Six Degrees: Theory & Practice to Sisters of the Resistance

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 Theory & Practice by Michelle DeKretser, winner of the 2025 Stella Prize.

I have only ever read one book by Michelle DeKretser and that was The Lost Dog which I read back in 2008. 

I could have picked one of many books with the word lost in the title. However, I decided to stick  with the dog theme so my next link is to To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. This is a book that I did a buddy read/joint review with Aarti from Booklust many, many years ago and it was a 5/5 read for me. (Part 1 post and then final post)

The most recent book that I did a joint review of was The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak which was with Bree from All the Books I Can Read but I have already used that book a couple of times, which is my limit, and so I am going to go even further back and use another joint review that we did as my next connection. We read and discussed The Dressmaker of Yarrandarah Prison by Meredith Jaffe.  I gave this book a 5/5 rating back when I read it  in 2021 and still think that the cover of this one is stunning! Here is the first part of our conversation and here is the second.

When I checked my spreadsheet where I record all my reads, I noticed that right before I read that book I had another 5/5 read and that was The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer. 

Kelly Rimmer has a new book coming out soon which is called The Midnight Estate. I am therefore going to use this as my link to The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte which is a book I gave a 5/5 rating to back in 2020.

I saw Steven Conte at the Williamstown Literary Festival back in 2022. In the same post where I talked briefly about that, I mentioned that I was reading Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells. This week I won a mug from Christine in a Facebook group I am in!

So there we have it. A couple of joint reviews, some 5/5 reads, and some WWII novels.

Next month, the starting point is 2025 Women’s Prize winner, The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.

Will you be joining us?

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Trick or Treat

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's is a Halloween freebie, so we can post whatever we like, presumably at least Halloween related. However, I haven't been reading anything particularly Halloweeny recently as I am all about the feel good reads at the moment,

Bearing that in mind, my post this week is called Trick or Treat, and the books will all start with the letters of those words.

TRICK

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer 

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Cracklescape by Margot Lanagan

Kitchen by Banana Yashimoto

TREAT

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte

We don't really do Halloween but I can say it anyway......   

Happy Halloween!

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Covers That Feel Like Winter

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Book Covers That Feel Like Summer (Submitted by Ellie @ Curiosity Killed the Bookworm). Now we are right in the middle of winter so I thought I would choose wintery books instead.

However, I only recently did a Six Degrees of Separation with all winter titles so I am going to try to not use any of those books this time.

As I composed my list I did have a sudden realisation that most of my winter covers are very snowy, and yet that is not what winter looks like for us at all! There is snow a couple of hours away from us but it is very unusual for us to actually get snow at my house!

So, here are my winter, but not my winter, books.

The Christmas Party and Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - Karen Swan has been publishing one summer book and one winter book so I could possibly have just done a heap of her books but lets do some other authors as well.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - Russian fairy tales are intrinsically wintery to me!

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - Another Russian setting, this time during winter in WWII. Such a great book!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - Moving away from Russia, this book is set in Iceland. My memories of this book are that it is very wintery and bleak.

In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl - I loved this book when I read it a number of years ago.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - Another fairy tale retelling, this time Polish. This book is so wintery!

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole - This cover is possibly closer to what our winter looks like...maybe.

The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys - Pretty sure the main river in Melbourne has never frozen so much that you could host ice fairs on it!

Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh - This is a bit of a genre departure for me these days but back in the day I used to read quite a bit of paranormal romance.

So there are my wintery books, without using a single one with the word winter in the title!

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish ....

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the topic is Bookish Characters (these could be readers, writers, authors, librarians, professors, etc.)

Here are my choices, which re possibly more accurately described as bookish books or having bookish characters.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - One of the central threads in the book revolve around a book called "Professor Abacus Abernathe's Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers and Other Intrepid Travellers" that the youngest character in book carries around with him everywhere he goes

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran - This book is all about the life stories of these characters and how the past continues to shape us. One of the key characters also moonlights as an author, albeit under a pen name.

The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland - Another ode to words and books, with an author as one of the main characters.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - Doerr brings us mutliple stories, all connected through one fable

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - When an author finds herself living in a cottage in Scotland, the voices of the historical characters from her story come to life (and another excuse to sneak a Kearsley book into a TTT post!)

The Great Passage by Shion Miura - A nice story telling about the creation of a dictionary.

Beach Read by Emily Henry - Two authors who write in different genres end up living next door to each other.

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - During WWII, the German army use Tolstoy's country house as a base.

Aria's Travelling Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin - Books and France! Yes please.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan - Books and Scotland. Yes please!

What books did you have on your list this week.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Settings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Favourite Settings

So, in no particular order, here are some of my favourite settings

WWII - The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - I know that there is a lot of talk out there about people being over WWII as a time period, but I still love it, mainly because there is so much variety. You could read about Europe, America, Australia, Japan, about someone on the frontlines or the people left behind or so much more. This book is set in Russia, features a German main character and was one of my favourite books of last year. (review)

WWI - The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart - Actually,  I do enjoy books set against any big conflicts, so I do enjoy it when I read a good book with a WWI setting. I must find some more.

Bookshops/Libraries  - The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan - There's something very comforting about reading books about books, whether it is characters who love to read or work in bookshops or whatever.

Cafe/Bakery/Restaurants -  Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber - The heat in the kitchen (both due to the cooking and between the people who work there on occasion), the sense of community, the delicious sounding food! What's not to love.

Scotland - The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley - I love both historical and contemporary books set in Scotland. It is a place that keeps calling my name.

Paris - The Black Swan of  Paris by Karen Robards - Speaking of places that call my name. One day I will get back there. The most recent book I read set in Paris was this one.

Russia - Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - I don't read them as much as I should be I do love a good book set in Russia.

Africa - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - I have long loved a book set in Africa. I chose this book to spotlight because it is a book that was set in Africa (at least at the beginning) and I read it while I was in Africa

Melbourne - Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood - I love it when you get to read a book where you recognise the landmarks and places that are mentioned in a book.

Rural settings - Snowy Mountains Daughter by Alissa Callen - I do love a good rural romance setting. There are so many great books out there. Whole series set in small country towns where you get to know the whole community.

And what's better than one of these settings? When you manage to combine two or more. Bookshop cafe in Scotland...I'm there. Although I am not sure all the combinations would work.

What are your favourite settings?

Six Degrees of Separation: From Redhead by the Side of the Road to One Hundred Years of Solitude

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 missed last months Six Degrees which was a shame, but I am back this month with a list that contains at least one tenuous link! See if you can spot it.

The starting point this month is Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler, an author who I have  never read, although I am sure I should have! I did think about doing books with red in the title but I have a feeling I have done that before, if not in Six Degrees, definitely in a Top Ten Tuesday post, so I took a different direction.

The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell (Trixie Belden mysteries book 1) - My first thought related to the word redhead and that kind of inevitably lead to me to think about my first red headed book crush - Jim from the Trixie Belden books!

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon - Jim was not my only red headed literary crush. There was also James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser from the Outlander series. This book, the third in the main series, is probably my favourite. Maybe it is something about a variation of the name James, and not the redhead, but I don't think so.

The Red Scarf/Under a Blood Red Sky by Kate Furnivall - When I checked my handy dandy spreadsheet which list the books I have read since  2004, the author directly above Diana Gabaldon alphabetically is Kate Furnival. I kept on thinking about the red scarf as the link too. This book is set in 1930s Russia, specifically in a Siberian prison camp.

The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte - Also set in Russia, but this time during WWII, this was one of my favourite books from last year

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - An obvious connection here, from a book where most of the action takes place at Tolstoy's house  to a book written by the man.

One Hundred  Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez- I originally read Anna Karenina as part of Oprah's Book Club back in the 90s.  This was the first book that I ever  read with the book club! I am not sure I would've read either without my fellow readers and the fun that we had in the forums. I am still online friends with a lot of those people now!

Did you spot the very tenuous link?

Next month the starting point is Phosphorence by Julia Baird, which is going to be interesting to find a connection to. Better get my thinking cap on early for that one!

Top Ten Tuesday: New to me authors in 2020

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is New to me Authors I read in 2020. 

When I looked at my stats for last year, it revealed that I read books by 40 authors I hadn't read before, which gives my plenty of scopes for today's theme. However, today is officially Australia Day so I am going to focus on Australian authors that were new to me last year.

I was very lucky last year to read lots of great books by Australian authors. Three of the four books that I gave the ultimate grade of 5/5 were by Australians, and they were all new to me authors. 

Minnie Darke - The Lost Love Song is Minnie Darke's second book and it was a lovely read. I believe that it was being released in the US so hopefully other people will get to experience this lovely book too. (review here)

Alison Stuart - I actually read a couple of books by Alison Stuart during 2020, and quite frankly it was about time. I have signed copies of her books on my shelves for many, many years. I first read The Postmistress, which I gave a really good grade, but the sequel got top marks. (review here)

Steven Conte - I don't remember ever hearing about Steven Conte, but that might not be all that surprising given that there was a gap of 13 years between his last book, The Zookeeper's Daughter and this book. The Tolstoy Estate was an exceptional read! (review here)

Having never read them before last year, I read multiple books by the following authors

Ella Carey  - I read four books by Ella Carey last year, with three of those being part of the Paris Time Capsule trilogy about an apartment located in Paris that was abandoned during WWII and only opened again after 70 years. (tag here)

Lily Malone - Another trilogy, this time a rural romance series, I really enjoyed reading about the small town in the south of Western Australia, especially seeing as I was able to travel through the area in December 2019.(tag here)

Rebecca Raisin - I have shared a number of quotes from Rebecca Raisin during 2020 as I just love the way that she writes about food, books and Paris!

The following four books are all books that I rated very highly. All of them except for the last one got 4.5/5 and so I definitely highly recommend them.

Julian Leatherdale - This author died in 2020, having left behind 3 novels. I enjoyed this one a lot so I do intend to read more.

Meg Keneally - The Wreck is a book that was this close to getting a 5/5. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I do need to read her first solo novel, Fled. She has also written a mystery series with her dad, Thomas Keneally, and I have a least one of those books here to read too. (review here)

Tania Blanchard - I had seen Tania Blanchard's books around before but I hadn't read them. I still need to.

Katye Nunn - This book had a gothic feel to it, which I enjoyed, and I do intend to go back and read her other books. I saw recently that her next book is out at the end of March and it sounds fascinating. It's called The Last Reunion. (review here)