Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books by Favourite Authors

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is My Favorite Books by My Favorite Authors (Pick your ten favorite authors and your favorite book written by each one of them.) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext). After going rogue with my topics for the last two weeks, this week I am back on track.

I have broken this into two separate groups. The first five are authors who I have loved for years. The second group are more recent discoveries for me.

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick - I have gotten really behind on EC books but I still count her one of my favourites. I have given a lot of her books very high rating. At the time I read this one I gave it a 4/5 but this is the foundational book for me, about William Marshal and a several of her later books focus on him or his descendants. 

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman - This is SKP's book on Richard III, the first one I had read by her and is absolutely a 5 star read.

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - I loved the first 4 books in the Outlander series, but if you are forcing me to pick a favourite it is the third book in the series

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - I could not do a list of favourite authors without including Susanna Kearsley. I also could not do a list of favourite SK books without mentioning The Winter Sea. It's a book I have reread 3 times and I am not a rereader.

The Other Bridget by Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is one of only two authors that I consistently read when I had a years long reading slump a while ago.

Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey - This author writes a lot of books featuring people moving to France for a new life. This one was a bit different but I loved it!

Head Over Wheels by Leonie Mack - I don't read a lot of sports romances this day but this one featuring professional cyclists was a lot of fun. And book 2 in this world is coming out soon. Can't wait. I also am enjoying her Wedding Adventures series. And her standalone books. You get the idea!

The Paris Bookshop for the Broken- Hearted by Rebecca Raisin - I love the way that Rebecca Raisin writes about food, books and places, especially when she writes about Paris.

The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson - This was my first Laura Pearson and I loved, loved, loved this book!

Summer in Bellbird By by Maggie Christensen - In the last 5 years I have read 26 books by Maggie Christensen. She must be a favourite by definition right? They are my definition of comfort reads for sure.

Do we share any favourite authors? 

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is  Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today (These could be authors who have passed away or retired/are taking a long hiatus from writing. You could also spin this and share authors who have switched to a genre you’re not interested in.) (submitted by Rebecca @ Top100Books)

When I  checked I realise that we did this topic a couple of years ago. Most of the names are the same (although I chose different book covers to share) but I did change a couple of them! For the most part I have chosen authors who have passed away, except for the last two!

I did have another author in my list and it was only when I went to Fantastic Fiction to check that I realised that she has actually had about 5 books out in the last few years. Whoops!

Anyway, here's my list.

Diana Norman/Ariana Franklin - I loved the Mistress of the Art of Death series which this author published under the name of Ariana Franklin, but I first started reading her books under her name Diana Norman, and I particularly enjoyed her Makepeace Hedley trilogy which started with A Catch of Consequence

Sharon Kay Penman - I love SKP's books and often mention books like The Sunne in Splendour or Here Be Dragons in relation to her. This time though, I am going to use the first of her Justin de Quincy mysteries as my choice. 

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I think it is maybe time for me to reread The Shadow of the Wind. I loved that book so much. 

Susan Vreeland - It appears I have only read three of this author's books, but they definitely left an impact!

Lucinda Riley - When Lucinda Riley passed away before the last book in the Seven Sisters series was released, her son took over the writing. Recently, it's been announced that he has written a new book set in the same world. I am invested enough to want to read the book, but also not sure how I feel about it all!

Terry Pratchett - I do occasionally find myself wondering what Sir Terry would make of the world right now. 

Stieg Larsson - Remember how popular this author's books were back in the early 2000's. Crazy to think that he passed away before the books were published and so successful.

Kerry Greenwood - When this Australian author passed last year I was sad to think that we had no more Phryne Fisher novels to come, even though I still have a lot of the series to read.

Laura Florand - Laura Florand will always appear on these lists for me. No, she hasn't passed away, but she no longer writes. When I went through a reading slump that lasted for years a while ago, she was one of the few authors who I still read! 

Lisa Kleypas - Don't panic. Lisa Kleypas is alive and well. In fact, she probably shouldn't be on this list at all given that she has recently announced that there will be a new book coming out from her soon. It's just that it has been a long 5 years since the last one! This is one of her standalone books which is probably lesser known, but it is also one of my favourites.

Six Degrees of Separation: The Four Dutchmen to Case Histories

 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 and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This month is a wildcard to begin the year so we start with the book that we finished last month’s chain with, which means I am starting with The Four Dutchmen by W Somerset Maughan. My instant thought was to o with a Dutch connection but I actually did a whole Dutch chain a couple of months ago so had to give it some more thought.

I very nearly still went with a Dutch related book for my first link but instead I am going in a completely different route. My first choice this month is The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This is a book featuring dragons in a romantasy setting.

My next selection is also a book with dragons but this time the setting is real history, with a twist. Temeraire by Naomi Novik is set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars! This book was also published under the title His Majesty's Dragon. (my review)

From here, I had a decision to make. One choice would have taken me down the path of books published with different titles, but in the end I have chosen to focus on the word dragons, even though there was no sign of actual dragons in the book. My next selection is Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman which is one of a trilogy of books which tells the history of Welsh royalty

The book that I have read most recently that was set in Wales is Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas. (my review)

The most recent book that I read which was a Christmassy book was One December Morning by Emma Davies. (my review)

A book that was mentioned in that book was Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. (my review)

So there's my Six Degrees of Separation which has dragons and no dragons, a bit of time in Wales and some Christmas fun. 

Next month, the starting point is Flashlight by Helen Choi, a book that I am currently trying, and struggling, to read.

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Big 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 with a High Page Count (Share those doorstop books!)

Once upon a time if I saw a big, thick book on a bookstore shelf then there was every chance I would buy it. The bigger, the better! I even used to participate in a Chunkster Challenge. These days, I don't read that many chunksters. Also, if I am going to buy big books, it would most likely be an ebook that I can read on my Kindle.

Originally I was planning to refer to my spreadsheets and do this topic by looking for the books with the most number of pages. However, I decided to go with a simpler approach. Instead I scanned my overflowing bookshelves and looked for the thickest books I could find! The only rule/guideline I had was that I could only use one book per author. Of course, when I was putting them back on the shelves I found several other books that I should have used for this prompt too!

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb -(863 pages) I swear that I got this book not long after it came out, but I still have never read it!

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - (1270 pages) I am currently doing a chapter a day readalong so after talking about reading it for 15 years I am finally doing it!

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes - (614 pages) This is another one I haven't read yet. It almost feels like a pattern forming here right?

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon - (980 pages) Most of Gabaldon's books could fit this theme. I have read this one. (My review)

The Shadow Sister by Lucinda Riley - (672 pages)I am not even sure why I have a paper copy of this book because I listened to all 8 books in this series. That's a lot of listening time.

Bettany's Book by Tom Keneally - (599 pages) It looks like I got this off of a remainders table. I haven't read it yet and I am not really sure if I will or not. It survived the last cull of my bookshelves. It might not survive the next one whenever that happens!

A Song in the Daylight by Paullina Simons - (767 pages) I loved many of Paullina Simons's books, but this wasn't my favourite. I did see that she has just announced that she has a new book coming out. It sounds great, but I am not sure if I will rush out and read it or not.

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor - (860 pages) Gosh I loved this epic book! Someone I know is reading this at the moment and called it a great romp, and that is the perfect description of the book! I used the words bawdy romp in my review.

When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman - (909 pages) SKP is another author who wrote big epic books! 

Dawn on a Distant Shore by Sara Donati - (647 pages) This is a favourite series. I noticed when I took it off the shelf that there is a bookmark in it. I must have been intending to reread it at some point.

By looking at the variation in pages numbers on all the page numbers you can really see what a difference the way the book is produced from the thickness of the paper to the size of the font!

Do you love big books!

SIx Degrees: Knife to Here Be Dragons

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 is Salman Rushdie’s memoir, Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder

Using the word knife as my link I am choosing YA book The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

A somewhat similar title, but a very different book is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, who is a very well known Japanese/British author.

If you want to talk about big name Japanese authors then Haruki Murakami would have to be right up there! I am choosing to use his book Norwegian Wood, for no other reason than we just got back from a cruise that went to Japan and Korea and we were on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

There were two main reasons for choosing the cruise that we chose. It visited Okinawa with it's interesting WWII and post WWII history, and it was cherry blossom season. A book that has both WWII history (albeit about Japanese POWs in Australia) and cherry blossoms on the cover is Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss.

Another book about POWs being incarcerated in a different county is The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies. This time though the POWs are German and are imprisoned in North Wales.

Now, if I am going to talk about books set in Wales, I can't go past the amazing Sharon Kay Penman for my final link. Her book Here Be Dragons is a book that has lived long in my memory! It is about Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales.

My chain is a bit all over the place this month which might be a product of my still on holiday brain, but part of the fun of Six Degrees is seeing the way that the links work in each participants mind. One thing that these books have in common is that they are all older books. I think the newest one is Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms which came out in 2016.

By the way, I mixed up my memes this month, and did a Six Degrees style post for my Top Ten Tuesday post last week. Interestingly that had quite a few WWII books as well. You can check it out here!

Next month, the starting point is an historical novel longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize, Rapture by Emily Maguire.

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'd Love Another Book From

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Authors I’d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!)

The first five authors I have mentioned are people who have passed away.

Terry Pratchett - When I was looking at the website, I saw that they have found a "lost" book so there will be something new.

Ariana Franklin - This is an example of a series where a family member continued the series after the author's death.

Sharon Kay Penman - While we will never have a new SKP book, I do still have a couple of books still to read.

Susan Vreeland - I really liked this authors take on historical fiction.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I did love Shadow of the Wind so hard

And the next few just don't seem to be writing anymore

Lisa Kleypas - There's an irony that I have three historical romance readers on this list because I just don't really read this genre anymore.

Liz Carlyle - I used to love Liz Carlyle's books but there hasn't been a new one for years now.

Loretta Hill - This author was writing rural fiction featuring women working in really interesting jobs before she just stopped writing.

Laura Florand - A while ago I was going through a huge reading slump and there were only two authors who I was still reading. Laura Florand was one of those.

Tessa Dare - In theory there is going to be another Tessa Dare book but it does keep on getting delayed. The release date is now 3036

Six Degrees of Separation: Time Shelter to The Girl in Times Square

 

 

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 the starting point is

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov and translated by Angela Rodel.

I am pretty sure that you are going to be able to pick my theme for the month pretty easily! My first choice is The Time of Singing by Elizabeth Chadwick which is medieval historical fiction

Another medieval historical fiction title with the word time in is Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman

A few years ago I used to spend time with fans of Sharon Kay Penman, and I am sure that I was recommended this book- The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer.

If Iook at the words time traveller, I instantly thought of The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

The time traveller's wife is somebody's daughter which leads me to Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

She would have also been a girl at some point, so my final link in the chain is The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons.

The starting point for next month is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Passing time

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Books With a Unit of Time In the Title (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, eternity, etc.) (Submitted by RS @ The Idealistic Daydream)

My plan is to work through the units, starting with a year and working down to seconds.

Year One by Nora Roberts - Starting with a year. 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - It's only as I was putting this post together that I realise that both of these books are about plague or sickness.

Just One Year and Just One Day by Gayle Forman - I couldn't resist using both of these titles for this theme.

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber - After day comes night. Or does day come after night?

The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati - The next unit of time is hours.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - and hours

Eleven Hours by Paullina Simons - and more hours

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak - moving down through the next two units!

Time and Chance by Sharon Penman - And time is what this theme was all about!

What books did you share for this week's prompt.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Sharon Kay Penman edition

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books Published Before I Was Born, which is a fabulous topic that I might do at a future date, but I really wanted to take a moment to talk about the books of Sharon Kay Penman.

The historical fiction world was rocked a few days ago when the news came out that SKP had died at aged 75. I have long claimed her as one of my favourite authors. I have also been fortunate to connect with others who loved her books, meeting up with fellow fans on a regular basis for several years.

I thought for this week's Top Ten Tuesday post,  I would share ten books by this wonderful author. I have also realised in the course of this post that it has been a long time since I read one and I still have several to read! She bought medieval history to life, making these historical figures so real to her readers in big, detailed books that are sheer pleasure to read.

The Sunne  in Splendour - my first and probably still my favourite this book changed a lot of people's opinion of Richard III

Here Be Dragons - as much as Sunne in Splendour is still my favourite, this is a close run thing. My grandfather on my mother's side is Welsh, so I enjoyed reading some of the history of this country. One day I will make it there

Falls the Shadow - the second book in the Welsh trilogy, this time focussing on a very divisive figure from history - Simon de Montfort.

The Reckoning - this is the third book in the Welsh trilogy and again was another enjoyable read.

The Queen's Man - whilst SKP was known for her chunky medieval historical stories, her Justin de Quincy stories were really enjoyable historical mysteries! The queen in question.....Eleanor of Aquitaine

Prince of Darkness - the final book in the Justin de Quincy series, although there were many times when I saw people asked if there was going to be more books in the series.

When Christ and His Saints Slept - This book is the first book in the Henry and Eleanor (yes, of Aquitaine) trilogy, and certainly helped feed my fascination with this amazing woman.

Devil's Brood - The third book to focus on Henry and Eleanor and their highly disfunctional family

Lionheart - This book changed the focus to Richard the Lionheart, including the crusades!

The Land Beyond Sea - The latest book to be released, once again the crusades are the focus, but this time the central characters is King Baldwin.

Rest in peace Sharon Kay Penman, and thank you for your books.

Six Degrees of Separation: Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret to Her Fearful Symmetry

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 was very excited when this month's starting book was announced as being Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume because, well, I am a Margaret. I remember being thrilled when I read this book as a teenager because there just weren't many girls my age with the name Margaret.

Given that I am Margaret, I have decided to start with the fact that this is all about me and then stick with those kind of his, hers, them, us kind of words.

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos - I read and loved this book more than 10 years ago and even now just looking at the cover still makes me smile. 

It Had to be You by Susan Elizabeth Philips - Funny story. Last month I said about I must, I must increase my bust, and this is the book I thought of, well for obvious reasons. I decided very early on not  to go down that route, but then when I was looking for a You book that I hadn't already been used, this is one of the titles that came up so I guess it was meant to be.

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar - I read this for my old book club about 9 years ago. I rated it really highly but I don't think I remember a lot about it!

When We Were Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal - This is one that I read last year so I do remember!

When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman - It has been way too long since I read a SKPl novel. I am about 3 behind so I don't really have any excuses, especially because I love her books when I read them

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger - My preference for only using books I have read often leads to old books making an appearance. I read this book so long ago I wasn't even on Goodreads at the time!

Next year's (!!!) first book is Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Top 10 Tuesday: Most Anticipated Book Releases for the First Half of 2020

In my quest to find ways to try to get myself into blogging I thought I would participate in this week's Top 10 Tuesday meme as hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The theme this week is the books you are excited about in the first half of the year. I don't know if I can join in on the topics on a regular basis and I didn't come up with ten books but never mind!!

Here are the top 8 books I'm looking forward to

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel - The third book in the Wolf Hall series about the life of Thomas Cromwell

The Switch by Beth O'Leary - The Flatshare by this author was my sole 5/5 read in 2019 so I am very much looking forward to this book

Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer Fleming - It has been 7 years since the last instalment in the Rev Clare Fergusson/Russ van Alstyne series which is one which I was well and truly invested in back in the day

The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan - The next book in the Cormac Reilly crime series set in Galway

The Queen's Bargain by Anne Bishop - Another long wait for this book, this time 9 years. In fact, I'm not sure that I even thought that there would ever by another book in the Black Jewels series but here it is!

Something to Talk About by Rachael Johns - Australian author Rachael Johns has been one of my go to authors for a few years now, and I'm sure that this book won't disappoint

The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman - Confession time. I have loved so many SKP books but despite that I am actually quite behind on her books. Doesn't stop me being excited about a new one though!!

The Women's Page by Victoria Purman -I really enjoyed the Land Girls and The Last of the Bonegilla Girls by this author. This time the author is focusing on the lives of women in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

What upcoming releases are you excited about?