Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my summer 2021 TBR

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is books on my Summer TBR pile.

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - When I started writing this post I hadn't yet started this book, but I am around two thirds of the way through and it is so good.

The Christmas Party by Karen Swan - Given that Midnight in the Snow is so good, I will definitely read more and this is one that my library had sitting on the shelf.

A Granite Springs Christmas by Maggie Christensen - Another Christmas book, this time taking me back to Granite Springs.

The Girl From Paris by Ella Carey - I'll be reading this for a blog tour in early January.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - I have heard so many things about this book.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Smith - I started this a little while ago and need to finish it.

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells = It's been a while since I read a Murderbot book so I must get back to them.

Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson - One of the girls at work mentioned this book so I am going to give it a try

Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon - In years gone by I would have bought the latest Outlander book the day it came out and probably have read it by now, but I do still intend to read this one. I have been invested in this story for many years.

Midnight Chicken & Other Recipes Worth Living For by Ella Risbriger - The next Cook the Books selection

Do you have any of these books on your TBR pile?

Six Degrees of Separation: From Redhead by the Side of the Road to One Hundred Years of Solitude

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 missed last months Six Degrees which was a shame, but I am back this month with a list that contains at least one tenuous link! See if you can spot it.

The starting point this month is Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler, an author who I have  never read, although I am sure I should have! I did think about doing books with red in the title but I have a feeling I have done that before, if not in Six Degrees, definitely in a Top Ten Tuesday post, so I took a different direction.

The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell (Trixie Belden mysteries book 1) - My first thought related to the word redhead and that kind of inevitably lead to me to think about my first red headed book crush - Jim from the Trixie Belden books!

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - Jim was not my only red headed literary crush. There was also James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser from the Outlander series. This book, the third in the main series, is probably my favourite. Maybe it is something about a variation of the name James, and not the redhead, but I don't think so.

The Red Scarf/Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall - When I checked my handy dandy spreadsheet which list the books I have read since  2004, the author directly above Diana Gabaldon alphabetically is Kate Furnival. I kept on thinking about the red scarf as the link too. This book is set in 1930s Russia, specifically in a Siberian prison camp.

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - Also set in Russia, but this time during WWII, this was one of my favourite books from last year

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - An obvious connection here, from a book where most of the action takes place at Tolstoy's house  to a book written by the man.

One Hundred  Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- I originally read Anna Karenina as part of Oprah's Book Club back in the 90s.  This was the first book that I ever  read with the book club! I am not sure I would've read either without my fellow readers and the fun that we had in the forums. I am still online friends with a lot of those people now!

Did you spot the very tenuous link?

Next month the starting point is Phosphorence by Julia Baird, which is going to be interesting to find a connection to. Better get my thinking cap on early for that one!

This week...

I'm reading....

After finishing Normal People last week, I decided that it was time to tackle one of the big books that I had sitting in my Audible account, and so started The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley. This is the fifth book in the Seven Sisters series and comes in at a sizeable 20 hours listening time so it will keep me listening for a while. I have seen people mention that they adjust the speed and listen to audiobooks at say 1.5 times normal speed. Maybe I should try that with this book? Does anyone do that?

Other than that I am still reading The Silk House by Katye Nunn and that's it. I have chosen the next book off my shelf but haven't started it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm watching...

I am very pleased to say that I actually finished some things this week! 

I finally watched the last episode of Outlander. I had the last episode sitting there for several weeks but every time I thought about watching it I didn't because I wasn't in the right headspace to watch what I knew was going to be a gruelling episode, and it was. Now, like everyone else, I wait for the net series..

On the opposite end of the scale to gruelling is The Great which was completely over the top, completely bonkers show, but we thoroughly enjoyed it! The performance of Nicholas Hoult was amazing with the range from over-sexed, over privileged king who could do whatever he pleased (Huzzah!) but who had an almost childlike need to be loved. I was curious to see that one of the main forces behind The Great was an Australian screenwriter,  and that his wife was playing one of the key characters. What The Great is not is historically accurate in any ways, but it does tell you that in the opening titles where it says "an occasionally true story" so as long as you take it in that vein and don't expect historical accuracy it will be fine.

One of the music artists I have reacquainted myself with during this period of social isolation is Garth Brooks. Back in the early 90s I was a big fan and used to listen to those early albums over and over again, but I felt like I kind of lost track of his music. I have been watching some of the shows he is doing on Facebook and was reminded of how good he was. This weekend I watched the new documentary Garth Brooks: The Road I'm On which was really interesting, and reminded me that part of the reason I lost track was that he retired for so long. Needless to say, I have already told the husband that the next time he comes to Australia we are going to go and see him perform!

In life

I have noticed that there is a notice on Blogger telling us that we have to swap to the new Blogger before the end of the month. Mostly it is okay, although I don't like the way that it deals with placeholder posts. As soon as I had a post that I needed on a specific day I used to change the schedule date and it would sit there as a placeholder in the right date order. I haven't yet figured out how to do that in the new Blogger. It appears as though it saves it in the order of the last time you edited a post which doesn't really work. For now I've had to come up with a Google sheet to save the dates so that I can make sure I don't miss anything. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing. And it turns out adding new labels is a bit challenging too.

The big news for this weekend for us (other than it being my birthday) was that it was bathroom reno weekend. It was a long weekend here so we took Friday off to make it a four day weekend. On Friday my husband started ripping out the old bathroom, and then slowly did everything to start putting it all back together again. It can't be finished yet because a couple of items that you wouldn't normally have to special order weren't in stock at the hardware store so once those things come in it will be finished off, but I am happy with how it looks right now. Here is the before and the final progress photo. Note the beautiful green bench top that is now a thing of the past. Once it is totally finished I will share another picture.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday
Weekend Cooking

Six Degrees of Separation

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

This week....

I'm reading....

Last week I mentioned that I was trying to work out ways to find time to actually read. Turns out one of the easy ways is to forget your phone but still have your Kindle with you so you can read! Also, not sleeping properly helped me make it through Fangirl, which I ended up finishing early on Saturday morning.

The big news this week is that we booked our big holiday for this year. Without giving away too many details because we are still very much in the planning stage, we will be visiting France, which is one of the reasons that I have picked up Sixty Summers by Australian author Amanda Hampson. It looks as though this author has a number of books set in France, so if I enjoy it, I could be set for a while.

To be honest though, it's not like I have a shortage of books set in France. Even after all of these years, France is one of my favourite settings to read about, and to dream of visiting.

At least one of the places I have on our must visit list is somewhere I read about a while ago, but I'll tell more about that when it happens.

I'm watching...

In my quest to find something new to watch we started watching the The Marvellous Mrs Maisel this week. So far, I am enjoying it a lot, and I like that there is more than one season to watch!

I also watched an episode of Outlander this week. I love the books, and I enjoy the TV series, but for some reason I haven't yet watched the fourth season. I know I really need to hurry up because season five is coming up very soon.

We went on date night on Friday night and saw 1917 in Gold Class. I thought it was a very good movie, and can see why it is receiving so many accolades. I also thought the main actor, George Mackay, was excellent. I have seen him before in the movies Sunshine on Leith and Pride which are both good movies!

In life...

I managed to surprise a couple of my staff this week with my ability to talk books at length. Since starting my new job last year I haven't really found my book buddy yet, so it was great to be able to chat!

Apart from booking our trip (did I mention that yet?), the other thing that we are spending a fair amount of time on is preparation for our bathroom renovations which we are planning to start/finish  when we get back home. Right now we are in planning stage so thinking about tiles, fixtures, colours etc. These things are not really my strong points but having said that, everything we have done so far has turned out pretty well.

We did, however, get a bit distracted at one point. We decided we would go and have a look at display homes to see what is current in bathrooms. All was going well until we walked into particular show home and it took our breath away. We literally walked in with no plan to even look at houses with a view to building a house, by the time we walked out we were practically ready to sign the paperwork. We didn't because moving house is not on the agenda for quite some time, and building has never been on the agenda, but we will be potentially thinking about that house for some time to come! It's probably a good idea for us not go to look at that house again!

The other thing I did this weekend was go to a cocktail event called The Wizards Cauldron. The idea is that you solve a series of clues that lead you to the ingredients that enable you to complete a magic potion spell to create a cocktail! It was a bit of fun for a Sunday afternoon!

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

My Outlander story

Today I am supposed to talk about An Echo in the Bone, the seventh book in the very successful Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon. Despite the fact that I haven't yet finished the book, I will do that but first I wanted to talk about what the Outlander series means to me. To be honest, I am a bit surprised that I haven't talked about this in more depth on my blog at any time in the last five years. A quick scan of the archives tells me I have alluded to it a few times, but never fully expanded on it.

Let me take you back nearly 20 years. I was an avid reader and had been from as early as I can remember. Every time I got paid I would buy one (or more books) and then the next week I would have read those so would have to go back for more. I couldn't get enough of reading. From a very young age, if I was sent to clean up my room I would invariably end up reading a book. Reading was something that bought me happiness, it was my escape, it fed my soul.

Skipping forward a few years more, I was a young Aussie who set out to travel around Europe, and had ended up staying in the UK. I had met a boy and was settling down, but somewhere between travelling around and settling down I lost myself. It is no exaggeration to say that I didn't read a novel for about 7 years, and it's no coincidence that is about how long I was with the ex.

After returning to Australia, getting rid of the ex (or perhaps I should say breaking up - it sounds less sinister),  my sister asked me why wasn't I starting to read books again. I am not sure that she doesn't regret that suggestion because these days she is more likely to tell me that I spend far too much time reading and talking/blogging about reading.

One year she gave me a copy of Cross Stitch (which is the name that Outlander was published under here) by Diana Gabaldon for my birthday. She is not much of a reader, but her former house mate had recommended it. I said thank you very much and left it on the bookshelf for months and months. I had started to slowly read again, and one weekend I was looking around my house and saw Cross Stitch sitting there neglected and unread, so I picked  it up, not realising what impact that small decision was going to make on my life.

Cross Stitch was by no means the first book I read in coming back to reading, but it was the first time in years that I devoured a book, and I do mean devoured. Each of the Outlander books is about 800-1000 pages or more long depending on the format. I think I read that first book in a weekend. I promptly went to the bookstore and bought the second book, Dragonfly in Amber, and I read that in the next few days, meaning that I was reading until the early hours of the morning and going into work looking like a zombie. My poor child was probably 3 or 4 at the time and ended up having cheese sandwiches for dinner that first weekend (and yes, he would have had to make at least one of those sandwiches himself), and it wasn't much different the weekend after when I read the third book, Voyager, which is still one of my favourite in the series.

I quickly realised that I couldn't buy the next book on a weekday because otherwise I wouldn't get enough sleep, and so on the Friday night I would go and buy the next book and spend the whole of the weekend reading it and this pattern continued until I had finished The Fiery Cross. But then suddenly there were no more of these books to read.

That decision to pick up the first book in this series, reignited my love of reading. Yes, they weren't the first book I read when I started again, but they were the first books that made me realise how hungry I was to read! Since that time, I haven't really stopped, and meeting with like minded readers online, many of whom have become important friends in my life, and who have led me onto some of my other favourite authors. I first heard about Paullina Simons' fabulous Bronze Horseman trilogy from fans of Diana Gabaldon, and I similarly devoured the first two books in that trilogy. Other authors that I first heard about whilst talking to DG fans - Sharon Kay Penman and Sara Donati. From reading Sharon Kay Penman I found about Elizabeth Chadwick, and so on. 

Even after all these years, the Outlander books are right up there with the books that I talk to random people about most. I have pimped the books to people I work with, people I catch the train with, my ex boss, anyone who will listen really. Just today I was reading on the train, and ended up striking up a conversation with the lady who was sitting across from me about the books, about Jamie, and if we happen to sit near each other again we have agreed to have further conversation about lots of other book recommendations.

After reading The Fiery Cross, things came to a screaming halt though because suddenly instead of being able to rush out and buy the next book in the series, I had to wait for as long as it took for the next book to come out. I often wonder if those books were already written and if I had of just kept on reading straight through the series, would my reaction be different to what it is now.

In both A Breath of Snow and Ashes and now An Echo in the Bone, I really think that there is a lot of filler material in the book that doesn't really need to be there, and that was something that I mentioned in my review of A Breath of Snow and Ashes a few years ago. At this stage, I also worry about how exactly Diana Gabaldon is going to be able to finish the series off, and how long away that is, not that I want to see the end as such, but just because there has to come a point when Jamie is too old to fight, and Jamie and Clare are too old to get it on!

That may sound a little cynical, and it is, but in between all the unnecessary plot twists, fights, medical procedures, there are moments that are pure magic, and it is really for those moments that I will continue to read this series. Sometimes they are big moments, and other times they are just small moments but when I read them, I react emotionally, and often out loud. For example, here is just a small moment between Roger and Brianna:

He didn't look up, but kept his eyes fixed in the dark labyrinth of her curls. "I couldn't risk my own kids losing their father." His voice had nearly disappeared; he felt his vocal cords grinding like gears to force the words out.

"It's too important. You don't forget having a dad."

Bree's eyes slid sideways, the blue of them no more than a spark in the firelight.

"I thought... you were so young. You do remember your father?"

Roger shook his head, the chambers of his heart clenching hard, grasping emptiness.

"No," he said softly, and bent his head, breathing in the scent of his daughter's hair. "I remember yours."

Then there are the heart stopping scenes, like the print shop scene in Voyager being my absolute favourite scene! Or the scene....well, actually I can't share all of the scenes that have me reacting. You will need to discover those for yourself.

I want to know what happens with Jamie and Claire, and I want to know more about Bree, about Roger. I want to see Young Ian be happy, I will continue to read the spin-off Lord John Grey mysteries,  and so no matter how much more work it is to read one of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books these days, I will continue to do this, if for no other reason than these books were the catalyst that changed my life.. for the better.

The blog tour that this post is part of is being run by TLC Tours in celebration of the fact that An Echo in the Bone is being released in trade paperback in the US. For more stops on the tour, check out the following link

Monday, August 2nd:  Jenn’s Bookshelves (An Echo in the Bone)
Wednesday, August 4th:  The Literate Housewife Review (Voyager)
Monday, August 9th:  Musings of an All Purpose Monkey (Outlander)
Wednesday, August 11th:  Starting Fresh (An Echo in the Bone)
Thursday, August 12th:  Under the Boardwalk (An Echo in the Bone)
Monday, August 16th:  Planet Books (Outlander)
Thursday, August 19th:  Rundpinne (An Echo in the Bone)
Wednesday, August 25th:  MoonCat Farms Meanderings (An Echo in the Bone)
Monday, August 30th:  Hey, Lady!  Whatcha Readin’? (Outlander)
Tuesday, August 31st:  The Brain Lair (Outlander)
Wednesday, September 1st:  My Two Blessings (Outlander)
Thursday, September 2nd:  Life in the Thumb (An Echo in the Bone)
Tuesday, September 7th:  That’s What She Read (Dragonfly in Amber)
Monday, September 13th:  Suko’s Notebook (Outlander)
Tuesday, September 14th:  Luxury Reading (Outlander)
Wednesday, September 15th:  The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader (An Echo in the Bone)
Thursday, September 16th:  Pop Culture Junkie (Outlander)
Friday, September 17th:  Devourer of Books (Outlander)

Book Meme: 123

Julia has tagged me for a really easy meme! Well easyish anyway! I have done this one before but it's a fun one, so I am happy to do it again!


The rules of this particular meme are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people



So what's difficult about this then? well...nothing really except that I have 5 books sitting basically equidistant from where I am now. (I really need to clean up!) Using a very complex process of Eenie Meenie Miney Mo (or however you spell it!) I give you the following sentences:

Look - I spent three days in that godforsaken circle, thinking. And by God, I thought. I thought of staying, and I thought of going.

Those three sentences came from The Outlandish Companion by Diana Gabaldon.

What were the other books that I could have chosen from? Whispers of the Night by Lydia Joyce, The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne, The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet - Book 2 by Dr Manny Noakes with Dr Peter Clifton and Lord of the Fading Lands by C L Wilson. Somewhat strangely I haven't read any of those books!!


So, who to tag? How about Teddy Rose, Raidergirl, Kailana, Zeek and Chris.


Speaking of all things Outlander, I was over on Youtube today, and I realised that it actually never occurs to me to search for book related things over there. I am not sure why, because I find enough other stuff over there. Anyway, one of the things that I can across was a tongue in cheek casting for the Outlander books that I thought that others might enjoy - click here to watch!

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

The sixth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon continues the story of the Fraser's and MacKenzies with all the action taking place in pre-revolution America.

The eagerly awaited new epic from the International Bestselling Author of The Fiery Cross Their love has survived time, but can they survive fate? 1772 - the eve of the American revolution. In Boston, men lie dead in the street and in the backwoods of America, isolated cabins burn in the darkness of the forest. The Colony is in ferment. Jamie Fraser, a passionate leader of men, receives an envoy from the Governor Josiah Martin, asking for help. The Governor needs someone to unite the backcountry, pacify the seething resentments of the settlers, and keep the mountains safe for King and Crown. Jamie Fraser, everyone agrees, is the man for the job. But Jamie knows what is to come. His wife, Claire, has travelled back in time from the twentieth century, and she knows that it's only a matter of a few years before the start of the War of Independence, ending with the exile or death of the men loyal to the King of England. Neither prospect appeals to Jamie. Beyond everything else, though, looms the threat of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports the destruction of the house on Fraser's Ridge, and the death by fire of James Fraser and all his family. Jamie hopes Claire is wrong, for once, about the future - but only time will tell.

When you read one of these books there are certain elements that appear to be necessary:

Rape

Abduction

Accusations of treason

Description of medical problems

Murder

Sex

Suggestions of witchcraft

I hope that doesn't sound too cynical, but I am afraid I was a little disheartened whilst reading this book. I went out and bought it the first day I saw it, and paid full price for it, not caring that if I had of waited two days I could have had it at a much reduced price. I settled down thinking that this would be the same as the others in the series in that I would be able to devour it in three days, having let an entire weekend pass me by while I spent time in 18th century Scotland and/or America. Six months later I have just finished listening to it in the car.

The good bits in this book, and there were plenty, were as always exceptional. The passages where Ian tells what happened to him when he spent time with the Cherokee were excellent and had me crying my eyes out as I travelled down the road at peak hour, as did several other sections of the book, including the parts that occurred after July 4, 1776. There were also numerous moments throughout the book when I gasped in shock, or laughed out loud, or was left wondering where on earth the journey was going to take me next.

As I was reading though, I couldn't help but feel that there were a lot of story arcs that didn't really need to be in the book to take the story forward. However, having now finished reading the book I can see how some of those parts actually did fit in with the ending, but it took me a long time to see it! There were also numerous occasions where I was far enough outside of the story to notice that phrases were repeated in quite rapid succession, and to be wondering what on earth this part had to do with anything!! I guess what I am saying is that the book could have done with harsher editing.

We still get to see plenty of the very lovely Jamie Fraser (....huge SIGH!!), but his son-in-law Roger Mackenzie comes into his own in this book, seemingly having found his place in the order of life on Fraser's Ridge. Jamie's young nephew Ian Murray is one of my other favourite characters and I really hope that in the next book we get to see him happy and settled (and yes, I am looking forward to the next book already!). Claire was Claire, and Brianna was much more likeable in this book, with wee Jemmy and Germaine in particular scene stealing merrily throughout the book.

I feel I must spare a word for Davina Porter, the actress who narrates the unabridged version of the Outlander books. She is amazing, with clear distinctions of voice between so many characters, and so easy to listen to. It is not always the case with narrators on audiobooks.

I do LOVE the earlier books in this series, and I will continue to buy them, but maybe I will wait a couple of days rather than buying the first copy I see of the next book. Many of the lingering questions of the series have been answered in this book, but I still look forward to reading more about how Claire and Jamie fair during the American Revolution, and hopefully beyond.

In summary, there were still many parts of trademark excellence from the author, but there were too parts of this book that either needed to be edited out or treated differently to keep my attention as the earlier books in the series had.

Rating 4/5