Spell the Month in books - May

 

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.

The idea is that you use the title of books to spell the month name. There is also usually a theme each month, but May is a freebie! It is also the shortest month so it should be relatively easy, right? Except I have really struggled to come up with my own theme. 

In the end, I looked at my spreadsheet of books read and look for the most recent book I have read and then would figure out a theme from there. The first book was something I listened to, so my theme is books I listened to!

Mis-directed by Lucy Parker - Narrated by Nicola Coughlin and Gwilym Lee, this was a fun story about two cast members in a historical TV drama fall in love!

Atlas:  The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker - Narrated by Richard Armitage (swoon) and Tuppence Middleton, this was the final book in the Seven Sisters series. 

The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke - This was another Audible original and it was narrated by Remy Hii and Aisha Aidara.

Interestingly, all of these performances were by two narrators which I wouldn't have said was something I normally listen to a lot!

The June theme is Summer Reading Begins; use books you found at the library or see there. I will probably twist this to Winter Reading but I am not sure yet

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

This week...

I'm reading

We are going away at the end of this month, so I wanted to get a bit of a head start to my reading so that I can write all my posts before I go away. I therefore read I Knew You Were Trouble by Aussie author Sandy Barker, which is the fifth and final book in the Ever After Agency series.

I then started reading Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. I am not really sure why as I already had multiple books on the go, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do! I have heard lots of good things about it!

I also started reading If You Could See My Now by Samantha Tonge. My review for this book will be up later this week!

Last week I had mentioned that I had started listening to Mis-directed by Lucy Parker but I was falling asleep on the couch. In the end, I started it again, and found myself sitting at the desk just listening to it! I got through it in two days as I couldn't stop listening. I did have to remind myself that Lucy Parker had written the book - it wasn't Nicola Coughlin sharing some of things that go on backstage on a period TV series.

I have now gone back to listening to The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I started this in January but put it aside to listen to Pride and Prejudice for book club. I expect I will finish The Truth this week.

Speaking of Jane Austen, I went to a library event on Friday night. It was a one woman show where she acts as the author whilst dressed in accurate period clothing, sharing letters that she sent and received, as well as excerpts from Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Given that I have only recently read P&P, the section she read was very familiar to me!

I'm watching


I've seen a few movies this week. I watched The Dolce Villa which is about a young woman who buys a 1 Euro house in a small village in Italy. Her dad comes to try to persuade her that this is a mistake. He clashes with the female mayor straight away but he does start to come around. They did get all the renovations done very quickly, and there were some nice foodie scenes!

I then watched a movie which has been given an English title of Honeymoon Crasher, but in French it is called Lune de Miel Avec Ma Mere or Honeymoon with My Mother! And that pretty much describes the movie. A man is dumped at the wedding ceremony  and so he is convinced to go on the honeymoon with his mother. Queue all the jokes about him being married to a much older woman. It was fun as he began to see her as someone in her own right, not just as his mother. The movie was set in Mauritius which looked gorgeous!

On Sunday I went to see Bridget Jones 4: Mad About the Boy at the cinema. I am not sure that I remember seeing movies 2 or 3, but I did quite enjoy this one. I cried several times, and I laughed! I might go and see if I can rewatch the first three movies.

We also started watching season 2 of Rogue Heroes. We really enjoyed the first series which is about the development of the SAS - Special Auxiliary Service. It is very much a smash em, bash em, blow em up kind of series, but it is a lot of fun!


Life

Not much to report here!

Max

Max is definitely better than he was last week, but we are struggling to get his sugar reading down. Hopefully we can work it out this week. He's very happy in himself though which is a relief.


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Another Time

Blog Tour: A Santorini Secret by Rose Alexander

Blog Tour: From Provence with Love by Alison Roberts

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March links

Weekend Kitchen: What I Baked in my Kitchen in February 

Six Degrees: Prophet Song to My Father's House







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

This week...

I'm reading

It was a busy reading week this week! I read several books, a short story and finished an audiobook. 

Firstly, I finished The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood which I reviewed here. If you like a book where a house is an integral character in the story, then this might be for you.

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering also has a house like that and for added measure each chapter is named for a famous house in literature. Here is my review.

I was then excited to see that The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman was available. This is the third short story in the Once Upon a Time Bookshop stories. These are the first Alice Hoffman stories I have read. I will be reading more as I am amazed how much story and feeling she fits into these short stories.

I was then hoping to get a bit of my reviews for March and also read an Aussie author, but the book I wanted wasn't quite ready. I therefore started A Santorini Secret by Rose Alexander which I really loved. Will be searching out some of her other titles. The review for this one will be up later this week.

I am now sneaking in a non-review read. A couple of weeks ago I went to see Mary-Lou Stephen talk about her book The Jam Maker and so I have started that one!

I also finished listening to Pride and Prejudice, narrated by British actor Rosamund Pike. I then started 

Mis-Directed by Lucy Parker which also has a couple of celebrity narrators, Nicola Coughlin and Gwilym Lee. I sat on the couch to listen to this and may have fallen asleep so I need to rewind a bit. Generally I listen to audiobooks on walks or in the car. 

I'm watching

We watched Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story which was heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measures. Jelena Dokic was a young tennis player back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She came to Australia as a refugee and then represented Australia, until she announced that she was going back to Yugoslavia. She was infamous because of the way her father, Damir, acted, even getting thrown out of major tournaments due to his aggressive behaviour. However, what the public saw was only the tip of the iceberg. The abuse that Jelena was receiving at home was horrific. She is now estranged from her father, and she is a respected tennis commentator and body image advocate. Here's the trailer

Tuesday night I went to see a preview screening of The Last Journey, a Swedish documentary in which a man and a friend decides to take his elderly father on a road trip to the south of France, to try and spark him back into life. It was a lovely movie, and we went to see it in a fab art deco theatre I had never been to before. The son and his friend, who are famous in Sweden, who produced the movie were at the screening and there was a Q and A session after. It was so touching, because when it started it was about the son not understanding how aging had affected his father, and by the end it was about him accepting that his dad was getting old. Along the way they reminisced about their summers in France. If you get the chance to see it, do so, but maybe take some tissues. It's now the highest grossing Swedish documentary of all time.

Life

We went for a lovely lunch for Valentine's Day which I posted a bit about here. Other than that it was all about the dog this week.

Max

Our lovely boy had a relapse and is not well at all. Late last year he was really unwell and was diagnosed with Addison's disease, liver enlargement, muscle shrinkage in his head and brain, and hyperthyroidism. Despite that for the most part he is a happy dog. He is a Labrador though, so you know there is something wrong when he goes off his food and water, so we ended up at the emergency vet on Thursday. He now has a couple of more things medically and so the vets talk about him having a complex medical history. He takes more medication than Robert and I do combined!

He is recovering, but we have had to have some serious conversations about what happens next time. His a very handsome boy, and has a great nature but he is not genetically blessed and wouldn't have done well in the wild! 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Have Never Reviewed
Blog Tour: The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood

Blog Tour: Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Weekend Cooking: What I Ate in One Week (Stanley Tucci Style)


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

Sunday Salon: Spell the Month in Books -- February

 

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 the third Sunday 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 February being Valentine’s Day/something sweet on the cover. 

Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas - A caterer in an aged care home takes a busload of pensioners with her when she goes to Germany to meet a baker she met online.

Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood - This is about a baker who solves crime on the side and it is set in Melbourne! This author is better known for her Phryne Fisher series. (my review)

Battle Royale by Lucy Parker - Two bakers go head to head for the chance to cook for a royal wedding. At first they are fierce rival but when they have to work together, sparks fly.

Rosie's Travelling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin - After all that cake we need a cup of tea, surely? (my review)

Under the Maui Sky by Kellie Coates Gilbert - I haven't actually read this book but I do own it. The family in this one run a pineapple plantation! Just the thought of that brings back memories of eating pineapple ice cream when we visited Hawaii a couple of years ago.

The Art of Cake Alice Oehr - This was a delightful little book featuring some history of cake, some recipes and lots of sweet drawings. Click on the link for an example of a page. (my review)

The Recipe for Happiness by Jane Lovering - This book features a cook in a day centre for the aged. (my review)

Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan - To be fair, this book isn't really about cake at all or have much sweetness, but it works for this prompt! (my review)

The hardest letter for me this month was the U! 

The theme for next month is Science Fiction. Not sure I will be able to the whole thing with science fiction as it isn't a genre I read a lot of, but I will try.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and given the foodie theme which inadvertently ended up being in the post I am also sharing it with Weekend Cooking which I host.

Top Ten Tuesday: Purple!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with My Favorite Color on the Cover. Now, if you take a look around my blog, you might notice one main colour. So it should be no surprise that my post this week features the colour purple. It could be the title is purple, the whole cover or just part of the cover. I did think I had done a post like this before, but apparently not!

French Chateau Escape by Gillian Harvey - Purple text and France!

When We Were Friends by Samantha Tonge - Can't get much more purple than this!

The French Chateau Dream by Julie Caplin  - I am sure I could find some more books with lavender on the cover

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker - I chose this one because of the purple dress

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey - More France. 

Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson - I wasn't a big fan of this book but it is very purple.

Lilac Skies by Shivani Bansal - Same with this one!

Elodie's Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin - I really like Rebecca Raisin's books and this was no exception! 

Someone I Used to Know by Paige Toon - Purple!!

How to Mend a Broken Heart by Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is an autobuy author for me, no matter what colour the cover is.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Didn't Get to in 2023

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I Didn't Get to in 2023.  In order to find these books, I looked at previous posts of books that I was looking forward to. I did just have a thought that I should have just looked at this post form last year and see if i read any of those books! Next time!

So here are ten books I meant to read in 2023 but I never got to it!

Daisy and Kate by Meredith Appleyard - I have wanted to read this since I first saw the cover at the reader's retreat I went to last year.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See - I can't believe I haven't read this year. I usually love Lisa See's books.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy - I was given this beautiful hardcover book at a work event, but I haven't actually read it yet.


The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley - Last year Pa Salt's book was released but I didn't read it as I still haven't read this book.

Inheritance by Nora Roberts - This is the first book in the The Lost Bride trilogy, and came out in November. I bought the audio straight away but haven't listened to it yet.


Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - I actually started listening to this over the weekend but when I started writing this post I had not so I am leaving it in!

A Woman's Work by Victoria Purman - I had a proper plan to read this before I went to the Australian Women Weekly exhibition in rural Victoria. However, one of these things happened and the other did not!


Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - I intend to read this in the next couple of weeks.

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker - I was very excited when this book came out. Still haven't read it.

Where the Light Enters by Sara Donati  - I even got to meet this author when I was in the US last year, but still haven't managed to read this book.

Have you read any of these books? Which book would you recommend I prioritise?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books set in kitchens

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books Set In X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.) I am choosing to do books set in and around kitchens, so could feature cafe owners, cooks and more!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - a scientist becomes a TV cooking show host. (my review)

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan - Four home cooks compete for the chance to co-host (my review)

The City Bakers Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller - A pastry chef flees Boston after a culinary disaster and finds herself in small town Vermont (my review)

Celebrations in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - Sandy, the main character in this book, owns a baking and catering business (my review)

Finding Family at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - Gemma is running the local cafe in this book set in Cornwall (my review)

The Enchanted Garden Cafe by Abigail Drake  - This cafe is run by a character called Fiona and is located in Pittsburgh. (my review)

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay - This is a story of inter-generational friendship that formed from a mutual love of food (my review)

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - Another story of inter-generational friendship set in a cafe that only sells doriyaki. My review for this one will be posted in January.

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker - Two bakers compete for the opportunity to cook for a royal wedding.

Finding Love at the Christmas Market by Jo Thomas - Connie loves baking, and is looking for love online which leads her to a German Christmas market.

Where did your list take you this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Titles

 

 

 

 

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

s Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!). I am going to twist the theme a little bit and make my list the last 10 books that I have read that were published prior to 2020. Here we go!

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - published in 2013

The Red Notebook by Antoine Durain - published in 2015

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - published in 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir - published in 2011

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - published in 1872

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - published in 1958

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - published in 1996

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes - published in 2016

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - published in 2015

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - published in 2019

Have you read any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023.  Normally I have to go looking for books for this prompt but there are so many good books coming out over the next few months!

Codenamed Charming by Lucy Parker - I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago and have been waiting for this ever since.


Daisy and Kate by Meredith Appleyard - This author was at the retreat I went to last month and the book sounds good. It doesn't hurt that the cover is gorgeous.

The Girl from Portofino by Siobhan Daiko - I read The Girl from Venice a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it so I am on the lookout for this one.

Back on Track by Tricia Stringer - Another author who was at the retreat, this book is primarily set on the train that goes from Adelaide to Darwin,  The Ghan, which is a trip I would love to do at some point.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo - This is this author's first adult book. I loved the YA book I have read by her so hopefuly that this would be good.

 

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber - I have enjoyed this authors previous books!

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See - So looking forward to this one. I really enjoyed her last book.

System Collapse by Martha Wells - The fact that I still haven't read the last book in the series doesn't mean that I can't be excited about this one!

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang - Kate Quinn. Need I say more!


The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer - Very excited about this one!

Do you have any of these books on your list this week?