Top Ten Tuesday: Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is  Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today (These could be authors who have passed away or retired/are taking a long hiatus from writing. You could also spin this and share authors who have switched to a genre you’re not interested in.) (submitted by Rebecca @ Top100Books)

When I  checked I realise that we did this topic a couple of years ago. Most of the names are the same (although I chose different book covers to share) but I did change a couple of them! For the most part I have chosen authors who have passed away, except for the last two!

I did have another author in my list and it was only when I went to Fantastic Fiction to check that I realised that she has actually had about 5 books out in the last few years. Whoops!

Anyway, here's my list.

Diana Norman/Ariana Franklin - I loved the Mistress of the Art of Death series which this author published under the name of Ariana Franklin, but I first started reading her books under her name Diana Norman, and I particularly enjoyed her Makepeace Hedley trilogy which started with A Catch of Consequence

Sharon Kay Penman - I love SKP's books and often mention books like The Sunne in Splendour or Here Be Dragons in relation to her. This time though, I am going to use the first of her Justin de Quincy mysteries as my choice. 

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I think it is maybe time for me to reread The Shadow of the Wind. I loved that book so much. 

Susan Vreeland - It appears I have only read three of this author's books, but they definitely left an impact!

Lucinda Riley - When Lucinda Riley passed away before the last book in the Seven Sisters series was released, her son took over the writing. Recently, it's been announced that he has written a new book set in the same world. I am invested enough to want to read the book, but also not sure how I feel about it all!

Terry Pratchett - I do occasionally find myself wondering what Sir Terry would make of the world right now. 

Stieg Larsson - Remember how popular this author's books were back in the early 2000's. Crazy to think that he passed away before the books were published and so successful.

Kerry Greenwood - When this Australian author passed last year I was sad to think that we had no more Phryne Fisher novels to come, even though I still have a lot of the series to read.

Laura Florand - Laura Florand will always appear on these lists for me. No, she hasn't passed away, but she no longer writes. When I went through a reading slump that lasted for years a while ago, she was one of the few authors who I still read! 

Lisa Kleypas - Don't panic. Lisa Kleypas is alive and well. In fact, she probably shouldn't be on this list at all given that she has recently announced that there will be a new book coming out from her soon. It's just that it has been a long 5 years since the last one! This is one of her standalone books which is probably lesser known, but it is also one of my favourites.

Sunday Salon: 20 years!

 

On the 12 November 2005, I posted a very imaginatively titled post called "First Post" on my shiny new blog which at the time was called Reading Adventures. I never expected it to last very long. After all, I had started diaries several times and never got beyond writing Dear Diary for more than a few weeks at a time. But....here we are.

I did have a gap of a year or so back in 2019 which coincided with a major reading slump, but other than I have been posting about books, baking and life in general over that time.

If I look back to see what prompted me to start a blog it was really because I read a book that I absolutely had to talk about. I was involved in various forums, and I read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, and I absolutely had to talk about it, so I wrote a review and thought well, I could put that in a blog and so Reading Adventures was born. 

My life has changed a lot over the period as you would expect. When I started, my son was 7, and we followed his cooking adventures as the little chef. Now he's the man who cooks on occasion. He spent time in America playing basketball, and has played quite a bit of 3x3 in Japan, China and Malaysia. When I started the blog I had been a single parent for 5 years. I had no idea that I would have to wait another 12 years to meet someone amazing but I did. Since then we renovated one house, built two more, been on numerous holidays, got married in 2019 and so much more.

Like life, blogging has changed a lot over the years. I have a few different templates, had a blogspot address and have had a .com address for years now. I used to also blog over at Historical Tapestry, have hosted and continue to host numerous events and challenges. These range from Library Loot which I co-hosted for years to Weekend Cooking and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I still host now.  

Over the years, people have come and gone from the blogging world, but there are still a few of us who have been going for similar lengths of time. Some people, I still miss. Others have become friends in real life. Some of the bloggers I have met have inspired me to try new things, and I hope that I have done the same thing in return. I have met many authors, gone to book festivals and retreats and so much more. 

It's easy to look back and think that things were better in the past, but I think it is probably more that they are different. It does feel like there used to be more blogger events and a more cohesive community. For example, back in 2010 someone came up with the idea of Armchair BEA. When some people were actually heading to New York to go to Book Expo America, the rest of us joined in. I did whole weeks of posts where I would say if I was in New York today where I would think about which author I would be tracking down or this is what I would be doing. Or there was the Great North and South Crusade where KristieJ convinced us all that we absolutely had to watch the BBC adaptation of North and South starring Richard Armitage. I was obsessed with that show for years as a result. The book community of Twitter thrived and it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. 

While it is nostalgic to look back, you can still find those events which bring people together. I think of Paris in July (probably my favourite current event) or Twenty Books of Summer/Winter which I only participated in for the first time this year even though it has been going for years.  I still find new to me bloggers who have been around a long time through those events. I don't know that I am particular good at connecting with new bloggers, but I try!

There are things that have changed. Back in the day I predominantly read paper books and borrowed a lot of books through my local library. At the time I could have up to 60 books out from the library at one time and I was often juggling returning books so I could borrow the next ones. These days I predominantly read e-books. I remember I was so excited when I got my first e-reader (it was red and a thing of beauty) but it is really only in the last few years that I really moved over to e-books for the majority of my reading. I used to receive a LOT of book mail from publishers, but now it is very rare for me to receive a physical review book and it is even getting a bit harder on Netgalley. 

What I read has changed too. Back in the day I read very little contemporary romance and mostly historical romance. Now, it is absolutely the opposite. I can't remember the last time I read a historical romance. I also read my fair share of vampire, werewolf and other paranormal romance. I read a bit more crime and a bit more fantasy than I do now. Now, I read a lot more books set in Europe (France in particular) and I read quite a bit of Asian fiction. Things that haven't changed...I still love reading Aussie authors and historical fiction, although I read a lot more WWII fiction and less medieval than I used to.

For whatever reason, what I do and how I do it isn't particularly appealing to publishers, maybe because I am no good at aesthetics on Bookstagram and it often feels like a competition. Even after all this time, I still haven't worked out how engagement works. Sometimes I put a lot of time into a post and get nothing in terms of responses, and other times I post something easy, like a quote from a book about a particular subject and boom, more responses than I have had in weeks. You'd think I would be better at all of this by now! And I still don't have the secret to getting a large and active following. I think I am interesting but I don't seem to hold people's interest. 

You know I love a statistic, so I thought I would pull a few together!

This is post number 4304, and according to my stats there have been something like just under 6 million site visitors in that time. It's fair to say not all of them are actual people! There have been approximately 50000 comments.

I've read 2578 books in that time (or at least that's what my spreadsheet tells me!)

Of those I have reread 47 books, with The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta being the book I have read/listened to the most times, closely followed by The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. 

Beyond anything, I am grateful to blogging for giving me a community, especially during all those lonely years when I was a single parent where often blogging was my company. I have spent hours and hours creating blog posts, reading other peoples posts and more, and I don't regret any of them. When I look back through my archives I often find posts I had forgotten about that entertain me, bring back great memories or that I am just really proud of!

I still love talking about books, food and travel in this corner of the internet and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Top Ten Tuesday: Rereads

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books I’d Like to Re-read (Share either your favorite books that you enjoy re-reading or books that you’d like to read again!) (Submitted by Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)

I am not normally a re-reader so originally I was thinking that I would do something different this week and actually have a post started on a different theme where I have got 10 books selected. Then when I thought about it some more I did wonder if I could make it to a list of 10 books that I have re-read, and I could! I guess that means my next freebie post is pretty much already done! Yay for me!

Here are 10 books I have re-read.

Virgin River by Robyn Carr - I could actually include most of the Virgin River series in this post, with the exception of the last book which I still haven't read yet. I read all the original books in the series back in 2010-2011, and then proceeded to re-read the first 7 books in the series over the course of two weeks in 2012. Here is a post about the whole series and how it made me break several of my own rules

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley -  I have re-read this book three times so far, twice by reading the book and once on audio with the most recent time being earlier this year, and I still loved it! Note the words so far. There is every chance I will read this again at some point. It is a bit odd though. I have other Kearsley books that I have loved but I haven't re-read any of those. Maybe I should. Here is my most recent post about this book 

Hogfather by Terry Pratchell - Listening to this in the lead up to Christmas has become one of my Christmas traditions over the last four years. I first read it back in 2007 which means that so far I have read it 5 times. 

The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - This is now part of my Christmas tradition too. I first listened to in 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I forced my husband to listen to it too so in the end I listened to it twice in a week. My original post about this book is here

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas - Ah, Sebastian and Evie! What a book. What an author! I wish she was still writing. (my review)

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta - Ah, Thomas Mackee, you break my heart. I have actually read a few of Melina Marchetta's books a couple of times but my favourite thing is to listen to the audiobook of The Piper's Son. I have listened to it five times now, including three times in about a month. It just affected me that much! I haven't listened to it for a few years now, but I have thought about listening to it again. 

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - If I had to describe my idea of aural bliss it is Richard Armitage narrating Georgette Heyer's books. I have relistened to Venetia three times and Sylvester four times after initially reading it! (original review)

Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie - I had forgotten that I had re-read this one until I was searching through my blog looking for inspiration for this post. (My review)

Relish by Lucy Knisley -  I had read this years ago and then it was selected for Cook the Books a couple of years ago. I did enjoy revisiting it! (My Cook the Books post)

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder - Years ago I read and loved the first three books in the series. A couple of years ago I decided that it was time to read the whole series. I started by rereading the first two book and never got any further. One day I will read that whole series. One day! (my original review)

Are you a re-reader?

The Truth by Terry Pratchett

I have a somewhat potted history with the Discworld series. I love them and even hosted a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge back in 2010. They make me laugh and I think that Pratchett was just so clever with his observations on life and death, whether you are talking about the big things in life or just the inane. And yet, I have only read the first 9 books in the series, some more than once, plus a couple of other random books here and there, in particular the Industrial books. It's a good 7 years since I read a new Discworld book. And then there is Hogfather.

According to my spreadsheet which I started back in 2005 I first read Hogfather in 2007. In 2021, I listened to the audiobook in the lead up to Christmas, and then I have listened to it every year since. It's become part of my annual Christmas traditions!

Based on that it is probably a bit strange that I chose to listen to The Truth, especially seeing as I generally have a big aversion to reading series out of order, but I did have good reason. My read-on-a-theme bookclubs theme for our February meeting was 25. The Truth is both book 25 in the Discworld series, and was published in the year 2000, which makes it 25 years old! Perfect for the theme!

The Truth is about a man called William de Worde, who accidently becomes the editor of the first newspaper in Ankh-Morpork. He brings together a disparate group of people who become the staff of the newspaper. There are the dwarves who do the typesetting and printing, Sacharissa Cripslock, the woman reporter, Otto the vampire iconographer and more! William is determined that he will share the Truth, but soon the paper brings all kind of attention on him. He also does not want the paper to become just a vehicle for stories about funny shaped vegetables. When Lord Veterinari is accused of a terrible crime, William suddenly finds himself involved in the story rather than just reporting the story. The Watch aren't happy with him, the guilds aren't happy with him. In short, no one is really happy with him!

There are many familiar characters within these pages, from Foul Ole Ron and his friends, to CMOT Dibbler, the Watch and more. Then there are the new characters, in particular the bad guys Mr Pin and Mr Tulip. These are career criminals, and pretty violent ones at that, and yet even then Pratchett manages to give at least one of them some nuance. Mr Tulip is a thug and yet he has a strong appreciation for fine art!

Whilst I did enjoy the story and narration of this book, I must confess that I struggled a bit with getting into the audiobook. I think this is mainly because for the last 4 years I have listened to the audio of Hogfather which is narrated by Sian Clifford, and it took me a while to get used to Matthew Baynton's narration. Fortunately Bill Nighy was still there for the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz still made an appearance as DEATH, but he didn't come onto the page until around 75% of the way through the book. I also missed Susan.

My favourite part of the narration of this book was Otto the vampire iconographer. I loved the way that this character was performed, especially the parts where he was taking flash photography and that caused him to disintegrate, having to be revived with a drop of non human blood otherwise he would break his vow of abstinence as part of the black ribbon society (think Alcoholics Anonymous for vampires). It literally made me laugh out loud many times!

As usual, there are the cutting observations of life and death. There is one scene where Death is meeting a character and the character says something along the lines of is this where my life flashes before my eyes and Death responds with this is where how others saw your life flashes before your eyes. So clever.

When I think about all the social commentary in the Discworld books, I can't help wonder what Sir Terry might make of everything going on in the world right now.

My plan is to read or listen to another Discworld book in the next few months. Or if not, I will be very likely to be revisiting Hogfather come December for my next reread/listen.

March Magics is an annual event to celebrate both Diana Wynn-Jones and Terry Pratchett. It is now hosted by Calmgrove Books

This week...

 

I'm reading

We have a public holiday here today for Labour Day so, in theory, that means more reading time! Well, not really, as I do have quite a bit of reading time already. 

Last week I finished listening to The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I originally started listening to this back in January, but then I put it aside to listen to Jane Austen. I do intend to write something about this, but I will say here that my favourite character was Otto the vampire iconographer who had a terrible tendency to disintegrate every time he took a photo with a flash! 

I have now gone back to listening to Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley. This is a long book so I will probably be listening to this for a couple of months at least. 

I finished reading If You Could See Me Now by Samantha Tonge. I really like Samantha Tonge's books but they are a bit tricky to review because there are things that you definitely need to not know when you are starting the book. My review is here. 

I also read and reviewed The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens, which I really loved! I had been to see the author talk a few weeks ago. I really think going to author events really enhances the reading experience! This was a 5/5 read for me!

For a bit of a change of pace, I also devoured Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. I had read a couple of chapters a couple of weeks ago, but this week I picked it up and started again and devoured it! This was my first book by her, but it will not be the last! I thought it was fab. 

I have two reviews due later this week so I read Love and Laughter (and Other Disasters) by Elora Canne, and started reading The Shadow on the Bridge by Clare Marchant. 

In other big news, I finished volume 1 of War and Peace this week. It is funny what you find when you look back in the archives of your blog. I was searching for something last week and came across this post from 2010 which is the last time I attempted to read this book. I have made it further this time than I did then, but I have to figure out what my strategy is going to be for when we go away for a couple of weeks. I don't really want to drag the book around with me, and I don't want to change versions or translations. Maybe I will read a few chapters ahead and then catch up when I get home!

We had our read on a theme book club meeting on Saturday. The theme was Classics and this is just some of what people read. I listened to Pride and Prejudice and will have a post up soon with some thoughts, not necessarily on the book, but on the enduring impact and legacy of Jane Austen or something like that anyway. Our next theme is Spy and I have a couple of ideas of what I am going to read.

I'm watching

You may recall that last weekend I went to the movies and saw the latest Bridget Jones movie. While I knew that I had watched the first one, I had no recollection of the second and third films at all, so this week I sat and watched the first 3 movies. If I had to rate the four movies I would say that the first and last movies are the best, followed by the third one and then the second one was the least entertaining!

The French Film Festival has just started and I am a little bit gutted that I am going to be away for most of it as there are quite a few movies that I wanted to see showing. I did go to the movies by myself on Friday night to see Jane Austen Wrecked My Life which was a lot of fun. It is about a woman who wants to be an author, but can't seem to finish any of her stories. Her friend sends a few chapters off and she gets accepted into a Jane Austen residency writers retreat in England. It is a fun movie!

Here's the trailer

Life



After book club I went to see the Yayoi Susama exhibition for the second time. The second half of the exhibition is so much fun, full of immersion rooms, polka dots, pumpkins with polka dots. It's a lot of fun. You can see a couple of photos from the first time I went here, and then below are some from my most recent visit.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Author sisters
Blog Tour: If You Could See Me Now by Samantha Tonge
Weekend Cooking: The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - February stats




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

This week...

I'm reading

We are going away at the end of this month, so I wanted to get a bit of a head start to my reading so that I can write all my posts before I go away. I therefore read I Knew You Were Trouble by Aussie author Sandy Barker, which is the fifth and final book in the Ever After Agency series.

I then started reading Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young. I am not really sure why as I already had multiple books on the go, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do! I have heard lots of good things about it!

I also started reading If You Could See My Now by Samantha Tonge. My review for this book will be up later this week!

Last week I had mentioned that I had started listening to Mis-directed by Lucy Parker but I was falling asleep on the couch. In the end, I started it again, and found myself sitting at the desk just listening to it! I got through it in two days as I couldn't stop listening. I did have to remind myself that Lucy Parker had written the book - it wasn't Nicola Coughlin sharing some of things that go on backstage on a period TV series.

I have now gone back to listening to The Truth by Terry Pratchett. I started this in January but put it aside to listen to Pride and Prejudice for book club. I expect I will finish The Truth this week.

Speaking of Jane Austen, I went to a library event on Friday night. It was a one woman show where she acts as the author whilst dressed in accurate period clothing, sharing letters that she sent and received, as well as excerpts from Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Given that I have only recently read P&P, the section she read was very familiar to me!

I'm watching


I've seen a few movies this week. I watched The Dolce Villa which is about a young woman who buys a 1 Euro house in a small village in Italy. Her dad comes to try to persuade her that this is a mistake. He clashes with the female mayor straight away but he does start to come around. They did get all the renovations done very quickly, and there were some nice foodie scenes!

I then watched a movie which has been given an English title of Honeymoon Crasher, but in French it is called Lune de Miel Avec Ma Mere or Honeymoon with My Mother! And that pretty much describes the movie. A man is dumped at the wedding ceremony  and so he is convinced to go on the honeymoon with his mother. Queue all the jokes about him being married to a much older woman. It was fun as he began to see her as someone in her own right, not just as his mother. The movie was set in Mauritius which looked gorgeous!

On Sunday I went to see Bridget Jones 4: Mad About the Boy at the cinema. I am not sure that I remember seeing movies 2 or 3, but I did quite enjoy this one. I cried several times, and I laughed! I might go and see if I can rewatch the first three movies.

We also started watching season 2 of Rogue Heroes. We really enjoyed the first series which is about the development of the SAS - Special Auxiliary Service. It is very much a smash em, bash em, blow em up kind of series, but it is a lot of fun!


Life

Not much to report here!

Max

Max is definitely better than he was last week, but we are struggling to get his sugar reading down. Hopefully we can work it out this week. He's very happy in himself though which is a relief.


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Another Time

Blog Tour: A Santorini Secret by Rose Alexander

Blog Tour: From Provence with Love by Alison Roberts

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March links

Weekend Kitchen: What I Baked in my Kitchen in February 

Six Degrees: Prophet Song to My Father's House







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

This week

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading week with some great reads! It's been a pretty good start to the year with already having read two 5 star books. I only had three 5 star reads all of last year!

I finished The Paris Bookshop for the Brokenhearted by Rebecca Raisin which was my the second of my 5 star reads. My review for this will be up this week. For those playing along at home, the first 5 star read was Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey.

I snuck in a non review read, That Island Feeling by Aussie author Karina May. I am going to an author event tomorrow night and I wanted to ensure that I had read her book before I went. It was my first read by her, and I will be reading more as I really enjoyed this one!

Then it was back to review reads where I read The House of Echoes by Alexandra Walsh. I don't read that many Tudor books any more, and I did like this one. You can read my review here!

Finally, I started The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson. I became an instant fangirl of this author when I read The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine last year so I was always going to read this one. My review for this one will be up next week.

We had our first meeting of our read on a theme bookclub for this year. The theme was "25" which turned out to be quite tricky, but people did a great job of coming up with ideas. Of the three books pictured, two were published in 1925 and the third was recommended as a book that everyone should read before they turn 25. My choice was to listen to the audiobook of The Truth by Terry Pratchett, which was published 25 years ago and is the 25th book in the Discworld series.

The next theme is Classics, and I have already chosen what I am going to read/listen to which will be the audiobook of Pride and Prejudice. I will be starting that later today.

Here is the January update I shared on Insta a couple of days ago. I read 13 books in January, all of them digital. Pictured are the books that I rated as 4.5 or 5 stars. I am still figuring out what else to include in the post for the update. Watch this space.

I'm watching



I ended up finishing The Road Trip, which is the TV adaptation of Beth O'Leary's book of the same name. I liked it.

I am thinking about starting the recent adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate. I haven't started yet but I do like the sound of it. Has anyone watched it?

I also watched the movie Plus One which I thought was a lot of fun. Two friends agree to be each other's plus ones for a series of weddings. Here's the trailer.

Life

We are currently in the middle of three days of extreme heat of over 39C which is over 100F so we are doing as little as possible. We usually only get a day this hot and then it will drop down a bit so three days with this kind of heat is a bit unusual. This is what my weather app said today

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors in 2024
Book Review: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Blog Tour: The House of Echoes by Alexandra Watson

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - February Links
Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my Kitchen in January

Six Degrees: Dangerous Liaisons to Tomorrow When the War Began


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

This week....

 

I'm reading

Last week I finished There are Rivers in The Sky by Elif Shafak. What an amazing author she is! There was so much in the book that I wanted to note down so I could remember it! I loved The Island of Missing Trees when I read it a couple of years ago and this one is right up there.

I them read Widows Waive the Rules by Julia Jarman for review which will be up on Wednesday. It's set on a cruise ship. Let's just say, I hope our cruise in March is a little less dramatic!

I am now reading Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey, who is pretty much an auto-read for me these days! This book is a bit different from her usual ones but it is really good so far! My review for this one will be up this week too!

The theme for my read on a theme bookclub this month is 25. I have chosen to listen to the audiobook of The Truth by Terry Pratchett. It was published in the year 2000, so is 25 years old, and is the 25th book in the Discworld series. This one has a different narrator to the one that does Hogfather, which is the book that I have listened to in the lead up for Christmas for the last 4 years at least.

I made an impulsive decision to join a chapter a day readalong for War and Peace. Now I have to come up with some kind of system to make sure that I read a chapter everyday!


I'm watching


Not a lot!

Life


Robert is now back at work, and I am starting to turn my thinking towards trying to find a new job! I could get used to this easy life, although there are some days when I feel a bit lonely, especially on the days that Robert goes into the office. We don't sit and talk all day when he is working, but I can hear his voice in the background while he is on calls. For the most part though, I really enjoy not being stressed, and doing bits and pieces here and there, reading, blogging, etc.  I do miss the structure of working though.

 
I did go and see Dear Evan Hansen with a couple of friends. I really enjoyed it, and found it very powerful and moving! I am now listening to the soundtrack on repeat. I am doing this thing this year where I am creating a Spotify playlist for anything musical we do during the year, so I need to pick a couple of songs to go on my playlist, but I can't decide which one. Each concert we go to we will pick a song or two and slowly build the story of our musical year!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated New Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025
Blog Tour: A Love Like No Other by Kate Frost
Silos, Sculptures, Scenery and so much more - The Silos

Weekend Cooking: Best of 2024

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge Statistics for December and the whole year!





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

Countdown to 2025: Day 12

 This year I am participating in Countdown to 2025 hosted by Lynn from Lynn's Books. Today is day 12 and the prompt for today is Holly and Ivy – a book with great world building

Rightly or wrongly, I associate the term world building with fantasy and sci fi books, so I had a look at my list of books read this year. In the end I chose this one, Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, because I love the world that Pratchett has created in Discworld.

Yesterday, I talked about aural bliss when listening to Richard Armitage narrate Georgette Heyer, but this is pretty good as an audio experience too. It must be. I have listened to every year for the past four. This one is narrated mostly by Sian Clifford, but there are guest appearances by Bill Nighy and Serafinowicz as well!

Tomorrow's prompt is Feast – a book that was magnificent

This Week...

 

Before I jump into my normal what I'm reading, watching and doing post, I wanted to share that the 2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge is ready to go. 

If you love historical fiction, or if you would like to read some historical fiction in the hope that you will find some books to love, or if you love reading challenges, we would love to have you join us!

You can find out all the details here.

I'm reading

This week I didn't really get as much liked as I would have. I finished The Silver-Haired Sisterhood by Judy Leigh, which is another book set on the Isle of Skye. I seem to be reading quite a few of them at the moment. You can find my review here.

I then read Starting Over at Starlight Cottage by Debbie Viggiano who is a new author to me! I reviewed that book here.

Currently I am reading Stuck in Second Gear by another new to me author, Carmen Reid. This one features a roadtrip through France which I am very much enjoying, and my review will be up later this week.

I finished doing my annual listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett! Even though I have listened to it multiple times there are still things that I remember and other things that I do not!  

I have now gone back to listening to The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley. 

It was our final meeting for our read-on-a-theme book club on Saturday so we had a lunch instead of our customary meeting. Everything was delicious, and not just the food. The theme for this selection was food/cooking. Here are just some of the choices that we shared.

I thought I was being a bit clever as suggesting 25 as our next theme. I was thinking people could read a book from when they were 25, or that was published 25 years ago, or the 25th book in a series, but it might actually be a bit tricky. I have chosen a book now, but it did take some searching to find the book that I wanted to read.

Finally, I am intending to join in with the  "A Very Dickens Christmas" challenge hosted at Snapdragon Alcove. 


I'm watching


If I didn't get as much reading done as I would like, I did get a lot more watched than I have been in previous weeks.

The latest season of Great British Bake Off started here last week. I also watched a couple of the festive specials.

We binged watch two shows. The first was Muster Dogs: Where Are They Now. A couple of years ago now we watched the first season of Muster Dogs, which is when they took a group of Kelpie puppies and sent them off to be trained. At the end of the year they came back together and did a series of tests to work out which the best dog/trainer combination was. Last year, in the second season, they did the same experiment with a litter of Border Puppies. This season was to go back to see how some of the dogs and their owners/families are doing. It's such a delightful show.

The second show we binged was A Man on the Inside which stars Ted Danson as a man who goes undercover in a retirement village to solve a crime! It was so good! We loved it!

We also finished watching Shogun, which I thought was really good but it did take us a while to get through as it is not a show that I could watch more than one or two episodes at a time.

I watched several Christmas movies this week. I loved one, like another a lot, and had a don't waste your time reaction to the third. 

The one that I loved was That Christmas, which is an animated movie written by Richard Curtis, who is famous for a lot of big movies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. It was so sweet.

I liked The Text Before Christmas, which follows a woman who receives a wrong number call very close to Christmas from an older woman, and they build a relationship which leads them to spending several Christmases together. And she has a dishy son and so on.

Finally, we like British comedian Jack Whitehall and we are even going to seem him live in a few months. However, his Christmas special, Jack in Time for Christmas, is ....not good. It does have a funny part with Michael Buble right at the beginning but it all goes downhill after that.

I did go to the movies this week. I was going a little bit stir crazy from being at home, or maybe from so many Christmas movies. I chose to go and see an Iranian movie called My Favourite Cake. I will confess that I thought it was going to be more foodie than it was, but it was interesting, and the story about the movie was very interesting. It is about an older woman who has been a widow for many years, who decides that she needs to meet a man, but it all goes a bit wrong!

Here's the trailer for That Christmas

Posts from the last week

It's been a very busy blogging week this week, mainly because I am participating in Countdown to 2025 which means a post for that everyday, plus whatever else I am posting. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Short Stories
Countdown to 2025: Days 1, 2 and 3
Countdown to 2025: Day 4

Blog Tour: A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen
Blog Tour: The Silver-haired Sisterhood by Judy Leigh

Countdown to 2025: Day 5

Blog Tour: Starting Over at Starlight Cottage by Debbie Viggiano

Countdown to 2025: Day 6

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 Sign up post

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked In My Kitchen in November

Countdown to 2025: Day 7

Six Degrees of Separation: Sandwich to Agnes and the Hitman

Countdown to 2025: Day 8





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

This week...

I'm reading

Last week I started reading Last Night in London by Karen White. It's not the book I intended to read, but never mind! I enjoyed it nonetheless. I did pick the major twist in the story pretty early on, but I was a little bit surprised by one of the other twists.

Next up I read a super short and sex story by Rachael Johns called The Ex Proposal. It was originally released as part of an anthology, but now the authors have the rights back and so Rachael released it. The link is available on her author Facebook page. 

Next up I read A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen. I really enjoy everything I read by Maggie Christensen and this was no exception. My review will be up in a couple of days

I then started reading Judie Leigh's new book, The Silver-Haired Sisterhood. The review for this one will also be up later this week. Then I have one more review due and then a month or so before the next one. Of course I will be reading to get ahead of due dates, but there will also be some time for me to just read whatever I like which I am looking forward to!

I was listening to The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley, but I have put that aside for now. Last year I listened to the Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson twice, and I felt like listening to it again, so I did. It's full of very interesting Christmas facts! I then began my annual listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Once I have finished this I will go back to The Missing Sister. I did recently hear that Richard Armitage narrates the next book in the series, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, so I will need to get onto that asap! But I also have the new Nora Roberts book waiting for me, and so many other audiobooks too!




I'm watching

SailGP is back! We therefore watched the first race last week. Last year we went to Sydney to watch a live SailGP race, and the year before we went to Christchurch but this year we will only be watching from home.

We finished watching Nobody Wants This which was a lot of fun. It stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. I think I will try to start the new Ted Danson series next or maybe we should continue with some of the series we already have on the go?

I also watched Meet Me Next Christmas which was a fun Christmas movie. I am hoping to watch more Christmas movies, but I don't really seem to have enough time which is a bit weird!



Life

How on earth did I ever have time to work. The second half of last week was super busy, featuring a brunch on Thursday, lunch at Geelong, people around for lunch on Saturday, and then visiting a Christmas market on Sunday. 

The other thing that we did on Friday night was to go and visiting the Da Vinci exhibition at Lume. We had seen it before, but this time there was a quintet from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing which made it a really nice experience.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Back to the Beginning
Blog Tour: Casa Paradiso by Francesca Scanacapra
Blog Tour: Celebrating 25 books by Sue Moorcroft
Weekend Cooking/Cook the Books: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: December Links
Festive Treats: November


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

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'd Love Another Book From

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’d Love a New Book From (These could be authors that have passed away, who have retired from writing, who have inexplicably gone quiet, or who might jut not be able to keep up with how quickly you read their books!)

The first five authors I have mentioned are people who have passed away.

Terry Pratchett - When I was looking at the website, I saw that they have found a "lost" book so there will be something new.

Ariana Franklin - This is an example of a series where a family member continued the series after the author's death.

Sharon Kay Penman - While we will never have a new SKP book, I do still have a couple of books still to read.

Susan Vreeland - I really liked this authors take on historical fiction.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I did love Shadow of the Wind so hard

And the next few just don't seem to be writing anymore

Lisa Kleypas - There's an irony that I have three historical romance readers on this list because I just don't really read this genre anymore.

Liz Carlyle - I used to love Liz Carlyle's books but there hasn't been a new one for years now.

Loretta Hill - This author was writing rural fiction featuring women working in really interesting jobs before she just stopped writing.

Laura Florand - A while ago I was going through a huge reading slump and there were only two authors who I was still reading. Laura Florand was one of those.

Tessa Dare - In theory there is going to be another Tessa Dare book but it does keep on getting delayed. The release date is now 3036

Six Degrees of Separation: The Anniversary to Equal Rites

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 the starting point is The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop, which was longlisted for the Stella Prize this year.

My starting point is last year's winner of the same prize, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

Another book with the word cinnamon in the title is Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

A book that I read recently about the famous Gunpowder Plot is The Secrets of Crestwell Hall by Alexandra Walsh

I love a good book which features the house as almost a character. Another book where that happened for me was Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

A book by another Hannah that is the very opposite of summer is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent..

And that title gives me the opportunity to finish with a Terry Pratchett book, Equal Rites.

Next month our starting point is Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I am very excited by this choice. I had requested it from the library but wasn't able to go pick it up! I am not sure that I will get to read it before June but it will be a good reminder to me to request it again.

Will you be joining us?

Top Ten Tuesday: Last Ten Christmas Books I Have Read

 

 

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

e is Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes. I don't usually get anything other than cookbooks for Christmas so instead I am sharing the last ten Christmassy books I have read. 

The Christmas Swap by Sandy Barker - Last year I shared ten Christmas books on my Kindle that I hadn't yet read. This is the only one that I have since read, and that was just over the last few days!! And yes, I have added more!

Christmas Feasts and Treats by Donna Hay - I was given this cookbook a couple of days ago and I have flicked through and picked out a few things to try

The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson - I listened to this on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so, my husband and I then listened to it together in the car the week after!!

The Christmas Love Letters by Sue Moorcroft - I enjoyed this book about family secrets being revealed at Christmas (my review)

In the Greek Midwinter by Mandy Baggot - I've never thought of Athens as a Christmas destination, but this book could have influenced me to think otherwise (my review)

Celebrations in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen - This is the latest entry in the Bellbird Bay series (my review)

Finding Love at the Christmas Markets by Jo Thomas - If there is one author who I might choose to fit another Christmas read in by it would be Jo Thomas!

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - Listening to this audio has become a Christmas tradition for me. I am currently listening to this one after listening to it for the last two years.

The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley - This was a lot of fun to read! Think Celebrity Bake Off at Christmas time (my review) 

Midnight in the Snow by Karen Swan - I really need to get back to reading Karen Swan

Do you like reading Christmas themed books?