Top Ten Tuesday: Author Events

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’ve Met. 

I am very lucky to be able to attend author events pretty regularly, whether it be as part of individual authors, panel events, or even a reader's retreat that I attend every year. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been too. If I go back 15 or 20 years there are some big name authors I could name such as Paullina Simons, Maria Snyder and more. I could also talk about the time I had dinner with Sara Donati in the Pacific North West or many years ago with Paullina Simons but I won't. For my post today, I am going to share about some of the more recent events I have been to which means that they are all Australian authors. 

Tess Woods -The most recent event I went to was in respect of Tess Woods new release, The Cairo Bridal Shop. Sometimes at these events there are even cocktails

Anita Heiss - I have met this author a few times now, and she was even the author on our table at one of the retreats we attended a couple of years ago. She is such a lively person! I last saw her at a romance panel event I went to a few weeks ago

Also at that same event there were a number of other authors including Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus , Nina Kenwood, Victoria Brownlee, Darcy Green and more. And there was swag!

Jodi McAlister - This author was at that same panel event but I have now met her a couple of times, including at the launch of her latest book

Steph Vizard  - This is another author I have met more than once who was at the panel. I see her at quite a few events, but specifically attended her book launch last year and re-met her at the readers retreat that I attended in June

Emma Grey - I was so excited to attend an evening with Emma Grey and Kate Solly. I read two of Emma's books last year and gave them both 5/5. This one was at a bookstore I had never visited before which is always fun.

Benjamin Stevenson - The author of the Ernest Cunningham series came to my local library as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival so I always try to attend events there because I would like there to be more!

Tom Trumble - a more unusual choice for me given that it is a non fiction book but I chose it because I thought that my husband would like to come to this one and he did. This event was held at the War Memorial. Interestingly, it was only as I searched my blog for a picture for this post that I realised that I had heard this author speak previously at a Melbourne Writer's Festival event 15 years ago!

Holly Brunnbauer  - An event at my previous local library which is about half an hour away from me, so I try to go to events there as well. 

Rachael Johns - Rachael Johns is possibly the only author who I would deliberately go and see twice in one day. On this particular day she was at my local library and also at an event called Books in Bars which is held in a regional city about 90mins away. Of course, I did both! The readers retreat that I have mentioned a couple of times is her brainchild. You can read about the fab time I had at this year's event here. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Last 10 Author Events I Have Been To!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Thanksgiving/Thankful Freebie. It took me a little while to think of something, but I got there in the end.

I am very lucky and yes, thankful, to live in a city with a very active book scene. There are always events on. Some times they are big named authors who attract a crowd of thousands, and sometimes it is a small event at a local library with just a handful of people. Then there are multiple festivals in various country towns and suburban areas. Sometimes I know lots of people in the room and other times not. One thing you do know when you go to an author event is that if nothing else you can talk about books! 

My post this week is the last ten author events I have been too. Usually if I attend an event I will buy the book and get it signed. Sometimes there are goodies, sometimes tasty treats, but the events are always fun!

Holly Brunbauuer - Just last week Bree from All the Books I Can Read went to our local library to hear this author talk about her debut novel, What Did I Miss? It was a very interactive session!

Rachael Johns (twice) - A couple of weeks ago I went to see Rachael Johns talk about The Lucky Sisters (my review) both at my even localler local library and then to a Books in Bars events in a regional city about an hour away from me.

Helen Goh - This was an event in the city where we not only got to listen to the conversation but also got to try some of the recipes from her latest cookbook, Baking and the Meaning of Life.

Steph Vizard - It was standing room only at this event which was the launch of her latest book,  A Smart Girl's Guide to Second Chances. 

January Gilchrist - By contrast, this was a very intimate conversation about January Gilchrist's debut novel,  The Final Chapter, which was held in what is in effect a sales office at a new residential development. This night was so much fun because it was such a small gathering! I took a friend with me who had never been to an author event before.

Madeleine Cleary and Anne Freeman - This was a fun night where these two authors spoke about their two books which both feature sex workers. One was set in 1850s Melbourne, The Butterfly Women (my review) and the other is a modern story about an online sex worker, Me That You See.

Emma Mugglestone - This launch for In the Long Run was held in a bar around half an hour or so away from me. There was even a delicious cocktail!

Alli Sinclair - This was a drive up the highway for an hour or so to an event in Ballarat to hear Alli Sinclair talk about her new book, A Woman's Voice.

Joanne Miller (The Eights), Chloe Adams (The Occupation) and Michelle See-Toh (Jade and Emerald) - This was an event held in a library about half an hour away from me, and featured three debut authors from Penguin. 

Alli Parker - This was a fun launch for Until the Red Leave Fall. It was held in a super cool bar. The mood was set with 1950s music and the crowd was buzzing! And there were these super cute cupcakes

Wow, that has surprised me. That only takes me back to the end of July this year. Oh, and I just realised I missed one too! Sorry Christine Newel! I suspect that there will be only one more event this year which I am going to on Thursday, but bring on next year, when it will start all over again!

This week

 I'm reading

After a few quieter weeks it was a busy reading week this week!

I finished reading The Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by  Rebecca Raisin which was a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas romp on a train through Europe.

I also finished listening to an audiobook this week. Somewhat unusually it was a non fiction book about writing. I Give You My Body...How I Write About Sex by Diana Gabaldon was mentioned at the reader retreat I attended earlier this year, purely because of some of the names she lists for the male appendage which was mentioned as being particularly humourous. The book was narrated by Herself (which is what dedicated DG fans call her) but it also featured a lot of excerpts from the audiobooks of the series. The two things I took away from it were that Diana Gabaldon talks really fast, and it also reminded me how much I loved this series back in the day. I still haven't read the last book because the last couple have been a bit like hard work to get through. I haven't yet started my next audiobook. Not sure what I am going to choose. 

I started reading A New Life in Amsterdam by Helga Jenssen. I will have the review for that one later this week. 

I also started The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas. I have read a few of Jo Thomas' books over the year and really enjoyed them all, so this is me now starting to go back through her backlist.

A few months ago now, I went to an author event which featured Jodi McAlister who had just launched An Academic Affair. This weekend was our read on a theme book club meeting and the theme for this time was Romance. Now, I am never going to be short of a read for this theme, but I decided that this book was going to be the one that I specifically chose to read. And I loved it!

I also talked about The Last Love Note by Emma Grey.

Here are just some of the books that other members read this month!

We agreed that for next month is a freebie. Not sure if that is going to make it harder or easier to choose which book to talk about. 

I did go to a book launch this week. Steph Vizard's new book A Smart Girl's Guide to Second Chances was launched at a local bookstore, and it was standing room only there were so many people there! It was a good night, and I got to see a few other bloggers, bookstagrammers and authors that I am getting to know as we all turn up at the same events from time to time. I am looking forward to reading the book. 

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

Here's where I travelled through books in September

Australia

Tasmania - An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

Western Australia - Daughter of Batavia by Stefanie Koens

Asia

Japan - The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi, The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

Europe

France - A French Inheritance by Jennifer Bohnet

Ireland - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Italy - The Lost Garden by Angela Petch, Daughter of Genoa by Angela Petch

UK - Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop by Jessica Redland, The Life She Could Have Lived by Laura Pearson

US 

Seattle - The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden

I also share my favourite reads for the month on Bookstagram and here. I read 11 books in September which is down a bit from the last couple of months but not really surprising. An Academic Affair was a 5 star read and the others shown were both 4.5 star reads! 

I'm watching

After book club on Saturday three of us went and sat at a cafe near the beach and just watched the world go by before we went to see Napoli - New York as part of the Italian Film Festival. It was a good movie. It's the story of two orphans from Napoli who stow away on a boat to get to America and all the things that happen to them along the way. I actually like it a lot. It was a big melodramatic but ti was entertaining.

Life

We booked our next year's holiday and I am so excited! However, my attention is now turned to our next holiday which is in a couple of weeks. Better start getting organised. 

Max

Because my son was away at the same time we were, we had to get a petsitter in for Max. I think he was okay with it! She shared a lot of photos with us over the three days we were away.


Posts from the last week



Top Ten Tuesday: It's a Flower!
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - October links

In My Kitchen - September

Six Degrees of Separation - I Want Everything to Dear Mrs Bird





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

Well, it's finally happened. Last week was the week where the number of books I either read or started dropped dramatically. I don't see this week being any different as it is going to be very busy the whole week between work and social activities.

So what did I read last week?

I finished reading The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden which I absolutely loved, and I have already requested another of her books from the library. This book was very foodie with some magical realism which is a combination I love to read. 

The other book I read was Jessica Redland's Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop. I mentioned in my review of Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Maggie Baggot that Iceland is calling my name and this book just reinforced that. My review Bay Bookshop will be up later this week.

I did attend two author events last week. The first was a drive to the other side of the city to listen to author Christine Newell talk about her memoir Five Seasons in Seoul. It was a very interesting conversation and I can see myself reading this one despite the fact that I don't read a huge amount of non-fiction. It helps that my interest was piqued because we visited Seoul very briefly earlier this year 

The other event I attended on Saturday night was a round table of romance authors. 5pm on a Saturday (yes, I wrote that to the tune of Piano Man) is an odd time to have an author event but it was a large crowd. The authors that were present were Steph Vizard, Jodi McAlister, Katharine Pollack and Michelle Kalus and Ali Berg who are two best friends who write together. It was such a fun conversation where they asked each other questions ranging from how do you know when an idea is viable to what's harder to write - a first kiss or a sex scene. 

I'm watching

Not much other than football because it is the finals series here now. My team, the Adelaide Crows, finished on top of the AFL ladder at the end of the season but lost their first match. Luckily they have a second chance so they will be playing my husband's team this Friday night.

Life


My husband and his kids were all together in one place for the first time in about three years so on Monday I took the day off and we went up to a winery in the Yarra Valley for a nice lunch and then to the Chocolaterie. They were all here for their aunt's wedding. They all then went up to Queensland which is where two of them live. The middle daughter arrives back in Melbourne today to spend a few days with us and then she goes back to London where she currently lives.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Get a job!
20 Books of Winter wrap up
Blog Tour: Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Mandy Baggot
Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - August, and a recipe for rusks
6 Degrees of Separation: Ghost Cities to A Brief History of Montmoray



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