The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary

They – whoever ‘they’ may be – say that buying books and actually reading them are two very different hobbies! They must say it, it is a google-able image! And as I am in the process of moving house and trying to pack in advance. What were the first things I packed? Obviously my physical books! And … there have been quite a number of boxes filled already. Old favourites and a few that I have been intending to read and never quite got around to it. Nor will I be able to for a little while as they are all still sealed in boxes. As is my crockery (save for one plate, one bowl, one cup each) and my baking equipment. Clothes? I’ll do that whenever! So, these are a selection of the unread books still waiting to be read.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon →

Life chose to become complicated and difficult for a little while back there! Following on from the stress of the landlord giving us notice to quit, the process of finding a new house, deciding to investigate buying rather than renting, negotiating mortgages and making offers and putting together deposits and instructing solicitors… all took some time and generates some stress. And alongside that, my dad’s health took a rapid down hill plunge. He had been suffering from cancer for some years but it had spread from prostate to bowel to bones. In the space of ten days he went from being active enough to be considering going for a drive to unable to manage the stairs to bedbound and then died. Over the last couple of months, I have been travelling up and down to Kent, a four and a half hour trip at the best of times, to initially visit and provide and arrange care, to support my mum when he died, to sort out funeral arrangements and the will… Some things had to give and for a while, the blog was one. There were things that I did keep going to maintain my own mental health though: I kept up my Italian lessons and completed DuoLingo’s course, I kept up my running and of course, I kept up my reading.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books Read During Hiatus →

An eminently readable and accessible account of an extraordinary experience, rendered with clarity and precision; for me, however, it seemed to sacrifice the drama and horror of the events. … Continue reading Book Review: Maurice and Maralyn, Sophie Elmhirst →

Well, it has certainly been a week this week: we have just had the landlord around for a property check, during which he chose to give notice to quit the property by the end of May… which feels very close at the moment. And there are not that many homes available in the limited areas in which we are looking in order to avoid disrupting our daughter’s schooling too much… And today, out of the blue, I discover that my boss has been suspended pending investigations… So, the chance to reflect on short book, books to devour in a day, or when time is short, feels rather fitting! Many thanks to Jennifer @ FunkNFiction.com and Angela @ Reading Frenzy for submitting this topic. I may not have managed to keep all of these under 150 pages but the Claire Keegan’s – real gems of tiny novellas – are so short my average is probably about that level! And there are a couple of series here, all of which fit the criteria really… so I have only added the first book in each series.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short →

Is it my imagination or are the days starting to stretch out a little bit again? It’s still pitch dark on my morning runs but I don’t feel that I am both driving to and home from work in the darkness! And this week’s theme is a lovely one, a celebration of the books I have read in 2023 – which already seems a very long time ago and we have not yet finished January! – from authors I have not come across before. We all have those familiar favourite authors, don’t we? Those writers who we just know we will feel welcome and comfortable and familiar with, even in a new book – and that is a wonderful thing! And alongside that, it is a joy to uncover a new author whom we might also fall in love with, possibly with a weighty backlist to enjoy, potentially with a future of more books to come. It is also a feature that I track on my reading spreadsheet – I am such a geek! – so I can easily share my full list of books by new-to-me authors, of which there were 22.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023 →

A tender and sweet story that is in part a political thriller, in part a romance, set on Mars in the near future in which the kindest characters have the most objectionable politics. As a political commentary it was, for me, not unproblematic; as a character-driven romance, it was tender.… Continue reading Book Review: The Mars House, Natasha Pulley →

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… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To →

As a mood reader, bookish goals area a sort of movable feast – an inchoate mass of vague ambition and hopes. Will I be concerned if I don’t meet these goals and ambitions? Not a bit! Is reading a chore or a joy? Definitely a joy for me, and a slavish adherence to goals neither motivates nor inspires me! If they do for you, then I am happy for you but it feels too rigid for me.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2024 →

The upcoming year holds promise with several anticipated book releases from beloved and potential new favorite authors. From Kiley Reid’s “Come and Get It” to Natasha Pulley’s “The Mars House,” a diverse array of intriguing plots and characters await. The year promises to be a great one for readers!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024 →

“Prophet Song” is a chilling and propulsive novel set in an Ireland turning towards tyranny. When Eilish’s husband, a trade unionist, disappears, she is faced with terrifying choices in a society unraveling into oppression and civil war. As she fights to save her family, the novel offers a devastating and deeply human portrait of a country at the brink of war.… Continue reading Book Review: Prophet Song, Paul Lynch →

Birnam Wood is on the move… Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned. But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker – or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2023 →

In 2024, we reflect on personal challenges, reading habits, and blogging statistics from the previous year. Come and discuss my book preferences, seasonal reading lists, and blogging goals for the upcoming year!… Continue reading 2023: A Year in Books →

A technically fascinating account as Burnet adopts the different voices of his two protagonists as they invent and reinvent and lose their own identities; the reading experience was rather let down but how unlikeable those characters were. … Continue reading Book Review: Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell →

Merry Christmas everybody! Or whichever holiday you celebrate and observe! For me, I love Christmas time. We have our tree up – and have had for two weeks now. We have wreaths on the door and around the mantleplace, lights up sort of everywhere inside and out, presents waiting to be wrapped. Batches of mince pies, gingerbreads which we decorate on Christmas Eve, chocolate crackle cookies, heavy fruit cakes that have been steeped in alcohol for two years now, pannetone, pudding, yule log. Christmas does seem to have become very food-oriented! And of course it is a bookish holiday. Books as gifts. Books set around Christmas time – yes I have just finished Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night and have The Christmas Appeal and a Christmas Jigsaw Murder lurking around on my TBR. Old recipe books dug out. And bookish Christmas trees!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes →

Some of you may have noticed that I have missed a couple of Top Ten Tuesday posts recently – which is unusual for me – and also that I’ve become very much behind in my reviews – which is distinctly not unusual by this point in the year! Things had got a little on top of me recently, I have to say – my father’s illness, my daughter’s needs, my own health (a burst ear drum, minor in the big picture!) And then an Ofsted Inspection on top of everything else, with mock exam marking… But, I am back and let’s return to the books with the regular seasonal tbr update. As always, please bear in mind that I never really have a to-be read list, nor do I really plan my reading at all. I am – as I have said before – totally a mood reader. But, at the moment these are the books that I might get around to reading over the winter. Let’s start with my current read: the gentle, familiar milieu of Sophie Hannah’s Poirot in a Christmas setting, and the final parts of the Children of Blood and Bone…… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List →