Spell the Month in Books - December

 

Reviews From the Stacks

For 2025 I have decided to have a go at Spell the Month in Books which is hosted at Reviews From the Stacks. The link party opens on the first Saturday of the month, but I won't be posting until after that as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month. I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.

The theme for this month is Giftable. The biggest challenge is finding three E books!

D - Dinner by Nagi Maehashi - We have been cooking out of this cook book for more than a year every week and I am sure anyone could find recipes to cook out! 

E - Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - This book is funny, irreverent and the start of a series, so you could give someone the next book next year as well! (my review)

C - I am cheating with this one but picked it because it is a lot of fun and is now part of my Christmas tradition. I think I totally get away with it because after all the C in December sounds like an S anyway! Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson 

E - Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - This is an older book but it was on that gives you all the feels. It is also a YA book so would work for a range of giftees. (my review)

M - Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - Another book with all the feels. I have read, and loved, this a few times now! (my review)

B - Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This might be something a little different but it gives Japanese foodie charm vibes. (my review)

E - Emma by Jane Austen - maybe a lovely special edition in honour of Jane Austen's 250th birthday.

R - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt - I would recommend the audio of this one. The guy who does the voice of the octopus was exceptional and he is voicing in it the upcoming movie!

I hope that you all get the books you want as gifts this year!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Six Degrees: Ghost Stories to A Brief History of Montmaray

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 the starting point is Ghost Cities by Siang Lu which was recently announced as the winnter of the 2025 Mile Franklin Literary Award here in Australia. I haven't read it, and I don't think I am likely too, but that doesn't mean that I can't make a chain from it!

A book I read earlier this year that featured a house that was haunted by ghosts was Lauren Westwood's The House of Light and Shadows. (my review)

I do love it when a house is almost a character in a book. In The Briar Club by Kate Quinn Briarwood House is a character in it's own right, telling part of the story. I listened to this book on audio recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next book I listened to on audio was Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt which also featured an unusual character - a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus. I loved the voice of Marcellus in the audiobook so I am really pleased to hear that the same actor is going to be the voice in the upcoming movie version too! 

There are remarkably few books with the word remarkably in the title (at least in my reading lists) but there is Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier which is about a woman who was a fossil collector.

Which leads me nicely to The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper.

Choosing the final book was actually a bit harder, as there were almost too many directions I could choose from but in the end I went with the surname of Cooper and chose A Brief History of Montmoray by Michelle Cooper

Next month, the starting point is Dominic Amerena’s novel about authors and publishing, I Want Everything.

Will you be joining us?

This week....

I'm reading

And just like that August is over, winter is over for another year and spring has sprung. Well, actually it's still pretty cold today but it should start to warm up a little bit. We are certainly seeing quite a few blossoms starting to appear on the trees.

I have had a pretty busy reading and a very wintery reading week which might be appropriate given that it was the last week of winter. I read Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson which was a whole heap of fun. It is set in the Australian Alps during the winter so there was a lot of snow.

I then read A Winter Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack which is the second book in the Wedding Adventures series and was set in the Italian Alps. so plenty of snow  I also read Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Mandy Baggot which is for a blog tour this week. This one was set in Iceland. And yes, there was snow.

We don't get snow where I live but I certainly read a lot about snow this week!

In non snow related reading I read The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas which was a fascinating French historical fiction novel. I really enjoyed this one.

I also started The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden. It's due back at the library so I am not sure if I will get it finished or not. I hope so.

Yesterday I also started reading The Last Love Note by Emma Grey and it was a real push to get it read so that I could count it as one of my Aussie August reads. I only just made it but it was so worth the effort!

This week I finished listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, which is an audiobook experience I would highly recommend. I loved the way that Marcellus the Octopus was voiced and I was pleased to learn that the same guy is going to be giving Marcellus a voice in the upcoming movie! 

I started listening to Daughters of Batavia which is a debut novel by Australian author Stefanie Koens. I I have long been fascinated by the story of the Batavia shipwreck. It does always take me a little while to get used to listening to Australian audiobooks but I think I am getting there now. 

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot - Nora Nguyen

Here's where I travelled this month through books

Australia 

Sydney - One Hundred Years of Betty 

Canberra - The Last Love Note

The Alps - Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone

Americas

Washington DC - The Briar Club

Washington State - Remarkably Bright Creatures

Asia 

Japan - The Library of Heartbeats, The Convenience Store by the Sea, Butter

Europe 

England - The Summer Before the War, Will You Stay Another Day?, The Midnight Bakery The Girl from the War Room, The Friendship List

Italy - Glorious Exploits, The Florence Sisters, A Winter Wedding Advenuture

Scotland - The Whisky Widow

Austria  - So This is Christmas

France - The Mad Women's Ball

Iceland -  Meet Me Under the Stars

August was an exceptional reading month both from a numbers and quality wise and to be honest I am a bit shocked. I managed to read 20 books this month, which is surprising since I went back to work full time early in the month.I truly expected my reading to drop right off, and yet it didn't really. And then of those books I rated half of them as either 4.5 or 5 star reads Here are the books that rated either 4.5 or 5 out of 5 with the first three books being 5/5 reads. 

I'm watching

We watched an older superhero movie called Bloodshot with Vin Diesel last night. It was supposed to be the first in a series based on the Valiant comics. It wasn't bad. I've certainly seen worse. It doesn't appear that any more movie set in this world got made though.

We did watch The Thursday Murder Club on Saturday night, and really enjoyed it. It has a phenomenal British cast including Dame Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Richard E Grant, David Tenant and more. It had a good storyline and I did laugh several times. Here's the trailer:

On Sunday night we watched a documentary movie called The Last Journey which tells the story of a Swedish man who takes his dad on a driving adventure to France in a bid to try and shake him out of is post retirement blues. Along the way he learns that ageing is something that is inevitable and can't just be shaken off. I have seen it before at the cinema a while ago and it was just as lovely the second time around.

Life

On Tuesday night we went to see Keith Urban's High and Alive tour. I think this is maybe the ninth or tenth time I have seen him and he was great as always! He always puts on such a great show!

Have you ever done DNA testing. I did mine this week, and I was a bit surprised by. The test says  that I am only 3% Welsh and 14% Germanic. Given that I believed that my mother's father was Welsh, it is something of a surprise. And I have no idea where the Germanic comes in. Guess I will have to start looking to see what I can find!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Aussie August 2025
Blog Tour: So This is Christmas by Helen Rolfe
One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
Weekend Cooking: The Midnight Bakery by Emma Davies
Sunday Salon: 3 Mini Reviews for Women in Translation Month
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: September links

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This week....

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading this week with books read and author events attended! 

I read Waves of Change in Pelican Cove by Maggie Christensen who is definitely a comfort read author for me. My review will be up later this week!

I also finished reading The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina which is an absolutely delightful read. She is an Italian author who has lived in Japan for 20 years. The book felt like a Japanese book, and I can't wait to read more from her. This book will count as a read for Women in Translation Month.

I finished listening to The Briar Club by Kate Quinn. What a book! I really need to find someone to talk to about parts of the book. I will have a review up later in the month, but I can't talk about some of the things that happened as they are major spoilers! Anyone up for a chat about this book?

I then started listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt. I am only a short way in but I already know I am going to love this book too! I love Marcellus the Octopus! I am also already looking forward to the movie adaptation. 

The book that has taken most of my reading time is The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. It's a big book at nearly 600 pages, but so good - a five star read for me! I have now read all of her books which means I just have to wait for the next one. She does tend to have pretty big gaps between books but it will be worth the wait I am sure.

I did also start reading Kelly Rimmer's new book, The Midnight Estate. It is only early days but I am enjoying it so far.

Now I have to work out what my new normal looks like seeing as I won't have as much reading and blogging time going forward. 

At the end of each month I share where my reading has taken me. Before I do that though, I found this quote in the Author's Note for Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen and it sums up bookish travel perfectly!

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot.

You might note a lot of books set in France. I was participating in Paris In July and making the most of it!

Europe

Sweden - Beartown

France - The Magic of Provence, A Bakery in Paris, The Paris Novel, The Village Cafe in the Loire, One Summer in Provence, Fresh Water for Flowers, Eat Your Heart Out

United Kingdom - Your Friend and Mine, One Snowy Day, The Summer Before the War

Iceland - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Italy - A Place in the Sun

Asia

Vietnam - Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour

Australia

Tasmania - The Secrets of the Huon Wren

Sydney - The Deadly Dispute

Queensland - Waves of Change in Pelican Crossing

I also share my favourite reads for the month on Bookstagram and here. I read 18 books in July. Beartown and Eat Your Heart Out were both 5 star reads and the others shown were all 4.5 star reads! Not a bad reading month.

I attended a couple of author events this week. The first was the launch for Alli Parker's new book Until the Red Leaves Fall which was held in a super cool bar with 1950s music playing and there were these adorably cupcakes. It was such a fun night.

The second was an event at a nearby library run by Penguin which featured three of their debut authors, Joanne Miller (The Eights), Chloe Adams (The Occupation) and Michelle See-Toh (Jade and Emerald). It was such an interesting discussion. I ended up buying two of the three books.

There are a couple of theme for August and I am going to be participating in them to some degree or another. The first is Women in Translation and on Instagram also Aussie August 2025 which is a focus on Aussie authors. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of crossover there. After all I shouldn't need Australian translated for me, but I will do my best to read for both of them! 

Have you seen that Lisa from Hopewell has a new monthly link party called A Cup of Tea and a Good Book. The idea is that you can add any bookish links to her link party. All she asks in return is that you visit a couple of other people's links during the month. I am going to be participating where I can.

I'm watching

We finally finished watching season 2 of Andor. The last few episodes were amazing!

We also finished watching the Great Canadian Bake-off. Just in time too, as the Great Australian Bake-off started this week!

We went and saw The Stolen Painting which is a French movie about a painting that was thought to be lost during WWII being found. It was based on a true story. In the movie, a young factory work buys a house, contents and all and it turns out one of the paintings is a masterpiece. Here's the trailer

Life


I spent the last week trying to get some of the things done that I have been meaning to do while I wasn't working. 

I went to the National Gallery of Victoria and took one of their free collections highlight tour. I go to the NGV quite regularly for their big exhibitions but I don't often look at any of the other rooms outside the major exhibition spaces. The tour was super interesting as the guide told us stories behind the pictures, and explained a lot of the symbolism in the painting.  She mainly concentrated on 17 and 18th century pictures but there were some later pictures too. I am definitely going to go and do more of these tours.

On Thursday I went for a very nice massage and facial experience which included a hammam and I could stay in the pool and spa for as long as I wanted to.  

On Friday we went for a drive to the Yarra Valley for a lovely lunch at a winery and a visit to the locat Chocolaterie. It was a lovely way to spend my last weekday before I get back into the working life.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Sunset Colours

Paris in July: Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

Paris in July: French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition
Paris in July: The End
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: August links
The Storytellers by Sue Heath
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - July
Six Degrees of Separation: The Safekeep to I Knew You Were Trouble


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