Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Love That Are More Than 10 Years Old

 

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 Love That ARe More Than 10 Years Old. 

I don't really read a lot of old books, so I decided to tweak the theme a little and share the last ten books I have read that are more than 10 years old. It just so happens that this list includes some books that I loved!!

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - (published in 1986). I read this earlier this year as part of March Magic. I did see that the movie version of this is currently on Netflix so I might watch it soon.

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran- (published in 2005) I read this a couple of years ago now for Cook the Books (review here)

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder (also Magic Study and Fire Study) - (published in 2005) I decided I was going to reread this series, and then carry on to read the next books in the series. I did the re-read part, but still haven't read the next books in the series. (review here)

Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys - (published in 1985) - This was originally a series of stories published during WWII and then republished in this form 

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl - (published in 1961) I actually listened to Taika Waititi and his famous friends read this story back in the early days of the pandemic!

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - (published 2010) - I have listened to this on audio several times now. Might just about be time for another listen!

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - (published 2008) - Yay! Another opportunity to mention this book! (review)

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - (published 1990) - So much fun. I have watched the TV adaptation twice so far.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - (published 1957)- There are a couple of Georgette Heyer books which have been narrated on abridged audio by Richard Armitage - my idea of aural bliss! Highly recommended. (review here)

Ross Poldark by GrahamWinston - (published 1945) - I read this after watching some of the TV series.



I am looking forward to seeing what books other participants have on their lists.

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Dynamic Duos (Submitted by Elley @ Elley the Book Otter). My orginal thought was that I was going to really struggle to come up with many dynamic duos, so I started to do a twist on the theme. However,  a bit of thought and I managed to come up with ten so my twisted topic will need to wait until the freebie in April.

Some of my duos are more dynamic than others but they are all memorable in their own ways.

Jamie and Claire from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Murderbot and ART from Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (part of the Murderbot series)

Death and Susan from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

Alex Clairmont-Diaz and Prince Henry from Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Yelena and Valek from Poison Study series by Maria V Snyder

Madame Ramotswe and Grace Makutsi from the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series

Alexander and Tatiana from The Bronze Horsemanby Paullina Simons

Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Nicholas Brisbane and Lady Julia Grey from The Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn

Amelia Peabody and Emerson from the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

Who were the dynamic duos on your TTT this week? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Watery books

 

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 Gladly Throw Into the Ocean which was submitted by Beauty & Her Books. While I could name some books that have annoyed me, I am twisting the theme this week to be books with a water theme.

Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Sea Glass by Maria V Snyder - Must get back to this series this year!

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - Never miss an opportunity to mention this book.

The Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen - I think I heard that SAA is working on a new book, which is exciting!

The Lake House by Kate Morton

Lake in the Clouds by Sarah Donati - Not my favourite in this series, but still a good read!

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss - This is a book that doesn't come out until next month but I read it last week and really enjoyed it. The title translates to River of Dreams

Six Degrees of Separation: The Turn of the Screw to Ready Player One

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 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I haven't read Henry James before, so both that fact, that it is short and also that is a spooky read made it a perfectly ideal time to read it. I could also count it for the RIP XV challenge, and that was going to be my theme for Six Degrees of Separation - books that I have read for RIP  (Readers Imbibing Peril) challenges over the years. It was a solid plan right?

You know that there is a but or a however coming though.

In order to read it, I decided to listen to it on audiobook. Just over 4 hours to listen to is doable. And so I began to listen, and was in for a surprising treat when I realise that the first couple of chapters are narrated by Richard Armitage, and then the meat of the story is narrated by Emma Thompson, who I find very soothing to listen to.  So, instead of the more obvious theme of spooky reads, my theme this month is going to be audiobooks with a celebrity narrator.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - This morning I spent some time reading posts from 10 years ago which show just how obsessed I was with Richard Armitage. I mean, it's understandable, but still. One of the reasons I do like to gush fangirl, I mean admire him is as as audiobook narrator. He has now done around 40 or so. I have listened to a couple of other books narrated by him, but it really is the Georgette Heyer books he has narrated that I go back to time and again. And every time I do listen to one of these my review is bound to contain the words aural bliss or something similar. The other Heyer books he has narrated are Venetia and The Convenient Marriage. Venetia is great too.

The Further Tales of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson -  It would have been remiss of me to have not included an audiobook narrated by Emma Thompson given that she narrates the vast majority of The Turn of the Screw. I was, however, surprised to see that she has written a couple of Peter Rabbit books that she has then narrated.

Mythos by Stephen Fry - Another example of a celebrity who is an author reading their own audiobooks is Stephen Fry who has narrated many of his own books. He also famously narrated the Harry Potter books when they came out. I have listened to the first of series of short stories that were Audible exclusives and really enjoyed those so I do intend to listen to more by him.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman - If Stephen Fry is an example of a celebrity who is an author, then Neil Gaiman is pretty close to being an author who is a celebrity, and someone else who likes to narrate his own audiobooks, not to mention the mythology link here. When we went to hear him speak back in February, he did a reading of the new childrens book that is about to be released called Pirate Stew. I think one of the reasons I like hearing authors narrate their own books, if they are good at it, is that you can hear the expression and emphasis as they meant for it to be heard.

One Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley - There are occasions when the celebrity narrator (or any narrator really) doesn't work for a book, and for me that was true of this book. It didn't help that the book was abridged and I didn't realise it but the narration wasn't for me either. Given that I listened to this 15 years ago (on cassette tape no less) it is probably time for me to let it go, but it certainly has turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - I wanted to finish on a positive not though! This is not one I have listened to, but I have heard so many rave reviews about Will Wheaton as the narrator. He is also going to be the narrator on the sequel, Ready Player Two, when it comes out later this year so I think I might listen to it instead of reading it!

So there you have it! The Six Degrees of Separation celebrity audiobook narrator edition.

Next month the starting point is the book that you finished this month with, so I will be starting with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Goodness only knows where that chain is going to end up.

Six Degrees of Separation: Normal People to The Ship of Brides

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.

I haven't always read the books that we start off with but I did just finish listen to Normal People this week which is the starting book for this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation. I think I got it either as a freebie or cheap daily deal from Audible a while ago. When I finished my last audiobook I looked at the books I had available in my account. There was one that was more than 32 hours, and a couple of others that were more than 25 hours, and I just wasn't ready to commit to an audiobook that long. At just under 8 hours, Normal People was an ideal choice. and the narration by Aiofe McMahon was really good.

The reason I specifically mentioned Aiofe McMahon as the narrator is that she was also the narrator for The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan, which was the audiobook that I finished before Normal People. The Good Turn is a very different book to Normal People so it was a bit of a shock to hear the same narrator but you get used to it pretty quickly. I have had that happen to me before too! The Good Turn was an excellent entry in the Cormac Reilly series, and I can't wait to read more.

Another Irish really good crime series is Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad.  I read the early books in this series years ago (before it was even really considered a series. I do have a couple of books left to read at some point too. The first book of this series is In the Woods.

Woods play an important role in many books, and particularly in fairy tales and fantasy. For my next book I have chosen Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I love this book but it is one of the few examples where the movie is better than the book - marginally - mainly thanks to Robert De Niro as Captain Shakespeare!

I can't really remember if the movie of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was better than the book but it was enjoyable. Good job then that isn't the link that I am using. Rather it is the word star that is the link. I did a conversational review about this book and the first question I asked was Did you cry?  to which my answer was yet.

However, it wasn't ugly, sobbing crying which is what I have felt all three times I have read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes which is my next choice. This book ripped my heart out, stomped on it a couple of times and then stuffed it back in upside down. There are two other books in this series which are good but didn't get me in the same way. As an aside, if you are a fan of the Lou Clark trilogy which this is the first book for, check out the COVID-10/Isolation short story which you can read here.

I have loved several of Jojo Moyes' books so I thought that I would make the last choice for this month the first book I read by her, The Ship of Brides. The book is about four Australian war brides who board a ship to England to meet up with their husbands heading into a life full of unknowns. I can't believe I read this book more than 13 years ago (way before the current historical fiction fascination for WWII kicked in) and I still think about it some times. Our four brides were normal people who uprooted their whole lives in the name of love.

The starting point for next month is What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt which I haven't heard of before let alone read. 

This week....

I'm reading....

I mentioned last week that I had just started The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. It was really, really good! I read most of it on Saturday afternoon and it was super easy to get lost in the pages. I'll be posting a review later this week (don't be shocked!!)

The book that I started after that was Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Paris's Rebel Quarter by John Baxter.  An embarrassingly long time ago I started reading The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris but I never finished it. I had read other books by the author so knew I enjoyed his voice, but never have managed to pick it up again. Maybe this will be my time!

I'm watching...

Nothing new really. We are still working our way through the series I have talked about in previous posts.

In life...

On Tuesday night we went to hear Neil Gaiman speak which was a bit of fun! The interviewer was a true fan and that definitely came across in the questions. Topics discussed ranged from death to his punk period, to his TV writing for Good Omens and Doctor Who, amongst other things!

During the course of the night, he did a couple of readings, including reading his upcoming children's story. I think he is pretty much the only author I know of who could get away with reading their upcoming childrens book at a reading which was organised by a writers festival!

The space where the talk was held is amazing. I have never been into this theatre before because it is generally not open to the public. It was designed by US born architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin who are more famous for designing Canberra, our nations capital. It is a beautiful art deco style theatre and I am so glad that I have had a chance to visit there now!



Yesterday we did the culture thing and went to see a couple of the exhibitions that are on at the National Gallery of Victory. The first one was called Kaws: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness which I really enjoyed.

The second was a joint exhibition of works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I quite liked the art by Keith Haring, but really don't get the other one. I came out realising that whilst I took quite a few photos, none of them were by Basquiat.

I guess I just don't necessarily get modern art. I do keep on going to these exhibitions to try and learn about art and culture, but I don't always get it. At least I liked some of it. My husband wasn't a fan of any of it!

Last week I mentioned that we were on a short getaway. Have to say it was fabulous! The area is known for it's mineral springs so we spent a couple of hours at the mineral baths, bathing in the mineral water pools, the salt pool, the sauna (but not for very long), various spas and then followed that up with scones, jam and cream. By the time we got back to our hotel room we were buggered, but eventually we got enough energy to go for a walk around the local lake. I didn't take many photos but here they are

It was a fabulous couple of days!

It's a lovely area and we have talked  about coming back but there are also so many other areas within a short distance of Melbourne that we would like to visit too.

Obviously, we have our big trip planned but we also recently booked a weekend stay at Uluru (Ayers Rock) later in the year which I am super excited about as neither of us have been there before. Something to look forward to

I am thinking that maybe I need to split my This Week posts into two because I am finding that I have a lot to say which makes the posts a bit long.


Posts from the last week

Weekend Cooking: February Bakes
Bookish quotes: The Lending Room in the Little Bookshop on the Seine

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