Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors in 2020

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is New to me Authors I read in 2020. 

When I looked at my stats for last year, it revealed that I read books by 40 authors I hadn't read before, which gives my plenty of scopes for today's theme. However, today is officially Australia Day so I am going to focus on Australian authors that were new to me last year.

I was very lucky last year to read lots of great books by Australian authors. Three of the four books that I gave the ultimate grade of 5/5 were by Australians, and they were all new to me authors. 

Minnie Darke - The Lost Love Song is Minnie Darke's second book and it was a lovely read. I believe that it was being released in the US so hopefully other people will get to experience this lovely book too. (review here)

Alison Stuart - I actually read a couple of books by Alison Stuart during 2020, and quite frankly it was about time. I have signed copies of her books on my shelves for many, many years. I first read The Postmistress, which I gave a really good grade, but the sequel got top marks. (review here)

Steven Conte - I don't remember ever hearing about Steven Conte, but that might not be all that surprising given that there was a gap of 13 years between his last book, The Zookeeper's Daughter and this book. The Tolstoy Estate was an exceptional read! (review here)

Having never read them before last year, I read multiple books by the following authors

Ella Carey  - I read four books by Ella Carey last year, with three of those being part of the Paris Time Capsule trilogy about an apartment located in Paris that was abandoned during WWII and only opened again after 70 years. (tag here)

Lily Malone - Another trilogy, this time a rural romance series, I really enjoyed reading about the small town in the south of Western Australia, especially seeing as I was able to travel through the area in December 2019.(tag here)

Rebecca Raisin - I have shared a number of quotes from Rebecca Raisin during 2020 as I just love the way that she writes about food, books and Paris!

The following four books are all books that I rated very highly. All of them except for the last one got 4.5/5 and so I definitely highly recommend them.

Julian Leatherdale - This author died in 2020, having left behind 3 novels. I enjoyed this one a lot so I do intend to read more.

Meg Keneally - The Wreck is a book that was this close to getting a 5/5. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I do need to read her first solo novel, Fled. She has also written a mystery series with her dad, Thomas Keneally, and I have a least one of those books here to read too. (review here)

Tania Blanchard - I had seen Tania Blanchard's books around before but I hadn't read them. I still need to.

Katye Nunn - This book had a gothic feel to it, which I enjoyed, and I do intend to go back and read her other books. I saw recently that her next book is out at the end of March and it sounds fascinating. It's called The Last Reunion. (review here)

The Wreck by Meg Keneally

There seems to be a lot of really great Australian historical fiction around at the moment. Just this year I have read and enjoyed books by Alison Stuart, Victoria Purman, Tea Cooper and more, and now to this list I need to add Meg Keneally.

Sarah McCaffrey is a young woman who was left orphaned when her parents are killed in a peaceful protest turned massacre in Manchester. Along with her brother, Sam, she flees to London but they soon find themselves caught up in a rebellion plot. Unfortunately for Sarah, there is a police informant in their midst so the plot is foiled. Sarah escapes to a ship docked at the wharves of London called The Serpent. All alone in the world, Sarah finds herself unwillingly under sail. The boat, The Serpent, is headed for the other side of the world, to the colony of Sydney. 

The ship's captain was an ally to the planned rebellion, but he is a danger in other ways. He doesn't have a great relationship with other captains or shipowners and the ship itself isn't in great condition either. 

Having assumed a new identity, Sarah befriends another young woman on the ship, as well as some of the crew. When they are just hours away from reaching their destination there is a terrible storm, and the ship is dashed into the cliffs. Sarah is the only survivor, and so once again she is alone in the world 

Taken to shore, she shares a room in the hospital with a young woman named Annie who is about to give birth. Sarah is something of a celebrity in the fledgling penal colony. People want answers as to why the ship sank, how she came to be the only survivor, and who she is. 

Life in the young colony is tough. Whilst there are some substantial buildings, a lot of the inhabitants live in wattle and daub huts. And life is particularly tough for young women. Sarah and Annie are taken in by a local woman who gives them jobs in an upmarket boarding house providing food and shelter but little else. Despite her seemingly good fortune, Sarah is still determined to find out what really happened back in London and soon finds herself mixed up once again with rebellious types. When someone from her past reappears, could she find the answers she is looking for without the secret of who she really being revealed once and for all?

It is not necessarily rebellion that Sarah wants, but rather the chance of more equal rights for all, especially the women who so often find themselves without any means of support. Eventually she finds an ally in Mrs Thistle, who is a remarkable character and who is based on a woman named Mary Reibey who appears on our $20 note. Mrs Thistle is a successful merchant, in a world dominated by men, who has her own way of doing business.

Whilst some of the events in this book may seem fantastical, they are in fact based on true stories. There was a massacre in Manchester in 1819, and there was a shipwreck called The Dunbar which sank with only one survivor. Added to these events inspired by history, Meg Keneally has created an array of interesting characters that kept me reading until late at night, and bought the early days of colonial Sydney to life on the page.

Rating 4.5/5

Goodreads summary

All Sarah ever wanted was a better life ... From the bestselling author of Fled comes a moving tale of revolution, treachery and courage.

In 1820 Sarah McCaffrey, fleeing arrest for her part in a failed rebellion, thinks she has escaped when she finds herself aboard the Serpent, bound from London to the colony of New South Wales. But when the mercurial captain's actions drive the ship into a cliff, Sarah is the only survivor. Adopting a false identity, she becomes the right-hand woman of Molly Thistle, who has grown her late husband's business interests into a sprawling real estate and trade empire. As time passes, Sarah begins to believe she might have found a home - until her past follows her across the seas...

This Week...

I'm reading...

I've had a great reading week over the last week, finishing The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte which I gave a grading of 5/5 (review here) and also The Wreck by Meg Keneally which I graded as 4.5/5. My review for The Wreck will be up later in the week and my review for the third book I finished this week, Paris Time Capsule, will be up in couple of weeks.

I somehow seem to have a gap in my reading schedule which means I can take the opportunity to actually read whatever I want. Today I therefore started reading Serenity's Song by Cathryn Hein which is part of the Outback Brides Return to Wirralong series. This is 100% a comfort read for me and so far I am enjoying it.

I am also contemplating reading The Turning of the Screw by Henry James because it is the starting point of the October Six Degrees of Separation. Originally I had no intention of reading it, but I had a look and realised that it is actually a short story, I think that I could definitely fit that in!

Over the weekend I also watched a book talk featuring the authors from The Deadly Hours (which I reviewed last week). One of the silver linings of COVID is that there are so many online events that are accessible that never would have been back in "normal days". One of those authors is Susanna Kearsley who I would love to meet for real one day, but I do think that it probably unlikely. 

I'm watching

This week was more a week of finishing things rather than watching anything new. 

We finished watching Great Canadian Baking Show which we enjoyed and also Singapore Sling, which was... interesting. Singapore Sling was about life in Singapore on the eve of the Japanese invasion during. That aspect was interesting but there were moments that just descended into buffoonery. The other thing was that the episodes just ended. It didn't really feel like the end a few times, including in the final episode. I was expecting them to come back after the ad break.

We are also enjoying watching the Tour de France,mainly for the scenery. It's an easy option when it's heading towards bedtime and we don't want to start a new show for the evening.

Life

This weekend we were supposed to go to Uluru for the weekend. We booked the trip back in February and we were hopeful that things might have settled down a bit so we could still go, but it wasn't to be. Not all was lost though. We needed to create a new car parking space at home so we have been working on clearing out a garden bed for the last few weeks, including chopping down trees, What we learnt early on during our projects is that our garden is full of very big rocks, It just so happens that my street name kind of rhymes with Uluru! I therefore bring you the big rock that we saw this weekend!

I also made the switch to the new Blogger this weekend. I have been resisting it, but for the most part I think that it's okay. In the end of got sick of having to swap it back to the legacy version. I haven't had too many issues with images, and labels are okay now too. Really, the only thing I am not 100% on is that I have a lot of posts in draft, and I can't tell what the scheduled date is just looking in the list. Instead it shows you the date that you saved it which isn't ideal but it is a minor thing!

Don't forget you can now follow my blog on Facebook here.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood Favourites
The Deadly Hours
Alphabet 2020: S is for Social Media
Weekend Cooking: You Say Tomato...

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte

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

This week....

I'm reading....

I want you to take special note of the books I am reading this week, particularly The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte. Do you need to pay attention to the fact that it is historical fiction? Not really. Is it because it is historical fiction set in World War II? No because to be fair I read a fair bit of that. Is it that it is set in Russia? Could be. Because it's a new release? Nope. Read a few of them recently. What could it possibly be? Oh, that's what it is.  Its a book by a male author. My reading is dominated by female authors to the point that this is only the fifth book by a male author I have read this year, and I am loving it. I am about halfway through now and assuming it stays at the current level it is on track to be either a 4.5 or a 5/5 grade book.

The other book that I started over the weekend is The Wreck by Meg Keneally and this one is great too. To be honest, it's a struggle to know which one to pick up and finish first. Maybe I should do alternative chapters. Or maybe I need a long weekend so that I can just read them both. Unfortunately that can't happen as I worked late every night last week and over the weekend.

I'm watching...

Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching a British show called The Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul. It follows a group of British celebrities with different types and degrees of faith (including atheist, Muslims, Christians and Jewish) as they complete the Sultan's Trail which runs from Vienna to Istanbul. Along the way they visit various sites with historical and religious significance. It was a very interesting show to watch highlighting what the similarities are between people as well as the differences. When I was looking for a couple of details I realised that there are two previous series so I will be seeing I can find those.

I also recently watched the documentary, The Booksellers, which follows some of the characters from the antique book trade in New York. This was so much fun to find out how these unique characters started out in the trade, and how they re faring in this world where everything is available on the internet

We were super excited to see that there is a follow up series to Back in Time, this time called Further Back in Time. In the first series, which I wrote about here, the Ferrone family lived for a week in each decade starting from the 1950s through to the 2020s, talking about the food that people would have been eating, how family was structured, and particularly the changing role of women. In this series, the family goes further back in time with the episode being set in the 1900s and then will travel forward to the 1940s. We very much enjoy it and we are looking forward to watching the rest of the series. Expect a Weekend Cooking post about this at some point.

Finally, we started watching Warrior Nun on Netflix as it was recommended to us as something to watch if you loved The Umbrella Academy. Whilst I would pick Umbrella Academy every time over Warrior  Nun, we are enjoying it, and I am enjoying seeing the various different locations around Spain!

Life

We have been in strict lockdown now for around five weeks. Originally it was due to finish on September 13, but it has been announced that is being extended by a couple of weeks with a small  tweak here and there, followed by a slow easing of restrictions in stages through to November, depending on the numbers. Right now, I am trying to figure out when I am going to be able to go to the hairdresser because I am very much in danger of finding out exactly what colour my hair actually is!

Our big news this week is that we got a vacuum robot. It didn't take me long to start talking to it as though it is a dog because it feels like it follows me around, and gets under my feet. Originally we thought about naming it Teddie but I woke up on Sunday morning and suddenly realised that was possibly a bit close in name to my youngest nephew, so we are just going to call it Dog. I did have to laugh at my husband. He loves a new toy, so the first time we put it on, it wasn't that much of a surprise to find that he had followed it around the house, rolling around in his office chair!

Don't forget you can now follow my blog on Facebook here.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Make Me Hungry 
Reading Reflections: August 2020
The Last Charm by Ella Allbright
Weekend Cooking: Books That Make Me Hungry....again

Six Degrees of Separation

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

Six Degrees of Separation: Rodham to Light Between Oceans

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 Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. I can't imagine that I will ever read this book as I don't think it is my kind of book. It is an alternate telling of the life of Hilary Rodham Clinton, asking the question of what her life would have been like had she not married Bill Clinton.

For my first link in the chain, I have gone down the alternate history route, but kind of an extreme alternate. In the world that that Jasper Fforde has created for the Thursday Next series,  which starts with The Eyre Affair, dodos are the pet of choice, you can travel from one side of the world to the other in a tube, and the Crimean War still rages on even though it is 1985.

For my next link, I am focusing on the Crimean War and choosing The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon. The Rose of Sebastopol is about a young woman who goes off to the Crimean War to be a nurse alongside Florence Nightingale.

I am following the war time nurse thread for my next link which is to Daughter of Mars by Thomas Keneally. This book is about a young woman who heads off from country Australia to the front in World War I.

Normally I try to use books I have read for these posts, but this time I am using a book I am going to read as my next link. The Wreck is by Meg Keneally, who is Thomas Keneally's daughter. They have written a historical mystery series together which I also have on my shelves, but this book is due to be released this month.

From here I kind of got stuck on the lighthouse motif, choosing Lighthouse Bay by Kimberly Freeman, because lighthouses are supposed to try and prevent wrecks, and because it is a really good book!

For my final link I chose Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman, once again because of the lighthouse, although I was trying to make a pun about preventing physical wrecks but not necessarily preventing emotional wrecks! It's a stretch though.

For this month I have travelled from an alternate world where dodos and mammoths roam to the Crimea, to the Mediterranean of WWI and then to the Australian coast. Where have your links taken you?

Next month's starting point is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.