by Mary-Lou Stephens - The theme was Spring
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams - This is the only book we have ever all read for the one meeting, and we chose to do this because some of us were going to hear her speak at Melbourne Writers Festival.
The Visitors by Jane Harris - The theme for this one was Indigenous Authors
Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland - The theme for this one was Australian Authors. To be fair, a lot of the authors on this list are Australian!
The Proxy Bride by Zoe Boccabella - The theme was New and I chose this one as I bought the book new, it was a new author to me and it was about starting a new life.
What themes do you think you would choose if you were in a read on a theme book club!
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)
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!
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