This year I am participating in Countdown to 2025 hosted by Lynn from Lynn's Books. I am travelling at the moment so I am doing both yesterday and today's prompt today. The prompt for yesterday was A roaring fire – a book that was heartwarming
II actually struggled with this prompt a bit but in the end I chose this book because it tells the story of a woman who is starting life over after tragedy and the community that she begins to build. You can read my review here. It was also one of my 5/5 reads for the year and you can read my review here
The prompt for today is Family and Friends – a book with great characters. I chose The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman because I am really looking forward to seeing how these characters come to life when the TV series is released! I must read the next book in the series.
Tomorrow's prompt is Bottle of Bubbly – your first read for 2025. I have one book that I really want to finish before I start thinking about my first book of the year for 2025. Fingers crossed I finish it!
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Debut Novels I Enjoyed (A debut novel is an author’s first published book. You could also choose to share genre or age group debuts if you’d prefer, such as an adult fiction author’s first YA book or a mystery writer’s first romance.) (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy)
I keep track of a lot of things on my two spreadsheets, whether a book is the author's debut or not is not one of them. So I am going to twist the topic a little bit and share the last ten books that I have read where I hadn't read the author before.
Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg - If all goes to plan I will be reviewing this next weekend.
The Itinerary by Penny Pentley - This was a fun trip through Europe
Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - I can't believe I hadn't read this author before now. (My review)
A New Dawn at Owl's Lodge by Jessica Redland - I would like to read more from this author (My review)
Come Fly With Me by Helen Rolfe - I will be reading my next book from this author soon (My review)
The French Cookery School by Caroline James - This was so much fun! Made me want to do a cooking course in France. (My review)
Invitation to Italy by Victoria Springfield - I'd be happy to visit Italy or France. Either one really. (My review)
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - i can't wait to see the movie of this! The cast looks stellar.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - I have the next book on my Kindle already.
The French Adventure by Jennifer Bohnet - Say yes to adventure! (My review)
This week my reading is taking me to Greece, more specifically to Santorini. I am reading Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin and really enjoying it! I will have the review for this one up later this week.
We had our read on a theme bookclub meeting last week. The theme was Crime: Fact or Fiction and there were lots of interesting books that were read. Here are just some of them.
My two books were The Thursday Murder Club and The Woman Who Walks in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith, which is part of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The next theme is related to Writers Festivals, which could be an author you have seen at a festival before or one who is coming to a writers festival soon. That gives a lot of scope for authors. Not sure who I will choose yet.
I'm watching
Last week we watched the finale of Great Kiwi Bake Off. I don't think we have any new Bake Offs to watch at the moment but I think there should be a new Aussie version soon. Hopefully.
I also managed to watch a few movies this week, and they were all very different from each other. The first one I watched was Love at First Sight movie which was based on the book The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith. It is a meet-cute rom-com where our two main characters sit next to each other on a flight from the US to London. It also featured Jameela Jalil as an almost fairy godmother like character. It was a lot of fun and just what I need on that particular day!
We met up with some friends for a long lunch on Saturday and during the course of a wide ranging conversation the movie Leave the World Behind based was recommended. This was based on a book of the same name by Rumaan Alam. I don't normally watch this kind of thriller, but it was definitely watchable. I did find the ending very...abrupt. It felt like there should probably be more movie! I did also find it a bit odd that the Obamas were connected with the movie. They were Executive Producers.
I also finally got to watch the French movie The Taste of Things. If you look up the phrase food porn in the dictionary you will be directed to watch this movie. There is very little dialogue in the first 39 minutes. It is literally a well choreographed sequence of chopping and cooking, the various characters working in sychronisation as an amazing meal is prepared
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’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around (I love re-reading, but there are some books that hit so perfectly and I loved so much that I worry reading them again wouldn’t be the same. Or maybe the books I read when I was younger wouldn’t be favorites anymore. Or maybe some books just don’t age well?).
I don't reread that much, except for certain audiobooks like Hogfather by Terry Pratchett and two Georgette Heyer books which are narrated by Richard Armitage.
Instead this week, I am going to share some of the books that I have read for my read on a theme book club. What is a read on a theme book club? And is it book club, bookclub or book-club? My book club meets approximately every 6 weeks and at each meeting we decide on a theme for the next choice. You then read whatever book you like that meets the theme rather than the more traditional method of picking a specific book that everyone then has to read
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - This is the current theme which is Crime: Fact or Fiction. It seemed the perfect time to read a book I have had on my TBR for a while now.
The Anywhere Hotel by Gisele Stein - The theme for this was Out of My Comfort Zone, which for me was a new to me self published author. I missed the meeting for this as I was away for the weekend which was a shame as one of the other ladies read all three Fifty Shades books and the conversation was apparently hilarious.
The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley - The theme for this one was A Book with a City in its name
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - The theme for this one was Science and it was one of the few occasions where a couple of us read the same book.
Spring Clean for the Peach Queen by Sasha Wasley - The theme was Colour in the Title
The Last of the Apple Blossom by Mary-Lou Stephens - The theme was Spring
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams - This is the only book we have ever all read for the one meeting, and we chose to do this because some of us were going to hear her speak at Melbourne Writers Festival.
The Visitors by Jane Harris - The theme for this one was Indigenous Authors
Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland - The theme for this one was Australian Authors. To be fair, a lot of the authors on this list are Australian!
The Proxy Bride by Zoe Boccabella - The theme was New and I chose this one as I bought the book new, it was a new author to me and it was about starting a new life.
What themes do you think you would choose if you were in a read on a theme book club!
Our current theme for our read on a theme book club is Crime: Fact or Fiction, so I decided it was time for me to see what all the fuss is about and read Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. I can see why people enjoy it. There are a lot of fun elements in it, and I love that we are only just getting to know all of the characters, especially Elizabeth. Can't wait to find out more about her past.
Speaking of book clubs, my next read was The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey which I am need to review for a blog tour this week. I have always enjoyed this author's books and this was no exception.
Just this morning I started a book called The Lost Letters of Aisling by Cynthia Ellingsen. It was one of Amazon's First Read books this month and it was calling my name.
Finally I thought I better actually start reading Relish by Lucy Knisley which is this month's Cook the Book selection. This is actually a re-read for me but it was a VERY long time ago.
I'm watching
You know I love a foreign film festival and make an effort to see at least one film from each festival during the year. If I had to pick a favourite film festival though, it would be the French Film Festival and it is on right now! Hooray!! Looking at the list of films, there are at least 5 or 6 that I would like to see.
I occasionally gently encourage my husband to come with me to see festival films, so I thought I would start this year's festival viewing with a film he should really like. On Saturday night we went to see the The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and it was a lot of fun. There have been so many version of The Three Musketeers over the years, and this one was a very good version. There were sufficient levels of buckle and swash, derring do and fair maidens! It was a lot of fun. We are planning to try and see the follow up movie, The Three Musketeers: Milady next weekend!
Here's the trailer for D'Artagnan
Life
It's a long weekend here as we have Monday off for Labour Day, it is hot hot hot. We have 3 days in a row over 38 degrees. Now, in other parts of Australia they will scoff because they have that every second weekend, but here in Melbourne that is the longest streak we have had since 1942. We are therefore keeping a very low profile this weekend and not doing a lot. We went to the movies on Saturday night and today we are going to my sister's for dinner and maybe a swim!
In other news, I have been thinking about a blog redesign for years, and it is actually happening! Watch this space...literally!
Max and Nala
We did put the clam shell out for the dogs yesterday, although I do think we need a bigger pool for them! lol
I mentioned last week that I started reading The Paris Cooking School which I have now finished and really enjoyed. However, I probably won't post the review for this one until July, as it will be a perfect Weekend Cooking post for Paris in July.
I also mentioned that I wasn't sure what I would listen to next. I ended up deciding to go back to something I have listened to a few times but not for a few years now. I chose to re-listen to Sylvester by Georgette Heyer, as narrated by Richard Armitage. Hello aural bliss!!
I am on a blog tour for A Villa with a View by Julie Caplin later this week so I started and finished that this week. It bought back a lot of memories of our trip to Italy early last year.
While I was in Sydney last week, my read on a theme bookclub met and they decided that our next theme would be Crime: Fact or Fiction. I have had Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club waiting for me for a while so this seems like a good time to start reading it! Apparently I missed a cracker of a conversation. Our previous theme was "Outside Your Comfort Zone" and one of our older members decided it was time to read Fifty Shades of Grey which led to a lot of talk!
I'm watching
We are part way through several series but we didn't make a lot of progress this week. We did go and see Dune Part 2. We went a bit further afield from our closest cinema so we could get the reclining seats and it was worth it
Life
On Thursday I had a leaders day where we talked all about Diversity Equity and Inclusion. It was a full on day, but very interesting. Normally after a day like that I would go home exhausted but not this week as Ie went to see the theatre adaptation of Pip Williams' A Dictionary of Lost Words based on her book of the same name. Whilst I haven't read Dictionary, I have read the accompanying book, The Book Binders of Jericho. I really enjoyed the play, but I was exhausted by the end of the day!
In other exciting news, our holiday plans for August/September are starting to come together. I am so excited about some of the plans and I can't wait to share my experiences with you all!
