This week

I'm reading

We have a great life in Australia. One of the less positive things is that it takes a long time to get anywhere, but of course you can find some silver linings if you look hard enough. For example, this week we had around 20 hours of travel time which means I got a few stories read and watched a couple of things.

While we were on the plane, I finished reading The Secret Keeper by Renita D'Silva and then I read a few short stories. I will post my review for The Secret Keeper next week.

I was introduced to a historical fiction short story collection which is being published as a collection called Blaze by The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog. It is spotlighting interesting stories about women. So far I have read Barriers to Entry by Ariel Lawhon and The Forgotten Chapter by Pam Jenoff. I have had Lawhon on my radar for a long time but never actually read her. I will definitely read more. And I have read Pam Jenoff but it has been many, many years. I have some more long flights in my future so I will probably read more.

The other short story I read was by a new to me Scottish author, Stuart MacBride. The story was called The Tasting Menu. I don't read a lot of crime these days, so this was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I picked it up as part of the Amazon First Reads. If I had to pick a word to describe it, it would probably be gruesome.

Finally I started read The Map Maker's Secret by Catherine Law, which is another book predominantly set in Scotland. So far I am enjoying it a lot.


I'm watching

Before we left home, we were still watching a lot of Olympics, and that has continue since we arrived, except now we have to cheer for Australia, South Africa and the Netherlands.

On the plane there were a number of things on offer that I would like to watch. First up I watched a French/Japanese movie called Umami which stars Gerard areu. It is about a French chef who nearly dies and decides on a whim to go to Japan in search of the mysterious qualities of umami. It wasn't bad.

The next movie I watched was called Just One Small Favour. This is a Spanish comedy where a dysfunctional family is called to their summer home when the maid dies, and suddenly lots of secrets are being revealed. It was a bit of fun.

The final thing I watched was a cooking series called Simple Spices by British chef Nadiya Hussain. I have enjoyed a few of her books and series, and this was really good as well. I am not sure this is on in Australia so it was a bit of a find, and there are definitely 

Life

Can you tell I didn't get much sleep on the flight? We are here for my parents-in-laws 60th wedding anniversary, but on Friday we did a walking tour of Soweto which was very interesting, and now we are at a game lodge where we have been on a game drive so far and this morning a massage. The place we are staying is really 1beautiful, with this lovely pool. I am not sure it is quite hot enough to get in the pool but we will see

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Holiday Countdown!

Blog Tour: An Island Promise by Kate Frost 

Weekend Cooking: Greek-ish by Georgina Hayden

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - July statistics

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 shared that I was feeling a little unsettled reading wise, mainly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to read. This week I fixed that by finishing all the books that I had started recently, plus getting ahead on my review reading! It's been a busy reading week

I finished both Daughters of Tuscany by Siobhan Daiko and Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. My review for Daughters of Tuscany will be up in the next couple of days. I also finished The Readers Room by Antoine Laurain

I also started and finished A Love Letter to Paris by Rebecca Raisin, which I will also have a review of in the next few days.

Amazon Prime Reads included The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman this month, so I picked that up and read it very quickly. It really is a short story, coming in at around 30-40 pages. There was a lot in that short story though!

Finally, I decided to start read The Stolen Hours, which is the second book in the Wild Isle Trilogy by Karen Swan. I have decided that this is going to be my Scottish book for my read on a theme book club.

That feels like a lot this week!

I'm watching


We are now into the second week of Tour de France, and we tend to watch around an hour or so each night! Every night there is a 5 minute cooking show which features the food of the region that the bike race is visiting, called Plat du Tour which I really enjoy!

It's hard to believe that before I met my husband I had only ever seen one Star Wars movie, and that that was on a date. Now I end up watching everything as it comes out. This week we started watching The Acolyte which is the latest series.

This was the last weekend of the Spanish Film Festival, so I convince hubby to come and see a movie called The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, which was a really movie film. It's the story of a woman who is looking for her great-grandfather who went missing in the 1930s. Along the way she learns about her grandfather's childhood, and the role a teacher played in it. This teacher really existed which makes the story even more moving. I definitely recommend both this movie, and the one that I talked about last week as well.

Here's the trailer:

I have had another Spanish film called Lemon and Poppyseed Cake on my to be watched list for a couple of years but I hadn't been able too find where I could stream it. I was looking for something else when I stumbled across it so I had  to watch it. This was very different to the other movie, feels a bit more soapie, but I liked the story and now I need to make someting lemony and poppyseedy!


Life

Other than what I mentioned above not a lot to tell life wise. We are counting down to our holidays which will be here before we know it. I think all the main things are booked

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Purple!

Paris in July: Since Last Paris in July

Paris in July: An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my Kitchen in June

Six Degrees of Separation: Kairos to A Nurses Life


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