Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Love/Valentine’s Freebie. I am adding my own twist because while Valentine's Day is coming up, and we do always do something, February 14 is also Library Lover's Day. My Top Ten Tuesday is therefore 10 of the 21 books I have out from the library right now. These are the books that are due to be returned soonest
First though, I thought I would share a pic of my local library which is a gorgeous building itself inside and out. The building was opened back in 2013 but it still feels very new. This picture is a bit old as the trees have grown quite a bit.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters - Reading and enjoying this at the moment.
Antarctica by Claire Keegan - I am working my way through Claire Keegan's backlist
Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon by Sophie Green - I have been meaning to try this Aussie author for a while now!
Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt by Donna Hay - I have cooked a few things out of this already and just bought my own copy!
In the Paris Fashion by Sophie Beaumont - I have really enjoyed Sophie Beaumont's other books so I am looking forward to this one!
The Dog Sitter by Zara Stoneley - I love Sue Heath's books so now I am reading what I can from her other author name, Zara Stoneley.
Secrets by Judi Morison - This was the Rachael John's book club choice for January.
Sit, Stay, Love by Amy Hutton - This author was an author for the day in an online book group I am in.
The Golden Hour by Kate Lord Brown - I have read a Kate Lord Brown book years ago. It must be time to read another.
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson - I really enjoyed the last book I read by this author!
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 title of books to spell the month name. The theme for June is Books that you found or currently see at the library! Once again I am grateful to my past self who used to record where her books came from and so I was able to find my books for this prompt. These days I record it in a different place.
So here are my choices for June
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey - This is a coming of age story set in Western Australia. I liked this one but I still haven't read anything more by him!
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand - I remember being so moved by this book.
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb - I read the first 18 books in this series, and then just kind of stopped without really meaning too. It does astonish me that there are currently 60 books in the series with at least another two to come. Given that J D Robb also writes as Nora Roberts, it's pretty astonishing really. (My review) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - Oh, this book! When I was doing this post I went back and found my review of this book. Sometimes, when I read old reviews I am surprised by them, and so it was with this review! The book clearly impacted me at the time.(My Review)
July's theme is Set in a fantasy world or fictional place.
Raise a glass! My blog can legally drink in Australia! I started this blog 18 years ago, which is pretty amazing to me. I did have a gap for a while, but I am still here.
You'd think I would be better at it by now, right??
To celebrate, I finally decided what I am going to do about Instagram and now I have an Insta account specifically for bookish goodness. Yes, I am committing to Bookstagram. I am always very late for any trends but better late than never!
You can find me @intrepidreaderandbaker and I would love it if you added it, and I will follow back!
I'm reading
Last week I finished reading Someone Like You, which is the fourth book in the Ever After Agency series by Aussie author Sandy Barker. The review can be found here.
I also then read A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft, the second book in the Skye Sisters trilogy, and I reviewed that here.
I then started Crying at the H Mart by Michelle Zauner. I had never heard of the author before, but I am still finding it an interesting read. This is the current Cook the Books selection and will also work for my read on a theme book club as well. I will also need to find something to cook to tie in with this book, and get it all posted by 30 November!
I went to the library last week and noticed something that I had never seen before, or at least paid any attention to. There is a selection of books by the door which they are calling Express Reads. You can't request them, you can't extend them, and they have to be returned within a week. Now, even though I knew I wouldn't get it read, I couldn't resist picking up The Sea Captain's Wife by Jackie French. She is a prolific Australian writer across a number of genres, including historical fiction. I have started the book, but there is no way I am going to get it finished, so maybe I will have to return it and then borrow it again to finish it. We'll see how far I get today or tomorrow.
Speaking of Australian historical fiction authors, I went to see Tea Cooper at an author event and heard her speak about the inspiration for her latest book, The Golden Thread. I have to say the story behind the story was fascinating!!
I'm watching
Before the Tea Cooper event, I went to the see the movie Lee, starring Kate Winslet. This tells the story of the first female war photographer, Lee Miller. She took some iconic pictures during WWII, despite initially being told that she could not go to the front lines because she was a woman. It was a very, very good movie.
Here's the trailer:
I also started my Christmas movie viewing with Hot Frosty. A woman puts a magical scarf around the neck of a carved snowman and he magically came to life! It sounds really naff, but it was actually a lot of fun, with some great nods to other movies like Pretty Woman and Mean Girls.
Life
Yesterday we went to the One Electric Day music festival which is held in the grounds of a historic home not too far from us. The weather threw everything at us, from strong winds, rain, being cold, to quite sunny and warm. Ah Melbourne weather at it's best. I somehow also managed to get sunburnt in a 2cm strip on my wrists, which is a bit odd!
It was a great show featuring the bands Chocolate Starfish, Killing Heidi, Baby Animals, Wolfmother, Birds of Tokyo and finishing with Noiseworks. Birds of Tokyo is one of our favourites so we love seeing them. Chocolate Starfish are always a lot of fun and draw the crowd in, which is a bit tricky seeing as there are so many people just arriving when they are on. It was our first time seeing Wolfmother and Killing Heidi.
Last week was the hardest week so far of the not working thing goes. There were a couple of days where I was struggling for motivation to do some of the things that I know need to be done. I am definitely not missing being stressed all the time, but my brain does have a habit of finding things for me to stress about. For example, I have a blog post due in a couple of weeks and I couldn't sleep the other night because I was thinking about the content. No idea why that was important at that time but apparently it was.
Max
Max is feeling much better than he has been. He wants to play, to be chased, to climb up on us, which he hadn't for a while now. In the picture you can see him being a lap dog again! lol
His fur is starting to grow back again in all the places that he was shaved but it is a slow process!
A couple of months ago I mentioned that I had recently learned that Jamie Oliver had a cookbook club. And after that I learned about an Australian cookbook club as well called the Lambs Ear Cookbook Club. The reason why I joined the second one was to get to know about the Australian cookbooks that are being released.
I enjoy buying new cookbooks as much as the next person, but two monthly cookbook clubs does mean two new cookbooks every month. If you aren't sure you are going to cook from them, that is not only pricey but takes up space on the bookshelf too! So, where possible, I am trying to borrow the books from the library. The only problem with that is sometimes the books take so long to come in that the month is over. I am finding that when I have the cookbook during the month, it is easier to find things to cook out of them as everyone is excitedly posting what they have made.
Today I am going to share the cookbooks that I currently have out from the library.
More Fish More Veg by Tom Walton - I know that we should eat a lot more fish than we do, and should be way more adventurous with vegetables than we are. The reality is that of the three of us who live in this house, I am the one who likes fish the most. And vegetables for that matter.
I have, however, convinced Robert to try at least a couple of the fish dishes before I return the book to the library.
There are also a couple of interesting vegetable dishes, which look impressive because of the way that they are served. One is a roasted pumpkin which is halved that you then pile a jeweled rice on top of.
One thing I really like about this book is at the bottom of a lot of a button, there is a section which says this recipe goes well with which is a nice touch
One of the cool things about these kind of cookbook clubs is that the choices cover a variety of cuisines. This month's book for the Lamb's Ears Cookbook Club is Salamati: Hamed's Persian Kitchen by Hamed Allenyari with Dani Valent.
A lot of people are enjoying the section of omelettes, and I was skimming through there was a recipe for a tomato omelette that caught my eye.
There are a lot of authentic Persian recipes in the book, but there are also a lot where the author has given non traditional recipe a Persian twist.
One of the things I like from this book is that for various seasons and special occasions there is a suggestion for a feast and it tells you which dishes complement each other. I also like that the food is so colourful and that each recipe has a little story about his memories or why he chose it.
Interestingly, there is a rice pudding dish with roasted rhubarb that Hamed worked on with Julia Busittil Nishimura, whose book is below.
I really like looking at this book and I would like to own it, but I am not sure how much we would actually cook out of it.
At the bottom of the pile of books in the photo above you may be able to notice that there is a magazine. In addition to the monthly cookbook, they have an annual option and this year it is about cooking from Delicious magazine, so I just grabbed one from the library on a whim.
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura was another selection from Lambs' Ears cookbook and I think this is one that I am definitely going to buy.
This book had me at hello, by which I mean that I opened the book to the first recipe and it was for something that I had been thinking that I want to make!
It is an interesting mix of predominantly Italian and Japanese recipes, but there are other influences throughout the book.
A couple of the recipes that caught my attention were the Summer Nectarine and Raspbery trifle, a Pear & Polenta Torte and a Lemon Mascarpone Tart.
The final cookbook for this post is, unsurprisingly, from the Jamie Oliver Cookbook club - One: Simple One Pan Wonders by Jamie Oliver
This is Jamie Oliver's 26th cookbook. It makes me wonder how easy it is for him to come up with new concepts for each book. In this book, the idea is that you only use one pot, one casserole dish, one baking tray to cook with.
Most of the recipes are are relatively simple, with not too many ingredients and use some store bought ingredients rather than making everything from scratch.
There are some interesting ideas here. There is a whole chapter on Frying Pan Pasta where you use fresh lasagne sheets as the pasta base, therefore meaning that you don't need to boil the pasta separately and then add to the rest of the ingredients
There is another chapter on the Joy of Eggs which has a few different versions of Shakshuka.
One recipe that I am definitely going to try before returning this book is a Baked Lemon Cheesecake which is made in an ovenproof frying pan.
The current choice for the JO Cookbook Club is Hopper by Karan Gokan which is Sri Lankan food. I can't get this book from either of my libraries and I still haven't quite decided if I want to buy it. I am definitely interested in going to a Sri Lankan restaurant to try hoppers, which I had never heard of before this.
I wouldn't mind owning this book but of these four books, if I can only buy one, it would Around the Table. Of course, there's nothing to say that I am only allowed to buy just one!
I have bought one cookbook which I absolutely love cooking from which I will post about in the coming weeks.
Oh, and if you are wondering about the book on the top of my artistically photographed pile of books, it is a foodie related novel that I grabbed on a whim on my way out of the library. I mean, I borrowed it, I just didn't walk out the door with it. Now to find time to read it.
Weekly meals
Saturday -
Sunday -
Monday - Meatballs with mozzarella
Tuesday - Out for dinner
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday - Cheese and crackers
Friday - Cumin cheese on toast
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week it is a Halloween freebie but i am not really feeling it as a topic, mainly because we don't really do Halloween. We have some friends who have an annual Halloween dress-up party but that has been cancelled this year.
Instead, I have decided to share the books that I have out from the library at the moment. After we moved house I joined my new local library system so now I have two that I can choose from. The old one isn't so far away that I can't visit it as necessary. Often there are different books available in both systems so it works well for me!
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku - Still need to read this one.
Lonely Planet Italy - Research for our trip which is coming up quickly.
Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull - Beatrix Bakes was a cult bakery here in Melbourne. It recently closed down
Meshi: A Personal History of Japanese Food by Katherine Tamiko Arguile - This caught my attention as soon as I saw it.
The Art of Cake by Alice Oehr - This looks like such a fun books
In Bibi's Kitchen by Hawa Hassan and Juliet Turshen - I have actually reviewed this already but I am keeping it a bit longersothat we can cook a couple more dishes out of it.
One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake - This is another book I am planning to read in anticipation of our trip
With Love from Wish & Co by Minnie Darke - I loved the last book from Minnie Darke
The Hidden Beach by Karen Swan - I am reading this one at the moment!
The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montifore - I have been looking for this book for ages. It is also published under the title Oona Out of Order.
This doesn't include my digital checkouts, and I just got an email to say I have another book to pick up, so lucky I did this today!
This week I finished reading Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells. These Murderbot books are really good and I will definitely be reading the next book in the next few weeks.
I decided to go back to a series that I started reading earlier this year and so I started reading The Life She Imagines by Maggie Christensen. This is the fifth book in the Granite Spring series which all feature older couples romance. I find them to be very enjoyable reads. I mean, I found love in my late 40s so it is nice to read others doing the same right.
I did manage to get to the library for the first time in months this weekend. I was only going to have a quick life at the shelves near the door, but it so happened that there were two books on the new releases shelf so I quickly nabbed them.
I'm watching....
My husband isn't terribly fussed about sports, so I think this will be the least amount of Olympics I have ever watched in my life. i did catch some of the swimming and bits and pieces of other events. He does love sailing so we did watch a little of that.
On Saturday night we watched several episodes of the second series of Stan Lee's Lucky Man. I imagine that we will keep on watching that over the coming week.
Life
We are back out of lockdown again but with lots of restrictions still in place. There are lots of other parts of the country that are still in lockdown so not much celebrating happening here. We left the house both days, which means wearing my leaving the house perfume both days! We did manage to see the kids and have a nice lunch!
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had a library delivery service but unfortunately now that has been suspended while we are in a much stricter lockdown. The only way to borrow anything now is to download it.
So this week I downloaded the next Cook the Books bookclub choice, Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown. This is a new to me author, and in order to listen to the book I had to download a new to me audio book app. We'll see how that goes shall we.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries
I have both listened to Normal People and watched the TV adaptation over the last few months.
One of the things about listening to a book is that if you hear something that think would make a good quote, it's really difficult to get the quote to share. It's also a bit difficult to skip to the end of the book I probably shouldn't mention that.
When I was listening to the book there were a couple of lines in this quote that really caught my attention, so I straight away requested the ebook from the library. It has taken months for the book to come in and then I nearly missed it because you don't get a notification when the books comes in on the app. Luckily, I checked just in time.
This was also the only book that I borrowed from the library this week too, so this post is doubling up as my Library Loot post as well.
But here's the quote:
This is what it's like in Dublin. All Connell's classmates have identical accents and carry the same size MacBook under their arms. In seminars they express their opinions passionately and conduct impromptu debates. Unable to form such straightforward views or express them with any force, Connell initially felt a sense of crushing inferiority to his fellow students, as if he had upgraded himself to an intellectual level far above his own, where he had to strain to make sense of the most basic premises. He did gradually start to wonder why all their classroom discussions were so abstract and lacking in textual detail, and eventually he realised that most people were not actually doing the reading. They were coming into college every day to have heated debates about books they had not read. He understands now that his classmates are not like him. It's easy for them to have opinions, and to express them with confidence. They don't worry about appearing ignorant or conceited. They are not stupid people, but they're not so much smarter than him either. They just move through the world in a different way, and he'll probably never really understand them, and he knows they will never understand him, or even try.
He only has a few classes every week anyway, so he fills the rest of the time by reading. In the evenings he stays late in the library, reading assigned texts, novels, works of literary criticism. Not having friends to eat with, he reads over lunch. At the weekends when there's football on, he checks the team news and then goes back to reading instead of watching the build-up. One night the library started closing just as he reached the passage in Emma when it seems like Mr Knightley is going to marry Harriet, and he had to close the book and walk home in a strange state of emotional agitation. He's amused at himself, getting wrapped up in the drama of novels like that. It feels intellectually unserious to concern himself with fictional people marrying one another. But there it is: literature moves him. One of his professors calls it "the pleasure of being touched by real art." In those words it almost sounds sexual. And in a way, the feeling provoked in Connell when Mr Knightley kisses Emma's hand is not completely asexual, though its relation to sexuality is indirect. It suggests to Connell that the same imagination he uses as a reader is necessary to understand real people also, and to be intimate with them.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries
Earlier this year when the COVID19 pandemic hit, our local libraries closed to everyone. Gradually as our restrictions lifted, a couple of the local branches reopened with limited opening hours. Unfortunately my branch was not one of those which was disappointing given that I had lots and lots of books waiting to be picked up from the hold shelf. I thought I was being smart in getting my holds transferred from my branch to one of the branches that was opened. I then planned to go and pick them up. Good plan right?
What I hadn't counted on was that we would go back into lockdown and therefore I couldn't go to the other branch either. Luckily my library system does have a delivery service, so I was able to request that my books were delivered to my door! It was exciting to receive that package yesterday. I suspect I might use this delivery service again yet.
Here's what I got:
The Opal Dragonfly by Julian Leatherdale - I read this author's first book a few months ago and I liked it so requested this one. I intend to read his last book too. Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - This was reviewed a lot a couple of months ago and it sounds so good. I requested it from the library straight away
The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - I saw this mentioned a few times and knew I wanted to read it!
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - I saw this mentioned on a few Top Ten Tuesday posts over a few weeks so decided I needed to read it myself
Ambulance Girls at War by Deborah Burrows - This is the the third book in the Ambulance Girls trilogy
Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop - I really enjoyed some books by Victoria Hislop years ago but it has been a long time since I read one.
The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This is a middle grade book but I have heard good things about it.
The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott - I saw this on someone's blog somewhere and it prompted me to request it from the library, but I can't remember where or when.
The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan - Bree from All the Books I Can Read has been reading a lot of Karen Swan books this year, so I have decided to see if I like the author as much as she does. I borrowed this one as an ebook.
Now to decide what to read first.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries
Over the last few months I have started following a lot of British bloggers and it has introduced me to a lot of new to me authors.
This author is one of those authors, so I thought I would try reading the only book I could find in my library's ebook catalogue. There do seem to be a lot of these new beginnings books around, and a lot of WWII saga style books as well.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
As I mentioned on Monday, I recently borrowed Aria's Travelling Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin from the library. Our physical libraries are still closed so the only way is to download via one of two apps. While I am okay with reading it, I do find it a little frustrating because I can only read it on my phone.
The other thing is that I don't remember seeing a notification. The only reason I realised that the book was available was because I logged in to see if they had another book and then realised that I need to read this one!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
With the library still closed the only way to borrow books right now is via ebook. The only problem with that for me is that the book stays in the library's app and doesn't join others in my Kindle app and therefore it is easy to forget.
I am hoping not to forget about this one!!
I re-read the first book in this series a couple of weeks ago and loved it. This is another re-read but the books after this will be new to me!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
We worked from home today for the first day. The good news is I still like my husband. The not so good news is that we had to spend a chunk of time on the phone trying to get our internet up and working again after it died a couple of days ago.
Like so many others around the world, my local library has closed down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic so who knows when I will be doing my next Library Loot post, unless I start borrowing ebooks and audiobooks. The reality is that I have enough of both of those of my own so I probably don't need to borrow them!
Interestingly when I checked the library catalogue today, all of the books I have out have had their due date extended to 1 May which was unexpected!
Here's what I did borrow this week:
Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran - I finished the first book in this duo a week or so, and I am sufficiently interested to find out what happens next.
The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - This is a new release that I had seen a few really good reviews for so I thought I would request it.
Palace of Tears by Julian Leatherdale - This author has a new book out which I have seen a few reviews for. I am not sure why but I was more drawn to his debut rather the new one.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire fromThe Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from
