Spell the Month in Books: September

 

Reviews From the Stacks

For 2025 I have decided to have a go at 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. I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.

The idea is that you use the titles of books to spell the month name. The theme for September is Something to Savor – longer books (define as you will) OR ones that have been on your TBR for a long time. I am going to do something a bit different from the theme this month. My twist is that I am going to use the concept of long in a few different ways

Let's get started!

S - Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - I chose this one because we are about to visit Sri Lanka. It is a destination that has been on my bucket list for a long time and I am really looking for

E - Emma by Jane Austen - Written so long ago but I still haven't read it

P - Persuasion by Jane Austen - Although I have read both Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice

T - Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich - I have been keeping a spreadsheet of all of the books I have read for the last 21 years which is a long time! This is the first title that is on my list of books read that starts with T (not counting the ones that begin with the word The)

E - The Endless Forest by Sara Donati - This is the final book in the Into the Wilderness series, which are all long books!

M - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - I listened to this so long ago it was on cassette tapes. Funnily enough I got to the last cassette, and it was damaged, so I ended up having to go to the library to read the last few chapters!

B - Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth - Part historical fiction but also part retelling of Rapunzel fairy tale where she has to let down her long hair

E - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - I loved the Jasper Fforde books especially the Thursday Next books, but it has been a long time since I read this author

R - The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - one of the first books I ever reviewed around 20 years ago which is so long ago

October's theme is Trick or Treat – Books that you feel strongly about whether positively or negatively. Should be a bit easier month with the only challenge being two O books that meet the prompt!

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Degrees of Separation

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)

I am not really feeling this as a topic so I have decided to be a fool in a different way. Every month, I participate in a meme called Six Degrees of Separation. It 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.

You can choose to make the links between books in any way that you like. It could be from a word in the title, part of the authors name, a cover that reminds you of another book, the subject of the book. It really is just a big game of association. In order to start things off, I am going to choose to use the last book I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post and see where that takes me using 10 books instead of the normal 7!

So how does this make me foolish? Because I am doing the wrong meme!

My starting point is White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton as it was the last book that I mentioned in last week's Top Ten Tuesday post. 

One of the main characters names in Daughters of Tuscany by Siobhan Daiko is Rosa which connects nicely to the author's name for the previous book. (my review)

I am choosing to use the fact that the main setting for Still Life by Sarah Winman is Florence which is  the capital city of Tuscany This book is almost a love letter to the city.

From there I am choosing to use the word Life from the title and choose Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 

Another Kate whose writing I enjoy is Kate Forsyth who writes phenomenal fairy tale retellings wrapped up in historical fiction. Normally I would pick Bitter Greens but this time I am going with The Beast's Garden which is set against the backdrop of WWII.

Next I am choosing Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. This is another fairytale retelling I enjoyed, once again set during WWII. There are even some similar motifs on the cover of both of these books. (my review)

Using the word Rose and the WWII setting as the links I am choosing The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, which is about the codebreakers working at Bletchley during WWII. 

Still focusing on WWII settings, and the work of codebreakers, this time Australian women who were based in Brisbane, I have chosen The Codebreakers by Alli Sinclair

I hadn't really intended to have so many WWII connections, but here is another one. My main link though is that both authors have the same first name. I have therefore chose At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker as my next link.  

And finally, I am using the word tree as my link to Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak . (my review)

So there we have it! 10 books linked by various different means taking us from a Korean woman living in Japan in the lead up to WWII to a book where the Cypriot characters are living in London following years of conflict on their island. I inadvertently ended up with quite a few WWII books, as well as several books with roses on the cover!

I would mention that there are lots of option with every level of this there are multiple different ways you could go. For example, I saw Sarah Winman at Melbourne Writers Festival a few years ago now, so I could have picked any other author who I have seen at MWF as my next choice and the chain would have ended up looking very different, and everyone's chains are always unique. Do you think you would have fun doing this exercise?

Top Ten Tuesday: Author sisters

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Things Characters Have Said (Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc.)

I always struggle with TTT when the theme is about quotes as they are just not something I keep an eye out for, so I am going to go back to an old post I have had in draft for a while. I originally put this post together when the theme was Relationship Freebie (Pick a relationship type and choose characters who fit that relationship as it relates to you. So, characters you’d like to date, be friends with, be enemies with, etc. Bookish families you’d like to be a part of, characters you’d want as your siblings, pets you’d like to take for yourself, etc.), but I didn't get to post it at the time. I think we were away.

I previously did a post featuring the word sisters in the title, so this time I am going to share some authors who are sisters! Let's start with some Australian author sisters:

Liane, Jaclyn and Nicola Moriarty - Whilst Liane is probably the most famous of the Moriarty sisters, Jaclyn and Nicola have also been writing successfully for a long time. Jaclyn writes more in the YA space and Nicola more women's fiction. My favourite book by a Moriarty is probably Paper Chains by Nicola.

Back in 2012 I did a Q and A with Jaclyn Moriarty and asked about the fact that all three of them were writers and this is what she said

Both of our parents are enthusiastic story tellers. We are always saying to Mum, ‘Give us the short version’, and Dad is always advising, ‘Never spoil a good story with the facts’. We had shelves full of books to read when we were kids. Also, instead of giving us pocket money, Dad would commission us to write stories. So I guess we grew up thinking it was the only way to make money.

Here's my review of A Corner of White (it's actually a joint review with Shelleyrae from Book'd Out which I had completely forgotten we did together), and a quote about doing Tim Tam Slams from Free-Falling by Nicola Moriarty

Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell - Kate Forsyth is one of my favourite Australian authors, even though I haven't managed to fit in any of her books for quite some time! She writes amazing fairy-tale retellings, is an awesome guest speaker and avid read. Her sister, Belinda Murrell, writes kids books. Interestingly, their great-great-great grandmother, Charlotte Waring Atkinson, wrote Australia's first children's book. Pretty amazing historical connection!

Here's my review of Bitter Greens. 

A S Byatt and Margaret Drabble - Whilst these two are sisters, they were estranged for many years .A S Byatt is best known for the book Possession and the book I remember reading from Margaret Drabble is The Red Queen. Here is my review.

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte - It feels like it would be wrong to have a list of literary sister authors and not include the Brontes who have give us books like Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey. They also published a book of poetry under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Do you know of any other famous authors who are sisters?

Top Ten Tuesday: Green and Gold

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Book Covers In the Colors of My Country’s Flag (It’s the 4th of July in the USA today, so tell us what country you live in and share book covers that match the colors of your country’s flag!)

Now technically the colours of our flag are red, white and blue but generally the Australian colours are green and gold. So today I bring you green and gold books!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Evergreen Falls by Kimberly Freeman

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart

The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood

The Golden Oldie's Bookclub by Judie Leigh

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Poseidon's Gold by Lindsey Davis

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - July stats

 

 

 

 

 

This year as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge I am intending to provide some stats after each month and then at the end of the year I will do an overall wrap up for the year. That's the plan anyway. And today I am sharing a few stats about July.

During June there were 78 reviews shared by 25 participants. There were lots of people who shared multiple reviews, including 5 people who shared more than 5 reviews. Thank you to everyone who has shared! I think I have visited everyone this month, and there were some fascinating titles, and I added more than one book to my TBR list!

In terms of the books, there were 75 individual titles reviewed, written by 73 different authors. 

There were 3 books that were reviewed twice for the challenge. They were:

That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn - This is one of the books that I added to my TBR list after reading reviews at What Cathy Read Next and She Reads Novels.

The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth - I am always excited when there is a new book by Kate Forsyth! Reading the reviews from Bree at All the Books I Can Read and Yvonne at A Darn Good Read reminds mme that I need to make some space in my reading life for this book!

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey - The last book that received multiple reviews this month was another book by an Australian author. This is a book that I read as did Yvonne at A Darn Good Read.

The other author who was reviewed more than once, but for two different books was perennial favourite Agatha Christie.

It's not too late to join the challenge this year. You can find all the sign up details here and if you have a link to add to the challenge the August Linky can be found here.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

Here comes one of the more dangerous TTT themes! I know that as I visit other people's lists I will see at least 10 other titles which will make me think I can't believe I forgot that title! I have therefore left a space for those books! That and I only had a list of 9! 

The Edge of Summer by Viola Shipman - Over the last couple of years Viola Shipman has become a must read author for me! This looks really good!

This Place of Wonder by Barbara O'Neal - This author is also a must read for me, although I am a couple behind.

The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth- I have been reading Kate Forsythe for a number of years now and her book Bitter Greens is one of my favourites.

In the Middle of Hickory Lane by Heather Webber - Heather Webber was a 2021 discovery and I can't wait to read more from her.

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen - It's at least 7 years since we have had a new book from Sarah Addison Allen! Can not wait to read this new one!

With Love from Wish & Co by Minnie Darke - Minnie Darke's book The Lost Love Song was one of my favourite reads from 2020! Really excited to see if I love this book too.

The Work Wives by Rachael Johns - Even when I was in my mega slump that lasted for a couple of years, Rachael Johns was still a must read for me!

Exiles by Jane Harper - Aaron Falk is back! 

Love Letters from a Lord by Tessa Dare  - I don't read a lot of historical romance anymore but Tessa Dare is an exception I am always happy to make!

Which book should be in the tenth spot for me?

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

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 The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. I vaguely remember reading Graham Green in high school but I am pretty sure it was The Power and the Glory.

This month I have taken a very simple approach and I am focussing on the word green, whether it be spelt with or without an E.

My first choice is Summer of my German Soldier by Betty Greene which is another book I read in high school. I reread it back in 2006 (review here)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - By losing the E off the name Green I have read a number of books by YA author John Green but not for  a long time now.

The Green Mill Murder by Kerry Greenwood - I started reading Australian author Kerry Greenwood back in 2006, but I have chosen this book because of the green both in her name and in the title. This is the fifth book in the Phryne Fisher series.

Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery -  I feel as thought I can't choose books with Green in the title without mentioning this book.

Evergreen Falls by Kimberly Freeman - What's more green than just green. Why, evergreen of course.

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth - My final choice is one of my favourite books by Aussie author Kate Forsyth.

Next month, the starting point is Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.

This Week...

 I'm reading...

Not a lot of progress on the reading front this week. I had to stop listening to Susanna Kearsley (The Winter Sea) while I was reading Susanna Kearsley (The Vanished Days). In fact, I didn't read much at all this week. 

I can't really settle on an audiobook at the moment. I did start listening to another one this week which was the new autobiography by one of the Masterchef hosts, Jock Zonfrillo. He also narrates the book so I am getting to listen to him tell his own story with his fabulous Scottish accent. I am hoping that this will catch my attention, especially seeing as I don't often read non fiction.

I'm watching...

On Friday night we watched Wonder Woman 1984. I was underwhelmed, which is disappointing seeing as the first movie was really good.

Other than that, my main weekend viewing was Historical Novel Society Australasia Conference. The schedule was two full days jam packed with session about historical fiction of all kinds. I didn't get to watch as much as I would have like, but luckily the panels and interviews are all available for the next three months as part of the conference price, so I can watch them at my own leisure. There were also some chat salons which was an opportunity to talk to authors talk about a specific topic. These were not recorded which is a shame. I did see the one hosted by Kate Quinn, author of The Rose Code amongst other things,where she was talking to lots of other authors about WWII. So interesting. Here she is with Kate Forsyth in the earlier conversation.

I have been to a couple of other HNSA conferences and whilst online is in no way the same as being in the same room, there are also some advantages of being at home. When you are on location, you can't put a load of washing on between sessions, or watch the first session while having a cup of tea in bed, or dash to have a shower etc between sessions. Yes, I did all of these things.

Life

After 262 days of lockdown on and off since March 2020, Melbourne celebrated Freedom Day on Friday. Our last lockdown started in mid July and was supposed to be a short, sharp lockdown. It last more than 3 months.

There were lots of people who went out and partied, but to be honest, the thought of Freedom Day was pretty anxiety inducing for me. I am sure we will get out and about a bit more over the coming weeks, but this week it was all about seeing family. 

On Saturday night we went to my sister;s for a games night which was a lot of fun. We played two games. The first was called Codename and the other Stupid Deaths. If I had to pick one, I would choose Codename. On Sunday we went to see my husband's/our daughter's new house which she moved into a couple of weeks ago.  The last time we went to see it, it was at the frame stage. Now it's finished! Won't be long before our house starts getting built.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Back to the 80s

Music A-Z: U

Bookish Quotes: Wise Words

Weekend Cooking: When Life Gives You Lemons

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

Six Degrees of Separation: Phosphorescence to Hot Six

 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 a book called Phosphoresence by Julia Baird. Actually it's full title is Phosphorence: On Awe, Wonder and Thing That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark. It does sound interesting, even if it isn't my normal type of book. It was, however, quite a tricky title to start a chain with.

In the end I started thinking about what does the word phosphoresence mean, which lead me to the word glow. I was sure that years ago I had a book by a YA author that was called that but I couldn't find any reference to it anywhere so maybe I was misremembering. Instead I continued to ponder those two words and that lead me to think about things that glow (or at least they are represented that way in cartoons and movies). This is turn led me to the idea of nuclear power which uses uranium which in one form is known as yellowcake which leads me to the book of the same name by Margo Lanagan! Phew! That was quite a lot of thinking to get me to that first link.

Margo Lanagan also wrote a book about selkies, creatures from Scottish myth, called either Sea Hearts or The Brides of Roll Rock Island depending on where it was published. This is a book I have used before in Six Degrees and the book I was thinking of linking too next is the same one I used last time, so I had to take a different turn.

One of my favourite  fairy tale retellers in Kate Forsyth and I have picked her book The Beast's Garden which is a fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in Nazi Germany. 

A book that I read last year, set in the immediate aftermath of WWII in Germany was Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees. Obviously there was plenty of food mentioned in this one!

The book I am currently reading is called A New York Secret by Ella Carey which features a young woman who is vyiing to become a chef in a New York restaurant during WWII, and again features lots of food. My review of this book will be up later this week.

From here I took an unexpected turn!  One of the characters in A New York Secret is called Tom Morelli, and so I couldn't go past the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. One of the two main male characters in this series is a cop called Joe Morelli. Now the Stephanie Plum books start with a book called One for the Money and continued through to Twisted Twenty-Six before she stopped using the numbers to name the books.  I stopped reading at Notorious Nineteen. It seems only right to choose Hot Six for this meme.

Next month's starting point is going to be Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart.