Top Ten Tuesday: Series that I just sort of stopped reading

 

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

week the theme is Completed Series I Wish Had More Books. I have decided to twist it a little bit and talk about the series that I kind of, sort of, just stopped reading. It wasn't a conscious decision to stop, but just haven't picked up the next book in the series.... yet. In some cases it has been 10 years or more since I stopped.There's still time right?

The last book I read in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series was The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection which is book no. 13 in the series by Alexander McCall Smith. Book number 23 is due to be released this year. Just a little bit behind then.

The last book I read in the Play by Play series by Jaci Burton was Quarterback Draw which is book no. 9 in the series. It does look as though the series has ended at book no. 14. This is especially strange given that this was one of the few contemporary series I was reading a few years ago. Now I am reading lots! Just not sports ones!

I used to wait with great excitement for the next Diana Gabaldon book to come out. I would buy it as soon as I saw it in the shops. I still haven't bought the latest book in the Outlander series let alone read it!

I listened to the first two books in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy on audio. Goodness knows when I will get to the third one.

This is another trilogy where I have read the first two books in the trilogy and meant to read the third one, Ambulance Girls At War by Deborah Burrows. I did borrow this book from the library at least twice but still didn't read it.

I read and loved Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley, the first book in the Daughters of the Outback trilogy, a few years ago. Still haven't read the other two books in the series. I have bought other books by Wasley since then too!

I have read the first 18 books in the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr at least twice. So why haven't I read the last book that was released a couple of years ago yet.

I have read a lot of books by Lisa Kleypas over the years. The last book I read in The Ravenels series was the third book, Devil in Spring. There are now seven books in the series. One of the issues is that I just don't read a lot of historical romance any more.

I have read the first 3 books in the Study series by Maria VSnyder twice, including a couple of years ago when I read them in anticapation of moving onto the next book in the series. Still haven't  read the next book which is sometimes referred to as the first book in the Glass trilogy or as part of the bigger overall series, Chronicals of Ixia.

A series that I really can't understand why I stopped reading is the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I loved them so much. I read up to The Golden One, book 14, and then just stopped. I feel like I would have to reread a lot of them before I could pick up the next next book in the series. The series ended up being 20 books long.

Do you ever just stop reading a series without meaning to?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set In a Place I’d Love to Visit (real places or fictional)

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books Set In a Place I’d Love to Visit (real places or fictional). This is a topic that I feel like I done recently but it is actually a couple of years ago now! So this week I am going to share some books set in places that we plan to visit soon.

We are planning a weekend away in Adelaide for my brother's 40th birthday soon.

Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson (review) - This book is set in both Adelaide and Sheffield in the UK, which is a place I lived in for four years back in the late 1990s.

At some point this year I need to go to Perth to see the family over there


Taking a Chance by Deborah Burrows (review) - Deborah Burrows wrote a couple of books set in war time Perth!

We have a big trip planned for the end of the years where we will start in The Netherlands to see my brother in law and his family.

Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach - we won't be there for Tulip season but still

The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater - recently bought this.

From there we will go to Northern France -We don't know exactly where we are going to be staying so I am choosing the following two locations. What we do know is that there will definitely be some Normandy beaches experiences. After that we will head to Paris. Given that I only just did a French themed TTT post a couple of weeks ago,  I am going to only share one book for all of France.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - set in St Malo

From there the plan is to head to Southern Italy.


The Postcard from Italy by Angela Petch (Review)- I was inspired to want to visit Puglia after reading this book!


The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella - Set in Naples!

We will stop in Singapore on the way home

Tanamera by Noel Barber - I read this in my late teens or early twenties. I also read numerous other books by this author. Not sure they would stand the test of time!

The next year we are planning to spend some time in New Zealand

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins - Such a fun read!

And then looking even further forward we are thinking about heading to Hawaii which will include a visit to Pearl Harbour for sure.

The Lost Pearl by Emily Madden - This book is set both in Hawaii and Sydney.

I love travelling but I am always grateful to travel via the pages of a book too!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I currently have out from the library

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. There is no set theme this week and so today I am sharing the books that I currently have out of the library. Our library system is still closed because we are still in lockdown, so they keep on extending the return date. At the moment the return date is due to be 31 October but that could be extended further depending on what happens. 

The Opal Dragonfly by Julian Leatherdale - I read this author's first book a few months ago and I liked it so requested this one. I intend to read his last book too.

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - This was reviewed a lot a couple of months ago and it sounds so good. I requested it from the library straight away

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - I saw this mentioned a few times and knew I wanted to read it!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - I saw this mentioned on a few Top Ten Tuesday posts over a few weeks so decided I needed to read it myself

Ambulance Girls at War by Deborah Burrows - This is the the third book in the Ambulance Girls trilogy

Those Who Are  Loved by Victoria Hislop - I really enjoyed some books by Victoria Hislop years ago but it has been a long time since I read one.

The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This is a middle grade book but I have heard good things about it.

The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott - I saw this on someone's blog somewhere and it prompted me to request it from the library, but I can't remember where or when.

Rosewater & Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran - This is the last book that I borrowed from the library before it closed that I haven't read yet, so I want to read it before the library opens again

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown - This is the current Cook the Books bookclub choice, I am about half way through this at the moment.

Library Loot: 21 July

Earlier this year when the COVID19 pandemic hit, our local libraries closed to everyone. Gradually as our restrictions lifted, a couple of the local branches reopened with limited opening hours. Unfortunately my branch was not one of those which was disappointing given that I had lots and lots of books waiting to be picked up from the hold shelf. I thought I was being smart in getting my holds transferred from my branch to one of the branches that was opened. I then planned to go and pick them up. Good plan right?

What I hadn't counted on was that we would go back into lockdown and therefore I couldn't go to the other branch either. Luckily my library system does have a delivery service, so I was able to request that my books were delivered to my door! It was exciting to receive that package yesterday. I suspect I might use this delivery service again yet.

Here's what I got:

The Opal Dragonfly by Julian Leatherdale - I read this author's first book a few months ago and I liked it so requested this one. I intend to read his last book too.

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten - This was reviewed a lot a couple of months ago and it sounds so good. I requested it from the library straight away

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - I saw this mentioned a few times and knew I wanted to read it!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - I saw this mentioned on a few Top Ten Tuesday posts over a few weeks so decided I needed to read it myself

Ambulance Girls at War by Deborah Burrows - This is the the third book in the Ambulance Girls trilogy

Those Who Are  Loved by Victoria Hislop - I really enjoyed some books by Victoria Hislop years ago but it has been a long time since I read one.

The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks - This is a middle grade book but I have heard good things about it.

The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott - I saw this on someone's blog somewhere and it prompted me to request it from the library, but I can't remember where or when.

The Spanish Promise by Karen Swan - Bree from All the Books I Can Read has been reading a lot of Karen Swan books this year, so I have decided to see if I like the author as much as she  does. I borrowed this one as an ebook.


Now to decide what to read first.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries

This week...

I'm reading...

After finished reading both the books I mentioned last week, I was faced with what is one of the tougher decisions ..... what to read next? I could read on the library books I have here so that they are all read by the time that the library reopens, or I could read one of the many, many, many books I already have downloaded on my Kindle or just pick one of the unread books off my bookshelf.

In the end, I didn't do any of those things. I ended up downloading a completely new book. Earlier this year I read When It All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins and really enjoyed it so I downloaded Chocolate Cake for Breakfast. We won't talk about the fact that I started reading it at 4am because I couldn't sleep. I had read a quarter of by the time I went to sleep. I then finished the book by 1.30am the next night which is probably a fair sign of how much I enjoyed it, which was lucky given that it was a book that Bree from All the Books You Can Read recommended to me about 3 years ago.

The other book I started this week was Ambulance Girls Under Fire by Deborah Burrows which features ambulance girls working in London during the blitz in World War II. I read the first book in the trilogy a couple of years ago and it has taken me that long to get back to it. This is one of the library books.

After finishing Chocolate Cake, I was again left pondering what to read. Bree and I have long been recommending books to each other. Many years ago I recommended Poison Study by Maria Snyder to her. I should clarify, it was actually many, many, many years ago. We even went to an author event together back in 2011 where we both bought several of this authors books.  A couple of weeks ago, Bree finally read Poison Study, and then proceeded to read the rest of the books in the series in quick succession (all 9 of them). After chatting to her, it was probably inevitable that I would go back and reread the book! Poison Study was a 5/5 read for me back in 2006, and I have already been sucked back into the book very quickly.

But all is fair in love and war, and in book recommendations, because when I was speaking to her about Chocolate Cake it turns out that she felt the need to reread that book!


I'm watching....

I mentioned last week that the new series of Masterchef had started but that there were new judges, so it was going to be the beginning of a new era. It's fair to say that we are in! The first week they had Gordon Ramsay as a guest judge and it was a great start to the season and I can't see any reason why we won't keep watching.

At the opposite end of the skills spectrum are the contestants that sign up for Nailed It which is what we binge watched on Friday night! The show can be a bit over the top at times, and most of the time I think that there is no way even the most talented chef could complete the challenges that are set but it is entertaining to watch the contestants try!

Another baking show that we started watching again this week is Bake Off: The Professionals. This is part of The Great British Bake Off franchise. Instead of amateur bakers, this show features teams of professional pastry chefs making amazing looking miniature pastries and then a huge showstopper. It is beautiful food produced in a high pressure environment. We do love watching the judges, Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden. They are professional baking judges and they make us laugh quite regularly, especially Cherish!

My #isoviewing adventures continued over the weekend. On Friday night we watched The Phantom of the Opera which was fabulous. I did decide that there were some advantages to getting to watch these shows at home. If we were watching in a theatre there is no way that we would be able to singalong!

What I am finding is that there isn't enough time to watch everything that is available online. I haven't watched any of the Shakespeare productions, didn't watch Jane Eyre, or so many other things!

Life

How are we all going with our social distancing? I think I am in week 5 or 6 now of working from home, and this has been the hardest week so far. I am not sure why this is the case, maybe because we know that it is going to still be another 3 weeks before life starts to get to be heading towards the new normal, whatever that is going to look like.

One thing that we did do for the first time this week was a jigsaw puzzle. Not too long ago our Prime Minister told the country that jigsaws counted as essential items for shopping which was a bit puzzling (no pun intended). I have ordered a new one online which hasn't arrived yet, but then Robert (my husband) mentioned that he thought that he had a couple when we moved in. A quick search of the shed produced a couple. We possibly should have started with one where there was a picture of the puzzle on the box to at least refer to!

We enjoyed doing the puzzle together, but it will be a couple of weeks before we do another one. Robert found it a bit distracting to have it sitting there incomplete on the kitchen table. Every time he walked past he had to put a few pieces in which isn't ideal when you are working from home!

There was also a moment last week when he was at the kitchen table doing the puzzle and I was watching Masterchef. Next thing he is saying I thought we were doing this puzzle together? And my response was I thought we watched Masterchef together!?!


Posts from the last week

Weekend Cooking: The patisserie shop
Alphabet 2020: C is for Chocolate
The first glimpse of la tour Eiffel

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

Thank goodness for audiobooks

As anyone who is still reading my blog knows I have had a long, long reading slump that has lasted years (no exaggeration). Whilst I am nowhere near reading as much as I did back in my hey day, I have rediscovered audiobooks this year, and so I am getting through a few books at least.

I thought that I would write a few words about the audiobooks I have listened to this year over a couple of posts. That's the plan anyway

The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick - It took me more than 4 years to read this book, which is actually a bit of a travesty because that makes it sound like I didn't really like it. I actually started reading the actual book in my pre slump days but put it down and never picked it up again. Then last year I started listening to the audiobook but then holidays and life got in the way, but finally I finished it.

Like all of Elizabeth Chadwick's books we get a great glimpse into the medieval life of her characters - in this case Alienor of Aquitaine, the only woman to be queen of both France and England. We follow her life from her marriage to Louis as a very young woman, through trials and tribulations, including plenty of scandals. Alienor is a strong woman who faces the challenges life throws at her the only way she knows - head first. There are two more books in the trilogy which I will get to eventually I'm sure. The narrator is Katie Scarfe. It took me a little while to get used to her somewhat breathy narration but I got there in the end

Ambulance Girls by Deborah Burrows - I have previously enjoyed reading Deborah Burrows' books that have been set in Australia during World War II. This time, the setting has moved to war time London, but still featuring an Australian as a main character. Lily Brennan is an ambulance officer in the Blitz, having to put herself in danger time and again as the bombs rain down. I liked Lily but there were times when I felt like her insecurities were overdone and got in the way. The narration was good from Penelope Freeman although I didn't think all the accents worked as well as it could. Like all of Burrow's previous books there was a mystery element to the book which was interesting s well as a romance. There is a a sequel to this book but unfortunately it isn't available on audio so who knows if I will get to it or not.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - I downloaded this book last year with the intention of listening to the book whilst on a road trip with the man. In the end, it ended up being just me listening to it on the commute. It was a complete change of pace to the books I had been listening to and it was a breath of fresh air. Whilst I have read lots of Pratchett books I haven't ever listened to one so I was very curious as to how this would work, and it was lots of fun. It starts when the Anti Christ is born, but unfortunately due to a case of mistaken identity he ends up living in England. When it is time for the end of the world, things don't quite work out as the gods and demons expect. I do think that the authors deserve an award for the most use of the word ineffable!

I did see that there is also a full cast performance available to listen to and then there is the TV adaptation that's coming next year as well.

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan- I actually wrote a full review of this. Shocking but true! There is a couple of more books featuring the same characters. I really should make an effort to listen to them.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - As narrated by Richard Armitage - le sigh. Do I need to say anymore! I have listened to this maybe 3 or 4 times now and I love it every time. In fact, I think I only last listened to it last year (when I wrote a review). That's how much I love it.  I think that Mr Armitage has been busy recording lots of audiobooks including a romance, which I am definitely going to listen to at some stage. Listening to that voice whispering sweet nothings in my ear...mmm hmmm. Could be a bit awkward if someone else gets in the car with me.



Here's hoping for a follow up post to this one with the next few audiobooks