Top Ten Tuesday: Fancy fonts

 

 

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

week the theme is

Typographic Book Covers (Book covers with a design that is all or mostly all words. You can also choose to do books with nice typography if that’s easier!) (Submitted by Mareli @ Elza Reads)


It is interesting when you look at trends in covers. If we look at historical romance as an example. Not too long ago most covers were clinch covers with women in gorgeous dresses but these days it isn't as standard. Now, there are font covers or cartoonny in amongst the big dresses.


I haven't focussed on just one genre, but here is my Top Ten Tuesday post featuring typographic book covers.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich - The reality is that you could have picked any one of the Stephanie Plum books as they are pretty much all typographic covers!

Love Stories by Trent Dalton - Given that this is a selection of very short stories, this cover makes sense as there isn't one single story to tell

Someone I Used to Know by Paige Toon - Plenty of rom-coms have wordy covers!

The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This cover is very eye catching.

The Great Passage by Shion Miura - This book is all about the words, inside and out!



The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry - All of Emily Henry's covers have been wordy so far.

Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston - Such a fun cover and book!

Normal People by Sally Rooney - Quite a few of the covers for this book have bold typography on the cover.

Don't You Forget About Me - Another author who has a lot of these style of covers.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - This cover does not convey the emotional nature of this book at all!

Do you like typographic covers?

Bookish Quotes: Anniversary of Harry Potter

This week is the 25th anniversary of the publishing of the first book in the Harry Potter series of book. I'll just let that sink in a little. 

25 years!!

That means that for pretty much anyone under the age of 30, this book has been around their whole lives! 

This is the book that started the whole thing. The books, the movies, the stage shows, the spin offs, the careers and more.

However, rather than share a qhote from J K Rowling, I thought I would share a quote from a book that I read and really loved last year. 

I remember reading this passage and thinking how this character was going to love Harry Potter when she did finally get to read it. And, of course, I totally relate to the whole buying a book and not having read it thing too!

Do you remember when Harry Potter hadn't yet been released?

I walked over to Pop's bookcase and looked at his shelf of well-thumbed Stephen King novels; all those cracked spines and wrinkle lines on the covers, musty pages and the puffy bold typeface of his name that I liked to trace with my fingertips.

"He misses his mum," I said, as I pulled one of Pop's favourite books off the shelf. It was called Different Seasons and it was thick and yellowed with age, many of the pages bent from Pop's dog-ears.

Pop once told me that the world splits into two types of readers: those who bend the corner of a page to dog-ear when they read a book, and those who use a bookmark (and maybe there's a third kind who choose not to read, period - but he couldn't figure them out). Luca was the bookmark type. But Pop believed that dog-ears in a book were like laughter lines on a face - signs of love. All the books on his shelf had cracks and creases, and pen marks in the margins of his favourite stories, like rivers and roads leading to the best bits, the parts he wanted to remember.

"I think you miss her too," Pop said.

I put the book back but didn't know what to say to Pop that wouldn't hurt him. Mum was his daughter, and Anika wasn't mine to miss.

"I'm happier now that you're home," I said instead. And then to change the subject I asked, "Will you take Sam and me to Farrells one day these holidays?"

Pop opened his eyes and smiled - Farrells Bookshop in Mornington was the best around, and ever since I was a little kid, Pop had been taking me to the corner bookstore for a special treat every school holiday and plenty of weekends too. Any chance we could get, really. But between Pop's fall and his stay at the RRC and everything that had been happening, it was a while since we'd been. I bought this book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone last time we were there. I hadn't got around to reading it yet, but it sounded like a good story.

"It wouldn't  feel like proper holidays if we didn't go to Farrells," Pop said, and I smiled.

This week....

 I'm reading....

Last week I mentioned that I was starting to read a book by Karen Swan called The Christmas Secret. I finished that book last week. If I show you the two books I picked up from the library today, you should get a fair idea of what I thought of that book....

The other book that I read this week was called The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks.  This is a middle grade book which is about a young girl called Fred who is trying to navigate a complicated life in 1999. She is being raised by her adoptive father who has a new partner, who in turn brings a son called Sam into the house. She also has a growing awareness of the world around her, particularly the tragic events in Kosovo which lead to a group of refugees being housed near her town.  This is very much a Melbourne book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I now need to get a move on in reading Cinnamon and Gunpowder. The last date to post about the book is 30 November, which is approaching very rapidly.

I'm watching....

I am very excited to see that The Great is back, which we have every intention of watching, but this weekend we watched the first two episodes of Wheel of Time. I have never read the books, but my husband has. I think it is watchable, although I do know some AVID fans who are definitely not enjoying it.

I did watch a few more episodes of Midnight Diner over the weekend and I intend to watch more this week.

 

Life

We are now allowed out as long as we show our vaccination certificates whereever we go, so we took advantage and had a pub meal. It was so nice to go out, but it was busy, loud and the drinks were expensive! Maybe it is just so long to since we had a pub dinner that I had forgotten all of those things.

It was also bookclub week this week, and for the first time we were able to meet up in person, at a lovely French cafe.  There were only three of us but we had a great chat about books, music, social events and more. The next theme is Holiday, so I am not sure if I am going to count one of the Christmas books I have here, or a book about somewhere I want to visit, or maybe summer. So many options.

The other big focus for the weekend was painting the master bedroom. When we have finished there will be no more 1979 in my house, except for the front door. If we weren't going to be moving we would have changed it, but that can be the next person's thing to do.

Posts from the last week

Weekend Cooking: Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognaise

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

Six Degrees of Separation: The Lottery to The Good Wife of Bath

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 for this month is a short story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I found this story online and so, somewhat unusually, I have actually read this one. However, I wrote this post before I read it, so it didn't really colour my choices.

My first link is to The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. This is the readalong book for Readers Imbibing Peril XVI (RIPXVI) for this year. I did think about using RIP reads as my through theme but I ended up going in a more random direction.

My next link is to The Clockmakers Daughter by Kate Morton because the sundial is a way of telling the time as is a clock.

My link to the next book was supposed to be  the word daughter but when I went to look for the cover I realised that the book I was thinking of is actually called The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper (not the Cartographer's Daughter). I read this book earlier this year and loved it. So my connection can either be the possessive title or the fact that both books are historical fiction by Australian authors.

Let's get this chain back on track. My next choice is based on the fact that a cartographer is someone who draws maps, my next choice is The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks which I currently have out from the library.

The connection to my next choice is the word year. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is a book that I read years ago and loved....well, except for the epilogue.

My final choice is The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks, because of the shared surname.

I have just realised that other than Shirley Jackson, these authors are all Australian, which wasn't deliberate. It just worked out that way, or maybe is reflecctive of my reading patterns.

Next month, our chain starts with What Are We Going Through by Sigrid Nunez.  I am looking forward to it!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I currently have out from the library

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. There is no set theme this week and so today I am sharing the books that I currently have out of the library. Our library system is still closed because we are still in lockdown, so they keep on extending the return date. At the moment the return date is due to be 31 October but that could be extended further depending on what happens. 

The Opal Dragonfly by Julian Leatherdale - I read this author's first book a few months ago and I liked it so requested this one. I intend to read his last book too.

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - This was reviewed a lot a couple of months ago and it sounds so good. I requested it from the library straight away

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - I saw this mentioned a few times and knew I wanted to read it!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - I saw this mentioned on a few Top Ten Tuesday posts over a few weeks so decided I needed to read it myself

Ambulance Girls at War by Deborah Burrows - This is the the third book in the Ambulance Girls trilogy

Those Who Are  Loved by Victoria Hislop - I really enjoyed some books by Victoria Hislop years ago but it has been a long time since I read one.

The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This is a middle grade book but I have heard good things about it.

The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott - I saw this on someone's blog somewhere and it prompted me to request it from the library, but I can't remember where or when.

Rosewater & Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran - This is the last book that I borrowed from the library before it closed that I haven't read yet, so I want to read it before the library opens again

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown - This is the current Cook the Books bookclub choice, I am about half way through this at the moment.

Library Loot: 21 July

Earlier this year when the COVID19 pandemic hit, our local libraries closed to everyone. Gradually as our restrictions lifted, a couple of the local branches reopened with limited opening hours. Unfortunately my branch was not one of those which was disappointing given that I had lots and lots of books waiting to be picked up from the hold shelf. I thought I was being smart in getting my holds transferred from my branch to one of the branches that was opened. I then planned to go and pick them up. Good plan right?

What I hadn't counted on was that we would go back into lockdown and therefore I couldn't go to the other branch either. Luckily my library system does have a delivery service, so I was able to request that my books were delivered to my door! It was exciting to receive that package yesterday. I suspect I might use this delivery service again yet.

Here's what I got:

The Opal Dragonfly by Julian Leatherdale - I read this author's first book a few months ago and I liked it so requested this one. I intend to read his last book too.

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - This was reviewed a lot a couple of months ago and it sounds so good. I requested it from the library straight away

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - I saw this mentioned a few times and knew I wanted to read it!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - I saw this mentioned on a few Top Ten Tuesday posts over a few weeks so decided I needed to read it myself

Ambulance Girls at War by Deborah Burrows - This is the the third book in the Ambulance Girls trilogy

Those Who Are  Loved by Victoria Hislop - I really enjoyed some books by Victoria Hislop years ago but it has been a long time since I read one.

The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This is a middle grade book but I have heard good things about it.

The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott - I saw this on someone's blog somewhere and it prompted me to request it from the library, but I can't remember where or when.

The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan - Bree from All the Books I Can Read has been reading a lot of Karen Swan books this year, so I have decided to see if I like the author as much as she  does. I borrowed this one as an ebook.


Now to decide what to read first.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries