Top Ten Tuesday: Sing!

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Bookish People I’d Like To Meet (These can be authors, book characters, book bloggers/influencers, cover designers, cover models, etc.) but I am going to go off topic this week...again. I have had a very busy month attending concerts, so I thought I would choose a musical theme! 

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes - Jimmy Barnes is an Aussie music legend and this is the story of his childhood. He has written a couple of others about his life too!

Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - A piece of song makes its way around the world. Such a good book!

A Good American by Alex George and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - I chose both of these because of the musical instruments on their covers

An Island in the Sun by Kate Frost - This book features a successful songwriter spending time on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Chosen because of the word Song. One day I will read this book. I loved Circe.

The Time of Singing by Elizabeth Chadwick - I love this cover. I really need to get back to reading Elizabeth Chadwick.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - It's hard to do a post named Sing! and not include this book.

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane - I do like a book that gives you an earworm when you look at the title.

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett - Ah Pratchett! So much fun!

Next week I have every intention of doing the actual topic!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with nature on the cover

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with nature on the cover. A month or so ago, I did a post which featured lots of water on the covers. It surprised me to see that I actually only reused one of those covers, and yet, I still have several more watery covers to share this week.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - I thought I would start with a garden which instantly brings me to Garden Spells

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - I love the cover on this book, and I was really surprised when I read it as I wasn't sure what to expect.

Last Bridge Before Home by Lily Malone - There are so many rural romances that I could have featured, but I decided to echo the river scene in these two choices.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - The reality is that I could have picked just about any book from the Virgin River series. One day I would love to visit the area where these books are set.

The Survivors by Jane Harper - My next two choices are both Australian authors, both with ocean scenes. This first one though is the wild sea.

Tiny White Lies by Fiona Palmer - And this is the calmer sea.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - I think there's a certain synergy between these two covers even though they are completely different types of water.

Bila Yarraghanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss - This is my repeat cover, mainly because I need to hurry up and finish writing the review for this book.

The Burial by Courtney Collins - The covers for these two remind me of the time we spent looking at the stars at Uluru a month or so ago.

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes - Sirius I think?

Bestsellers Around the World: Canada and Australia

A couple of months ago I came up with an idea to start a regular feature where I take a look at the bestseller lists for a particular country and compare them to the Australian one! The first month I looked at the British bestseller list, and then last month it was France.  This month I am taking a look at a Canadian bestseller list.

Here is the Top 10 Fiction list from the Toronto Star for the week ending August 19:

1. The Book of Lost Names, Kristin Harmel Gallery 
2. American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins, Flatiron 
3. The Silent Wife, Karin Slaughter, William Morrow 
4. The End of Her, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada 
5. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s 
6. The Midwife Murders, James Patterson, Richard DiLallo, Grand Central 
7. The Woman Before Wallis, Bryn Turnbull, Mira 
8. The Guest List, Lucy Foley, William Morrow 
9. Their Last Secret, Rick Mofina, Mira 
10. The Order, Daniel Silva, HarperCollins Canada 

And here is the Top 10 for Australia as at 15 August from BetterReading.com

1. When She Was Good by Michael Robotham (Hachette)
2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Hachette)
3. The Yield by Tara June Winch (Hamish Hamilton)
4. 1st Case by James Patterson (Century)
5. The Order by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins)
6. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (Harper Collins)
7. Say No More by Karen Rose (Hachette)
8. A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)
9. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (Affirm Press)
10. The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins)

The last time I looked at the Australian bestsellers list was in mid June. Of the books on this current list Boys Swallows Universe, The Dictionary of Lost of Words and Where the Crawdad Sing were there two months ago.  I still need to get around to reading the first two of these books. I own Dictionary of Lost Words having bought it when it first came out, but I haven't quite managed to crack it open yet.

The two other books on this list that call to me are both Australian authors, and I heard them speaking at Melbourne Writers Festival. I am very interested in reading The Yield by Tara June Winch  and the other is A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville. I have read Grenville's previous historical novels so I will get to this one eventually.

It is interesting that Where the Crawdads Sing is still appearing on lists around the world even thought the book was released two years ago. I don't see this book disappearing off the lists any time soon given that there is now going to be a movie made of it.

When I look at the Canadian list, the two historical fiction novels are the two that I am drawn to the most. The Book of Lost Names is a WWII novel based on a true story. The title of The Woman Before Wallis is kind of self explanatory if you have any knowledge of 20th century English history but it also includes links to American "royalty", the Vanderbilts. It sounds like quite a read.

The two Canadian authors are Shari Lapena and Rick Mofina. Both of these novels are crime novels, with Shari Lapena's appearing to be a twisty turny suspense novel. It turns out that Mofina has written around 25 novels, and won multiple writing prizes, and he has a very interesting life story.

Are there any of these titles that you find interesting? Have you read any of these books or authors?

Next month, I am planning to take a look at the bestsellers list in South Africa!

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon, which is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

Six Degrees of Separation: How to Do Nothing to What I Like About Me

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 book is How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny ODell. I don't read a lot of non fiction so this is a book that I wasn't familiar with, and I am unlikely to read.

Having done this for a few months now, I am coming to realise that often the first idea is the best, if you have an idea in the first place! I probably should at least look at the cover before I decide on a theme though because I could have done something around flowers too. Anyway, the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title was to focus on the word how, and that then led to other interrogative words like how, who, what, where, why, when.

So here are my connections:

How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O'Neal - I first read Barbara O'Neal around 9 years ago when this book beat out two other books that I loved to win a RITA award in the Novel with Strong Romantic Elements category. I have since read a lot of this author's books and I always enjoy them. (review here)

The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters -  This is the tenth book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which is predominantly set in Egypt in the late 1880s through the 1920s. It is such a fun series, featuring Egyptian archaeology, a dastardly archenemy, humour,crimes and so much more. I might need to go back and pick up where I left off. Or maybe, restart at a point in the series and then go forward. (review here)

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - This is one of those books that sticks around the bestsellers list for a long time. It was also a selection for Reese Witherspoon's book club and then with a movie adaptation in the works, it will probably stay around for a while longer yet. I listened to it on audio earlier this year.

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer -Georgette Heyer was much better known for her regency romances but she also wrote a number of mysteries. I read this one many years ago!

When It All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins - From a book that I read many years ago to an author I have only discovered this year, Danielle Hawkins is a New Zealand author who writes rural romance. I have read a couple of her books so far and I have thoroughly enjoyed them

What I Like About Me by Jenna Guillaume - This was Australian YA author Jenna Guillaume's debut novel. I am due to read her second novel in the next few weeks.

Next month's starting point is Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield. As of now, I don't even have a first idea. Good thing I have a month to come up with something.

Where has your six degrees taken you this month?

This Week ....

I read....

My big news this week is that I finally, finally finished listening Where the Crawdads Sing. It has taken a very long time to get through. It's not that it wasn't an enjoyable book, I just haven't had the same amount of listening time that I have previously had. I am trying to get back in the habit of walking from the train station to work, which should help give me more audiobook time but I'm not really sure what I am going to start next.

I also started reading Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran. This  is a choice of the Cook the Books online bookclub which I am intending to read along with this year. I have read a few chapters so far and I am enjoying it. It's very readable. I did have a look at the author's website and was sad to see that she died at a very young age.

I also started reading Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci, an Australian author that I have been aware of for a long time but have never read before.

You may know that there is an upcoming Netflix series adaptation of the Bridgerton historical romance series which I am looking forward to. In anticipation, I am listening to a new podcast series called What Would Danbury Do. At this stage they are talking about each of the original books in the series which is a lot of fun, although not necessarily safe for work!


I watched....

Nothing new again

Life...

We've had a quieter week this week. No weekend away, no culture, concerts or anything else! Which doesn't mean that it hasn't been exciting.

We took delivery of a new couch and recliner chairs and a new dining table. I am particularly excited about the new dining table because I have never, ever had a new new dining table. I have been using a hand me down table which I got from my mum 20 years ago, and she got it from a family friend about 20 years before that. There's a fair chance that this dining table is  older than I am. The chairs were orange vinyl and had seen better days!

The chairs include electric recliners including inbuilt USB chargers.Very fandangled. We did resist the temptation to buy the couches with fluoro lighting underneath and in built cupholders. No racing car couches here yet.

In less exciting news, I had a wisdom tooth out on Friday which is the perfect way to start a three day weekend! Okay, not really, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected!! Hopefully it will help resolve the issues that I had  a few weeks ago. Luckily I am still 3/4 wise.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Titles!
Library Loot
ARA Historical Novel award announcement

Review of With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Six Degrees of Separation

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

This week I ...

I thought I would see if I could come up with a way to post on a regular basis so the plan will be to do a weekly post which will be what I am reading, watching and doing.


This week I'm reading

Somewhere over the last couple of years I have turned into the person who reads more while they are away than they do at home. This is confounding because I was never that person. I finished my book book on the plane on the way to Perth, and then I finished my ebook while I was away, and so then I was trying to choose something new to read from the books I already had downloaded so I started reading Listen to the Wind by Susanne Dunlap.

One of the good things is that this is historical fiction but with an unusual setting -  13th century France, the time of the Crusades and the persecution of the Cathars. I can only recall reading a couple of books with this setting. One was Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and the other was Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick.

What I didn't quite figure out until I read the authors note was if this book is supposed to be based on history or is a story that has a historical setting. Whatever it is, it was good plane reading.

In theory I am also listening to Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I was listening to it while I was walking to work, but I haven't been doing either. Maybe when we go back to work!

This week I'm watching

We are currently watching The Whicher.

I was going to say I don't understand why people insist on comparing new show to previous shows, but that isn't quite true. Of course I understand that it is to try to draw in the same audience, but often it does the show in question an injustice.

This show is being compared to Game of Thrones and there are certainly similarities if you just consider they are both set in fantasy worlds, with lots of battles, humour, powerful people, oh, and sex. We are now up to the fourth episode and we are invested in the story. I am not sure I necessarily get what is going on but I am sure it will all come together by the end of the series.

We are also up to season 5 of the British show, Friday Night Dinner. A friend of mine mentioned this show a few weeks ago, and we have been watching it ever since. It makes us laugh out loud a lot! If you like British comedy, give this show a go.

This week I'm also

Contemplating the coming year and what we are hoping to achieve. There are more renovations on the cards, a holiday to plan, and more.

Today, we bought new dining room chairs in addition to the new dining room table and couches that we are waiting to have delivered.

We've been watching the news here with helplessness as so much of our country is beset by fire. There are no fires near me so we have only had a bit of smoke haze to deal with, but every morning I wake up in fear that this will be the day when the death toll rises astronomically. When the Black Saturday fires happened in 2009 we went to bed knowing that there had been a few deaths and when we woke up there were more than 200 deaths. Of course, even one death is too many, and my thoughts are with those that are already mourning the loss of their loved ones, and those who have lost their homes.