Top Ten Tuesday: Rewind

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is a rewind, so we can choose to do or re-do a topic from a previous work. I've decided to go with ten new-to-me authors I've discovered recently(ish) and want to read more from. (I last made a list like this in 2016, so it's definitely time for an update!) These are listed in reverse order of when I read them.

1. Douglas Skelton (An Honourable Thief)

2. J. L. Carr (How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup)

3. Paul Gallico (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris)

4. Eloise Jarvis McGraw  (Mara, Daughter of the Nile)

5. Alan Jacobs (The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction)

6. Stacey Halls (Mrs England)

7. Helen MacInnes (The Salzburg Connection)

8. Carrie Kablean (What Kitty Did Next)

9. Elizabeth Peters (Crocodile on the Sandbank)

10. Unnatural Causes (Richard Shepherd)

 

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is Top Ten Books on My Spring To-Read List.

I'm predominantly a mood reader, so I don't tend to stick to these sorts of lists, but I still enjoy making them! Here are ten books that I'd really like to get to this spring:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
Lab Girl Hope Jahren
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain by Margaret Irwin
The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude
Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Unquiet Women by Max Adams

Top Ten Tuesday: Geographical Titles

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with Geographical Terms in the Title. This was a fun topic to find books for; I've listed five books that I've read and five that are on my TBR.

Books I've Read:

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Fell Murder by E.C.R. Lorac

The Silent Shore by Ruth Elwin Harris

The Just City by Jo Walton

 

Books on My TBR:

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Longitude by Dava Sobel

The Island of Sheep by John Buchan

One More River by Lynne Reid Banks

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Places I'd Love to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is books set in a place I'd love to visit. Here are ten I came up with:

1. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Prince Edward Island)
2. Tiger, Tiger by Lynne Reid Banks (Rome)
3. Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson (Ireland)
4. Bloomability by Sharon Creech (Switzerland)
5. Where is Susan? by Jane Shaw (Venice)
6. Peril in Paris by Katherine Woodfine (Paris)
7. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (Norway)
8. Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner (Berlin)
9. Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss (Iceland)
10. The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart (Greece)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books from past seasonal TBRs I still haven't read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is books from my past seasonal TBR posts I STILL haven’t read.

 

I'm just starting to get back into blogging after a few years away from it, so I haven't made a seasonal TBR post since 2017 (not counting my summer 2022 list). However, despite this I've managed to compile a list of titles that are still on my TBR. (I've excluded books which I abandoned or no longer want to read, so these are all books that I plan to get to some day.)

1. A Woman's Place by Lynn Austin (Spring 2016)

2. Home by Marilynne Robinson (Spring 2016)

3. Lark Rise to Candleford (Spring 2016)

4. The Brontë Plot by Katherine Reay (Autumn 2016)

5. Five Magic Spindles by various authors (Autumn 2016)

6. Once by various authors (Spring 2017)

7. The Sound of Diamonds by Rachelle Rea (Spring 2017)

8. The Oxford Inklings by Colin Duriez (Spring 2017)

 

To get to 10, I'm also including my list of books I'm looking forward to reading in 2017.

9. Sylvia's Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell (2017)

10. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (2017)

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I'd Like to Try

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie. I wasn't feeling inspired to come up with my own topic so decided to go with a previous one which I haven't done yet. Here are ten authors I haven't read, but am interested in reading. Let me know if there's a favourite author of yours you think I should read, and which book I should start with!

Ngaio Marsh

Known as one of the four Queens of Crime alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. I'm a big fan of Sayers and Christie, and of classic crime fiction generally, so Marsh is pretty high on my list to try.

Moray Dalton

Another classic crime author I've heard good things about, and some of her books have fairly recently been republished by Dean Street Press, so they are easy to get hold of.

K. J. Parker

I've come across her books at the library and thought they looked interesting, but I've yet to try reading one.

C. S. Harris

She is the author of a historical mystery series set in Regency England, which sounds interesting.

Edward Marston

Another mystery author I'm interested in.

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

I'd like to read more classics from other cultures and I've heard good things about The Makioka Sisters, so I'd like to read it at some point.

Mary Renault

Amor Towles

Tove Jansson

E. M. Delafield

Some other authors I've generally heard good things about or am interested in reading.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Summer 2022 To-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is: Books on my summer 2022 to-read list.

   

I'm notoriously bad at sticking to reading lists, so there's a good chance I won't actually read any of these (except the first one which I'm currently reading now). But anyway, here is a list of ten books that I am hoping to get to this summer!

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Death in the Spotlight by Robin Stevens

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles

Finding My Voice by Nadiya Hussain

A Carpet Ride to Khiva by Christopher Aslan Alexander

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Top Ten Tuesday: Forgotten Classics

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's theme is Ten Hidden Gem Books in X Genre. I've decided go for classics, so I'm listing ten older books that have been mostly forgotten or that I think should be better known:

A Cathedral Courtship by Kate Douglas Wiggin

A sweet romantic tale combined with a tour of English cathedrals

The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Mary Yonge

A tragic Victorian bestseller

White Boots by Noel Streatfeild

A story about family, friendship, and ice skating

The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit

Six children determine to restore their family's fortunes - but things don't really go according to plan

Seven Sisters at Queen Anne's by Evelyn Smith

Seven sisters go off to school for the first time,

Half Magic by Edward Eager

A magic coin that only grants half of what you wish for - what could possibly go wrong?

Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery

I've reviewed this recently here.

Young Bess by Margaret Irwin

An entertaining novel about the young Elizabeth I

The Silent Shore by Ruth Elwin Harris

The first in a series about four sisters set during and after World War I

The Girls of St. Wode's by L.T. Meade

A story about six girls at college in the late 1800s

Top Ten Tuesday: Mystery Recommendations

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today's theme is Ten Book Recommendations for ______. Since I've been reading a lot of mystery/detective books lately, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of mystery recommendations. Then I realised I already made a similar list last September ... however, I've read quite a few new ones since then and I think this list is different enough for it to be worthwhile. So, here are ten books I recommend to people who like mysteries (especially of the classic or historical variety.

A Man of Some Repute by Elizabeth Edmondson (mini review)

This is one I've read recently. Set in a small town in 1950s England, featuring a mysterious death which occurred seven years earlier.

One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters

This is the second in Ellis Peters' Cadfael series, and one of the best that I've read so far, although I'd recommend the series as a whole.

Arsenic for Tea by Robin Stevens

The second in Robin Stevens' series featuring schoolgirl detectives in 1930s England. I enjoyed this a lot more than the first book in the series and it can be read as a standalone. The characterisation in this book is really well done, and probably stands out more than the mystery (which is also good, but not spectacular).

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (review)

The first in Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series, which I've been slowly enjoying my way through. This is one of the shorter books in the series (some are quite long) so it's definitely a good place to start, though for the most part it isn't necessary to read the books in order.

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

Shockingly, this is the only Agatha Christie book I've read to date (I really need to get on that!). It was very good though. Do I need to say any more?

The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne

A lesser-known murder mystery from the 1920s, which has recently been republished by Dean Street Press. This was a good mystery and despite it being a standalone novel rather than a series, I found that the characters were very compelling too.

Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

Set in a women's college in 1930s Oxford; in fact it was published the same year as Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night, with the same setting. This is a much more lighthearted book though, with a fair bit of humour as well as good characters and a strong mystery aspect.

The Good Knight by Sarah Woodbury

The first in a mystery series set in medieval Wales. This was a Kindle freebie and I didn't really know what to expect, but I enjoyed it a surprising amount, despite some flaws.

The Matters at Mansfield by Carrie Bebris

Set several years on from Pride & Prejudice, Darcy and Elizabeth have taken up mystery-solving as a hobby. This is actually one of the better Jane Austen sequels I've read, the dialogue felt reasonably authentic (at least it's not jarringly modern) and the mystery is a good story in its own right. This book also features characters from Mansfield Park.

The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence

Featuring four young detectives in Ancient Rome, this is the first in a series of seventeen books (which was one of my favourite series in years gone by). It now has a spin-off series, The Roman Quests, which is very good. (Possibly even better than the original series.)

My Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is Ten Books on My Spring TBR. I'm very much of a mood reader and usually not very good at sticking to lists, so there is a good chance my reading over the next few months will be completely different to what I've listed below! That said, I really do intend to read most of them soon - we'll see!

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (my Classics Club Spin book)

Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (after I finish The Two Towers, which will hopefully be this week)

Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (for the Old School Kidlit reading challenge)

Once by various authors

A Man of Some Repute by Elizabeth Edmondson

The Sound of Diamonds by Rachelle Rea

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

Thalia by Frances Faviell

The Oxford Inklings by Colin Duriez

 

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think of them? And what are you looking forward to reading soon?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Didn't Expect to Like as Much as I Did

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is Books I Liked More/Less Than I Thought I Would. I've decided to go with Books I Liked More Than I Thought I Would, as I decided I'd rather compile a list of books I really enjoyed than ones I didn't like as much.

 

The first four books are ones I read at school because they were shortlisted for awards, and I had pretty low expectations for some of them, but they all turned out to be pretty good. The others are ones I chose myself and expected to enjoy, but they exceeded my expectations.

 

 

 

Airman by Eoin Colfer

I read this because it was on the Carnegie shortlist one year, which I was reading through with some others at school. I didn't expect to enjoy it because it looked quite sci-fi-y which wasn't really a genre I enjoyed then. But actually, I really enjoyed it! (It's really more historical than sci-fi; now I'd probably class it as ruritanian).

 

Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson

Also read because it was on the Carnegie shortlist. This wasn't the kind of book I would usually read, and I found the start a bit slow, but once it got going I did enjoy it quite a lot.

 

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Again, this was probably not the kind of book I would usually read, but I thought it was pretty good.

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This was on the Red House shortlist. I'd seen it around a lot and thought I might be interested in it, but was hesitant because I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it and it also looked like it could be quite violent/dark. Which it kind of was, but I really enjoyed it anyway.

 

Raider's Tide by Maggie Prince

I picked this up very cheaply at a school library sale, thinking it might be enjoyable - it's historical fiction which is one of my favourite genres, but I don't think I had massively high expectations for it. However, I really liked it (and discovered on rereading it lately that it still holds up now, which not everything I read as a teenager does).

 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne

I mean, I expected to enjoy this but had some reservations about it. However, although I am aware that it had some flaws, I did find it a very entertaining read which I enjoyed a lot (and it would have been amazing to see on stage).

 

Escape from Rome by Caroline Lawrence

(review)

This was the first in a sequel-series to one of my favourite series when I was younger, and I wasn't sure whether it would be as good, or whether I would enjoy it as much now as I would have done had it been out eight or ten years ago. But it was really good, and I think I possibly prefer it to the original Roman Mysteries series. (The sequel was very good, too, and I'm now eagerly awaiting book three.)

 

 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

(mini-review)

This is not the sort of book I usually tend to read, but I'd heard so many good things about it that I decided to try it, although I was a bit hesitant, and I am glad to say I really enjoyed it.

 

Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

I love Hilary McKay's books, but the first time I read this book (which was one of the first of hers that I read) I thought it was enjoyable, but nothing special (I rated it three stars). However, on rereading it recently I enjoyed it so much more. I hope to reread some of the other books in the series soon!

 

The Small Woman by Alan Burgess

This was another book I expected to enjoy, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Although it's non-fiction, it's also a gripping narrative.

Ten Underrated Books I've Read in the Past Year

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is Ten Underrated Books I've Read in the Past Year. Here are ten books I read last year that I think deserve more recognition:

 

The Bard's Daughter by Sarah Woodbury

(review)

A short murder mystery set in medieval Wales, prequel to a longer series of mysteries, of which I've read the first couple.

 

Five Glass Slippers by various authors

This was an anthology of five novellas by different authors all based on "Cinderella". While I liked some of the stories better than others, overall I enjoyed this collection and the last two stories in it were both really good.

 

Alice-Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey

This book was aimed at fairly young children, but I still found it very enjoyable. It's the sort of book I'd have absolutely loved as an eight- or nine-year-old, and my enjoyment of it was probably partly nostalgia, but I do think it's a good book, too.

 

Happy and Glorious by Hilary McKay

A collection of entertaining stories about a young Queen, again written for younger readers, but enjoyable for older one too.

 

The Battle of Castle Nebula by Stephanie Ricker

This is a prequel to one of the stories in Five Glass Slippers, which was my favourite of the anthology, and this book did not disappoint. The sequel, The Star Bell, was also very good.

 

Escape from Rome by Caroline Lawrence

(review) 

The first book in a new series, which is a spin-off of one of my favourite series as a child. Obviously I was going to read it for that reason, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did; I think in many ways it was better than the original books! The second book in the series, The Archers of Isca, is also out and I enjoyed it almost as much.

 

A Cathedral Courtship by Kate Douglas Wiggin

(review)

A sweet romantic tale set in England in the late 1800's.

 

Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin

A story about four siblings growing up in the early twentieth century. It's rather reminiscent of children's classics like Anne of Green Gables, and definitely deserves to be much better known. I enjoyed this book a lot.

 

The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke

A beautifully written Christmas tale of the "other", forgotten wise man, who is accidentally left behind when his three friends when they go following the star, and has to make his own way to Bethlehem in order to seek the new King. The story didn't entirely go where I was expecting, but it was very good.

 

Raider's Tide by Maggie Prince

The story of a young girl living in the north of England in the time of Elizabeth I - a time of danger when the people live in fear of marauding Scots come to raid the borderlands, killing, destroying and stealing. A romantic/coming-of-age tale. I'm not sure why I like this as much as I do, but I've read it twice now and enjoyed it a lot both times. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, North Side of the Tree, soon.

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2016

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2016. I've read a lot of new authors this year - 43 according to my stats - and discovered quite a few new favourites, who I am looking forward to reading more from in the future. Here are my top ten:

1. Dorothy Sayers (Gaudy Night, Whose Body?)
2. Jules Verne (Journey to the Centre of the Earth)
3. Stephanie Ricker (A Cinder's Tale, The Battle of Castle Nebula, The Star Bell)
4. Jacqueline Harvey (Alice-Miranda at School)
5. Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
6. G.K. Chesterton (The Innocence of Father Brown)
7. Susie Day (Pea's Book of Best Friends)
8. Paula Byrne (Belle)
9. Suzannah Rowntree (The Rakshasa's Bride)
10. Henry Van Dyke (The Story of the Other Wise Man)

Ten of My Favourite Movies That Were Based on Books

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is a movies freebie, so I've decided to list ten of my favourite films that were based on books. I've included miniseries as well, because there were a few that I couldn't not include. There were quite a few others I could have included, but here are ten films/miniseries that I really like and could watch over and over again:

1. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
2. Wives and Daughters (1999)
3. Les Miserables (2012)
4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
5. North and South (2004)
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
7. Cranford (2007)
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
9. Ballet Shoes (2007)
10. Little Women (1994)

Ten Books I've Added to My Wishlist Lately

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is Ten Books I've Added to My Wishlist Lately. So, here are ten books I've recently discovered that I want to read:

 

 

 

Lady in Waiting by Rosemary Sutcliff

I much enjoyed the last of Rosemary Sutcliff's books that I read, and this one, about Walter Raleigh's wife, sounded interesting.

 

Once: Six Historically Inspired Fairytales by Elisabeth Grace Foley and others

A collection of six historical fairytale retellings which is coming out in December.


Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

A classics mystery set in 1930s Oxford sounds like something I would enjoy.
 

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George

Another mystery - this is a genre I've been getting back into recently. I can't remember much about this but I obviously thought it sounded good when I added it.

 

Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves by Kevin Bales

Human trafficking and modern slavery is a major issue today that I would like to know more about.

 

The Guineveres by Sarah Domet

I've read a few reviews of this recently and it sounds quite intriguing.

 

Pea's Book of Big Dreams by Susie Day

After reading and enjoying the first book in this series recently, I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

 

 

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

This book was recommended to me recently and sounded good.

 

Hild by Nicola Griffith

A novel about Hilda of Whitby, who I find quite interesting as a historical figure.


The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett

Another book I can't remember much about, but I remember it sounded intriguing.

 

 

Have you read any of these books? Let me know what you thought, if so!

You can see more books that I've been on reading and adding to my TBR list on Goodreads.