Top Ten Tuesday: Rereads

 

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’d Like to Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

I am not normally a re-reader so originally I was thinking that I would do something different this week and actually have a post started on a different theme where I have got 10 books selected. Then when I thought about it some more I did wonder if I could make it to a list of 10 books that I have re-read, and I could! I guess that means my next freebie post is pretty much already done! Yay for me!

Here are 10 books I have re-read.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I could actually include most of the Virgin River series in this post, with the exception of the last book which I still haven't read yet. I read all the original books in the series back in 2010-2011, and then proceeded to re-read the first 7 books in the series over the course of two weeks in 2012. Here is a post about the whole series and how it made me break several of my own rules

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley -  I have re-read this book three times so far, twice by reading the book and once on audio with the most recent time being earlier this year, and I still loved it! Note the words so far. There is every chance I will read this again at some point. It is a bit odd though. I have other Kearsley books that I have loved but I haven't re-read any of those. Maybe I should. Here is my most recent post about this book 

Hogfather by Terry Pratchell - Listening to this in the lead up to Christmas has become one of my Christmas traditions over the last four years. I first read it back in 2007 which means that so far I have read it 5 times. 

The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - This is now part of my Christmas tradition too. I first listened to in 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I forced my husband to listen to it too so in the end I listened to it twice in a week. My original post about this book is here

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas - Ah, Sebastian and Evie! What a book. What an author! I wish she was still writing. (my review)

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Ah, Thomas Mackee, you break my heart. I have actually read a few of Melina Marchetta's books a couple of times but my favourite thing is to listen to the audiobook of The Piper's Son. I have listened to it five times now, including three times in about a month. It just affected me that much! I haven't listened to it for a few years now, but I have thought about listening to it again. 

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - If I had to describe my idea of aural bliss it is Richard Armitage narrating Georgette Heyer's books. I have relistened to Venetia three times and Sylvester four times after initially reading it! (original review)

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie - I had forgotten that I had re-read this one until I was searching through my blog looking for inspiration for this post. (My review)

Relish by Lucy Knisley -  I had read this years ago and then it was selected for Cook the Books a couple of years ago. I did enjoy revisiting it! (My Cook the Books post)

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - Years ago I read and loved the first three books in the series. A couple of years ago I decided that it was time to read the whole series. I started by rereading the first two book and never got any further. One day I will read that whole series. One day! (my original review)

Are you a re-reader?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Autumny Covers

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 Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.)Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.) Given that we are now in autumn in Australia I am doing books with Autumny Covers instead. 

Red Leaves by Paullina Simons - This was the first book I thought of when I saw the theme. When went to search for it on my blog, I realised that I read it in my pre-blogging days. It wasn't even on my spreadsheet where I keep my list of reads going back to mid 2004! I read this book a very long time ago!


Red Leaves by Thomas H Cook - When I was filtering on my spreadsheet for the title Red Leaves, I came across this book, which I don't remember a thing about. I read this back in 2007. 


Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - When I think of American Fall, then one word that comes up a lot is pumpkin. I just read this book while I was away so it is a very, very recent read. 

Full Moon Coffee shop by Mai Mochizuki - This book doesn't have anything to do with autumn really, but the colours feel autumny to me.

In Italy for Love by Leonie Mack - By contrast, this book is all about living in Northern Italy during autumn!

The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke - When you go for a drive to check out the autumn colours in nature then yellow and reds dominate, so a yellow wood fits the theme for me!


The Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - Look at that tree! Doesn't it scream autumn in the colour of it.

Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - The next three books don't have anything in the subject to do with autumn, but the colours on the covers feel like they fit in this post. This book is set in Sri Lanka which is very tropical and doesn't really have autumn as a season as far as I know.


Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - The colours of fire and the colours of autumn feel very similar to me!


The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta - It might be time for me to relisten to some Melina Marchetta books! It's been a while.

Six Degrees of Separation: Friendaholic to Forever in Blue

 

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's starting point is Friendaholic by Elizabeth Day.

The last book that I finished reading was The Silver Ladies Do Lunch by Judy Leigh which is all about lifelong friendships in a small village near Oxford. I reviewed this book a couple of days ago.

The word lunch made me think of the Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland, which in turn made me think of the Renoir paintings we saw when we were in Paris, but let me get back on track.

I really enjoyed the books I have read by Susan Vreeland so I am going with another of her books, Clara and Mr Tiffany, which is all about the creation of Tiffany glass lamps. (My review)

Another book with the word glass in the title is Sea Glass by Maria V Snyder

This then links to The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune through the word sea

For my final link I have chosen Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares because cerulean is a shade of blue. (My review)

I don't always try to link back to the starting point but given that Forever in Blue is the fourth book in the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants series which is all about friendship, I think it ties back nicely.

Next month the starting point is Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.

Top Ten Tuesday: Have you read this?

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books I Recommend to Others the Most.

I am going to mix the theme up a bit. I am going to do some books that I recommend to others, and the rest are books that were recommended to me.


Books I recommend to others



The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley  - I have recommended this author to so many people!

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley  - I have recommended this author to so many people!

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke - Most recently I recommended this to my boss.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry - I also recommended this to my boss. She has since read more Emily Henry books than I have!

The Island of MissingTrees by Elif Shafak - Love this book

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - Back in the day pushed this book on multiple people

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - I was looking back through my blog and found a post where Bree and I from All the Books I Can Read talked about me recommending this book to her years ago.

Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffe -This was so good!




Books recommended to me by Bree

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins - Bree and I often recommend book to each other. This author is one that she recommended to me as a great read!

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - And this one!

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - We went to an author event, and this was not one of the authors, but it was a book that we talked about while there.

There are plenty more but that's for starters!

Have you read any of these books? What other books would you recommend to me?

Six Degrees of Separation: Born to Run to I Wish I Had a Red Dress

 

 

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's starting point is Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.

I did try a few different paths, but I kept on coming back to one word and one unlikely connection which was Bruce from Finding Nemo

via GIPHY

So, my first link is to 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne which features Captain Nemo 

I recently read another another book by Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days.

Another person who went around the world was Jessica Watson when she attempted a solo navigation around world at the age of 16, so my next book is True Spirit: The Aussie Girl Who Took On The World.

If you hear the name Watson, I can't think of the phrase "elementary my dear Watson" so my next book is A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes book by Arthur Conan Doyle.

My next link is to Poison Study by Maria V Snyder, both because of the word Study and the fact that the woman on the cover is wearing a red dress, and it's also the first in a series.

And speaking of a red dress, my last choice this month is I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage 

Next month's starting point is Hydra by Adriana Howell. I think I already know what my first link might be. Just need to make it work for the whole chain now!

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Back to school

 

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

week the theme is Back to School. Our school year runs from late January to mid December so it is an unusual time for this theme for us but I am going to stick with it.

So, here are ten books which feature schooling relating words.

Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith - the fourth book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

The School for Heiresses - This was an anthology featuring Sabrina Jeffries, Julia London, Renee Barnard and Liz Carlyle. It's such a shame that Liz Carlyle doesn't write any more. Her books were fab. (review)

Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn - I did a joint review with Beth Fish Reads for this book which was so much fun.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister - This book made me want to take cooking lessons! (review)

Charm School by Nelson De Mille - I read this book back in the early 1990s, as well as several other books by this author. This was a Cold War spy novel. Not sure it would hold up too well now, but I did enjoy his books a lot at the time.

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - I could have chosen any of the Study trilogy really. (review)

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee - love the cover of this book!

Teach Me by Olivia Dade - I read this book earlier this year. It won't be my last book by this author.

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman - I don't remember much about this book but to be fair I did read it 11 years ago.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R Covey - I did this as part of a leadership program through work a few years ago now.

Top Ten Tuesday: Series that I just sort of stopped reading

 

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

week the theme is Completed Series I Wish Had More Books. I have decided to twist it a little bit and talk about the series that I kind of, sort of, just stopped reading. It wasn't a conscious decision to stop, but just haven't picked up the next book in the series.... yet. In some cases it has been 10 years or more since I stopped.There's still time right?

The last book I read in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series was The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection which is book no. 13 in the series by Alexander McCall Smith. Book number 23 is due to be released this year. Just a little bit behind then.

The last book I read in the Play by Play series by Jaci Burton was Quarterback Draw which is book no. 9 in the series. It does look as though the series has ended at book no. 14. This is especially strange given that this was one of the few contemporary series I was reading a few years ago. Now I am reading lots! Just not sports ones!

I used to wait with great excitement for the next Diana Gabaldon book to come out. I would buy it as soon as I saw it in the shops. I still haven't bought the latest book in the Outlander series let alone read it!

I listened to the first two books in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy on audio. Goodness knows when I will get to the third one.

This is another trilogy where I have read the first two books in the trilogy and meant to read the third one, Ambulance Girls At War by Deborah Burrows. I did borrow this book from the library at least twice but still didn't read it.

I read and loved Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley, the first book in the Daughters of the Outback trilogy, a few years ago. Still haven't read the other two books in the series. I have bought other books by Wasley since then too!

I have read the first 18 books in the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr at least twice. So why haven't I read the last book that was released a couple of years ago yet.

I have read a lot of books by Lisa Kleypas over the years. The last book I read in The Ravenels series was the third book, Devil in Spring. There are now seven books in the series. One of the issues is that I just don't read a lot of historical romance any more.

I have read the first 3 books in the Study series by Maria VSnyder twice, including a couple of years ago when I read them in anticapation of moving onto the next book in the series. Still haven't  read the next book which is sometimes referred to as the first book in the Glass trilogy or as part of the bigger overall series, Chronicals of Ixia.

A series that I really can't understand why I stopped reading is the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I loved them so much. I read up to The Golden One, book 14, and then just stopped. I feel like I would have to reread a lot of them before I could pick up the next next book in the series. The series ended up being 20 books long.

Do you ever just stop reading a series without meaning to?