Top Ten Tuesday: Shhh....don't tell anyone!

  Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a cover freebie!  (Pick any topic related to book covers. You can make up your own topic or pick one from the list of previous ones!)

I am choosing to go with books that have that word Secret or Secrets on the cover. The reason why I have chosen this is because Secrets was the theme for my read on a theme book club and I was able to read a lot of books that met this theme, and several of them even had the word secret in the title.

So here are the last ten books I have read with either of these words in the title!

The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien - A WWII story set in Paris. My review for this book will be up in the next couple of days.

The Secret Society of Librarians by Kate Thompson - This is another WWII story, this time set in London, and it was a 5/5 read 

Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft - The secrets in this book are the family type! (my review)

Everyone this Christmas has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson - The first of a couple of Christmas secrets! (mini review)

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - This one involves searching for a secret in a Scottish castle at Christmas

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn - This is another book about family secrets, including a hidden identity. It is predominantly set in Tasmania. (my review)

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont - This book had a map to guide you around some hidden gardens in Paris (my review)

Secrets Beneath a Riviera Sky by Jennifer Bohnet - I do enjoy a book about family secrets, but even moreso when it is set on the French Riviera (my review)

The Secrets of the Rose by Nicola Cornick - A dual timeline where the secrets that are being revealed are from the past (my review)

An Italian Island Secret by Victoria Springfield - Set on a small island off the coast of Italy, this book has a touch of Hollywood glamour!  (my review)

Top Ten Tuesdays: 10 Authors I am Looking Forward to Meeting at the Rachael Johns Book Club Retreat this weekend

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wish. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address [here’s how to do it on Amazon] or include the email address associated with your ereader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!)

I am always a bit uncomfortable with this prompt, so I am changing the theme to suit me, which I do pretty regularly to be fair. This coming weekend I am heading down to Geelong, a regional city just over an hour away from where I live, and I will be attending the 2027 Racheal Johns Book Club Reader Retreat. I have been to all four of these and they are such a good weekend. There are usually around 100 readers and 20 guest authors. So here are books by 10 of the authors I am looking forward to meeting or seeing again this weekend.

The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns - Of course I had to have Rachael Johns on the list.

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - Anthea is the co-host of the retreat so I had to have her on the list as well. I really liked The War Nurses by this author. We started hearing about this book at the last retreat and it sounds great. It is one of the book club choices for the weekend!

A Woman's Voice by Alli Sinclair - Last year I went to hear Alli Sinclair talk about this book and it sounds so good. 

The Paradise Pact by Anita Heiss - Anita Heiss is an amazing person to spend time with. Can't wait to hear more about this book! (Update - since I wrote this post a few weeks ago, it has been announced that Anita can no longer attend)

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn - I have absolutely loved both of Claire van Ryn's books so I am very excited to meet her!

The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Club by Kate Solly - I have booked a couple of times to go to author events with Kate Solly, but it just hasn't worked out, so I am pleased she is one of the feature authors this weekend.

The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton - I was supposed to go to the launch of this book a few weeks ago but I ended up having to work late so I didn't make it!

Better than the Real Thing by Brooke Crawford - Last year I ran into this author at quite a few events, so looking forward to seeing her again.

Sunrise at Sunny Cross Farm by Maya Linnell - I have read a couple of books by this author. This is her new book which has just come out!

The Wedding Forecast by Nina Kenwood - This sounds like such a fun read!

Have you ever been to a reader's retreat?

Top Ten Tuesday: Island time!

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

This week the theme is Books About/Set In Places on My Bucket List (submitted by Rachel @ Sunny Side). In theory this is an easy topic for me as I read a lot of books set in places I would love to visit. I have done entire posts just on Paris alone, France, and Greece, Japan, previous holiday destinations, armchair travelling and more. As I start this post, I am away for Easter on a island called Phillip Island which is a couple of hours away from home. So, my twist this week is that I am going to focus on books set on islands, however, I am limiting it to islands that are not countries. To be fair, I could probably do this topic several times over! I am saving islands that are also countries for another time.

Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett - This book is set on Bruny Island which is in Tasmania. I just read this one recently!

The Bad Bridesmaid by Rachael Johns - A lot of this story takes place on Norfolk Island which is a place I would love to visit (my review)

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Clair van Ryn - This is another book set in Tasmania (my review)

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa - This one is set in Sicily (my review)

The Islander's Daughter by Patricia Wilson - I am currently reading this one which is mainly set on a Greek island called Milos during WWII

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - I think a lot of islands are magical but this one is set in a magical world!

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See - This book is set on the island of Jeju in South Korea

The Sweet Life Cafe by Helen Rolfe - Set on an island in the Channel Island (my review)

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman - Takes place on a tiny island just off the Australian coast where the only structure is a lighthouse

Over the Seas to Skye by Sue Moorcroft - This is the third book in the Skye Sisters trilogy which are all set on the Isle of Skye in Scotland (my review)

Top Ten Tuesday: Green book covers

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Green Book Covers (In honor of St. Patrick’s Day today!)

To be sure, to be sure, to be sure! Green book covers. Maybe not as easy to find as some other colours but I found enough!

Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This is the fifth book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by this Japanese author!

A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K Runyan - A dual timeline set in 1890s and just after WWII Paris! (my review)

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley - I have read this a couple of times, most recently for Cook the Books. (my review)

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nexhukumatathil - This was another Cook the Books selection (my review)

The Bellbird River Country Choir by Sophie Green - the cover is green but so is the author name!

Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe - This book is set in WWII Indonesia and talks about the struggle for independence (my review)

The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer - a sliding doors book set in the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic and during WWI. (my review)

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan -  I had to have at least one Irish author in my list! 

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn - This cover is so pretty! It had to make the list. (my review)

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont - I have enjoyed both the Sophie Beaumont books I have read which are set in Paris! (my review)

Six Degrees of Separation: Wuthering Heights to The Secrets of the Huon Wren

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. 

When Kate announced this as the starting point, she mentioned that it was in celebration of the current movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Another recent movie adaptation that I have seen is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, which tells a story about William Shakespeare and his family

I did have several different ideas about other movie adaptations, but instead I am choosing a non fiction read called Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Dame Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea. In this book, Dame Judi talks about her life working in the theatre in many different roles. It's a fascinating book.

I don't read a lot of non fiction, but I did recently attend a book talk about a book called Survival in Singapore: The triumph and tragedy of Australia's greatest commando operation by Tom Trumble. It tells the story  of a daring raid on Singapore Harbour following the Japanese invasion in 1941 and the aftermath for the citizens of Singapore

I am casting my mind back many, many years now, to a book that has stuck with me. Tanamera by Noel Barber is a book that I remember with great fondness.  Tanamera tells the story of a white family and a Eurasian woman both during the Japanese occupation and in the years afterward during the Malayan conflict. I used to love Noel Barber's books when I read them back in the late 1990s but I am not sure how they would stand up now if I was to reread them. I do still own quite a few of them. Tanamera was made into a mini-series in the late 1980s. 

A more recent WWII and aftermath TV adaptation is The Narrow Road to the Deep North which also stars Jacob Elordi, and was adapted from Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan's book of the same name. 

Now, if this was a 5 Degrees of Separation post then I would have gone full circle back to the starting book given that Jacob Elordi starred in both adaptations but alas, I need to add one more link. I am choosing a book by another Tasmania author. I read both of Claire van Ryn's books last year and thought they were great, so for my final choice I am going to select her book The Secrets of the Huon Wren (my review)

Next month, the starting point is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans which I currently have out of the library!

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Armchair Travelling

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books for Armchair Travelers (Submitted by Laurie C @ Bay State Reader’s Advisory). I love armchair travel and books where people make a new start. I can and have done posts about specific destinations like Paris and Greece. My take on the theme this week is choosing books where the travelling is an integral part of the story, and I am using all different forms of transport!

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells - I have gone big with my first form of transport - space travel!  And the transporter is actually a key character in the book. 

Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson - I have read a number of books where travel on the Ghan is featured. The Ghan is a train that runs through central Australia from Darwin to Adelaide and vice versa. (my review)

Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by Rebecca Raisin - This is another train book. This time the train goes through Europe ending up in Lapland

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - This book probably have a bit of a different feel to most on this list, but at it's heart this is a road trip as a young man travels from Nebraska to New York.

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary - This is the story of an uncomfortable road trip to Scotland when two sisters give on their exes and his mate a ride to a wedding. 

A Wedding in the Sun by Leonie Mack - Speaking of road trip to weddings, this book features the ex wife and the ex husband of the happy couple who are thrown together at the last minute and have to make it to the wedding in Spain in time! (my review)

The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn - Our characters spend the summer sailing between Croatian islands providing a library service. (my review)

The Arctic Cruise by Caroline James - I have read a couple of books set on cruise ships by this author. This was my latest and saw the characters chasing the Northern Lights. (my review)

Golden Girls on the Run by Judy Leigh - When two older women borrow one of their grandson's red Ferrari, they travel from Ireland to the south of England. (my review)

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn - The modern part of this dual timeline features a mother and daughter travelling from far north Western Australia to Tasmania (my review)

Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors I read in 2025

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 (New-to-you authors you discovered, new genres you learned you like, new bookish resources you found, friends you made, local bookshops you found, a book club you joined, etc.). I am going to use this as an opportunity to showcase some of the new to me authors I read last year.

All up I read 67 new to me authors which is hard to narrow down to just ten choices, so the first 9 of these authors are those that I read multiple books from. In other words, I enjoyed their first books enough to go and read more!

Finding that elusive 10th author to include on the list was a bit trickier. I thought I would pick one where I only read one book by them but I gave that book 5/5 rating. However, there are still four of those! 

Claire Keegan - I know that I am late to the party with this one but I read two of Irish author Claire Keegan's books last year and I have already read another this year. I am going to run out of her books soon I think. Often her books are quite short but boy they pack a punch!

Claire van Ryn - Another Claire! This one is from Tasmania, and I really loved both books of hers that I read last year which I reviewed here and here. Birds play an important part in the stories and both covers are gorgeous! I will be excited about her next book for sure!

Emma Davies - Emma Davies is a British author. I enjoyed the two books I read from her and have now bought some of her earlier books. I reviewed her books here and here.

Emma Grey - I have mentioned Emma Grey several times now in my best of posts for last year. She is the only author that I have given 5/5 stars to both of the books I read from her last year. I reviewed them here and here. Can't wait for the next book which is out soon.

Hannah Bonam-Young - This is definitely a case of being last to the party. I read Out on a Limb and Next of Kin last year and I am looking forward to reading more this year!

Laura Imai Messina - Laura Imai Messina is Italian by birth, but she has lived in Japan for more than 20 years. I loved both of her books but so far I have only reviewed one of them. I have a friend who is a Japanophile and I was talking to her about this authors books, and she started to cry because she said that the stories just sound so Japanese. I don't think any more of this authors books have been translated into English, but if they are I will be reading them!

Mai Mochikuzi - At first I wasn't sure about the mix of human size, walking, talking cats, astrology and food but it is fun. I reviewed the first book here and the second book here.

Shari Low - I read three of Shari Low's books last year. They are mainly set in Scotland and feature a bunch of fun characters, and are often interconnected. 

Yuta Takahashi - This is the author of one of several Japanese foodie series I am reading. This one features a restaurant where you can come to eat remembrance meals and get the chance to have one last conversation with the person you are remembering. I reviewed the two books here and here.

Jodi McAlister - In the end I chose this book because it is the only book by a new to me author that I rated 5/5 stars that I never got around to reviewing, for no other reason than I ran out of time. I also saw her at a couple of events last year as well! If you love smart, funny enemies to lover romances check it out! Highly recommend! One of the members of my book club read it and she absolutely loved it, and she is 80 years old!! I will definitely read more from Jodi McAlister

Top Ten Tuesday: It's a flower!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Book Covers that Give off Fall Vibes (Or, if you’re not a cover person, share the books in general that feel like Fall.). It is Spring here, so I am choosing to focus on gardens and flowers this week. 

The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns - This book isn't even out yet but how could I not include it in a post about flowers on covers!

The Lost Garden by Angela Petch - The title says it all really. This garden is found again in WWII Italy. (my review)

Once Upon  a Thyme by Jane Lovering - This book is set in a herb garden (my review)

The Whisky Widow by Karen Brooks - I love the thistles on the cover of this book (my review)

The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson - The main character of this book runs a plant hospital (my review)

A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont - This books takes it's characters on a walking tour of the gardens of Paris. (my review)

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin - This books features a cemetery caretaker who takes care of the garden and the graves (my review)

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - I love the cover on this book! (my review)

The Magic of Provence by Alison Roberts - I like the way the flowers frame the arch on this cover. I am thinking about doing a TTT all about books with arches on the cover. (my review)

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn - This cover is so pretty with all the flowers cascading down the cover. (my review)

Have you read any of these books?

Top Ten Tuesday: Aussie August 2025

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Non-bookish Freebie (The sky is the limit here. Make a top ten list on any topic of your choosing, bookish or not!)

When we have had this kind of theme before I have come up with something but this time I am going rogue. August is Aussie August 2025 on Instagram which is a chance to celebrate Australian authors. So this week I am going to share the last 10 books I have read by Aussie authors. To be transparent, I have read two books by Amanda Hampson so I only included one in my list! One of my goals for this year was to review all of the historical fiction and Aussie author books I read, and from this list I am pleased that I have reviewed all of them except for two. For one, the review will be up tomorrow and the other is the book I only finished a couple of days ago. I will be reviewing that one soon because it was so good!

The Whisky Widow by Karen Brooks - I am kicking myself that I have not previously read Karen Brooks. I own several of her books and now that I enjoyed this one so much I am going to have to move this one up the list!

One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald - This one featured a really interesting main character that I won't forget for a while! My review will be up tomorrow for this book!

Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - I find this author's books really relaxing! I have read a lot of them now! (My review)

Your Friend and Mine by Jessica Dettman - This one featured a fun almost treasure hunt like quest across London! (My review)

Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee - A foodie romance set predominantly in the south of France? Yes please! (My review)

The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson - I read all three books in this series this year and loved them all. Looking forward to the next one. (My review)

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn - I have read both of this author's books so far over the last couple of month. Really enjoyable. (My review)

The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary - This novel is set in Melbourne during the gold rush and features four women all connected with the brothels in an area called Little Lon. (My review)

The Girl from Normandy by Rachel Sweasey - WWII France is a setting I will always be attracted to! (My review)

Half-Truth by Nadia Mahjouri - This is a semi-autobiographical story about a woman who heads to Morocco with her young child to find her family. So good! (My review)

So there we have the last ten Aussie authors I have read in honour of #aussieaugust2025

The Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn

 

Earlier this year I read and loved Claire van Ryn's second novel Where the Birds Called Her Name which I reviewed here. I knew then that I was going to have to go back and read this book, which was her debut novel.

Allira is a journalist who works for Folk magazine, a quality publication that focuses on people and history of the area. One day, she is sent to a nursing home to interview a man only to find out that he had passed away. One of the nursing staff suggested instead that she speak to Nora, a dementia patient who never has any visitors. Nora spends her days looking after her baby, a doll that she dresses and takes care of. Allira finds herself returning over and over to spend time with Nora, and hears disturbing snippets which makes her want to unravel the truth of what happened to Nora.

The modern story is set in 2019 but the heart of the story is in 1953 where we meet Nora as a young girl. She lives with her parents in a small town in Tasmania. Her mother is a very rigid woman with very definite ideas on how Nora should behave, and who Nora can never seem to please. Nora's father is both a carpenter and the town's undertaker. Nora assists her dad by stitching the lining into the coffins, and is beginning to learn some of the undertaker tasks.

One day a young man comes to the family home to deliver some wood and his truck breaks down which means he has to stay in the shed until it can be fixed. Michal is a German-Polish immigrant who has come to Australia for a new start and to provide for his mother and sister back home. Michal sees Nora for who she is and not who her mother expects her to be, and he is skilled at carving. It isn't long before feelings grown between the two young people. He carves Nora a wren from huon pine which becomes a symbol of their love when they are separated.

As Allira begins to piece together Nora's story of love and tragedy, she begins to understand that there is a way forward from her own past traumas, both in her personal and professional lives. I loved the relationships that Allira had with her husband Hamish and her best friend Rae, and of course between Allira and Nora.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the historical time line, and the dementia storyline was very well handled. There are some unlikely coincidences that draw all of the strands of the story to a nice conclusion for many of the characters but that is forgivable. It is a really good debut novel, and now I will be waiting impatiently for Claire van Ryn's next book to come out.

Finally how beautiful is this cover? And the detail of the thread in the bird's beak is very clever too given that it ties in with the story

I am sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host and also counting it for #AussieAugust2025 on Bookstagram

Rating 4.5/5

This week...

I'm reading

It's been another busy reading and blogging week! I feel like I have had a lot of different books in my hands and this list will confirm that!

I finished The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson as I had to return it to the library. My review is here. This is the second book in the Tea Ladies series and I have already requested the third book.

I had to put Beartown by Fredrik Backman down in order to finish The Cryptic Clue. Once I picked it up again I was absolutely absorbed. This is one of my 20 Books of Winter and counts as a Big Book of Summer. It was a 5/5 read for me and I have already requested the next book in the trilogy.

Then I started a couple of books but I will need to go back to them again this week. I started The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl because of Paris in July.  I also started Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, which is another of my 20 Books of Winter reads.

Once again, the library conspired against me and said I couldn't renew Secrets of the Huon Wren by Claire van Ryn so I read that. This was Claire van Ryn's debut novel, but I had already read her second book. I hope to have a review for this one up shortly.

In order to try to get in front of the library I then read Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee who is from South Korea This is also one of my 20 Books of Winter. It's a different read for me but I did like it enough to request the second book in the series. The idea is that in our sleep we all go to the dream store to purchase the dreams that we want. We then pay for them using our emotions. 

Finally, I started reading A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan which is the current Cook the Books selection.

I did do a summary of the books that I read for June for the 20 Books of Winter . You can read my recap post here.

Bookish Travel

I did a fair bit of travelling through the pages of books during June. Here's some of the places I visited.

Australia 

Melbourne  - The Butterfly Women

Sydney - The Cryptic Club

America

Maine- The Mirror

Washington - The Diamond Eye

Michigan/New York - The Page Turner

Europe

England - The Silver Ladies Seize the Day, Once Upon a Thyme, The Storytellers

Scotland - Over the Seas to Skye, the Woman Who Got Her Spark Back

Ukraine/USSR -- The Diamond Eye

France  - A Secret Garden in Paris, French Rhapsody, The Girl from Normandy

Greece - The Island of Hope and Dreams, Not My Greek Wedding

Portugal - The Lost Story of Sofia Costello

The Cruise Club (visited several countries!)

Africa

Morocco - Half Truth

Best of June

In June I read 19 books and these 6 are the ones I rated as 4.5/5 reads. 

I'm watching

I finished watching Gary Barlow's Wine Tour: Australia. I will finish watching his South Africa show this week I think. 

I also re-watched The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan this week. I originally watched it last year as part of the French Film Festival (and I posted about it here). I was surprised to see it on the normal movie channels on our cable provider as normally if I want to watch any foreign language films you have to go searching for it. 

Life


After 3 weeks, I still sound a bit husky but finally feel like I am getting better. 

We did have a busy weekend as our kids were down from Brisbane for the day on Saturday so Robert was being dad's taxi service driving all over the city while I cooked dinner. Then we had my sister and her family around for dinner on Sunday along with my mum who is over from Adelaide. 


Posts from the last week

20 Books of Winter: June

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: July links
Paris in July 2025!

Paris in July/Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Eiffel Tower on the Cover
Paris in July: Since the last Paris in July
The Lost Story of Sofia Castello by Siobhan Curham

Paris in July: Mini Movie Reviews
Blog Tour: The Cruise Club by Caroline James
The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - June
Six Degrees of Separaton: Theory & Practice to Sisters of the Resistance

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Feature Travel

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books that Feature Travel. I've done quite a few travel themed Top Ten Tuesdays over the years. This time, I am keeping it simple and just sharing some of the recent books that I have read that feature travel in one way or another!

Let's go, or should I say, bon voyage!

An Italian Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack - Wedding planner Sophie is asked to organise a wedding at the top of a mountain climb so she needs to travel to Italy to find the locations. The catch, her guide is her ex-boyfriend. 

Booked for Summer by Kathryn Freeman - British woman Jade Taylor goes to the island of Nantucket to run a cute bookstore for three months where she meets the owner of the resort that wants to close the store down. (My review)

One More Day of Us by Shari Low - Singer Moira Chiles spent a large part of her career working on cruise ships. This story takes us back to her first trip when she lived in Hong Kong back in the early 1990s. (My review)

A Greek Island Gift by Mandy Baggot - When Molly receives an inheritance from someone she has never heard of, she has to travel to Corfu to accept it. What is she going to do with half an apartment, half a boat and a quarter of a cat amongst other things! (My review)

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley - This is the final book in the Seven Sisters series, and follows Pa's life as he travels all round the world.

Secret Beneath a Riviera Sky by Jennifer Bohnet - Francine travels to Cannes with her mother and daughter after her estranged father dies. (My review)

Where the Birds Calls Her Name by Claire van Ryn - The travel in this one is a bit closer to home. Saskia and her daughter drive from Broome in far north Western Australia to Tasmania as they discover who Saskia's mother is and who Saskia needs to be in the future. (My review)

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin - Ava travels from her job as a librarian in the Library of Congress to work in Lisbon in Portugal during WWII. (My review)

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley - The method of travel in this one was by ship and by horse. A group of travellers go to Scotland from London on the King's business. (My review)

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton - A young girl travels from Korea to Japan in the years prior to WWII, and then she struggles to return home. (My review)

Where did your Top Ten Tuesday take you today?

SIx Degrees of Separaton: Rapture to The Swan Maiden

 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.

The starting point this month is an historical novel longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize, Rapture by Emily Maguire. I actually had a couple of goes at this one this month. In the other attempt I ended up with a lot of chocolate and jam related books, despite starting with two very serious books! In the end I decided to keep this option which has a decidedly avian feel to it!

Using the name Emily as my link, the first connection is to Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett. This is the third book in the Emily Wilde series. I haven't actually read this series although I do own them. The covers do have a similar feel to them too!

Another book by an author with the first name of Heather is Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber. (my review)

The most recent birdy book I read (and loved) was Claire van Ryn's latest book Where The Birds Call Her Name.  I just reviewed this book a few days ago and I loved it!

Both Where the Birds Call Her Name and Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe have in common other than a bird related title is that they both have a connection to Broome in Western Australia. (my review)

The setting for Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson is in Nigeria but the word Sunbirds does connect them nicely. (my review)

My final choice uses the surname Watson as the connection. The Swan Maiden is by Jules Watson who is an Australian author who had a few books out about 15 years ago but I haven't seen anything new from her for years. I also reviewed these books about a week apart back in 2011. 

Next month, the starting point is nominee for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction, All Fours by Miranda July.

Will you be joining us?

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn

 

When Saskia's mother Kiki died she left each of her three children a specific item which she said they would each understand the meaning of. To Saskia, she left a caravan, which Saskia does not understand at all. Saskia is a busy primary school teacher, a mother to a young girl named Anouk, and wife to Dane who is successful real estate agent in their home town of Broome in Western Australia. When would she have time to go off somewhere in a caravan, let alone the inclination. It is yet another sign that Saskia wasn't as aligned with her mother as she might once have been.

While looking around in the caravan, she finds a few items that pique her interest including an old diary and not least of all a ticket for a car and caravan to cross from the mainland to Tasmania. After reading a few pages, Saskia realises that maybe she didn't know the woman in the diary at all, and all she wants to do is take the trip to Tasmania and to see if she can find out who Kiki really was. After all, Saskia is a burnt out primary school teacher, her daughter is struggling and she can't quite put her finger on why and her husband takes her for granted and wouldn't really miss her if she went away for a while.

This is a dual timeline where the second part of the story is set in northern Tasmania in the late 1960s. Greta de Winter who is the teenage daughter of charismatic Dirk de Winter and his wife Fay. Dirk is that guy in town. The one who everyone owes a favour to, the guy to turn to when you need something done, always friendly and happy for a chat. Except that Dirk is very different at home. Fay has tried to hide the terrible things that happen at home from Greta. There is always a reason why Fay needs to take to her bed for days at a time, or for scrapes, for why she stays at home all the time and why her father makes excuses for her to everyone in town.

The thing that brings Fay joy is her work as a taxidermist. She learnt her trade from her father and she is very good at it, producing museum quality specimens of birds and dioramas. Greta too has a love of birds and nature, so when she hears that the local wetlands are going to be drained she is determined to put a stop to it, no matter what.

As Saskia and Anouk travel south in their caravan, Saskia realises that there are so many questions that she needs answers to. Why did her mother leave Tasmania, why did she never talk of her past, why did she change her name, and why was she planning to go back after all these years?

Often in dual timeline I find myself more invested in one of the story lines, but that wasn't the case here. In the historical timeline we have a compelling story about nature and the environment and about a young girl gaining understanding of her life. In the contemporary story line, we see a woman who has slowly been losing herself without realising it, and who needs a change more than she can ever know. Both stories are lovingly told and beautifully linked in a way that I found so moving at the end.

This is Tasmanian author Claire van Ryn's second book and I will now have to go back to the first one to read it because this one was just so good! It is clear that she loves birds and in fact, the taxidermy part of the story is inspired by a member of her own family. Interspersed throughout the story are diagrams of different kinds of birds with a short bio of them and whether they are in danger of becoming extinct or safe, at least for now.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the cover and book design. The publisher has done an amazing job with both. The cover is gorgeous, and the illustrations int he book are fantastic a well.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy. 

Rating 4.5/5

Top Ten Tuesday: What I Read on Holidays

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is My Unpopular Bookish Opinions (You can share opinions surrounding being a reader, a book reviewer, etc. OR you could share your opinions on specific books that go against what everyone  else is saying. Are there any books you loved that most people didn’t, or vice versa?)


I am going rogue (again) and instead I am doing What I Read on Holidays, which fits nicely into the post because I finished exactly ten books while I was away!

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - What an interesting and delightful book! I am planning to review this soon.

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - Given all the hype around this series, I was expecting more but it was a good book to read on a plane.

Safe Harbour in Pelican Harbour by Maggie Christensen - I always enjoy Maggie Christensen's books and this one was no exception. I reviewed this book here.

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwan Easton - I wanted to read this one because it is set in both Korea and Japan. I had no idea that Japan had occupied Korea between 1910 and the end of the war. 

The King's Messenger by Susanna Kearsley - I told myself I was reading this one for our read on a theme book club. The theme for this month is spy and I guess I could make this fit the theme if I really tried.

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin - This one definitely fits the theme!

Under a Riviera Moon by Helen McGinn - This is an upcoming review book!

Next of Kin by Hannah Bonhan Young - I just wanted to read something fun and this one fit the bill! 

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn - What a book! I really enjoyed this one! I am hoping to review it soon, but I don't have a specific date. Maybe I should just give it a date just to give myself a deadline.

One Day and Forever by Shari Low - I have said yes to a book that features some of the same characters from this book. However, it turns out that this book has lots of links to other books as well!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Autumn 2025 to-read list

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books on My Spring 2025 to-Read List. For us, it is autumn, so I am really doing Books on My Autumn 2025 to-Read List

The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester - In May I am going to Perth for the Rachael Johns Reader Retreat and this is one of the book club books which will be discussed. 

A Snowy River Summer by Stella Quinn  - Same with this one!

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn - This is the same book club's selection for April. I have a review copy so I really want to read it and participate in the conversation for once.

I am Nannertgarrook by Tasma Walton - This is a book from a new indigenous imprint with one of the major publishers. It is historical fiction and so it should work for me.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods - A bakery! In France! Sign me up

The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer - I am due to review this towards the end of April. I am looking forward to it.

The King,s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley - Susanna Kearsley is one of my all time favourite authors but I still haven't read this! 

The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick - And the same applies for Elizabeth Chadwick!

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor - I have heard such good things about this book!

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - I am heading off to Japan this week on holidays so I really want to read one or more Japanese books while I am away.

Of course, this is all subject to change at any times and some or all of these books may yet appear on my Winter reading list. Well, except for the first two!