Top Ten Tuesday: On this day...

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is the theme is Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years (Stolen from Anne @ HeadFullofBooks) (This might be tricky if you don’t use a reading tracker like Goodreads, but the idea is to share what you were reading on August 11th of 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. If you have no idea, pick a book you loved that you read at any time during each of the last ten years. And if you still have no idea, pick a book you loved that was published during each of the last ten years. Make this work for you!)

I have done this kind of post before, but every time I am grateful for my handy dandy spreadsheet which tells me the books I was reading back to 2004! Here's what I was reading on this day, or at least close to this day over the last 9 years!

2026 - The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin - This is the book that I am reading right now ready for a blog tour next week! 

2025 - Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - This was a fun read and a bit different to what I normally would read! (mini review)

2024 - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - This was a Cook the Books selection. (my review)

2023    - All Good Things by Amanda Prowse - I didn't really love this one! (my review)

2022 - Love Stories by Trent Dalton - This one, however, I did love! I listened to this one on audio. It was narrated by the author and it was fantastic!

2021 - The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - This book was way outside my comfort zone but I did like it a lot! I don't read a lot of sci fi usually. 

2020 - The Secrets of Saffron Hall by Clare Marchant - This was a rare foray into Tudor historical fiction for me. (my review)

2019   The Last of the Bonegilla Girls by Victoria Purman - Good to see another Aussie author on this list. This was a really interesting read too.

2018 - Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - I read this book which was first in a series, and never read any further. Not sure why really. 

2017 - Island in the East by Jenny Ashcroft - This is a WWII book set in Singapore!

It is always interesting to take this kind of look back. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024

The Radio Hour by Victoria Purman (May) - I love this cover!!

The Chocolate Factory by Mary-Lou Stephens (January) - I am really looking forward to reading this book which is set in Tasmania

The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns (January) - How cute is this cover.

Funny Story by Emily Henry (April) - Emily Henry is pretty much an autobuy author for me now.

The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan (March) - I really enjoyed The Kitchen Front so I am looking forward to this one.

Those Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (March) - I don't read a lot of sci-fi but I did enjoy this author's previous book, The Space Between Worlds.

Happy Ever After in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen (February) - I always look forward to a new Bellbird Bay book.

Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey (March) - This cover was only revealed a couple of days ago,and I think it is cool!

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (February) - This sounds really good!

The Dubrovnik Book Club by Eva Glyn (March) - I've never read this author but as soon as I saw the title I knew it would be on my list!

Are any of these books on your list this week?

Six Degrees of Separation: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow to Sunflowers

 

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 for this book is  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabriele Zevin which isn't a book I have read before. It does sound like an interesting read, and was a Goodreads Choice Award winner in 2022.

According to the blurb this book is set in the world of video game design. Now that I am writing this post I have  thought of another direction to go in but when I did my chain, the first book I thought of was Ready Player One by Ernest Kline, which is a book that is set both within and outside a video game.

The audiobook for Ready Player One is read by Wil Wheaton who also narrated The Martian by Andy Weir which was one of my favourite audiobooks in 2023.

I don't read a lot of sci-fi. A couple of years ago I did The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson on a recommendation from friends. There is a sequel to this book coming out in March which I am looking forward to.

The last sci-fi book I read was Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. This book is part of Murderbot series which is a lot of fun. It has recently been announced that there is a TV series being made of Murderbot.

I have a number of books on my Kindle by Martha Hall Kelly which I have never read so lets go with her book Sunflower Sisters.

The title Sunflower Sisters reminded me of the painting Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh so I am finishing with a book about Van Gogh which is called Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick.

Next month we start with the book we finished on this month (or the last book read), whichever we like. I think Sunflowers has lots of potential as a place to start.

Top Ten Tuesday: New To Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is New to Me Authors in 2021!

Maggie Christensen - I read 6 books by Maggie Christensen last year, 5 of which were part of her Granite Springs series featuring older protaganists who live in the university town of Granite Springs falling in love. I need to get back to that series. I do have another of her books up soon to read.

Martha Wells - I am not really a sci-fi reader, but I really, really enjoyed the first three Murderbot books. Must read the fourth book.

Meredith Jaffe - One of my 5/5 books last year was The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison. So good! My review is here.

Kelly Rimmer - Another 5/5 read. I really need to get back to her books.

Karen Swan - Bree from All the Books I Can Read absolutely loves this author. We mostly have similar reading tastes, but there are some notable exceptions. Fortunatey, Karen Swan is not one of them.

Heather Webber - I read two of Heather Webber's books last year. If you like magical realism, the American South and some tasty sounding food then this may be the author for you.

Lucy Parker - I can't really believe I haven't read Lucy Parker before. I loved Battle Royal and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Helen Hoang - I know I should have read Helen Hoang before, but I hadn't. I have now.

Micaiah Johnson - Another science fiction read. This one came highly recommended by several blogger friends.

Kristin Harmel - Kristin Harmel is one of those authors I knew I would like when I finally got to read her. And I did!

Have you read any of these authors?

Top Ten Tuesday: Best books of 2021

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is best books of 2021. So let's start with my five star reads of the year.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (review)

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

The Dressmakers of Yarrandarah Prison by Meredith Jaffe (review)

The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper

I had 10 books that I graded as being 4.5 star reads. When I looked at those book these were the 6 that were closest to being graded up to a 5 star read.

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss (review)

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber (review)

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan

The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Battle Royal by Lucy Parker

Have you read any of these books??

This Week I....

 I'm reading

Recently some reader friends have been raving about The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. It took me a couple of months before I decided that I would take the leap and add this to my TBR list on Goodreads. And it would probably taken me a while to get to it, except I happened to go to the library to return a book last week, and I walked past the new release shelf and this book was in it! Seemed like I just had  to borrow it right?

Science fiction isn't my normal read, but every now and again I will read a book and wonder why I don't read more. So far this year I have read several of the Murderbot books and now this one. I am on track to read more sci fi than I have in years!

I'm watching

Friday night we binge watched British comedian Jack Whitehall's series Travels With My Father. The idea is that Jack and his 70-something year old daddy will strengthen their bond by travelling together through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

There's no doubt that it is scripted, but to be honest, I laughed so much, I didn't mind. We will definitely be watching more.

By the end of two weeks of the Olympics, I finally had my husband on board to watch a few events. I managed to catch some of the diving, cycling and track and field events. And now, we wait 3 years for the next ones!

I did also start watching The Voice last night. I watched a couple of seasons religiously years ago with my son but I lost interest a while ago. This year though Keith Urban is back as a judge (along with Guy Sebastian, Rita Ora and Jessica Mauboy) and so I am back as a viewer. However, the husband isn't interested and we only have one TV so we will see how much I get to watch.

Life

What a topsy turvy world we live in. We are back in lockdown again, and it's getting hard to keep up. On July 10 we were at the art gallery and out for dinner in a busy city restaurant. By July 15 we were in lockdown for 2 weeks. Last weekend we were out and were able to catch up with the kids. On Wednesday this week we had 0 cases in our state, and Thursday we were back in lockdown. At this stage it is only for a couple more days but I do expect that might be extended, particularly since the Delta variant is now in a couple of schools, including the one that my son used to go to.

Posts from last week

Music A-Z: K

Weekend Cooking: Life Lessons in Jam Making

Six Degrees of Separation: Postcards from the Edge to Queen of the Road

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

This Week I ...

 

I'm reading...

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!

Posts from last week

Music A-Z: I

Paris in July: La Fin

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in July

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: August linkup

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