Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Falling into Fall 2018

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Books on my Fall 2018 TBR

My favourite season is (almost) here. I absolutely love curling up with a hot drink and a brilliant book while the weather outside turns cooler. There also seems to be some fantastic sounding books either just out or coming very soon, so there’s plenty of (hopefully) great reading to look forward to. Here’s a selection of some of the titles that have caught my eye recently…

The Corset by Laura Purcell – I loved The Silent Companions by the same author, so I can’t wait to start this new tale, billed as a Victorian chiller.

Melmoth by Sarah Perry – The Essex Serpent was so good that I knew I’d pick up whatever Sarah Perry wrote next, and this story of folklore, superstition and legend sounds intriguing.

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gower – I’ve had this book on my TBR pile for a while now and I’ve seen some great reviews of it, so I’m hoping that I’ll start it within the next few weeks.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson – A young woman recruited into the world of espionage in 1940 sounds like a fascinating beginning to a story. This will be my first Kate Atkinson.

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness – We’re really being spoiled at the moment, with a tv adaptation of A Discovery of Witches and a new book featuring familiar characters from the All Souls trilogy.

The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón – So exciting! I’ve read all the other Cemetery of Forgotten Books series (The Shadow of the Wind has probably had a couple of re-reads too!) so getting my hands on this new instalment is something I’m looking forward to.

The Mystery of Three Quarters of Sophie Hannah – It’s Poirot as written by Sophie Hannah. My recent discovery of Agatha Christie and especially Poirot makes me really curious to see how another author writes such a famous character.

Halloween Party by Agatha Christie – A Poirot story, and picked solely on the basis that Halloween is approaching, so why not?

The Feed by Nick Clark Windo – Everyone relies on The Feed. Then The Feed collapses. Imagine a world where the technology we use so much is suddenly no longer there, and then someone really important to you goes missing. This sounds so good.

NOS4R2 by Joe Hill – I’ve probably featured this one on an autumn themed TBR list before, so hopefully this time I’ll get around to reading it. It seems perfect for this time of year.

And so you have just some of the books featuring on my TBR list/pile at the moment. What are you hoping to read this autumn?

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Hidden or Not-So-Hidden Gems

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Hidden Gems (which books haven’t been talked about as much or haven’t been marketed as strongly that you think deserve some recognition?)

I’m back for my first Top Ten Tuesday in quite a while. I thought I’d use this week’s topic to remember some of the books I’ve really enjoyed over the last few months. Whether you’d call them hidden gems is debatable, because at least one or two of them I’ve seen mentioned almost everywhere, but an opportunity to talk again about good books is one not to be missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – A time-travelling, body-swapping, Christie-esque whodunnit-type mystery. Still possibly my favourite read of the year so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – Charming characters, lovely writing. The story of Count Alexander Rostov, living under house arrest in the Hotel Metropol remains very memorable.

       

Wrath of Empire by Brian McClellan – This is the second book in his new fantasy series, so go check out Sins of Empire first, because you’re in for a treat. There’s also the Powder Mage books to discover as well.

              

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – I’m new to Christie and this was the book that started it all. Probably the least ‘hidden’ gem on my list, but when I saw the new movie version I actually had no idea at all about the twist in the tale. Also check out The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder on the Links.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – Myth, folklore, frost demons, fire demons, and a whole host of determined leading ladies, I really enjoyed Spinning Silver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant – Killer mermaids! Tense and exciting and well worth a read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys – A mystery tale involving a bequest from a stranger which sends main character Eve to the French Riviera in search of answers. If you’re missing the hot weather of summer, the atmosphere of this book may suit you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Time of Dread by John Gwynne – A new fantasy series and the first book I’ve read by this author.

       

 

 

 

 

 

The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams – A second-in-series book. Check out The Ninth Rain then continue the adventure with Tor, Vintage and Noon (and some rather fantastic talking war beasts) in The Bitter Twins.

       

Force of Nature by Jane Harper – And to conclude, yes, you guessed it, another second-in-series book. This one is crime, featuring Aaron Falk as the main character. He previously appeared in The Dry which you may want to check out first, but I do think you could dive straight in with this one if you prefer.

So, there you have it, a few of the books that have stayed with me beyond the initial reading. Hopefully you’ll discover something to enjoy. What have you been reading lately that you’d call a hidden gem? As always, do let me know, because a TBR list/pile can never have too many books on it!

Top Ten Tuesday: The Best of 2018 so Far…

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Best Books I’ve Read In 2018 (So Far)

I couldn’t miss out on Top Ten Tuesday this week as I’ve been pondering on writing a post dedicated to a few of my favourite reads of the year so far for a while now.
I’ve come across some amazing books and authors over the last few months, so here are just a few of the reading experiences that have stuck with me.
All titles link to my reviews if anything catches your eye and you‘d like to find out more.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – My most recent finish and a book that I adored. It’s historical fiction, the story of Count Rostov living under house arrest in a grand hotel.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – This one was so good I didn’t want to take the book back to the library. A murder mystery, a country house, an Agatha Christie vibe with added body-swapping, time-bending elements. It was fantastic.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – My very first experience of reading Poirot. Even though I’d seen the recent movie and knew the solution I really enjoyed reading this.

Wrath of Empire by Brian McClellan – Book 2 in the Gods of Blood and Powder series, and a welcome addition to the Powder Mage world. It was a treat to get back to the adventures of some of my favourite characters. These books are really good.

The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams – Book 2 of the Winnowing Flame series. Talking dragons, war beasts, an enemy invasion, this book had a lot going on, and I cannot wait to find out what’s going to happen next.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant – Killer mermaids! Need I say more?

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin – Great characters and a great setting, and top marks for a gorgeous cover too.

I didn’t make ten for this weeks list, but I have high hopes for a few books still on my TBR pile, so perhaps I’ll write another Best Of… post when I’ve conquered a few of those.

Have you read any of these books, and if so what did you think? Which reads have you enjoyed so far during this year?
See you next time for another Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday: Poolside Reads AKA My Summer TBR List

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Books to Read By the Pool/At the Beach (This can also serve as your summer TBR)

Time for some summer reading, so here are a few of the titles I may pick up as I head outdoors on a nice afternoon…

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – I’m on such an Agatha Christie roll at the moment that I can’t imagine not having at least one of her Poirot novels make this list, and what better for summer than a Nile cruise with a murder mystery and my new favourite detective on hand to bring the world to rights again?

The Outsider by Stephen King – There’s very little chance a new Stephen King book wouldn’t make it onto my TBR list.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – I enjoyed Uprooted by the same author, so can’t wait to get my hands on this latest novel.

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes – Initially the pretty cover of this book caught my eye but billed as the first in a new series of Golden Age murder mysteries it sounds like something I’m in the reading mood for at the moment.

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton – I’ll let this one speak for itself. It sounds very different, and the cover is lovely, which is why it caught my attention. “Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship. A Talented Mr. Ripley for the digital age, this seductive story takes a classic tale of obsession and makes it irresistibly new.”

While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt – A psychological thriller with a possible haunted house? This sounds interesting.

Bitter Sun by Beth Lewis – Four kids set out to solve a murder during a summer heatwave in 1971.

A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson – Agatha Christie disappeared for a time in 1926 and this novel offers up a fictional idea of where she went. It’s the first book, and I know a new one came out just recently, so I’ll start at the beginning.

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio – I’ve had my eye on this book for a while now and the last time I called in to the library I found an almost new paperback copy with black-edged pages and somehow I actually managed to resist taking it out there and then because I already have so many books, but I’ll definitely be going back for it soon!

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie – Poirot at the beginning and another Poirot story at the end. I think I may be becoming a bit of a fan. This sounds quite an exotic title, so what better choice for some summer reading?

And that’s a glance at a few titles I hope to conquer over the coming weeks of summer. There are so many more I could have added to this list, but I’ll limit myself to ten.

What are you hoping to read this summer, and have you read any of my choices?
What did you think of them?
See you next time for another Top Ten Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday: A Sea of Blue Covers

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Books With my Favourite Colour on the Cover (or in the title)

Looking back through my Goodreads shelves I’ve noticed a fair few blue themed book covers. Then I started looking at the titles and realised that actually, most of these books had been pretty good reads, and so my colour for this weeks Top Ten Tuesday presented itself.

So, without further ado may I present my sea of blue book covers…

           

The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

            

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley
The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

            

The Diviners by Libba Bray
The Muse by Jessie Burton
Fellside by M. R. Carey

All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

What colour did you choose for the theme this week?
Have you read of the books that made my list and if so, what did you think.

See you again next time for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie AKA All The Library Books I was Reluctant to Return

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Freebie.

It’s Freebie week on Top Ten Tuesday, and recently I was thinking about just how many books I have on loan from the library at any one time.
It’s a LOT.
I love libraries. All those wonderful brand new books, all for free. Also, there’s the added bonus of not having to store all these great books, because I ran out of bookshelf space a long time ago.

So, having books on loan forces me to eventually take them back and saves on space. Great. Until you come across one of those books that you really love…
It’s a beautiful book to look at, the story has been amazing, you’ve lived that tale with those characters and you can’t imagine not having that book in your possession any more.

So, here’s a post devoted to a few of the library books that I’ve been very reluctant to part with…

            

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

            

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley
Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan

           

The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
The Diviners by Libba Bray

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Have you read of the books that made my list this week? Let me know what you thought of them, and what topic you chose for this weeks Top Ten Tuesday freebie!

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Resolutions/Goals

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Click on the link for more info and to find out about future topics.

This weeks theme is:   Bookish Resolutions/Goals

A new year saw me writing my customary Reading Resolutions post.
I decided a couple of years back I’d make some general goals for my reading year rather than joining a large number of challenges. That decided, I wrote my goals and only signed up for Goodreads and Beat the Backlist.
Here is a selection of my reading hopes/goals for the year…

Goodreads challenge – I do this one most years. I haven’t set a massive target as I want to keep it low pressure. 20 books will do I think, especially since I can’t seem to keep away from massive tomes and they take ages to read. I joined this challenge mostly because I use Goodreads to keep track of what I’ve read so I guess having a small target to aim for adds something extra.

Beat the Backlist – The only other challenge I’ve signed up for this year. It’s my second time taking part. Last year I cleared around 15 books from my backlist, so it was a good challenge for me and I can’t wait to see how many I can read this year.

To participate in read-a-thon events often – I have a terrible habit of finding out about reading events either just as they’re about to happen or when they’re already in progress. That’s not good if there’s a particular theme going on, so I want to try and find out about things in advance so that I can join in, because I do love a good read-a-thon.

To read outside my usual choices – Over the new year I saw various articles featuring ‘must read’ books for the coming year, aimed at people who resolved to start reading this year. I’m a long-time reader, but I did find the idea of taking on some of the suggested books an interesting idea, to broaden my reading genres and so I requested some of the titles from the library.

To keep on top of my reviews – I try to write reviews as soon as I can, while the story is still fresh in my mind and I can gush about all the reasons that I loved the book. I want to stay on top of things this year.

Top Ten Tuesday – Take part whenever the topic appeals to me.

Non-Fiction – I don’t usually read much in the way of non-fiction and I wonder what I’m missing, so I’ll try to check out at least one book sometime this year.

To read a classic – It’s years since I read anything you’d call a classic, so I’d like to read at least one over the coming months.

Audio books – The first time I tried an audio book it wasn’t for me. I found my attention wandering and kept having to go back because I didn’t feel I’d taken the story in. It became really time consuming and put me off for a while.
Last year I had another attempt, and I had a much better experience and enjoyed the story, which has left me thinking I wouldn’t be completely against trying another audio book this year.

I didn’t think I’d make ten items this week, and as it turns out I have ended up one short. So, is there anything I’ve missed? What resolutions or goals have you decided on this year?

See you again for another Top Ten Tuesday.