Top Ten Tuesday: Author Events

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Authors I’ve Met. 

I am very lucky to be able to attend author events pretty regularly, whether it be as part of individual authors, panel events, or even a reader's retreat that I attend every year. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been too. If I go back 15 or 20 years there are some big name authors I could name such as Paullina Simons, Maria Snyder and more. I could also talk about the time I had dinner with Sara Donati in the Pacific North West or many years ago with Paullina Simons but I won't. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been to which means that they are all Australian authors. 

Tess Woods -The most recent event I went to was in respect of Tess Woods new release, The Cairo Bridal Shop. Sometimes at these events there are even cocktails

Anita Heiss - I have met this author a few times now, and she was even the author on our table at one of the retreats we attended a couple of years ago. She is such a lively person! I last saw her at a romance panel event I went to a few weeks ago

Also at that same event there were a number of other authors including Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus , Nina Kenwood, Victoria Brownlee, Darcy Green and more. And there was swag!

Jodi McAlister - This author was at that same panel event but I have now met her a couple of times, including at the launch of her latest book

Steph Vizard  - This is another author I have met more than once who was at the panel. I see her at quite a few events, but specifically attended her book launch last year and re-met her at the readers retreat that I attended in June

Emma Grey - I was so excited to attend an evening with Emma Grey and Kate Solly. I read two of Emma's books last year and gave them both 5/5. This one was at a bookstore I had never visited before which is always fun.

Benjamin Stevenson - The author of the Ernest Cunningham series came to my local library as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival so I always try to attend events there because I would like there to be more!

Tom Trumble - a more unusual choice for me given that it is a non fiction book but I chose it because I thought that my husband would like to come to this one and he did. This event was held at the War Memorial. Interestingly, it was only as I searched my blog for a picture for this post that I realised that I had heard this author speak previously at a Melbourne Writer's Festival event 15 years ago!

Holly Brunnbauer  - An event at my previous local library which is about half an hour away from me, so I try to go to events there as well. 

Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is possibly the only author who I would deliberately go and see twice in one day. On this particular day she was at my local library and also at an event called Books in Bars which is held in a regional city about 90mins away. Of course, I did both! The readers retreat that I have mentioned a couple of times is her brainchild. You can read about the fab time I had at this year's event here. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Last 10 Author Events I Have Been To!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Thanksgiving/Thankful Freebie. It took me a little while to think of something, but I got there in the end.

I am very lucky and yes, thankful, to live in a city with a very active book scene. There are always events on. Some times they are big named authors who attract a crowd of thousands, and sometimes it is a small event at a local library with just a handful of people. Then there are multiple festivals in various country towns and suburban areas. Sometimes I know lots of people in the room and other times not. One thing you do know when you go to an author event is that if nothing else you can talk about books! 

My post this week is the last ten author events I have been too. Usually if I attend an event I will buy the book and get it signed. Sometimes there are goodies, sometimes tasty treats, but the events are always fun!

Holly Brunbauuer - Just last week Bree from All the Books I Can Read went to our local library to hear this author talk about her debut novel, What Did I Miss? It was a very interactive session!

Rachael Johns (twice) - A couple of weeks ago I went to see Rachael Johns talk about The Lucky Sisters (my review) both at my even localler local library and then to a Books in Bars events in a regional city about an hour away from me.

Helen Goh - This was an event in the city where we not only got to listen to the conversation but also got to try some of the recipes from her latest cookbook, Baking and the Meaning of Life.

Steph Vizard - It was standing room only at this event which was the launch of her latest book,  A Smart Girl's Guide to Second Chances. 

January Gilchrist - By contrast, this was a very intimate conversation about January Gilchrist's debut novel,  The Final Chapter, which was held in what is in effect a sales office at a new residential development. This night was so much fun because it was such a small gathering! I took a friend with me who had never been to an author event before.

Madeleine Cleary and Anne Freeman - This was a fun night where these two authors spoke about their two books which both feature sex workers. One was set in 1850s Melbourne, The Butterfly Women (my review) and the other is a modern story about an online sex worker, Me That You See.

Emma Mugglestone - This launch for In the Long Run was held in a bar around half an hour or so away from me. There was even a delicious cocktail!

Alli Sinclair - This was a drive up the highway for an hour or so to an event in Ballarat to hear Alli Sinclair talk about her new book, A Woman's Voice.

Joanne Miller (The Eights), Chloe Adams (The Occupation) and Michelle See-Toh (Jade and Emerald) - This was an event held in a library about half an hour away from me, and featured three debut authors from Penguin. 

Alli Parker - This was a fun launch for Until the Red Leave Fall. It was held in a super cool bar. The mood was set with 1950s music and the crowd was buzzing! And there were these super cute cupcakes

Wow, that has surprised me. That only takes me back to the end of July this year. Oh, and I just realised I missed one too! Sorry Christine Newel! I suspect that there will be only one more event this year which I am going to on Thursday, but bring on next year, when it will start all over again!

This week

I'm reading

It's November and the best of 2025 lists are coming out. It always bemuses me a little bit because there are still 5 weeks of year left and I still might not have read my best book of year yet! The other thing that I am always left wondering at the end of the year is what have I been reading. I have read some really great books this year, and have read more 5 star books this year than I have in the the two previous years combined. However, when I look at all the best of lists, I haven't read any of them!

I finished three books this week. The first was Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda. This is another of the Japanese book which have a number of stories that are really only linked by location and theme. In this case, the location was a stationery shop. I loved all the talk of pens and notebooks and the like, but I am not sure this one worked completely for me.

By contrast, I loved  Good Spirits by B K Borison and started telling my friend to read it when I had only read the first chapter. It was so much fun and I am really looking forward to the second book of the series coming out in the second half of next year.

I was trying to get through my library books which I can't extend again, and so I picked up Foster by Claire Keegan. This is such a small book, less than 100 pages, but Keegan definitely knows how to tell a great story, about not a lot, in very few words! I am already looking forward to reading more from her.

I am currently reading Kim Nash's Life Begins at the Cornish Cottage and I am having so much fun with it! The main character is producing a pantomime which is very British Christmas to me. My review for this one will be up in the next few days for the blog tour.

I thought I had gone to my last author event for the year but it turns out I have two more in me. Last week I went to see Holly Brunbauuer talk about her book What Did I Miss? at my old library system. It's funny because the branch we went to is at the major shopping centre in the area but I had never been in the branch before even though it's been open for years! I have another library event this week  and then maybe that will be it for the year. Maybe!


I'm watching



We went to the movies on Saturday night to see The Choral which is showing as part of the British Film Festival. The movie stars Ralph Fiennes as a choirmaster who is recruited to lead the choir of a Yorkshire town. He's a controversial choice because he has spent a lot of time in Germany. It also follows the lives of some of the younger people in the village who face the inevitability of being sent to the War and the impact of the conflict on life.  It was a really lovely movie! If you've read either of the last two books by Helena Simonson you might enjoy this! Here's the trailer:

Life


We went to a lovely lunch with my sister and brother in law on a moving restaurant called Q Train. It was yet another meal on a train, although as far as I know that is the last one for the year.

We moved into this house 3 years ago. It was built new so there wasn't anything major to be done but there were still projects. This week, my lovely, handy husband finished building a deck by our front door. We upcycled the wood from my sister's old deck and it came up a treat! Now to the next two, much bigger projects. 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Classics I Haven't Read
The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns
Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce
Cook the Books: Maame by Jessica George
Spell the Month in Books: November




I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings