Top Ten Tuesday - Chronologically speaking!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Book Titles Featuring Ordinal Numbers (Ordinal numbers are numbers that define an item’s place in a series. For example: first, second, third, fourth, tenth, fourteenth, thirty-third, one hundredth, etc.) (submitted by Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog)

I have chosen to twist the topic a bit. I am going to do books that are the number in the series by which I mean the title might be the fifth book in the series for example. At least one of them will be ordinal! 

1. An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister - Last year I read and adored this book. The second book in the Love Notes series is due to be released in July! I am so looking forward to it!

2. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman - This is the second book in the Beartown trilogy. I am hoping to read the third one soon! (my review)

3. The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson - I read and loved all three books in this series last year, of which this is the third. The fourth book is out next month! (my review)

4. Everyone in This Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson - This is the fourth book in the Ernest Cunningham series. I have only read and loved the first two but I do know that I will read this one eventually

5. Safe Harbour in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - I do really enjoy Maggie Christensen's books. This is the fifth book in the Pelican Crossing series. The eighth book in the series is out early next month (my review)

6. The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters - This is the sixth book in the excellent Amelia Peabody series. I unintentionally stopped reading this series at book number 14. It has been more than 15 years since I read that book but I do have such fond memories of it, and I feel as though I could pick the next book without too much difficulty.  (my review)

7. The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley - This is the seventh book in the Seven Sisters series. It feels a little bit ironic that there was an eight book released!

8. Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon - This is the last book I read in the Outlander series. I don't know if I have the energy to pick up the next book in the series at the moment.

9. To the Nines by Janet Evanovich - I continued to read up to book 19 before I deliberately stopped reading this series. This book was the last one that I rated as a 5 star read. It was all downhill from here.

10. Witness in Death by JD Robb - I read up to book 17 in the series before I unintentionally stopped reading them. Book 62 in the series was recently published so I don't see myself ever catching up on this series. (my review)

Spell the Month in Books - April

Reviews From the Stacks

Welcome to the April edition of Spell the Month in Books which is hosted at Reviews From the Stacks. The link party opens on the first Saturday of the month, but I won't be posting until after that as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month.

The idea is that you use the title of books to spell the month name. There is also a theme each month, with the theme for April being animals on the cover. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I couldn't go past this children's classic which includes talking hares, grinning cats and so much more!

The Restaurant in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - Whilst I might be cheating with this one, this is the first book in a series set in a small Australian coastal town called  in Pelican Crossing, and the word pelican appears in the title of every one of them

Rescue my Heart by Jill Shalvis - It's been many years since I read Jill Shalvis, but I do recall enjoying her trilogy called Animal Magnetism, which is set in and around an animal shelter 

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - Does a dragon count as an animal?

Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters - This is the fourth book in the excellent Amelia Peabody series set in Victorian Egypt. 

There's no set theme for May. Maybe I will have to come up with my own! Or maybe I will just keep it simple next month. We'll see when we get closer to the time!

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted by Readerbuzz.

Top Ten Tuesday: Stormy!

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books to Read During a Storm (these can be cozy/comfy reads, books with storms in them, atmospheric reads for dark and stormy nights, light reads to combat the heavy weather, etc.) (Submitted by Astilbe.)

For my first three choices I thought I would share some books that have components of storms in the title. If there is a storm happening around you, there may be wind, there may be thunder and there may be rain. There could be other things, but let's start with those:

He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters - As a bonus this cover also has some lightning on it!

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine - Rachel Caine has a whole series of books called Weather Wardens where all the titles are weather related.

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith - This is one of the Isabel Dalhousie which is set in Edinburgh, so I imagine you would need to be used to rain!

And now lets move onto books with stormy titles.

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale - A romance classic from the early 1990s!

Firestorm by Rachel Caine - This is another book in the Weather Wardens series.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher - Apparently I read this in 2008 and again in 2011 - who knew! I certainly didn't remember that!

The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French - I recently started reading another Jackie French book but didn't get very far before I had to return the book to the library!

Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley - Never miss an opportunity to get a Susanne Kearsley book into the a TTT post!

A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin -  this is the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, more commonly known as the Game of Thrones books.

The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley - The second book in the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. I am currently listening to the seventh book in the series.

Six Degrees of Separation: Intermezzo to The Kamogawa Food Detectives

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 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I have read one Sally Rooney book but I am not sure if I will give this one a go or not. If I do, it will be on audio so that the lack of punctuation doesn't bother me.

Rather than go with another Sally Rooney book, I decided to take a different route.  Intermezzo is a musical term. I am therefore choosing A Good American by Alex George because of the musical notes on the cover.

In my review of that book I mentioned jazz, which is music I associate with New Orleans. How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns is set in New Orleans.

When I did a post about this book, I shared some photos of our time in New Orleans. We visited a couple of houses that author Sara Donati visited as part of her research into her book Queen of Swords.

Another place that I have visited after reading about it is St Malo which I read about in Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See.

From there we go from something we cannot see to something we apparently can see in Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters. 

And for the last link, a cat features on the cover of Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai.

Where did your chain take you this month?

Next month, the starting point is Sandwich by Catherine Newman. 

Six Degrees of Separation: Long Island to Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles.

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 Long Island by Colm Toibin. 

I wasn't really sure which direction I wanted to go this month. There are always options, but in the end I decided to spin off of the word island and chose  Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak.

Elif Shafak has recently released a new book called There are Rivers in the Sky so this is my next choice.

From there I am taking the word sky and choose He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters, which is part of the Amelia Peabody series set in Egypt.

I could have gone in several directions, but I have chosen to use the first name of the author, Elizabeth and I picked To Defy a King by Elizabeth Chadwick

Using the word King, I have chosen Lady Macbeth by Susan Frazer King. When we were in Scotland we heard a bit about Macbeth, about how he was a real king although some of the other history was incorrect, and along with how historically incorrect the move Braveheart was.

Another historical figure we heard a lot about was Mary Queen of Scots so I have chosen the book by Margaret George about her, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. I would say that almost brings me to back full circle to our starting point!

Next month, the starting point is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Whereas I normally think of a starting book pretty much straight away, I am coming up blank so far. Good job I have a month to think of something.

Top Ten Tuesday: Woof!

 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, but I am twisting the topic a bit!

Yesterday was the first birthday of our dog Max, so my theme today is all about dogs! But first, here's the birthday dog himself

So today I bring you nine books with the word dog in the title, a couple of which are and one book with a dog on the cover, including a couple of kids books.

The Snake, The Crocodile and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters

The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Hatton

A Dog's Purpose by W Bruce Cameron

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Hairy McClary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd

The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig

Snowy Mountains Daughter by Alyssa Callen 

Happy birthday Max!!

Six Degrees of Separation: Hydra to The Lost Summers of Newport

 

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 Hydra by Adriane Howell,which was nominated for the Stella Prize shortlist.

The hydra is a creature from Greek mythology.  My first book this month is call The Forgotten Palace by Alexandra Walsh. This is a book that has dual timeline. The historical timeline is about a young woman who works on an archeological dig in Knossos and the book also explores the myth of the minotaur, another creature from Greek mythology

Another series which has a female archaeologist  is the Amelia Peabody mystery series by Elizabeth Peters, set in Egypt. For the purposes of this chain I have selected the thirteenth book, Lord of the Silent.

The first book in Deanna Raybourn's  Lady Julia Grey series is Silent in the Grave, another Victorian lady investigator. It has one of the few opening lines that I remember reading in a book. Normally I don't remember opening lines.

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.

You may notice we have a theme which is running through these first few choices. My next choice is the first book in the Pink Carnation series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig. Whilst this isn't a mystery in terms of figuring out who the murderer is, it is a spy mystery.

My next choice is Karen White's The House on Tradd Street. This series is a historical mystery but only because the story is of a modern woman who is solving old mysteries.

I really needed this month to have seven degrees of separation so I could include a book by Beatriz Williams. Instead my last choice is a book that is jointly written by Lauren Willig, Karen White and Beatriz Williams. They have written a number of books together but the one I am going to choose to round out my chain today is The Lost Summers of Newport.

The starting point for next month is Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day

Top Ten Tuesday: Series that I just sort of stopped reading

 

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

week the theme is Completed Series I Wish Had More Books. I have decided to twist it a little bit and talk about the series that I kind of, sort of, just stopped reading. It wasn't a conscious decision to stop, but just haven't picked up the next book in the series.... yet. In some cases it has been 10 years or more since I stopped.There's still time right?

The last book I read in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series was The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection which is book no. 13 in the series by Alexander McCall Smith. Book number 23 is due to be released this year. Just a little bit behind then.

The last book I read in the Play by Play series by Jaci Burton was Quarterback Draw which is book no. 9 in the series. It does look as though the series has ended at book no. 14. This is especially strange given that this was one of the few contemporary series I was reading a few years ago. Now I am reading lots! Just not sports ones!

I used to wait with great excitement for the next Diana Gabaldon book to come out. I would buy it as soon as I saw it in the shops. I still haven't bought the latest book in the Outlander series let alone read it!

I listened to the first two books in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy on audio. Goodness knows when I will get to the third one.

This is another trilogy where I have read the first two books in the trilogy and meant to read the third one, Ambulance Girls At War by Deborah Burrows. I did borrow this book from the library at least twice but still didn't read it.

I read and loved Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley, the first book in the Daughters of the Outback trilogy, a few years ago. Still haven't read the other two books in the series. I have bought other books by Wasley since then too!

I have read the first 18 books in the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr at least twice. So why haven't I read the last book that was released a couple of years ago yet.

I have read a lot of books by Lisa Kleypas over the years. The last book I read in The Ravenels series was the third book, Devil in Spring. There are now seven books in the series. One of the issues is that I just don't read a lot of historical romance any more.

I have read the first 3 books in the Study series by Maria VSnyder twice, including a couple of years ago when I read them in anticapation of moving onto the next book in the series. Still haven't  read the next book which is sometimes referred to as the first book in the Glass trilogy or as part of the bigger overall series, Chronicals of Ixia.

A series that I really can't understand why I stopped reading is the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I loved them so much. I read up to The Golden One, book 14, and then just stopped. I feel like I would have to reread a lot of them before I could pick up the next next book in the series. The series ended up being 20 books long.

Do you ever just stop reading a series without meaning to?

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Dynamic Duos (Submitted by Elley @ Elley the Book Otter). My orginal thought was that I was going to really struggle to come up with many dynamic duos, so I started to do a twist on the theme. However,  a bit of thought and I managed to come up with ten so my twisted topic will need to wait until the freebie in April.

Some of my duos are more dynamic than others but they are all memorable in their own ways.

Jamie and Claire from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Murderbot and ART from Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (part of the Murderbot series)

Death and Susan from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

Alex Clairmont-Diaz and Prince Henry from Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Yelena and Valek from Poison Study series by Maria V Snyder

Madame Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi from the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

Alexander and Tatiana from The Bronze Horsemanby Paullina Simons

Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Nicholas Brisbane and Lady Julia Grey from The Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn

Amelia Peabody and Emerson from the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

Who were the dynamic duos on your TTT this week?