This week...

  I'm reading

When I finished my post last week, I only have two books on the go. One was my audiobook which I suspect I might finish this week, and the other was The Story Collector by Evie Woods which I finished this week. I have mixed results with Evie Woods. I really loved her book The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris when I read it last year! I was underwhelmed by The Lost Bookshop, but wondered if that was about the audio production, but I was underwhelmed by The Story Collector too. I feel like I should have connected much better with the book which is all about Irish folklore, fairies and the like.

After that I read The Palace Women by Jennifer Ryan which is set in Buckingham Palace in the lead up to the Queen's coronation ceremony in 1952. 

I have also made significant progress with Jo Thomas's latest book Summer at The French Bakery. I really enjoy the way that Thomas writes her stories, which always have a lot of focus on food. This one is no exception.


We had book club this week. The theme for this selection was secrets, which I found to be a very easy theme for me. I read 10 books that might have counted for this theme! The next theme is the environment and I have a couple of ideas about what I might read! Shown above are just some of the books that the group read for this theme.

I'm watching

I went and watched a French movie yesterday called Colours of Time. It is a dual timeline story set in the 1890s and the modern day and features cameos by some pretty important people in French art history! I liked it a lot. Here's the trailer

Life


We did Christmassy in July on the weekend. We had some people come around for dinner, which wasn't really traditional Christmas dinner but it was not too far off! We made roast chicken, roast pork, champagne sauce, apple cider gravy, mushroom sauce, cauliflower and broccoli cheese and roast potatoes. For dessert I made a Sticky Date Pudding Cake which was yum!

One fun thing is that we used our fire pit for the first time since we moved into this house which was nearly four years ago!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Free Books!
Paris in July: Island of Mists and Miracles by Victoria Mas
Weekend Cooking: Eva Longoria: Searching for France
Cook the Books: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal
Paris in July: Bestsellers Around the World: France




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

Bestsellers Around the World: France

 

Once upon a time I had an infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World where I would take a look at the bestsellers from a country and see what caught my interest, particularly when I compared it to Australian lists. These days it is even more infrequent as it is something that I save for Paris in July! So, here is this week's bestsellers in France, based on the list from Sens Critique for the week from July 6 to 12.

1 Le Diner (The Dinner Party): A Pick Your Poison Adventure by Freida McFadden

2 La Prof (The Professor) by Freida McFadden

3 Les heures fragiles (Fragile Hours) by Virginie Grimaldi

4 Tata by Valerie Perrin 

5 Un lieu a soi (A room of One's Own) by Virginia Woolf

6 Tout le monde aime Clara (Everyone Loves Clara) by David Foenkinos

7 Quelqu'un d'autre (Someone Else) by Guillaume Musso

8 L'intruse (The Intruder) by Frieda McFadden

9 D'autres printemps (Other Springs) by Virginie Grimaldi

10 A Retardement (Delayed ) by Franck Thilliez

Freida McFadden has really dominated the bestsellers lists over the last couple of years when I have done these posts. I was surprised to see that the number one was a short story though, and it is not one I remember hearing about but that maybe because I don't really read her genre. I did recently read one of her books and I liked it. Just not rushing out to read another one really.

I was surprised when Virginie Grimaldi wasn't on the list last year but she is back with two novels in the top ten this year! I read one of her books a couple of years ago and really liked it. I am tempted to read more, but there are none available in my library system (which isn't really that surprising) and some of her translated novels are more than $30 on Kindle which is too much! 

I own Tata and was hoping to get it read for Paris in July this year but I am rapidly running out of time. I did read Like Water for Flowers for last years Paris in July and really liked it. I think I now have three of her novels waiting for me!

I thought it was interesting to see Virginia Woolf on the list. Seeing it makes me wonder about what has bought it back into the spotlight in France

Franck Thilliez has appeared on a lot of the lists over the years. Delayed was on the list last year so this book has a lot of staying power!

Often when I look at the Australian list there is some crossover, even if it is for an author like Frieda McFadden, but there was none this year!

Previous French lists

2025

2024

2023

2022

2020

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

This week...

I'm reading

I seem to have gotten into a bit of a routine now where I finish a couple of books and start a couple more and then ...voila...there's my reading for the week!

This week I finished Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker, which I reviewed here. 

I also finished The Secret Society of Librarians by Kate Thompson. I am excited that she has just announced that there will be another WWII librarians series. I have loved all three books so far and this one was a 5 star read for me.

I also finished Kitchens of the Great MidWest by J Ryan Stradal, which is the current Cook the Books selection. My post about this book will be up on Saturday.

I then started The Story Collector by Evie Woods. This is one of my 20 Books of Winter selections. So far, so good.

Finally I also started (and finished) The Island of Mists and Miracles by French author Victoria Mas. I read her book The Mad Women's Ball last year and I really enjoyed it. I did just find out that there was a movie made of the book so I am hoping to watch that over the next couple of weeks

I'm watching


We went to the movies and watch The Odyssey on Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed it but it was a very long movie! I was very careful not to drink too much so that I didn't need to leave half way through for a bathroom break. It is also a pretty bleak, but I guess that is reflective of the source material. It has a big name cast and I would say it is worth seeing!

Life


On Sunday we went to an exhibition called Rome: Empire, People and Power which is at our local museum. It was a really good exhibition, and one of the things that we enjoyed was that, for once, an exhibition wasn't super crowded! There was a section in the exhibition which was set up like it was a pool and we enjoyed sitting on the bench and passing the time of day while the lights and sounds made us feel like we were sitting in the pool back in Roman times!

We also went to a new Korean inspired cafe which does amazing desserts. I had this amazing looking pear dessert! The shell was super thin, and the inside was very peary!! 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Short Reviews

Blog Tour: The Book Lover's Bucket List by Hannah Claire

Paris in July: In the Paris Fashion by Sophie Beaumont

Blog Tour: Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker

Weekend Cooking: Bastille Day Dinner

Sunday Salon: Six in Six

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

Sunday Salon: Six in Six

I haven't done Six in Six before but I saw it over at Words and Peace and I decided to join in! I thought it would also be a good way to do a roundup of the various challenges that I am doing this year. Along the way I will mention 7 out of the 8 books that I have given 5/5 to so far this year! I just couldn't make the last one fit into any of these challenges. That book is First Time Caller by B K Borison.  

There is one challenge that I haven't included in this list as I really wanted to have a category for Australia authors and that is the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog. Of the 77 books I have read so far this year, 30 have counted for the New Release Challenges. Foodies Read (hosted at Based on a True Story) is probably not technically a challenge, but I do enjoy linking up whenever I read a foodie book!

6 Historical Fiction Books - 28 books read 

The Goldsmith's Wife by Jean Plaidy, (5/5) - mini review

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (5/5) - mini review

The Silent Resistance by Anna Normann (5/5) - review

The Strawberry House by Rachel Burton - Also New Release Challenge - review

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood

The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick

6 Bookish Books - 10 Books read

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson (5/5) - Also Historical Fiction Reading challenge - review

The Secret Society of Librarians by Kate Thompson (5/5) - Also Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn - Also New Release Challenge - review

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

The Seaside Book Club by Helen Rolfe - review

6 Books in Translation - 11 books read

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman (5/5)

Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada - Also Foodies Read and Bookish Books - review

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa - Also Historical Fiction - review

We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida - mini review

Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais - Also Foodie Reads - review 

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Also Historical Fiction -  thoughts

6 Speccie Fiction Challenge - 7 books read

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki - Also Historical Fiction - review

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn - Also Bookish Books - mini review

The Seven Rings by Nora Roberts

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida - Also Books in Translation - mini review

6 Australian Books - 16 books read

In a Paris Fashion by Sophie Beaumont (5/5) - review

Past the Shallows by Favel Pavrett - Also Historical Fiction - mini review

Careful He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott - Also Historical Fiction - review

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - Also Historical Fiction -  review

Don't Brake My Heart by Leonie Mack - review

The Model Murder by Amanda Hampson - Also Historical Fiction

6 Foodie Reads - 9 books read

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs - Also Historical Fiction - review

A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang by lee Onhwa - also Books in Translation and Speccie Fiction - review

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil - review

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan - Also New Release challenge - review

Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama - Also Books in Translation - review

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal 

So there's my Six in Six for this year! And an update on my challenges at the same time.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

This week

I'm reading

I had a pretty varied week of reading this week.

Firstly, I finished reading The Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft which I reviewed here. I also finished reading Don't Brake My Heart by Leonie Mack which I reviewed as part of Paris in July, given that it is set against the backdrop of the Tour de France!

Then I moved onto Seascraper by Benjamin Wood and Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson. This is the fourth book in the Ernest Cunningham crime series. 

Next up was The Book Lovers Bucket List by Hannah Claire which I was reading for a blog tour. The review for that one will be up on Wednesday. 

I have started Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker which is also for a blog tour. I need to get that read and reviewed by Friday.

I also started reading The Secret Society of Librarians by Kate Thompson which I need to finish this week as I can't renew it with the library.

So that's some romance, a crime fiction, a couple of historical fiction novels, one of which was pretty literary!

I'm watching


Nothing much in particular that I haven't already posted about!

Life

We didn't really have a lot planned for this weekend but I ended up making two impromptu decisions to go to some markets. 

The first one we visited was a German Christmas Market which was held at a winery in the countryside about 30 minutes from us! Given that we generally have hot weather at Christmas, Christmas in July gives us the opportunity to have gluwein and get rugged up in our winter woolies! It was a bit of fun!

On Sunday, Brooke from All the Books I Can Read and I went to visit a new romance store/cafe which has opened around 40 minutes away from us! I then dragged her along to the Bastille Day French Market which is held at the iconic Queen Victoria Markets here in Melbourne!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Include the Word Paris in the Title
Blog Tour: Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft
Paris in July: Don't Brake My Heart by Leonie Mack
Paris in July: Cartier at the NGV
Weekend Cooking/Paris in July: Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: June Stats and Midyear Update



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

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: June stats and mid year update

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in June, there were 54 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. There were 53 individual titles reviewed, written by 53 different authors. There were 2 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 6 or just 1.

If you recall, last month we didn't have any titles that were reviewed more than once, which was very month. This month was similarly varied, although we did have one book that was reviewed twice

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Australian author Anthea Hodgson is a dual timeline set in both 1890s and 1920s Kalgoorlie, a mining town in remote Western Australia. I reviewed this book as did Shelleyrae at Book'd Out!

There were no other authors who had more than one book reviewed this month!

Given that we are now more than halfway through this year's challenge, I thought I would share some stats about the year....so far!

In terms of the books this year, there were 295 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 25 participants. There were 280 individual titles reviewed, written by 248 different authors. There were 4 reviewers who reviewed 20 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links. I appreciate everyone who participates in the challenge!

When I look at the book that has been reviewed the most throughout the year so far, there is one book that has been reviewed 3 times so far.

I am surprised and pleased to see that it is another Aussie author. A Far Flung Life by M L Stedman has been reviewed by Shelleyrae at Book'd Out, by Tracey at Carpe Librum and by Helen at She Reads Novels. I think it is interestesting because M L Stedman had a huge hit with The Light Between Oceans, but it that book came out in 2012 so it has been a very long time between books! I am planning to read this book soon, as long as I can get to it before it has to go back to the library!

There are five other authors who have been reviewed more than twice. Agatha Christie leads the way with 6 reviews, followed by Elizabeth Camden with 4 and then Colleen Cambridge, Ellis Peters and Lee Strauss have all been reviewed three times.

Whenever I do this milestone reviews I also like to share how bloodthirsty we are as readers. This year so far there have been 23 books read where the title includes the words murder, fatal or death in some form or another!

I look forwards to see what everyone reads during the second half of the year!

If you enjoy reading Historical Fiction why not join us? You can find all the details here.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

This week....

I'm reading

Well, it's been a week! We have just gone through end of financial year which means it has been pretty full on. There are still some final tasks to be done, but we are definitely nearly there. Having said that, I still managed to get some reading done.

I finished The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak. As I mentioned last week I was really pleased that this book is predominantly set in the city of Konya in Turkiye which is a place that we visited a couple of months ago. I found this book a bit dense, but it was extremely interesting with lots of layers. I do enjoy this author's books and have already requested the next one from my library.

Next up I read In the Weeds by B K Borison which is the second book in the Lovelight Farms series. This is a very different read to the last book but it one that I found hard to put down!

Next up, I finished The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick. I count Chadwick as one of my favourite historical fiction authors and yet I hadn't read any of her books in years. It was so nice to be back reading one of her books. 

Next up, I started reading The Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft. I am on the blog tour for this book so my review will be up in a couple of days. If you are in the UK there is also a giveaway for this book so keep an eye out for the post which will be up on Wednesday. 

You would think that with all those books on the go I would know better than to just start another book that isn't a review book, isn't due back at the library, doesn't count for the Goodreads Summer Challenge or isn't on my 20 Books of Winter list. Apparently, my brain doesn't work that way so I started reading Don't Brake My Heart by Leonie Mack. Good thing it will at least count for Paris in July!

Last week I said that my next audiobook would be the latest Before the Coffee Gets Cold book. I did listen to the intro but now I have decided that I am going to listen to Unruly: The Ridiculous History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Mitchell. I have chosen this book for the Fact or Fiction prompt on the Goodreads Summer Challenge. I'll go back to the other one once I have finished this book

I am not sure how, but I managed to get through 16 books in June, and 9 of those counted for the 20 Books of Winter challenge. I gave several novels 4.5/5 but there was only one that I gave a 5/5 rating to and that was First Time Caller by B K Borison. Looking at the list now, I could probably have given one other book 5/5 which was This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page.

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

Bookish travel

Here's where I travelled too through the pages of books during May

Europe

Ireland - Three Bags Full 

France - Piglettes

UK - This Book Made Me Think of You

Russia - War and Peace

Turkiye - The Forty Rules of Love

North America

First Time Caller, The Maid, Atmosphere, The Frozen River, Project Hail Mary

Australia

Queensland - Charlie's Last Angel

NSW - The Model Murder, Careful, He Might Hear You

WA - The Palace of Lost Virtue

SA - The Couples Retreat

Asia

Japan - We'll Prescribe You Another Cat

I'm watching

I started watching Eva Longoria: Searching for France over the weekend! So far we have watched 3 episodes and it is good, although she's no Stanley Tucci. Here's the trailer!

A couple of months ago we went to watch Project Hail Mary at the movies, which then prompted me to listen to the audiobook. We decided to watch the movie again while the movie was fresh in our minds. It has been really interesting to do this as there were things that I definitely didn't remember seeing the first time around. Of course, the book is more detailed than the movie and has more depth, but I do see myself watching this movie over and over!

The Tour de France has started! That means a few weeks of seeing beautiful scenery, amazing chateau's, big churches. Oh, and a few cyclists as well!





Life

Yesterday a friend and I went to see the Cartier exhibition which is currently on at the NGV. It was an absolutely gorgeous exhibitions of all things that glitter! Fabulous!

I will have a post up about the whole exhibition later in the week but here's a taster. And yes, that is a gigantic emerald in the middle of that piece!

We also tried a new brunch place this weekend! It has a very different vibe from the usual industrial style of most modern cafes! We will definitely be going back.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2026
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: July links
Paris in July: Beinvenue!
Paris in July: Since the last Paris in July
20 Books of Winter: July recap
Classics Club Spin: Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott

In My Kitchen: June

Six Degrees of Separation: Yesteryear to The Gilded Lily

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

Six Degrees of Separation: Yesteryear to The Gilded Lily

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 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

For my first selection I am choosing another title which has two words joined together to create a word that  doesn't really exist. I absolutely loved The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson when I read it a couple of years ago. The title for this book has been changed post publication to The Lives and Loves of Becca Valentine, so originally my plan was to talk about books whose titles have been changed. However, I ended up taking different direction.

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading First-Time Caller by B K Borison. This is a book which is set on a radio show where the main announcer is called Aiden Valentine. 

Another romance featuring people working on a radio show is Lonely Hearts Radio by Adeline Knight. This was an Audible original and featured an Australian radio announcer living in New York in 1999.

Moving away from romance novels, but still using the radio link my next choice is The Radio Hour by Australian Author Victoria Purman. This time the setting is 1950s Sydney

My next link is through the word hour. I am choosing The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati which is also set in New York, but this time in the late 19th century.

The word gilded is not one that comes up every day these days, but it is in a few titles, including The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift. If I needed to keep on going from her there are any number of flower books out there, which oddly is a theme that I quite often end up with on these posts. Good job I am stopping here today!

Next month, the starting point is Land by Maggie O'Farrell

Will you be joining us?

This week

I'm reading

Another busy week reading wise! It is surprising in a way as it doesn't feel like I have a lot of reading time but I am making some good progress.

First I finished We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida, which is the second book in the series. The third is due to be released later this year and I will read it! It's funny because I am not really a cat series, but I don't mind reading Japanese series that features cats.

Next up, I read Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott which was my selection for the current Classic Club Spin! I absolutely loved this. It was a really engaging read which I got through in just a couple of days, even though it is a pretty big book! This book also counts as a read for my read on a theme book club. This month the theme is Secrets

I then started Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak. This book is going to slow my reading down as it is pretty dense. I love that it is set in Konya though, which is a city in Turkiye that we visited on our recent trip.

On the audiobook front I finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir which I loved. The audio experience of this one was great!

My next audio book is Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, the next book in the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series. I have only listened to the prologue so far though

I'm watching


A while ago now I read The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida and really enjoyed it. (my review). I only just learnt this weekend that they have made a TV version of the book, so I watched the first episode on Saturday. It is a bit kitschy but it is a lot of fun so far. 

We finished watching two series this week.  We finished watching the latest series of Welcome to Wrexham, which is always really good TV. 

The other series was The Ottoman Empire by Train which is hosted by British archaelogist Alice Roberts. This journey started in Turkiye, visiting cities like Ankara and Istanbul, and then on into Eastern Europe. It was very interesting! And it too visited Konya!

I also binged watched the third season of Stuff the British Stole. In this season, they talked about the English flag, a meteorite that was found in Victoria but is now in Britain, the history of tea and more. It is always very interesting viewing.

Here's the trailer

Life

It is end of financial year here which means that I am crazy, crazy busy. Not that I am not super busy the rest of the time too, but even more so this week. 

I could really have done with a quiet weekend but instead we had two very enjoyable events. 

On Friday night we went to see Post Modern Jukebox in concert. This is the second time I have seen them live. They do amazing versions of songs that you know really well and adapt them to the sounds of different musical eras. One of the highlights was a version of Every Breath You Take by The Police.

On Saturday night, we went to an amazing 5 course (plus some extra little morsels) Japanese dinner in the city. It was a delicious dinner, plus a cooking demonstration as we were shown how each dish was made, and then a cultural demonstration as well. There were drumming displays, judo demonstration and a musical performance. It was such a great night! I have so many food photos but I have resisted the urge and only shared the ones above!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: My Current Library Check Outs
The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson
Weekend Cooking: Two South American movies
Sunday Salon: Rachael John's Book Club Reader Retreat




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

Sunday Salon: Rachael John's Book Club Readers Retreat 2026

Last weekend I attended the Rachael John's Book Club Retreat which, this year, was held at a regional called Geelong which is just over an hour away from where I live. Geelong is a city that I love visiting but I have never stayed there before. Above is the view from my hotel room! 

The city sits on a bay with beautiful beaches, a fun waterside walk and some interesting museums and art galleries. It is also gateway to the Bellarine Peninsula which has some really lovely wineries, restaurants and fantastic beaches which we enjoy visiting. In other words, we often drive through Geelong!

The advantage of having it at this location is that it was close enough to drive although I did miss the reading time on the plane that I have had when travelling to the previous locations. I do have a tendency to do a lot of my required reading on the plane there! 

So what happens at one of these events? I could say what happens on retreat, stays on retreat, but I won't! There are 120 or so readers, plus around 20 authors and you get to spend the whole weekend talking about books, eating, and generally having a good time!

The event started with a cocktail party on Friday night where the theme was Madams and Miners, which ties in with one of the hosts books. I don't love a dress up, but I do make something of an effort. There are plenty of people who made a really big effort with some amazing costumes.

On the Saturday night it was a formal dinner where the theme was From Poolside to Party Ready: Dress Like You’re on Holiday with your Besties. 

And during the two days? There are book club discussions, author panels, author speed dating (which is always a lot of fun, optional yoga sessions and writer sessions, a bookshop where you can shop the books of all the fab authors you have met over the weekend and more! This year, there was the new addition of a game show called A Romance Knockout where authors competed against each other on specialist subjects, tropes and writing prompts.

The book club reads this year were Anthea Hodgson's The Palace of Lost Virtue which is set in 1890s and 1920's Kalgoorlie, which is a gold mining town in Western Australia. The palace of the title is a brothel, hence the theme of Madams and Miners. I reviewed the book last week.

The other book was The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier who is a new author to me. It is a crime/psychological thriller which isn't my normal cup of tea, but it never hurts to read outside your comfort zone right. This book is set on Kangaroo Island in South Australia and features a rookie cop who gets drawn into a murder at a luxurious property. Kangaroo Island is a place that has been on my list of places to visit for a long time. 

One of the highlights every year is the debate. It is always hilarious and this year was no exception. The debate topic was This house believes that reading romance gives women unrealistic expectations of men and our debaters certainly gave interesting and compelling arguments both for and against!

Pictured above are Rachael and Anthea during the book club discussion, Bree from All the Books You Can Read leading an author panel and Sarah Clutton and Ali Sinclair visiting our table during author speed dating. 

Unsurprisingly I came home with more books, than I went there with, as well as bookish paraphernalia including what we received in the goodie bag,  To be fair, I only bought one book which was very controlled. More surprisingly, I also came home with more clothes than I went with!

I have been to all 4 of the retreats so far, which makes me an OG. This year there was a t-shirt that we could buy to celebrate this fact.  Every year since the beginning I have sat at the same table with the same group of people (pictured above on the Friday night). Some of us knew some of us, but no one knew all of us when we first started sitting together.  We now have a group chat, we are all Facebook friends and we have become more than just book friends. We also had a t-shirts to celebrate this year the group this year!

This retreat is always a lot of fun and Rachel, Anthea and their team does a fantastic job. I have already booked for Hobart next year

You can read about previous years here.

2025 - Perth

2024 - Gold Coast

2023 - Hahndorf

This week....

I'm reading

I had to do some last minute reading for the Rachael John's Book Club Retreat weekend in the last week. 

First, I had to read The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson which is a historical fiction novel about two women who live in the remote gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in the late 1800s. One of the women is a young Christian woman and the other is a jaded madam. It was a fun read.

Then I read The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier, which I only finished with a couple of hours spare before the discussion!

Both of these books are on my 20 Books of Winter list, as is The King's Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick. This book was on the list as I didn't get to it last year so I started it as soon as I could and I have made some good progress so far.

I did intend to start my Classics Spin read next but then I realised that I can't extend one of my library books, so needed to start that instead. That book was We'll Prescribe You Another Cat by Syou Ishida. This is a pretty quick read though and I am now maybe 2/3 of the way through even though I only started it this morning. 

I'm watching


Not much really!

Life


This weekend was the annual Rachael John's Book Club Retreat weekend. This year it was held in a regional city which is about an hour away from me, Geelong. It was another great event where you get to meet up with other book lovers, talk books all weekend, hang out with authors and generally have a great time. I am planning to write something more about this later this week so I will just say it was a lot of fun! I have already booked my ticket for next year!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Authors I Am Looking Forward to Meeting at the Rachael Johns Book Club Retreat This Weekend

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Weekend Cooking: Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama

Thoughts on War and Peace

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

Thoughts on War and Peace

According to Goodreads I started reading War and Peace back in July 2010. I did give it a good go, but then I put it down and just didn't pick it up again. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, but I just stopped. 

At the beginning of last year I decided I was going to try and read alongside the chapter a day readalong. I didn't join the group or anything like that. I just kind of kept up with the schedule. I was doing well until I started working again and I fell behind when I was about 2/3 of the way through. It sat on my desk, taunting me every day. Finally, I decided I was going to finish it, once and for all. And so I did!

Today I am sharing a number of thoughts about reading War and Peace. Fair warning....some will be deeper than others.

This isn't my first Tolstoy. Years ago I read and loved Anna Karenina when Oprah chose it for her Classics Book Club. I loved reading along with other readers and discussing the experience, even if not everyone loved it. I should have joined the readalong for this book but I chose to read alone. I knew that I could read Tolstoy but it was still daunting and it definitely felt like an achievement when I finished it.

I think the thing that I do enjoy about these books is the humanness of the characters and how relevant that is still today. Yes, Tolstoy goes off on massive tangents, and spends paragraphs talking about the fact that battles were won despite no one doing what they were ordered to do. I particularly thought where he was talking about the fact that we look back and say this one thing or one person was decisive but really there were many people and incidents that contribute to the eventualities was very perceptive. I think we see this evidenced in the fact that we say that WWI was started because of the shooting of the Archduke Ferdinand. It was, in effect, the straw that broke the camels back, but in reality tensions had been building for years. Another example is that the American's entered WWII due to Pearl Harbor but there had been many events that led up to that one decisive moment. 

Getting back to the humaness of the characters, we saw characters who undertook big transformations due to their experiences, such as Pierre going from illegitimate son, to rightful heir, to husband, to member of the Masonic Lodge, to outwardly losing everything. And similarly the female characters such as Natasha and Princess Marya experienced love and loss, and were bound by duty but ultimately achieved happiness.

Whilst the title is War and Peace, it could just as easily have been Love and Loss or Power and what ever the opposite of that is. 

Humour isn't the first word that comes to mind when I think of Tolstoy but there was definitely humour in the book, from the inept armies who couldn't follow orders and still triumphed to single lines that just made me smile, like the one late in the book which said about Pierre "Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered."

Would War and Peace qualify as having one of the longest epilogues ever? There are two parts to the epilogue and together they are nearly 100 pages long which seems crazy. One was an epilogue in the more normal use of the word where we found out what happened to the characters after the main part of the story. The other part was more philosophical thoughts about war. 

I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of the book because theirs was the version I read of Anna Karenina. It felt quite accessible, and I liked that they kept a lot of the French in the books.

Ultimately, reading a book like War and Peace is a commitment, and I am so glad that I was able to finish it this time. I did close the book with a sense of achievement, but also relief that I had finally got to the end. If you asked me to name Tolstoy books I probably would only be able to name this one and Anna K, but there are others out there, which I might try to read.....one day.

This book counts for the Books in Translation Challenge hosted by Introverted Reader, for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I hosted, counts as one of my 20 Books of Winter and was read for the Marathon reader prompt of the Spring Goodreads Challenge.

This week....

I'm reading

My big news this week....I finished War and Peace! Yes! I started this for the second time in January last year and was determined to finish it by June 30 and made it!

In other reading news, sometimes a book feels as though it was specifically written with me in mind, and that is definitely the case with This Book Made me Think of You by Libby Page. I loved it from beginning to end. I loved how bookish it was, it was sad but also hopeful, warm and uplifting! This will be on my best of list for 2026 for sure!

This week I also finished reading my first ever novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere, which I read to fulfil two categories in the Goodreads Spring challenge. It is kind of funny that I was reading this book and listening to Project Hail Mary at the same time! I am making some progress with PHM, but it will be a while until I actually finish it.

I also finished reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon which was another Goodreads challenge read. It's my first book by her and it won't be my last.

Now I am reading The Model Murders by Amanda Hampson, which is the fourth book in the Tea Ladies series. It's so much fun visiting with these characters again!

We had our read on a theme book club meeting this weekend, and for the first time since we started this book club I didn't read a book to match the theme. I thinks on the shelf I could of read but they just didn't really appeal. The next theme is Secrets and I feel like both of the last two books I mentioned could fit for that theme!

I'm watching


On Friday night we went and saw a Peruvian movie called Mistura which is set in the 1960s in Lima and features a woman who needs to come up with a plan to save her house after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. It was very foodie and worth a watch!

On Satruday night we watched two movies. The first was a WWII file called Into the White which was set in Norway. It was based on a true story where a German plane crew and a British plane crew come together in a remove cottage in the middle of nowhere and have to work out how they are going to survive.

In a change of pace we then watched Office Romance which stars Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein as the boss and her lawyer who begin an inappropriate office relationship. I actually laughed out loud several times!

And for old times sake I watched First Wives Club with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton as three women whose husbands left them for younger women.

Life

Not a lot to tell this week!

Max


Happy birthday to the Max! This good boi turned 4 this week! 

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books with handwriting on the cover
Blog Tour: Charlie's Last Angel by Maggie Christensen
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
Afternoon Tea Diaries: Paradox at Oxi Tea Rooms
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: May statistics



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

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: May statistics

 

 Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in May, there were 51 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. There were 51 individual titles reviewed, written by 51 different authors. There were 3 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1.

Now, if you look at those numbers carefully, you might note that there were 51 reviews of 51 individual titles and 51 different authors. It occasionally happens that we might not have a single title reviewed more than once, but it has never happened that we didn't have an author with multiple titles reviewed. Never!! I guess that is an interesting statistic in and of itself!

One thing of interest. We had two books reviewed this month that featured Abigail Adams, wife of US President John Adams. Laura from Laura's Reviews shared her review of Three Queens by Rebecca Connolly and Kim reviewed A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams  by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie on Goodreads!

If you enjoy reading Historical Fiction why not join us? You can find all the details here.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.