Six Degrees of Separation: Trust to Lords of the White Castle

 

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 the starting point is Trust by Hernan Diaz

My first link is using the surname Diaz. I have chosen the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

From there, my next choice is an Oscar winner, The Lost Thing by Australian author Shaun Tan.

There are many books that we could choose for the word lost. In fact, I once did a whole post just about lost things for Top Ten Tuesday not too long ago.  I have chosen The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde for this post.

My next link is to Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey.

I am once again linking from the surname, this time to Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones

And for my last link I am using the word castle to Lords of the White Castle by Elizabeth Chadwick

Next month the starting point is Passages by Gail Sheehy.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Love That Are More Than 10 Years Old

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books I Love That ARe More Than 10 Years Old. 

I don't really read a lot of old books, so I decided to tweak the theme a little and share the last ten books I have read that are more than 10 years old. It just so happens that this list includes some books that I loved!!

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - (published in 1986). I read this earlier this year as part of March Magic. I did see that the movie version of this is currently on Netflix so I might watch it soon.

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran- (published in 2005) I read this a couple of years ago now for Cook the Books (review here)

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder (also Magic Study and Fire Study) - (published in 2005) I decided I was going to reread this series, and then carry on to read the next books in the series. I did the re-read part, but still haven't read the next books in the series. (review here)

Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys - (published in 1985) - This was originally a series of stories published during WWII and then republished in this form 

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl - (published in 1961) I actually listened to Taika Waititi and his famous friends read this story back in the early days of the pandemic!

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - (published 2010) - I have listened to this on audio several times now. Might just about be time for another listen!

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - (published 2008) - Yay! Another opportunity to mention this book! (review)

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - (published 1990) - So much fun. I have watched the TV adaptation twice so far.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - (published 1957)- There are a couple of Georgette Heyer books which have been narrated on abridged audio by Richard Armitage - my idea of aural bliss! Highly recommended. (review here)

Ross Poldark by GrahamWinston - (published 1945) - I read this after watching some of the TV series.



I am looking forward to seeing what books other participants have on their lists.

Top Ten Tuesday: One Word Reviews

 

 

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

topic is One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read (submitted by Susan @ Bloggin’ ’bout Books). A fun topic!

The Life She Dreams by Maggie Christensen - Farewell - The last book in the Granite Springs series.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - Classic- My first book by this beloved fantasy author.

The Postcard from Italy by Angela Petch - Inspiring - We are now planning to visit the part of Italy that this book is set in.

The Christmas Party by Karen Swan - Engrossing - Read this one in a single sitting which is very rare for me now.

The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland - Beautiful - Obviously taking inspiration here from the title but it does apply as a review too.

The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair - Fascinating - a little known story from Australian WWII history.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot - Time-travel - The second book set in a cafe in Tokyo

The Custard Tart Café by the Sea by Isabella May - Tasty - Just thinking about this book makes me want to eat custard tarts.

The Snowy Mountain Cattleman by Alissa Callen - Fab! - Already looking forward to the next book in this series.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran -  Unexpected - The saying don't judge a book by it's cover applies here. The cover looks kind of light and cutesy but it has so many deep topics inside the cover.

So there are the last ten books I have read!

This Week....

 I'm reading....

I think I have mentioned before that this year I seem to be reading more books set in Italy. This week it was The Postcard from Italy by Angela Petch which I am reading for a blog tour later this week. This book was set in an area called Puglia, which I don't think I have seen written about before. My review will be up in a couple of days. How gorgeous is that cover?

I also finished reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones for March Magics. It was a lot of fun and I will look for something else to read by her too.

Right now I am reading Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. This is the current Cook the Books selection. It also happens to be a perfect fit for our read on a theme bookclub this week because the theme is Red. I can't remember the last time I read a spy thriller so that is taking a bit to get used to.

I'm watching.....

I am a bit of a sucker for documentary series about people starting a new life somewhere different. For example, we love watching Escape to the Chateau. We are watching that each week, but this weekend I binge watched Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country. Sarah, her husband and 4 sons have moved to the country with the dream to build a grand new house and use the former farm they have bought to explore country pursuits. They have tried things like setting up a glamping site, raising llamas, making their own cider and more.

Life

Yesterday we visited the Begonia Festival in Ballarat, which is a gold rush town around an hour or so from home. Weather wise it was a perfect day to wonder around looking a flowers, listening to music, wandering through gardens and more. 

I thought I would post an update about our house. It is starting to take shape now!!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books set in Tasmania

Weekend Cooking: Eating our way around Tassie

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - Feb stats

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

This Week...

I'm reading....

I wish I could remember who mentioned The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, but if I could I would say thank you, thank you and thank you as it was so good! I am working on a joint review, but it won't be a shock to hear me say that it is going to be a glowing review!

I did also try to watch Elif Shafak appear at Adelaide Writer's Week yesterday. I say try as unfortunately the sound was terrible for the first half of the talk. Maybe there will be another opportunity to hear her speak as what I did hear was very interesting.

That wasn't the only book that I read last week. I also read The Life She Dreams by Maggie Christensen. This was also the final book in the Granite Springs series. I enjoyed this series and I am a bit sad it has come to an end but there is a spin-off series, so yay!

I mentioned last week that I was going to join in on March Magics which is an event encouraging people to read Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynn Jones. I started reading Howl's Moving Castle in the wee hours of this morning. So far, so good.

I'm watching....

I was very excited this weekend to see that there is a new series of The Parisian Agency!! This show is basically Paris looking at it's very best! The main family are a group of realtors who sell high end, as in multi million dollar, real estate. And it's not only Paris. We also get to see some other gorgeous locations as well.

There are lots of good TV coming up over the next few weeks. Not sure that I am going to find enough time to watch it all. For starters, there are the new series of Picard and Bridgerton and of course, droughtlander is nearly over. The new series of Outlander starts in approximately one hour!!

Life

After getting back from our holiday, this week has been a quiet week. I was lucky we didn't have too much planned as I was pretty tired as I got my booster vax on Friday. I didn't have much of a reaction other than tiredness.

Posts from the last week

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: March linkup

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I enjoyed but haven't mentioned

Weekend Cooking: Milk Tart Day

Six Degrees of Separation: The End of the Affair to Bitter Greens

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

This Week....

I'm reading....

As I mentioned last week I started reading The Life She Creates by Maggie Christensen on the plane to Tasmania. It turns out that the Granite Springs books are perfect holiday reads as I ended up finishing that book and the next book in the series, The Life She Regrets. I started the final book in the series, The Life She Dreams on the plane on the way home. I guess I am going to be looking for Maggie Christensen's earlier books now.

The other book that I finished on the plane was Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. As I sit here I am trying to work out what I felt about the book. There was beautiful use of language, so many lovely quotes, and overall it was a satisfying read. It wasn't perfect though. I would just get invested in one of the stories and the narrative would change. I admired it a lot but it was a challenge to read.

I thought I would mention that I am planning to participate in March Magics, hosted by WeBeReading. The idea of March Magics is to read Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynn-Jones. The theme for this year is Old Friends and New which is a perfect theme for me. I have been reading Pratchett for a long time and yet I still haven't read all of them, and I have never read Diana Wynn-Jones. I know....shocking. My intention is to read a book of essays I have titled Women of Pratchett by Tansy Rayner-Roberts and then to read Moving Pictures. As for DWJ, I am not really sure where to start. Maybe with Howl's Moving Castle.

I'm watching....

We just watched what we could find whilst we were on holidays. We did watch more news than we would normally so we have been watching the news with disbelief, both in terms of the news coming out of the Ukraine and the unfolding flooding situation in Queensland.

Life

Have I mentioned that I was on holidays this week? We had an amazing week away in Tasmania. I had been there before but my husband hadn't but we are already talking about what we will do next time we go. I posted some photos from Port Arthur last week and here's a few pics from this week.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos

Blog Tour: Summer in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen

Weekend Cooking:What I Baked in February

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