Six Degrees of Separation: The Correspondent to Letters from Skye

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 and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which by coincidence I had already requested from the library and so I was able to read before doing this post. In some ways that should make it easier, but the reality is, with the type of book it is, I found multiple possible starting points. 

In the book, our main character Sybil writes letters to anyone and everyone. She writes to her family, to people she has known over the years, to college deans and to authors who sometimes write back. At one point I had a different option but as soon as I saw that Sybil had written to Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander (or Cross Stitch as it was known here) I knew I had my starting point!

The Outlander books hold a very special place in my reading heart. They were almost like gateway books back to reading and also led me down the path to discovering many other great authors including one of my absolute favourite authors. I never miss an opportunity to include Susanna Kearsley in a Six Degrees post. The question is which book? I am going with The King's Messenger which I reviewed here.

Through Diana Gabaldon and then Susanna Kearsley I learned about the Jacobites. Another book I read which included a Jacobite story was The Secrets of the Rose by Nicola Cornick! (my review)

When I visited the Kelvingrove museum in Glasgow a couple of years ago I was very interested in the Jacobite artifacts but there was one display that really stopped me in tracks and that was about the removal of all the inhabitants of the island of St Kilda back in the 1930s. I had read about it in Karen Swan's trilogy which started with The Last Summer.

If I think about islands of Scotland then I can't go past the Isle of Skye which leads to the only non historical fiction books on my list this week. Sue Moorcroft has a trilogy set on the Isle of Skye which starts with the book A Skye Full of Stars (my review)

Also featuring the Isle of Skye is Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole which I reviewed here. This also happens to be an epistolary novel so that brings me full circle this month!

Next month's starting point is a book I would like to read, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Weather Events in the Title

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a Halloween Freebie. However, in October 2023 one of the themes was Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover. At the time, I put this list of books together but I never got around to adding the commentary and pictures or posting it....until now! It's a bit scary that it has been sitting in draft all this time. See what I did there?

I am starting with some wind and storms, then moving onto sun, rain and snow.

Ill Wind by Rachel Caine - Rachel Caine has a whole series of books called the Weather Warden series that I could have picked for this prompt. This is the first book in the series. (my review)

Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley - One of the lesser know Kearsley books but, as always, I couldn't resist the urge to include one of her books. Unusually for Kearsley this book is set in Rome.

A Taste of Italian Sunshine by Leonie Mack - Wine making in Italy. Yes please!  (my review)

Under a Greek Sun by Mandy Baggot - Moving on from Italy, this is set on a Greek island   (my review)

An Island in the Sun by Kate Frost - Another country, another island. This time it was Portugal. (my review)

Floodtide by Judy Nunn - I read this years ago and don't remember much about it other than one particular scene. Looking at my rating on Goodreads I didn't like it at all, but the title fits the theme. 

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith - This is the third book in the Isabel Dalhousie mystery series set in Edinburgh. (my review)

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - In the past this author put out a summer book and a winter book. Guess which one this was.

Snowy Mountain Cattleman by Alissa Callen - The Snowy Mountains are actually a place in this instance, but they do get a lot of snow. This is the second book in the Bundilla series.

The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman - I still haven't gotten over not enjoying the last Viola Shipman book I read. This one wasn't bad though.

Six Degrees of Separation: After Story to The Stolen Hours

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 After Story by Larissa Behrent, who is an indigenous Australian author.

One of Larissa Behrendt's upcoming projects is a take on Pride and Prejudice, told through the lens of an indigenous woman. I first heard about this at a reader event I attended earlier this year when I met Dr Anita Heiss who who is the Publisher at Large of Bundyi imprint of Simon and Schuster publishing which will be publishing this book. My first connection this month is therefore Anita Heiss's latest novel DIRRAYAWADHA, which means Rise Up in the Wurundjeri language!

The reader event was organised by Rachael Johns so my next choice is The Other Bridget which is her latest book.

I don't know about you but I hear the name Bridget and the first book I think of is Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

Recently I read a book called A Love Letter to Paris by Rebecca Raisin. The main character, sells old letters and diaries from her market stall in Paris

My next choice is Letters from Sky by Jessica Brockmole. Whilst I chose this because of the word letters, we were also in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and we visited Skye!

My last choice has a Scottish connection as well. Recently I read The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan which is the second book in the Wild Isle trilogy. This tells the story of the people who were forced to leave the island of St Kilda back in 1930. The book tells us about the lead up to the evacuation but also then what happened after they had left the island. Which I guess means that it is a before and after story, which links it to the starting book this month. In my mind at least!

Next month our starting point is Long Island by Colm Toibin.

Top Ten Tuesday: Holiday countdown!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Ten Favorite Books from Ten Series (We all have a favorite book in our favorite series, right?) (submitted by A Hot Cup of Pleasure)

However, I have holidays on my mind, so I am going to do the last ten books I have read that have given me holiday vibes. Lucky I read a lot of escape lit at the moment!

An Island Promise by Kate Frost - Three friends go on holidays to Ibiza and promise that in 10 years time they will do it all again, except everything is different.

The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan - This book doesn't have a holiday feel at all, but it is set in Scotland and that is one of the places we are visiting.

Poppy's Parisian Patisserie by Daisy James - Poppy goes to Paris to work, but I would love to go back for holidays again and again. (my review)

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum - I picked this one because we are going to Korea next year.

The One That I Want by Sandy Barker - This doesn't really have holiday vibes either, but it is all about London, which is one of our destinations this time. (my review)

A Love Letter from Paris by Rebecca Raisin - Paris! Paris! Paris!! (my review)

The Itinerary by Penny Pentley - This is a fun read in which the main characters starts a European trip in Rome and ends up in France.

The Riviera House Swap by Gillian Harvey - The idea of being able to swap houses and spend some time on the French Riviera sounds amazing! (my review)

The Golden Gal's French Adventure by Judy Leigh - The two main characters in this story, head off to the north of France for a life changing holiday. (my review)

A Wedding in the Sun by Leonie Mack - Two people end up getting into all sorts of adventures on the way to the wedding of their exes. (my review)

What kind of books give you holiday vibes?

This week....

I'm reading

I feel like this was a good reading week. I finished Poppy's Parisian Patisserie by Daisy James, and then I went back and finished reading The Stolen Hours by Karen Swan. This was my read on a theme book club book for this month, with the theme being Scotland. The third book in the Wild Isle series has just been released so I will be keen to see how the story resolves itself.

I am also trying to squeeze one more book in before the end of Paris in July, so I started reading French Windows by Antoine Laurain.


I'm watching


If you had of told me 5 years ago that I would be happy to sit and watch multiple episodes of Gogglebox I would have laughed at you. And yet, that is exactly what I have been doing a lot of this week.  

Of course, we have also been watching a fair bit of Olympics. As I type this I am watching some of the men's diving. It is a bit weird to hear one of our cricket commentators doing the commentating on the diving though.

Over the weekend we also watched The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is the new Guy Ritchie WWII movie. It reminded me a lot of the TV series we watched last year called Rogue Heroes. The movie is loosely based on true events....very loosely I would suggest.

Here is the trailer




Life

It is starting to get close to our holiday so I am trying to keep things low key at the moment

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: First Books!

Paris in July: Paris Songs!

Blog Tour: The One That I Want by Sandy Barker

Blog Tour: Poppy's Parisian Patisseries by Daisy James

Weekend Cooking: Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg

Paris in July: Antoine Laurain

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

This Week....

I'm reading

Last week I shared that I was feeling a little unsettled reading wise, mainly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to read. This week I fixed that by finishing all the books that I had started recently, plus getting ahead on my review reading! It's been a busy reading week

I finished both Daughters of Tuscany by Siobhan Daiko and Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. My review for Daughters of Tuscany will be up in the next couple of days. I also finished The Readers Room by Antoine Laurain

I also started and finished A Love Letter to Paris by Rebecca Raisin, which I will also have a review of in the next few days.

Amazon Prime Reads included The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman this month, so I picked that up and read it very quickly. It really is a short story, coming in at around 30-40 pages. There was a lot in that short story though!

Finally, I decided to start read The Stolen Hours, which is the second book in the Wild Isle Trilogy by Karen Swan. I have decided that this is going to be my Scottish book for my read on a theme book club.

That feels like a lot this week!

I'm watching


We are now into the second week of Tour de France, and we tend to watch around an hour or so each night! Every night there is a 5 minute cooking show which features the food of the region that the bike race is visiting, called Plat du Tour which I really enjoy!

It's hard to believe that before I met my husband I had only ever seen one Star Wars movie, and that that was on a date. Now I end up watching everything as it comes out. This week we started watching The Acolyte which is the latest series.

This was the last weekend of the Spanish Film Festival, so I convince hubby to come and see a movie called The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, which was a really movie film. It's the story of a woman who is looking for her great-grandfather who went missing in the 1930s. Along the way she learns about her grandfather's childhood, and the role a teacher played in it. This teacher really existed which makes the story even more moving. I definitely recommend both this movie, and the one that I talked about last week as well.

Here's the trailer:

I have had another Spanish film called Lemon and Poppyseed Cake on my to be watched list for a couple of years but I hadn't been able too find where I could stream it. I was looking for something else when I stumbled across it so I had  to watch it. This was very different to the other movie, feels a bit more soapie, but I liked the story and now I need to make someting lemony and poppyseedy!


Life

Other than what I mentioned above not a lot to tell life wise. We are counting down to our holidays which will be here before we know it. I think all the main things are booked

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Purple!

Paris in July: Since Last Paris in July

Paris in July: An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my Kitchen in June

Six Degrees of Separation: Kairos to A Nurses Life


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

Time Travel Thursday

Recently I saw someone mention a feature called Time Travel Thursday which was started by Emily at Budget Tales Book Blog. Given that I have a handy dandy list of the books I have read going back to  July 2004 I thought this could be something I could do!!

The idea is that you share what were you reading at a point in the past so here are the books I am sharing.

1 year ago

Here's my review

2 years ago

5 years ago

10 years ago

Top Ten Tuesday: Last Ten Christmas Books I Have Read

 

 

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

e is Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes. I don't usually get anything other than cookbooks for Christmas so instead I am sharing the last ten Christmassy books I have read. 

The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker - Last year I shared ten Christmas books on my Kindle that I hadn't yet read. This is the only one that I have since read, and that was just over the last few days!! And yes, I have added more!

Christmas Feasts and Treats by Donna Hay - I was given this cookbook a couple of days ago and I have flicked through and picked out a few things to try

The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - I listened to this on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, my husband and I then listened to it together in the car the week after!!

The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft - I enjoyed this book about family secrets being revealed at Christmas (my review)

In the Greek Midwinter by Mandy Baggot - I've never thought of Athens as a Christmas destination, but this book could have influenced me to think otherwise (my review)

Celebrations in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - This is the latest entry in the Bellbird Bay series (my review)

Finding Love at the Christmas Markets by Jo Thomas - If there is one author who I might choose to fit another Christmas read in by it would be Jo Thomas!

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - Listening to this audio has become a Christmas tradition for me. I am currently listening to this one after listening to it for the last two years.

The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley - This was a lot of fun to read! Think Celebrity Bake Off at Christmas time (my review) 

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - I really need to get back to reading Karen Swan

Do you like reading Christmas themed books?

Christmas quotes: On traditions

Every year, I share some Christmas related quotes from books I have read during the year, or at some point anyway. This is actually one from a couple of years ago, that I never quite getting around to posting!

This quote is from The Christmas Party by Karen Swan and I am reminded that it has been far too long since I read one of her books!

It was her favourite day of the year. Not Christmas Day itself, with the presents and the turkey and the television specials, but this one, when anticipation beat revelation. Just the spectacle of it made Pip's  skin prickle: two hundred faces lit up by flickering tea lights held in home-decorated jam jars, carols sung with white breath that hung in the night air, the church choir warm in heavy cassocks, children running between adults' legs, everyone clustered around the Christmas tree like some ancient village elder, the welcoming lights of the Hare shining in the background....None of the villagers ever missed this and Pip knew she wasn't alone in treasuring this annual tradition.

Ottie came back with their glasses of mulled wine, seemingly on a mission to get them all drunk - this was their third in twenty minutes. Pip hated the stuff but was drinking it nevertheless; it was the only fitting drink for tonight.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2022

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favourite Books of 2022. I have linked to reviews where I have one, bu as usual, I didn't write reviews for most of them. Will try to do better in 2023.

I am pretty stingy when it comes to handing out 5 star grades. There were only two but as I look at the list there are several of the 4.5 stars that should probably have been 5 stars. Oh well. First the 5 star reads.

The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - I loved this book so much. It wasn't what I expected at all and it was so good! (My review)

The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland - My one word review of this book for an earlier TTT was "beautiful"

Now for some of my 4.5/5 reviews

Book Lovers by Emily Henry - I listened to this on audio and loved it! The way that the narrator has Charlie saying "Stephens" when he is addressing the main character. Ooh la la!

With Love from Wish and Co by Minnie Darke - Darke's previous book, The Lost Love Song was one of my favourites last year. This one was really good too!

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku - What an extraordinary story. Eddie was a Jewish prisoner of war in WWII and then built a life for himself in Australia after the war.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Do yourself a favour and listen to this one on audio. And then maybe borrow it from the library, and then buy the book.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - I was definitely getting FOMO so I had to read this one, and now I know what all the fuss is about.

Escape to the French Farmhouse by Jo Thomas - I read this by accident. I had another similarly titled book that I had to read for a blog tour and I read this one instead. I have since read another of her books and just bought another one, so I guess it worked out well.

The Codebreakers by Alli Thomas - This was about a group of Australian women who worked as codebreakers from a garage in the Brisbane suburbs during WWII.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran - Set in an aged care home, this book tells the story of how an extended family came to Australia from Sri Lanka, and about the current challenges they face in terms of dealing with age and racism. 

Honourable mentions to The Stand In by Lily Chu, and both The Christmas Party and The Last Summer by Karen Swan

Christmas Quotes:The Upside Down Christmas Tree

Each year as I am reading, I keep an eye out for quotes about three things. The first is books. If a passage which talks about books, libraries, reading or anything else bookish catches my attention, I save it ready to post on a rainy day.

The second thing is food. It may be a quote that inspires me to make something or about a particular ingredient which I then save to use for a Weekend Cooking post.

Wait, there are four things. The third is quotes about Paris and France.

And now, the whole reason for this long intro. The last quotes that I save are related to Christmas, and so over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the quotes with you all.

Today I am starting with this quote from Karen Swan's The Christmas Party:

"Oh my God," Ottie gasped in amazement again.

Was this still Lorne, Willow asked herself? Unlike Ottie, she at least seen some of the transition from what it had been to this: she had seen the tatty stair carpet lifted, the million and one rugs rolled away, the stern ancestors no longer bearing down from the walls. She had helped pack away all the photos and vases, jugs and trinkets, shields and heraldic memorabilia, the hall tables and chairs, Rusty, their entire lives, so that all that remained was this basic framework - the imposing split staircase, coffered panelling, galleried landing.

But where once the wooden walls and floor had been a rich, polished, almost burgundy oak, now it was pale and stripped back to a raw, texturized blonde. And she had certainly never anticipated seeing, hanging from the centre of the ceiling, almost filling the gallery space, four metres tall and upside down, a Christmas tree! There wasn't a bauble or swag of tinsel to be seen on it, instead its bushy branches splaying floorwards as though reaching for the guest as they passed underneath, its lush verdancy so tactile she wanted to reach out and brush her palms against it. There was a purity to this bold design statement that felt modern but also timeless, putting a stress on the natural, the raw, the crafted - and not the grand, as she had expected.

"That thing's not going to fall on us, is it?" Ottie muttered under her breath, as they heard the gasps of the other guests coming in behind them.

"This place!"

"Ohmigod, how did they get that tree up there?"

"Imagine living here...."

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my summer TBR pile

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List. Of course, it is summer for me but then again I am goign to be spending a number of weeks in the Northern Hemisphere soon so maybe it is that my theme should be summer/winter to read list. Or maybe I should say my first quarter reading list and that way I don't have to worry about what the weather is!

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd - I started this a while ago but I intend to read it while I am on holidays.

The Hidden Beach by Karen Swan - This is another book I have already started, but I really need to finish this one before I go on holidays which means I need to hurry up.

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - This was recommended to me recently with very high praise!

The Work Wives by Rachael Johns - This has been on my TBR list for a while now!

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey - This is for an upcoming blog tour

The Flame Tree by Siobhan Daiko - And this one!

An Island in the Sun by Kate Frost - Another blog tour book!

Finding Refuge in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - And this one too!

Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman - This is the current Cook the Books selection.

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan - And this is the next selection for Cook the Books