Top Ten Tuesday: Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is  Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today (These could be authors who have passed away or retired/are taking a long hiatus from writing. You could also spin this and share authors who have switched to a genre you’re not interested in.) (submitted by Rebecca @ Top100Books)

When I  checked I realise that we did this topic a couple of years ago. Most of the names are the same (although I chose different book covers to share) but I did change a couple of them! For the most part I have chosen authors who have passed away, except for the last two!

I did have another author in my list and it was only when I went to Fantastic Fiction to check that I realised that she has actually had about 5 books out in the last few years. Whoops!

Anyway, here's my list.

Diana Norman/Ariana Franklin - I loved the Mistress of the Art of Death series which this author published under the name of Ariana Franklin, but I first started reading her books under her name Diana Norman, and I particularly enjoyed her Makepeace Hedley trilogy which started with A Catch of Consequence

Sharon Kay Penman - I love SKP's books and often mention books like The Sunne in Splendour or Here Be Dragons in relation to her. This time though, I am going to use the first of her Justin de Quincy mysteries as my choice. 

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I think it is maybe time for me to reread The Shadow of the Wind. I loved that book so much. 

Susan Vreeland - It appears I have only read three of this author's books, but they definitely left an impact!

Lucinda Riley - When Lucinda Riley passed away before the last book in the Seven Sisters series was released, her son took over the writing. Recently, it's been announced that he has written a new book set in the same world. I am invested enough to want to read the book, but also not sure how I feel about it all!

Terry Pratchett - I do occasionally find myself wondering what Sir Terry would make of the world right now. 

Stieg Larsson - Remember how popular this author's books were back in the early 2000's. Crazy to think that he passed away before the books were published and so successful.

Kerry Greenwood - When this Australian author passed last year I was sad to think that we had no more Phryne Fisher novels to come, even though I still have a lot of the series to read.

Laura Florand - Laura Florand will always appear on these lists for me. No, she hasn't passed away, but she no longer writes. When I went through a reading slump that lasted for years a while ago, she was one of the few authors who I still read! 

Lisa Kleypas - Don't panic. Lisa Kleypas is alive and well. In fact, she probably shouldn't be on this list at all given that she has recently announced that there will be a new book coming out from her soon. It's just that it has been a long 5 years since the last one! This is one of her standalone books which is probably lesser known, but it is also one of my favourites.

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'd Love Another Book From

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Authors I’d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!)

The first five authors I have mentioned are people who have passed away.

Terry Pratchett - When I was looking at the website, I saw that they have found a "lost" book so there will be something new.

Ariana Franklin - This is an example of a series where a family member continued the series after the author's death.

Sharon Kay Penman - While we will never have a new SKP book, I do still have a couple of books still to read.

Susan Vreeland - I really liked this authors take on historical fiction.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I did love Shadow of the Wind so hard

And the next few just don't seem to be writing anymore

Lisa Kleypas - There's an irony that I have three historical romance readers on this list because I just don't really read this genre anymore.

Liz Carlyle - I used to love Liz Carlyle's books but there hasn't been a new one for years now.

Loretta Hill - This author was writing rural fiction featuring women working in really interesting jobs before she just stopped writing.

Laura Florand - A while ago I was going through a huge reading slump and there were only two authors who I was still reading. Laura Florand was one of those.

Tessa Dare - In theory there is going to be another Tessa Dare book but it does keep on getting delayed. The release date is now 3036

Six Degrees of Separation: Tom Lake to A Game of Thrones

 

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. 

 

This month we are starting with Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I feel like I could have gone in a lake direction and pretty much have done the whole chain based on that theme, but in the end I took a different direction.

I decided to use another book by Ann Patchett as my first link and I have chosen The Dutch House. 

Recently I bought a book that has easily identifiable Dutch houses on the cover - Midnight Blue by Simone Van Der Blugt. I am looking forward to reading this at some point. When I do read it, it will count towards the Books in Translation challenge as it is written by a Dutch author..

I went looking for a book with the word blue in it, and found The Lady in Blue by Javier Sierra. This is another book in translation, this time by a Spanish author. 

If you were ever to ask me to name a Spanish author, then the first one that would come to mind would be Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I loved his book The Shadow of the Wind so much!

Another wind named book that I absolutely loved was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

Patrick Rothfuss is a somewhat famous, or maybe infamous, for being a bit grumpy when people ask when are we ever going to see the next book in the Kingkiller Chronicle series. Another author who is the same is George R R Martin, so I am finishing with A Game of Thrones.

Next month the starting point is a bit different. Kate's instructions are to "look to your bookshelf – do you see a Lonely Planet title there? Or an Eyewitness Travel title? Or any other travel guide? That’s your starting book." I don't think that my starting point will be a surprise to anyone who knows me at all!

Top Ten Tuesdays: Fictional Bookstores

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This
week it is a freebie so I am choosing to post a theme from earlier in the year. Back in October, I did all the thinking around the theme is Favorite Bookstores OR Bookstores I’d Love to Visit. I chose all the books, I just had to add the pictures and the words and I was done. Except I never got to it!  My twist to the theme is that I have focus on fictional bookstores rather than real bookstores. So, here are ten books set in bookstores.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Starting out strongly with one of my favourite boosk ever!

Aria's Travelling Bookstore by Rebecca Raisin - I love that way that Rebecca Raisin writes about food, books, Paris and more!

84  Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff - What a delight this book was!

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan - I must get back to reading or listening to Jenny Colgan's books!

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George - I am hoping to visit at least one Paris bookshop soon. I am happy with big or small!

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton - I haven't read this book yet but the title is intriguing.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - This book is on my must read soon list.

Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - this is another bookstore book I haven't read yet. It sounds like fun.

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman - I know that this is an extra one but I thought I would share it seeing as it is a really short short story that is a recent release.

So there's my list of Fictional Bookstores.

Six Degrees of Separation: Notes from a Scandal to The Last Queen

 

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. 

 

This month's starting point in Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

My first link is based on the name Zoe and is to The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg

this is a book that was recommended by Elizabeth Chadwick years ago so it is only fair tht I sselect one of her books soon. There are a lot, so let's go with the  The Time of Singing.

You sing songs, so my next choice is The Lost Song by Minnie Darke

Another song title is The Song of the Wind by Madge Swindells

Moving away from songs, I am using the word wind to link to The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I wanted to finish with a book set in Spain so I have chosen The Last Queen by CW Gortner about Juana of Castile.

Next month's starting point is a cookbook - The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver! Should be interesting to see how people make their chains from that starting point.

The starting point next month is 

A pleasant Sunday afternoon

I mentioned a couple of days ago that one of the things I got for my birthday was a Borders gift card. I don't really enjoy bookstore browsing these days mainly because I know that I can get almost anything that I want to read from the library. The other factor is that most of the time the books that catch my eye are the books I have already read.

Yesterday I was getting a massage and was chatting to the girl who was doing it and she just happened to mention that there was a new Borders that had opened in Geelong which is a town about 40 minutes away from where I live. There is another Borders that is probably a bit closer but it is in a major shopping centre and the parking is a real hassle. It was also a pretty nice winter day here so I thought that it would be good to go for the drive down to Geelong and then I could pick up something. I really only had one firm idea of what book I was going to buy, and a couple of other vague ideas for other choices, but in the end I managed to spend all my birthday book money.

The books I ended up buying were:


The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne

I am not sure why but it always seems to be something of a surprise to me to hear that John Boyne has a new book out. I am not really sure why there isn't any hype around them, but I found out ages after his Mutiny on the Bounty book came out (which I have out from the library but haven't read yet). The first I knew about this book was when I saw it on the new release shelf, but given that it features the Romanovs this was a pretty easy choice for me to make.



Love at First Bite anthology

This anthology is one that my library hasn't bought yet, and it contains the next Sherrilyn Kenyon story in her Dark Hunter series so this was a good opportunity to get it.









It Happened One Night anthology

Another anthology that my library hasn't bought, although thankfully it doesn't contain any entries in series that I am reading. I mainly got this for the Mary Balogh story, although it will also be a chance for me to read Stephanie Laurens as well. How a historical romance reader like me hasn't managed to read her is something of a mystery to me!







The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This was the book that I knew I was going to get. Since the first moment I heard that there was a new Carlos Ruiz Zafon book coming out I have been excited, even when I knew that there was still a year to wait for the English translation. Then I watched as loads of bloggers got to review ARCs and there was still no sign of it here, but now, I have my own copy. Now I just need to try and clear some space in the reading schedule to fit it in!

Party in my Tummy (Yo Gabba Gabba series)

For my nephew!









And just like that $100 is gone! Books here are so expensive. The Boyne was $36.50 for the trade paperback, and that is the price that The Angel's Game should have been as well but it was reduced for this week. That's part of the reason why most times I do buy a book I will buy it from The Book Depository. Even with the exchange rates not being great, it is still usually cheaper for me to buy it from there than it is to work into a bookstore there. This time it definitely helped that I wasn't actually paying for the books really!

Not sure if I would go to the Borders at Geelong specially again as it was a pretty small store, but there are other reasons for going down there. After shopping my son and I went for a walk along the foreshore at Geelong. When I first visited Geelong about 20-25 years ago, the foreshore was a bit of a dump really but they have really done a lot of work at revitalising the area. All along the main part there are lots of public spaces, restaurants etc and it is a real pleasure to wander along there.

Something that is pretty unique to Geelong is a collection of bollards that have been taken from the former pier and wharf buildings and have been painted up by a local artist to give what the guide says is an "affectionate history" of the town. There are 46 different displays covering a couple of kilometres including over one hundred separate displays. We didn't see all of them but one day I intend to start at one end and walk (or perhaps ride) all the way along.

I am still very excited by my new phone, so may have been a little snap happy but here are photos of some of the bollards that we saw during the day (click on the images for a larger picture):

Peter Lalor is a famous Australian as he led a revolt on the goldfields known as the Eureka Stockade in the 1860s against the unfair mining regulations.

Victorian bathers

The Volunteer Rifle Band

This is an early Geelong player of Australian Rules football.

This bollard represents a dance hall and rollerskating venue that stood near the spot. One of the regular themes was dressing up and that is why this one appears as it does.

Two bits and pieces posts in a week

A couple of firsts that I am very excited about to share with you all!

Firstly, over at Reading the Past, Sarah has the first picture I have seen of the cover for Sharon Kay Penman's next book, The Devil's Brood, which is due out in October!




The second first is the first review I have seen of the new book by Carlos Ruiz Zafon which has appeared over at Omnivoracious. The book is only out in Spanish at this time, but the review definitely sounds promise. This is one book that I will definitely be buying when it finally is released in English!






The third first is that I have been awarded a "You Colour my World" blog award from The Colour Jane. Thanks!

Any Shadow of the Wind fans out there?

Back in my pre-blogging days I read the fantastic Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I also had the pleasure of participating in an author led discussion group at what was then Barnes & Noble University. One of the things that Carlos Ruiz Zafon mentioned at the time was that his plan was to write a series of loosely connected books, not necessarily featuring the same characters but certainly some of the same settings and themes.

Since that time, I have been trying to track down any news that might be had about the next book and have been able to find nothing! Not long ago I had a brainwave and asked one of my Spanish speaking friends from one of the forums that I participate in if she could find any information on any Spanish sites.

Guess what....there is news!

Apparently the book is called 'El Juego del Angel' - The Angel's Game. It is set on the 20s in Barcelona and is coming out on April 17th. The Publishers didn't want to say anything about what is the book about so there is lots of secrecy.

I know that I can't read it yet, but at least there is now hope that it will come out in English in the not too distant future!