Top Ten Tuesday #338

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, I had a rather manic few days at work towards the end of last week, it’s been incredibly busy at the vaccine centres since we started doing boosters, so I had several packed days and was very glad to have today and yesterday off! I’m also taking a well deserved break this week and going on holiday with my friends, which I’m super excited for as we’ve not all been on holiday together since before the pandemic and it will be nice to have a chance to relax and recharge, as I don’t think work is going to be slowing down any time soon.

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Online Book Resources, but since the only ones I really use are Goodreads and Audible, I decided to change things up a little. Instead I’m going to be talking about The Last Ten Books I Added To My Bookshelf, as that’s an evergreen topic that’s new every time you do it, and it’s a nice easy one for me after a busy week of work! So here we go, the most recent additions to my bookshelf:

1. The Bronzed Beasts-Roshani Chokshi-Added around 2 weeks ago

After a bit of a palaver with shipping, as I had originally ordered from Blackwells, then that order got cancelled, I then changed to Forbidden Planet but it went out of stock with them and so I finally had to resort to Amazon, though I really didn’t want to, they were the only place that had it in stock in the UK so I couldn’t be choosy! I can’t wait to see how the final instalment of this series ends up, I’m sure it’s going to rip my heart to shreds.

2. The Forest of Ghosts and Bones-Lisa Lueddecke-Added around 2 weeks ago

I won this in a giveaway and I’m super excited to read it, it’s inspired by Hungarian myths and I love reading books that are inspired by mythologies that I’m not so familiar with.

3. Once Upon A Broken Heart-Stephanie Garber-Added around 3 weeks ago

AGH I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS ONE. I really enjoyed the Caraval trilogy and I’ve been excited to see what Stephanie Garber would do next for the last two years and I’m so glad that she decided to expand the Caraval world, as I definitely got the sense from Finale that there was more to explore. I can’t wait to meet Evangeline, to see more of Jacks and to see what part of the Caraval world we get to explore next.

4. The Silence of The Girls-Pat Barker-Added in September

After reading The Song of Achilles, I saw the sequel to this one in Waterstones and thought it looked quite interesting, so I checked out the first one online and thought it sounded like something I’d really enjoy. I’m all for books that centre in women in periods when they are often forgotten, and I loved Briseis in The Song of Achilles, so I can’t wait to see Barker’s take on her.

5. The Nightingale-Kristin Hannah-Added in September

I’ve been on a bit of a WWII fiction spree this year, and this is one I’ve been thinking about picking up for a while, as I love sister stories and I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I’ve not actually read many books set during the Nazi Occupation of France in WWII, Code Name Verity is the only one which comes to mind, so I’m looking forward to seeing another take on that story.

6. The Love Hypothesis-Laura Steven-Added in September

I finally got Laura Steven’s most recent book, as I’d not seen it in any bookshops I’d been to since the pandemic until I made the trip to Waterstones Piccadilly last month. This is Steven’s first YA without Izzy O’Neill and I’m interested to see how I find it, but I’m sure it will be super funny and the idea of finding a scientific solution for love is certainly intriguing, though there’s very obvious consent issues there that I’ll be interested to see handled in the book.

7. Out of The Easy-Ruta Sepetys-Added In September

This is the last of Sepetys’ currently released books I have yet to read (I DNF’ed The Fountains of Silence as I couldn’t get into it). New Orleans in the 1950s is not a historical setting that I would say immediately screams me, but that’s kind of what I love about it? I love reading about time periods and places that I’m not so familiar, and I’m hoping that as with Sepetys’ other books, I’ll learn a lot about a less highlighted part of history.

8. Endgame-Malorie Blackman-Added In September

It’s the final Noughts and Crosses book! I started reading this series when I was eleven, so this ending is definitely going to be super bittersweet for me as it’s a series that has spanned fourteen years of my life. Though I didn’t love Crossfire as much as the previous books in the series, I’m definitely interested to see how Blackman ties everything up in this final book.

9. The Paris Library-Janet Skeslien Charles-Added In September

My friend Hannah read this book earlier in the year and said she really enjoyed it, so when Waterstones had a discount offer on, I decided to get this one. I’m really excited to read it, since as I said earlier in the post, I’ve been on a real adult WWII historical fiction kick recently. I also love finding out about aspects of WWII that I’ve not heard of before, and I’m not familiar with the history of the American Library in Paris, so I look forward to learning more about that and how the librarians were involved in the war. It also combines two settings I said I loved in my post last week, Paris and libraries!

10. As Good As Dead-Holly Jackson-Added In September

I’ve not actually read the second book in the series yet, so I really need to get on that, but if it’s anywhere near as good as the first book, I knew I’d be wanting the third book!

So there we go, the books I recently added to my bookshelf. Have you read any of these? Did you enjoy them? What books have you recently added to your bookshelf? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, this time it’s our annual Halloween freebie, never my favourite one of the year as I always find it hard to come up with topics. This time I’m going to go with Book Titles With Halloween Words In Them (think bones, ghosts, witches, monsters etc), which should hopefully be a fun one!

Top Ten Tuesday #337

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since my last post, I had dinner with a friend on Wednesday night at one of our favourite Italian places in London which was lovely, I’ve not been there since before the pandemic so it was nice to go back.

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Favourite Book Settings, and I’m sure these will be no surprise to a lot of you who have been reading this blog for a while and know what kinds of books I like to read, but here we go:

1. Libraries

Naturally being a reader, I love any kind of book-related setting and I’ve read some really memorable books that are set in libraries, from the Great Library series by Rachel Caine (well the first two books at least) which are set in an alternate Great Library of Alexandria, to my current read Sorcery of Thorns, which involves a lot of magical libraries. There’s definitely something incredibly comforting and home-feeling about reading a book set somewhere with lots of books!

2. Boarding schools

I think this one is kind of a hangover from Harry Potter, and I’m less partial to school based stories now than when I was a kid, but there is still something I really love about boarding school settings. Boarding schools are usually these really big, old historical buildings (at least in books) and the idea of exploring that along with the characters is always a lot of fun. I definitely thought you were allowed much more freedom at boarding school through reading books when I was a kid than I later found out through being a day student at a boarding school (with boarder friends) was actually the case!

3. Circus/Carnival

There’s definitely something really magical about a circus setting, even if the book itself isn’t a fantasy, as the things that circus performers can do a really amazing. I also love the adventure surrounding these kinds of settings, as obviously they move around a lot, so you’re never in one place for too long and as someone who loves travel that has always appealed. There’s always so much to discover at a circus/carnival setting too, between all the different stalls, and I always end up feeling massively hungry reading about all the treats described.

4. Castles/Palaces

Yes, I know these aren’t the same thing, but I like them for a lot of the same reasons so I grouped them together. Castles and palaces are both really beautiful buildings, that have lots of rooms to explore, which make them really great settings for books. They also tend to have libraries, which is obviously catnip for this bookworm! They also tend to be very old which I love, since as a lover of history and a history graduate, I love learning about the history of these kinds of buildings!

5. Creepy old houses

I may not be a big horror reader, but I still love a creepy old house as a setting as they tend to be super atmospheric, and again, have a lot of secret nooks and crannies to explore, which is a great for a reader who loves adventure like me. One of my favourite examples of this is the old schoolhouse in Frozen Charlotte, and Charlotte Says, which becomes basically a character in itself in the books.

6. Bookshops

This is kind of a no-brainer for a reader, and quite connected to the library one, but I also love books set in bookshops. Bookshops are some of my favourite places to go, so there’s something very comforting about reading books set in them. My most recent example of this was The Last Bookshop in London, which I just reviewed on Sunday, Primrose Hill Books sounded like such a cosy and lovely shop and the audiobook just made me wish it was a real bookshop I could visit so much (there apparently actually is a Primrose Hill Books in London, though it’s not old enough to be one of the bookshops that inspired this book).

7. Any kind of historical time period

Kind of vague I know, but I love books set in the past. I love learning more about parts of history that I didn’t know about before, and even with historical periods that I’m more familiar with, there’s always something knew to learn. Historical fiction is like a little window to the past, through a fictional story, as a history nerd and a reader, I love that!

8. Wintery Settings

Cue inner Lorelai Gilmore, “I smell snow!”. I love snow, it makes everything look so beautiful and wintery settings of course have that in abundance. In addition I think I’m just a very wintery person, I love all the aesthetics of winter, being wrapped in cosy clothes, drinking warm drinks by a fire etc so wintery settings are always perfect for me and I squeal whenever I find books with them.

9. Paris

Yes, yes, I know, it’s super cliche but I love Paris as a book setting. I think it’s a really beautiful city, and there’s so much to do and see and explore, so I think it makes a great setting for a book (and is one of the settings in one of my WIPs, so totally not biased here at all!).

10. London

Again, probably quite cliche, but I love books that are set in London, as it’s a city I’m very familiar with, so I love seeing characters exploring places that I know or have been to many times, it’s a lot of fun reading a book and seeing a character in a setting that you’ve actually been to a lot in real life. It also works quite well the other way around as reading books set in London gives me places to explore when I visit (for instance, I ended up going to Seven Dials because it’s a setting in the Bone Season books!).

So there we go, those are some of my favourite book settings! Do we share any? Have you read any great books with these kinds of settings? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next Tuesday, the topic this time is meant to be Online Book Resources, but I honestly can’t think of many for that, so I’m going to be returning to a fairly simple one and talking about the Most Recent Additions To My Bookshelf, I did it last year, but it’s a good topic to come back to when you’re stuck for ideas as I’m always guaranteed to be able to come up with ten new ones!

Top Ten Tuesday #336

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since my last post. My interview on Friday seemed to go well, so I’m just waiting to hear about the outcome of that now!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Bookish Pet Peeves, and as I did a topic revolving around my content pet peeves a few years ago, I’m taking a different tactic this time and talking about my Reader Frustrations (basically the same thing, but a different name!):

1. When people try and read over my shoulder

To be honest this is a general pet peeve of mine, even outside of reading but it especially annoys me when I’m trying to read. I want to concentrate on my book, not the person behind me and I find it really distracting when someone’s trying to read over my shoulder. If you want to know what my book is about, ask! Don’t hover behind me!

2. When people try and talk to me whilst reading

Okay, having said people should ask me what I’m reading rather than trying to read over my shoulder, I don’t really like it when anyone talks to me when I’m clearly reading! If I wanted to be chatting to you, I’d be talking. I really don’t like any kind of interruption when I’m trying to read, it breaks my flow, so I’d rather everyone around me just leave me alone when I have a book in my hands!

3. When book covers don’t match

AH THE BANE OF MY LIFE. THE MID-SERIES COVER CHANGE. Why do publishers do this to us? If you’re going to change the cover of a book that’s part of a series, at least wait till the series is over first! It spoils the look of the series on my shelf if half way through the cover (and therefore the spine) has changed and instead of a beautiful seamless transition from one book to the next, suddenly one sticks out as it obviously doesn’t have the same cover.

4. When my book series are in mismatching formats

This is kind of related to the one above, but I hate it when I find a series several years after the first book has come out, or after the movie adaptation has been made, and I end up getting the first or second book (occasionally both) in a different format to the rest of the series. This happened to me with the Bone Season series, where the first two books were only available in paperback and then the more recent releases have been released in hardcover. I wish publishers would stick with one format for the whole series, so that you were able to collect all the books in the same format no matter when you started (without having to wait a year for the paperback release) or didn’t take the hardback out of print so quickly!

5. Stickers on books, either the peel off or the printed on kind

I think all readers can agree on this one, stickers are the bane of our reading existence. The peel off ones always leave gross sticky residue no matter how carefully you peel them off, which ruins the look of the book. The printed on kind also spoil the aesthetic of the cover, and potentially cover up details of the cover as well. Basically no more stickers guys! WE HATE THEM.

6. When the hardcover is published first and you have to wait a year for the paperback

Whilst I’m sure we can all agree that hardcovers are very pretty, they are a little unwieldy and not massively convenient for reading on the move. I generally prefer reading paperbacks, but I have a lot of hardcovers because a lot of books these days seem to have the hardcover published first and I don’t want to wait a year to get the books I want. I wish paperbacks were either published at the same time so we had an option of which format we’d rather have (though I appreciate that would probably be very expensive) or at least that the gap between the hardcover and paperback release wasn’t so long!

7. Movie tie in covers-they’re just ugly and lead to mismatched series

Does anyone actually like movie tie in covers? I can’t think of any that I’ve really liked. In general, I don’t think movie posters make good book covers, and would be perfectly happy if movie posters just remained on buses or tube adverts, and didn’t make their way onto book covers.

8. That will I never have enough space for all my books

I’m sure this is a frustration for all readers, that we will never be able to fit all our books onto the shelf space that we have. My solution to this is generally doing an unhaul every so often, but I wish I had enough space to be able to keep all my books in one place!

9. That hardcovers are so expensive

I know I said before that I prefer paperbacks for ease of reading, and this is true, but there’s also the cost consideration of hardcovers. Hardcover books can cost anything from £15-£25 and that’s a lot of money! I appreciate that in the UK, books aren’t as expensive as in some other countries, but I wish that hardcovers were a little cheaper, especially as hardcovers generally get published first, if the book is going to be published in hardcover.

10. That book series don’t come with recaps in their sequels, so I’m just expected to either reread or remember what happened!

Publishers, Authors, I am begging you! PLEASE PUT RECAPS IN SEQUEL BOOKS. We readers read a lot of books every year, and it can be anything from a year to as much as three or four between sequels publication, depending on the author, so it would really, really, really, help us out if you included a little, this is what happened in the series so far…… page in the front of all your sequel books. If TV shows can do it for weekly TV episodes, you can definitely do it for yearly or more published sequels!

So there we go, my biggest reader frustrations! Do we share any? Any frustrations you have as a reader that I didn’t mention here? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next Tuesday, and the topic this time is Favourite Book Settings. I’m going to go fairly general on this one and talk about the kinds of settings I like, rather than specific places from books, as I’ve definitely done quite a few topics talking about specific places from books I like before.

Top Ten Tuesday #335

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week, since my last post, mine was mostly working, though I did enjoy getting back into two of my favourite London bookshops, Foyles and Waterstones Piccadilly when I was down there last week. I also got some really good news this week, I have an interview for a job on Friday, so I’m both excited and quite nervous about that.

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday (or at least it was when I was writing this!), I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is a freebie so I decided to do a spin-off topic from one I did last year and talk about Taylor Swift Songs That Would Make Good Books. Taylor Swift’s songs are so narratively driven anyway, that I thought it would be something super fun to come up with what books based on her songs would be about. So here we go, Taylor Swift Songs I Think Would Make Good Books (it was so hard to narrow this down to 10):

1. Mary’s Song

I feel like this is an obvious one because it’s a quintessential childhood friends to lovers romance story. I think this would start with Mary and her husband as they are at the end of the book, in their eighties, and then flashback to the beginning of their story and we could see them grow up together and slowly fall in love over the years. I even imagine that Mary’s husband would be a musician and part of the story would involve him actually writing a song for her.

2. The Lucky One

I like to think of this as a dual POV story, as the song refers to both Taylor and an unnamed “you”, a previous star who rejected fame for a simpler life. So I think the book would follow both timelines, one set in the sixties (as the main character in The Lucky One is referred to as a sixties queen) and one set in the modern day, with the young girl becoming intrigued with the mystery of what happened to the sixties starlet after she dropped out of public life and being determined to find her, all whilst struggling with her own rise to fame.

3. All Too Well

This one was a no brainer, the narrative is laid out right there in the song, so it basically does all the work for me. I think this would start at the end, so we’d see the woman post breakup, and then flashback to the beginning, so we could see them meeting and falling in love, the happier days of the relationship, and subsequently see how everything fell apart, bringing it back to the beginning. Though I know this would be a deviation from the narrative of the song, I’d love the story to end with the guy returning the red scarf to her, as a symbol of them both moving on.

4. champagne problems

Again, the narrative is so built into this song, I think it almost tells itself. This is another one where I feel the flashback device would work well (I know I’ve been using that a lot in this, but I feel like Taylor Swift’s songs just lend themselves quite well to it!), we’d start with the obviously devastated man in the train carriage, and then we’d go back in time to see what led to him being there: him meeting his almost fiance in college, the development of their romance, and finally we’d build to the moment that she rejects him. I’d also want this told entirely from his POV, which I know is strange because the song is from hers, but I think it makes more sense, because the beauty of the song is that he’s never going to know exactly why she rejected him, whereas if it was from her POV, you kind of lose that. But to be honest it could probably work from either perspective, you could start with her leaving and the flashbacks would work the same way. It could even be done as a dual POV, so you get both their views on the situation! This song has so many layers, a book based on it could be done in several different ways!

5. no body, no crime

Again the narrative is right there! This is your classic murder revenge book. Again, I feel like I’d be inclined to start near the end, with a group of friends working to cover up a murder. Then we’d use our trusty old flashback, to where it all started, Este (would probably change the name, but for illustration purposes I’ll use it here) and Taylor (again illustration purposes) discuss Este’s husband’s infidelity and plan to take their revenge. We’d then build through Este’s murder, and the rest of the book would be devoted to the women planning and eventually carrying out the murder of Este’s husband. We’d then come back to the initial scene with the women cleaning up the crime scene, with the book ending on the arrest of the husband’s mistress.

6. You Belong With Me

I actually did a fanfic about this years back, when I was still in my Glee phase, about Finn and Rachel, so I’d probably cheat and follow a very similar template! The story for the song is pretty well laid out in the music video and I followed that pretty closely for my Glee fanfic, so I think I’d do the same here, but just build more of a backstory in, so we’d start with the couple as kids, see them grow closer as neighbours and friends, and then when they’re teenagers, the girl realises her feelings for the boy, but he’s dating another girl. It would end much like the music video with the climactic scene where they both reveal to each other that they’ve been in love for years, and end up together.

7. Clean

This is actually also a cheat because I started writing a short story based on this song years ago whilst I was in the creative writing society at my Uni. This story would be the story of a woman recovering from being in an abusive relationship, the idea being that the story would centre around this woman as she’s packing up her ex’s belongings, and we’d flash back between the past and present, seeing her journey dealing with her trauma of getting out of this relationship in the present and in the past seeing what led the moment we find her in at the beginning of the book. I can so picture the last scene being her taking his belongings to be donated or something, and it starts to rain and she just stands there allowing the rain to wash over her.

8. mad woman

All of folklore could probably be on this list because they’re basically designed to be little stories within song, but I think mad woman was the one that I’d be most intrigued to see as a book because it could go so many different ways. The song talks about a woman who has been outcasted by her town and wants revenge on them, and I guess I’d want a book about it to explore the why? What did the town to do her to make her so angry? How did she get revenge on her town? I don’t have a specific idea for how I think the book would go, because I think it could go many different directions honestly!

9. Cornelia Street

Cornelia Street is quite an interesting song to think about as a book, because it’s less about events that happen and more about what she’s hoping won’t happen. This one would start as the song does, with the couple meeting in the bar, and returning to the apartment, and follow them through their relationship and the memories they make together.

10. Getaway Car

Okay I know this would be taking the song extremely literally, and that it’s not about actual criminals, but I think this would be super fun as a kind of Good Girls (the tv show) style story. It would revolve around a woman, bored in her marriage, who accidentally gets roped into a life of crime and runs away with a criminal, and the book would detail all of their criminal capers. Taking the title very literally, and not really using the contents of the song, but for me, this would be more fun! Also you can kind of tie the rebound relationship which Getaway Car actually talks about in here, because essentially she would be rebounding from her stagnant marriage into the life of crime, and eventually, as happens in the song, the relationship and her new life would burn itself out.

So there we go, those are 10 Taylor Swift Songs That I Think Would Make Good Books. Honestly you could use so many of her songs as the basis for stories though, the narratives of her lyrics is one of the reasons why I love her so much! Would you read any of these? What Taylor Swift songs do you think would make good books? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next Tuesday (and I have Tuesday off next week, so it WILL BE TUESDAY, I promise!), and the topic is Bookish Pet Peeves, I have done this topic before but it was content related, so this time I think I’m going to go for more Reader Pet Peeves, as I can definitely come up with a lot of those!

Top Ten Tuesday #334

Hi all! A Top Ten Tuesday on a Wednesday? We haven’t had one of these in a while! I fully intended to have this post up for you yesterday, but I got back from London at around 10 last night and I wanted to catch-up on BakeOff before I went to bed, so it was just too late by the time I was finished to put this post together!

Anyway, never mind, even though it’s Wednesday, I’m still bringing you another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Books on Our Autumn TBR. Now I’ve been doing horribly with all my TBRs this year, of my Summer TBR, I read two books. TWO. (I mean I did read other books over the summer, but I went very off piste!). Anyway, here’s hoping my Autumn TBR will mark me actually sticking to a TBR list at least a little this year:

1. Sorcery Of Thorns-Margaret Rogerson

This was on my Summer TBR, and I had fully intended to finish it by now, but I’ve been reading it kind of intermittently because I’ve been tired from work and honestly just found I don’t have the energy for reading physical books! I am still enjoying it though, I’m just taking my time with it!

2. Little Fires Everywhere-Celeste Ng

My current audiobook read, and I’m surprised by how fast I’ve got through it! I read over four hours just yesterday. I’m liking the writing, but the plot doesn’t seem to have much focus. I think this is going to be one of the few books that actually worked better for me on screen, because I think they streamlined the plot more and the flashbacks definitely felt more naturally included.

3. The Fair Botanists-Sara Sheridan

My current Netgalley read, I’ve been kind of stalling out on, not because it’s a bad book (honestly I’m not far enough in to tell) because it’s just been difficult to squeeze in my Netgalley reads this year, on top of work and job applications and my regular non-arc reading! I’m hoping I get to dive into it more soon though because it sounds super interesting.

4. This Poison Heart-Kalynn Bayron

I loved Cinderella Is Dead, and I’ve read a few chapters of this and it seems interesting so far, but again, I’ve just been struggling with finding the time for e-books this year. I’m hoping I’ll get around to finishing it soon because it definitely sounds up my street (and I have so many other Netgalley books to get to!).

5. Ace of Spades-Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

My September Pick-It-For-Me book from the YA Addicted Book Club, that I’m 100% going to end up reading in October, but oh well! I’ve heard really good things about this book and I’m hoping that an exciting mystery might be just the thing to break my reading slump!

6. Little Thieves-Margaret Owen

Another one on my never seems to shrink Netgalley list! I’ll be honest, the awesome cover was the main draw for this one, but the story does sound cool too, a thief who steals the life and identity of the princess she works for and then gets cursed to turn into jewels due to her stealing? Sounds just weird enough to work! Apparently it’s a retelling of the Goose Girl and I love reading fairytale retellings based off less popular fairytales.

7. A Marvellous Light-Freya Marske

This was another one where the cover held 90% of the initial appeal because it is just so gorgeous and colourful. However the book also sounds right up my street, it’s about a secret magical society in Edwardian England and the main romance is between two men, so it ticks a lot of boxes, magic, history and gay representation in historical time periods (which there 100% should be more of!).

8. A Psalm of Storms and Silence-Roseanne A. Brown

I’ve been excitedly waiting for A Psalm of Storms and Silence ever since I read A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. ASOWAR was one of my favourite books last year, and I can’t wait to see how Malik and Karina’s story ends in this one.

9. The Nobleman’s Guide To Scandal and Shipwrecks-Mackenzi Lee

It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this one because the release date has been moved back so many times, but it’s finally set to be published in November and I’m super excited! I can’t wait to see the Goblin all grown up, not to mention see how Monty and Felicity turn out as adults.

10. The Bear and The Nightingale-Katherine Ardern

I’ve heard so many people rave about this book, and this year I want to finally jump onto the bandwagon and see what all the fuss is about. It definitely feels like a more autumnal book to me though, so I wanted to wait till it got a bit darker and colder before I dived into it, which it probably will be by the time I finish Little Fires Everywhere as the seasons are definitely on the turn now!

So there we go, those are my planned Autumn TBR books! I will probably not get to all of them, given how my reading has been going this year, but I think I’d be happy if I finished half! How about you? What’s on your Autumn TBR this year? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next Tuesday (actually on Tuesday this time I promise!), and this time the topic is a freebie. Inspired by one of the topics I did last year, Songs Titles That Would Make Great Books, I’ve decided to do a similar but more specific topic for the freebie, and do Taylor Swift Songs That Would Make Great Books. I loved coming up with little story ideas for each one in the previous topic I did, so I thought this would be a really fun extension to the last one (and because I limited myself to only two TS songs for that list and there are so many more I want to use!).

Top Ten Tuesday #333

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, I had a lovely birthday on Sunday, lunch with my friend was so nice and I had my usual evening of musicals, my annual birthday watch of Moulin Rouge of course, and I also finally got around to watching In The Heights, which was a lot of fun (though I do slightly begrudge the whole new cinema releases being £15.99 to RENT on Amazon, if you’re going to charge me that much, I’d rather just buy the film!). I also binged the final series of Lucifer in 2 days and I HAVE FEELINGS. MANY MANY MANY FEELINGS, so if you’ve seen it and want to chat, then drop me a line in the comments!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Books With Numbers In The Title, a topic we did two years ago, but it turns out there are quite a lot of books with numbers in the title, so I’m happily bringing it back for a part 2! Here we go, Books With Numbers In The Title:

1. Ninth House-Leigh Bardugo

This one just missed the cut off for my last list on this topic as it wasn’t out yet! I have to admit, Bardugo’s adult debut isn’t my favourite of her books, as it has a major pacing problem and I didn’t really connect to any of the characters. Still I did love seeing a fantasy with University as the setting, and I do think the series has potential, so I’m hoping when the next book comes out, I’ll enjoy that one more now that all of the dense world building has been set up!

2. The Second Summer of The Sisterhood-Ann Brashares

The sequel to the first Traveling Pants book is probably my favourite of the four sequels (though I never actually read the fifth book!) though that was probably largely due to Bridget’s story of connecting with her grandmother and learning more about her mother, and Tibby coming to terms with her grief over Bailey’s death, as I can’t really remember much about Lena and Carmen’s stories!

3. A Thousand Perfect Notes-CG Drews

CG Drews (aka Paper Fury)’s debut is not my usual kind of book, I’m not a big contemporary reader and I did have some of the same problems I always have with contemporaries: pacing and lacking in plot. However, I did really like the characters and I thought Drews did a good job of portraying the abuse that Beck suffered at the hands of his mother, and the friendship between the two main characters was lovely.

4. The One Dollar Horse-Lauren St John

I don’t read all that many horse books anymore because they tend to be aimed for a younger audience: where are all the horse books for the horse obsessed kids who grew up to be still horse obsessed adults? Anyway, I was probably slightly above the target age range for this book when I read it at 16/17, but it was still a lovely read, a little unrealistic that an inexperienced rider with no money and a horse in incredibly poor condition would be able to get up to Badminton level in two years, but since horse fiction is all about wish fulfilment, it doesn’t really matter and this book definitely gave me lots of nostalgia for my childhood horse reads!

5. Split Second-Sophie McKenzie

I was such a massive fan of Sophie McKenzie from about 16-18, and this was one of my favourites of her books. It’s a dystopia, but definitely feels different to the Divergents, Maze Runners and Hunger Games of the world, as it’s more of a near future type dystopia, so the London featured feels very similar to our London, and the setting being in the UK was also fairly unusual as I can’t think of many UK set dystopias (or at least I’d read very few when I read this book, I know of a few more now). It’s such an action packed, explosive read, with tons of twists and turns and I highly recommend it if you like dystopia.

6. Second Glance-Jodi Picoult

Second Glance has always struck me as the most unique of Picoult’s books because it combines a lot of different genres into one book: you have the paranormal aspects, a bit of a murder mystery, historical elements etc. It doesn’t seem like it should work, but I found this a really fascinating read, especially learning about the Vermont eugenics project from the 1930s, which I have to admit, I knew next to nothing about before reading this book. My Sister’s Keeper is still my favourite Picoult book, but this one is definitely up there too.

7. 13 Minutes-Sarah Pinborough

I’m notoriously picky about thrillers, because I find that so often they really don’t shock me! But this one definitely took me by surprise, there were so many twists and just when I thought I’d worked everything out (and was feeling really smug about doing so), another twist came along, and knocked all that out from under me. The way that this book explores toxic female friendships is also really well done. If you’re wanting an incredibly well crafted mystery with lots of surprises, I highly recommend this book!

8. The Book of Two Ways-Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult’s most recent book is definitely not my favourite of hers, I didn’t really connect to the characters, and there was a bit of an overload of technical information about Egyptology and Quantum physics. I felt like the book tried to do too much to be honest, and had Picoult just focused on one strand and built up the characters more, I might have connected more to it.

9. Six Crimson Cranes-Elizabeth Lim

I’ve not read this one yet, I meant to, I even had an e-ARC from Netgalley, but I’ve been in such a slump this year that I never got around to it! I definitely want to at some point though, I’m always looking for unique fairytale retellings, and this one is based on “The Wild Swans”, a Hans Christian Andersen story that I’d not actually heard of before, so I’d be interested to see how Lim tackles it and incorporates East Asian folklore into the story as well.

10. A Thousand Ships-Natalie Haynes

Apparently this year has been the year of Greek mythology, between The Song of Achilles, Lore and Ariadne, I’ve been reading quite a bit of Greek mythology inspired stories, and adding even more to my TBR! I’m definitely looking forward to trying this one, as it retells the Trojan War from the perspective of the women involved which I think will be really cool, I love stories that traditionally focus on men being retold to centre women’s perspectives!

So there we go, more books with numbers in the title! Have you read any of these? Do you want to? What books with numbers in them were on your list this week? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is our annual Autumn TBR list, and though I’ve been doing terribly on my TBRs this year, I still always enjoy doing these topics!

Top Ten Tuesday #332

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these, I’ve been really busy at work, tomorrow is my last shift of four in a row and I’m looking forward to getting to relax a bit. It’s my birthday on Sunday and I’m going out for lunch with a friend, plus the final season of Lucifer is coming out just in time for my birthday so I’m looking forward to a lovely chill day!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Books Guaranteed To Put A Smile On Your Face, but I did that topic last year, so instead I decided to a different topic this week and talk about Books With Late Teens/Twenty Something Characters. I thought this one would be easier, as I’ve been trying to actively seek out books with characters closer to my age in the last few years, but it turns out it was still quite hard! More fantasies with characters in their twenties please! Anyway, these are some of my favourite books with 18-29 year old protagonists:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic is a super great choice if you’re looking for an adult book that still feels YA in terms of pacing and characters having big self-discovery/emotional development/finding their place in the world arcs. The characters are on the younger side of the age range for this list, Lila is 19, Kell is 21 & Rhy is 20 and I was 19 almost 20 when I read the first book, so it was really great to see characters around my age having cool adventures! It’s one of my favourite books, and the book that made me fall in love with VE Schwab’s writing, so I highly recommend if you’re looking to branch into Adult from YA.

2. The Bone Season-Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season is kind of similar to A Darker Shade of Magic in that it works quite well as a crossover for both a YA and adult audience. The main character Paige is 19, and turns 20 in the fourth book of the series, and the series is very much about Paige’s emotional journey and coming into her powers so there’s definitely the high emotional stakes of YA, but it’s definitely a lot more complicated than most YA fantasy! Again if you’re looking to move into adult fantasy, this series makes a nice transition!

3. The Rose Code-Kate Quinn

This book was my first adult historical fiction, and since reading it, I’ve read two more (both also included on this list) and it’s definitely something I want to keep reading more of. I will admit, I had a slight moment when I realised that I was the same age as Beth (at least at the beginning of the book as it spans several years), the oldest of the three of the girls! At the start of the book, Osla is 18, Mab is 21/22 and Beth is 24 and we get to follow them over seven years so you really get to see their development, and as a 24 year old woman, it’s nice seeing women of a similar age navigating work and relationships (albeit in a very different time period and I’ve never had to deal with a war!). If you like historical fiction, I would definitely recommend this one as Bletchley Park is fascinating and the characters are brilliant.

4. The Daevabad Trilogy-SA Chakraborty

The main characters in the Daevabad trilogy are 18 & 20 in the first book, and 25 & 23 in the subsequent two after a five year time jump. If you love books with complicated world building, intense political scheming, and a smart and funny heroine, the Daevabad trilogy is definitely for you. It’s not as pacey as a lot of YA fantasy, but it definitely goes into a lot more depth in the world-building which I appreciated. I will say that in the second and third books, though Ali and Nahri are meant to be five years older, they really don’t feel like it, and I didn’t think it was entirely necessary as the plot of Kingdom of Copper could quite easily have taken place straight after City of Brass.

5. The Alice Network-Kate Quinn

Charlie, one of the POV characters in The Alice Network is 19 and turns 20 during the course of the book, and Eve, the other main character is 22 in her past timeline and 54 in the present timeline. I have to admit that I warmed to Eve more quickly, she’s stubborn, funny, incredibly smart and brave and obviously what she does as a 22 year old in WWI is incredibly impressive, I couldn’t have done half of what she does at 22. Charlie on the other hand is a lot harder to warm to, she’s quite immature, naive and in all honesty more than a little annoying at the start of the book. However she is just 19 years old, and those traits are quite common for a teenager! And she grows a lot over the course of the book, to the point where I really did feel for her in the end. Anyway, The Alice Network is a brilliant, emotional read and if you want to learn more about WWI spy networks, I highly recommend it.

6. The Last Bookshop In London-Madeline Martin

Grace Bennett is 23 at the beginning of this book, and probably has the most “normal” job of any of the characters in WWII books I’ve read (if anything in war can be called normal). She works at Primrose Hill Books, a slightly neglected bookshop with a gruff older owner. I loved this book precisely because of the smaller, quieter, nature of it, yes there’s a war on, and Grace spends her nights as an air raid warden, but most of the WWII books I’ve read have been about pilots and spies and codebreakers, so it was nice to read a story where a regular girl with a regular job was the star. Much as I love reading about 20+ year old women who work as spies or break Nazi codes, I could definitely relate more to Grace, a 23 year old who works in a bookshop and worries about her elderly landlady and is initially terrified in her work as an air raid warden. This book is such a lovely little story about community and hope and books and ultimately shows that the war wasn’t just the people on the front lines fighting the Nazis, it was also ordinary citizens pulling together and doing whatever they could to help their communities.

7. The Gilded Wolves-Roshani Chokshi

The Gilded Wolves is still very much YA, but the characters are slightly older, Laila is 19, Severin is 18/19, Zofia is 19 and honestly I’m not sure how old Enrique is, I think a little older than the others as he’s mentioned as having been to University, so I’d guess in his 20s? Anyway, I felt like this book gave me the best of both worlds, with more mature characters who are obviously self-sufficient, but you still get the self-discovery and messy feelings that comes with YA books.

8. Vicious/Vengeful-VE Schwab

Honestly there’s a wide span of character ages in both of the books in Schwab’s Villains duology, you have everyone from a 13 year old girl, to characters in their 30s and 40s and because the books jump between different timelines, the same characters can span several ages. So for example, in Vicious, Victor and Eli are 22 in the past timeline, but 32 in the present, where in Vengeful, Sydney is 18 in the present, but younger in flashbacks. The different timelines is one of the things that makes these books so interesting though, as you are able to literally piece together how the characters came to be who they are in the present timeline. If you love villians, I highly recommend this duology, as no one does villains like Schwab and it’s amazing how she can write a book where literally everyone is bad and you still fall in love with the characters.

9. The Priory of The Orange Tree-Samantha Shannon

The characters span quite a breadth of ages, the ones that fit the criteria for this list are Ead who is 26, Sabran who is 28 and Tane who is 19 but the narrators range in age from 19-64. It was quite funny for me when I read this because I sat pretty much bang in the middle of Tane and Ead, I was 22, almost 23. Priory is an absolute beast of a book, and a lot more dense than what I usually read (adult epic fantasy is still fairly new for me!), and I definitely struggled with the pacing and the characters were a little flat, but I did love how much agency the female characters had, and I liked that romance was a component but not the main part of the story.

10. King of Scars-Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars is again technically YA, but it’s set several years after the original Grisha trilogy, so the main characters are all either in their late teens or early twenties. I suppose if New Adult had been allowed to become a thing, this might be that? Honestly it probably helps that all the characters in Six of Crows felt very much like adults in their twenties anyway, so this book kind of carries that on, and obviously, the characters have more adult responsibilities now, like running a country and making sure it doesn’t collapse into ruin.

So there we go, those are some of the books with main characters in their late teens/twenties that I’ve enjoyed. I did struggle once I reached number 7, I’ll be honest but I’m quite pleased that I managed to find a good range across the ages and they weren’t all clustered down at the 18/19 end! Have you read any of these books? What are your favourite books with characters in their late teens/twenties (please give me recommendations, I’m desperate for them! Preferably with characters who are a little older so like the 23-28 age range would be great, I feel like I’m okay at finding books with characters in the 19-23 range)? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Books With Numbers In The Title, which is one I did last year, but I actually am going to do this one again, as it turns out there are lots of books with numbers in their title, so I can do it without repeating any I did last time!

Top Ten Tuesday #331

Hi all! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine was fairly quiet, which was nice after a busy couple of weekends. I do have some fun stuff coming up this week though, I have a riding lesson tomorrow and I’m meeting up with friends on Friday, so I’m looking forward to both of those things.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is meant to be Fictional Crushes, but as a 24 year old who reads a lot of YA, I felt a little weird about the idea of a list full of 16-18 year olds, so instead I’ve decided to share a list of my Top Ten Favourite Audiobook Narrators. I got back into audiobooks about two years ago, and I’ve discovered so many narrators I love since then, so I thought I’d share those today:

1. Saskia Maarleveld (Books Listened To: The Rose Code, The Alice Network, The Last Bookshop in London)

Saskia Maarleveld definitely seems to have a genre niche as all the books I’ve listened to her narrate have been WWII fiction! Anyway, I love her so much as a narrator, she’s a really animated performer, she switches between accents flawlessly and she definitely makes every character feel and sound very different. I was going to read both The Alice Network and The Last Bookshop In London anyway, but I specifically chose to get the audios over e-books or physical copies because her narration of The Rose Code was so good.

2. Andrew Cotter (Books Listened To: Olive, Mabel and Me)

Andrew Cotter is a sports commentator, so naturally he’s good at audio work, and I knew when I saw that he was releasing a book about his two Labradors Olive and Mabel (who became famous over lockdown after he posted videos of them with him doing sports style commentary over the top) that I had to get it in audio. I was not disappointed: Andrew’s relaxing Scottish tones whilst relaying his dogs antics was the recipe for a perfect listening experience.

3. January LaVoy (Books Listened To: The Diviners Series)

January LaVoy is another audiobook narrator who really performs the book to the full! She captured the creepy atmosphere of The Diviners series so well that I honestly couldn’t imagine having experienced the books any other way. She’s wonderful at switching between voices too, which was so important in a book with such a sprawling cast of characters, and she even sings when there’s songs included in the book. I highly recommend listening to the audiobooks if you’re considering The Diviners, because it really made it an experience for me!

4. Neil Gaiman (Books Listened To: Coraline)

Neil Gaiman has the kind of voice that is perfectly suited for bedtime stories, and I honestly can’t describe it any better than that (think people like David Tennant or David Attenborough-it is just a coincidence I went with two Davids for this, they just have the kind of voice that when you listen to it, you can almost hear it reading you a bedtime story) which is perfect for Coraline really, because it’s definitely the kind of book I can imagine asking my Dad to read me when I was a kid. He narrates a lot of his own audiobooks and I definitely want to try more!

5. Santino Fontana (Books Listened To: You)

Yes, Hans from Frozen, or if you want a more niche reference Original Greg from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend also narrates audiobooks. I’d actually watched the series before listening to the audiobook, so I did already have Penn Badgley’s voice in my head for Joe, but Santino made me forget that pretty quickly. He captures Joe’s creepy douchebaggery so perfectly, does brilliant accents and definitely heightened the book for me because there were times where I wasn’t really enjoying it, but his listening kept me going.

6. Laura Bates (Books Listened To: Men Who Hate Women)

Not every author is a good narrator, though I have had good luck with author narrated books I’ve read so far. Laura is clearly super knowledgeable about her subject (and I’m both massively impressed and slightly terrified that she went undercover with these extreme misogynists) and explained everything really clearly and succinctly. I learned so much about the online communities that these extreme misogynists are part of and though it was terrifying, I definitely feel better informed now!

7. Jordan Cobb and AJ Beckles (Books Listened To: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin)

This was the first book I listened to with multiple narrators, and it was definitely a good choice to have different voices for Malik and Karina, it allowed you to get into both characters heads better and made sure that both characters had a distinctive voice. Cobb and Beckles both did a really great job at engaging me in the story and making me feel connected to Malik and Karina.

8. Nicola Barber (Books Listened To: Hunting Prince Dracula, Escaping From Houdini, Capturing The Devil)

Nicola Barber was such a great narrator for this, she really captured the atmosphere of the books, and I fell so much more in love with Thomas Cresswell after hearing her accent for him. She does really great accents (as you can tell from this list, accents are really important for me!) and her voice is generally just lovely and soft and soothing. I would definitely happily listen to her narrate more books.

9. Carey Mulligan (Books Listened To: The Midnight Library)

Carey Mulligan has such a good voice for audiobooks, it’s so easy to listen to. Her performance was the highlight of this book for me because I actually didn’t love the story as much as I would have hoped to. I would definitely listen to Carey Mulligan do more audiobooks though.

10. Soneela Nankani (Books Listened To: The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold)

I finished the Daevabad trilogy in audio due to the sheer length of the sequels (and the first book wasn’t exactly short!) and I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed Soneela Nankani’s narration. She definitely has a really dramatic voice, which made the book feel engaging even when it was fairly slow paced.

So there we go, those are some of my favourite audiobook narrators. How about you? Have you listened to any of these? Do you have any particular favourite audiobook narrators? What makes a good narrator for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is meant to be Books That Make Me Smile, but since it’s a topic I did last year, I’ve decided to go for a different topic again (I swear I will get back to the regularly scheduled topics at some point). So instead I’m making up my own topic, and I’m going to share my Favourite Books With Characters In Their Late Teens/Twenties (so basically 18+) as I’ve definitely been getting into reading more adult books in the last few years and I want to share some of my favourites.

Top Ten Tuesday #330

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I was in London again this weekend to see Back To The Future, the new musical that’s just opened. It was good, though I have to admit, not quite as great as Hairspray was, although it’s probably not really fair to compare the two, as I’ve loved Hairspray for years!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time but I already did that topic a few years back, and I don’t think the list has changed much since then, so I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of that, today I’ll be talking about Most Hyped Books Still On My TBR. Honestly hyped books do tend to sit on my TBR for a bit longer, because I get scared that they won’t live up to the hype! So here we go, the most hyped books that are still sitting on my TBR:

1. The Bear and The Nightingale-Katherine Arden

This is one of those books that I feel like I see everywhere, it’s a perennial feature on other blogs and everyone raves about how good it is. I definitely want to try it sometime, but I am slightly scared that I won’t love it as much as everyone else does. I’ll also probably get the audiobook and I’m not sure I’ll have enough credits for it this year.

2. Rule of Wolves-Leigh Bardugo

Honestly I was super excited for this one after watching Shadow and Bone but I’ve been in a reading slump all year, particularly with physical books and I didn’t want that to affect this book as it’s the last Grishaverse book we’re going to get for a while. I’m hoping to maybe get around to it early next year, as I really do want to see how she wraps up Nikolai’s duology.

3. Good Girl, Bad Blood-Holly Jackson

I meant to read this last year after reading A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, but I never got around to it. I may read it before the end of this year, but I’m very much going with my mood this year and just seeing what I want to read rather sticking to any sort of reading plan, so we’ll see!

4. House of Earth and Blood-Sarah J Maas

I’ve been putting this one off for ages simply because it’s so long. Even with the audiobook, which is how I plan to read it, it’s over 30 hours long and I’ve not been in the mood for that kind of reading commitment this year. I’m sure at some point, I will be in the mood for a chunky audio, but not right now.

5. Mister Impossible-Maggie Stiefvater

This one only came out in May, so comparatively speaking hasn’t been on my shelves as long as the others but I’m still a little nervous because I didn’t love Call Down The Hawk as much as I was hoping to. Middle books in trilogies are always dangerous too, they can be amazing or terrible and there’s usually not much in-between. Here’s hoping Mister Impossible falls on the good side!

6. The Tattooist of Auschwitz-Heather Morris

I’m kind of torn on this one to be honest, because it’s been super hyped, won a lot of awards etc and a friend whose reading taste I share liked it. However, there has also been a lot criticism about the accuracy of its portrayal of historical events, and whilst I do understand creative licence from what I’ve read, some of the basic details about Auschwitz in the book are wrong. So this is where my problem comes in, I want to read it because it sounds like an interesting story, but from the perspective of someone who studied history, I don’t want to read something that gets even the basic details wrong, and is an inaccurate portrayal of the experience of a real life person. It’s a tricky one for me, I don’t usually have this problem with historical fiction because even where they’ve been inspired by real people/events, the characters themselves are usually fictional.

7. A Promised Land-Barack Obama

This is 100% solely down to length. I’m sure Barack Obama’s presidential memoir will be very interesting, but it’s also almost 800 pages and I’ve just not been feeling long books this year, so this one may be going on the back burner for a while!

8. The Girls I’ve Been-Tess Sharpe

I only bought this in May, so compared to some of the others, it hasn’t been on my TBR for that long. I’ve not really got a particular reason for not reading this book yet, I’ve just not been in the mood. I’m also always a little wary with YA thrillers, because they have a tendency to not “thrill” me much!

9. Thunderhead-Neal Shusterman

I’ve been meaning to read this one for YEARS, I think I bought it in 2018/2019, but as it’s a longer book, it’s one of those that just keeps getting shuffled down my TBR pile. Whilst I liked Scythe, I didn’t LOVE it, so I’ve basically just not really felt the urge to get to this one. I would like to read it one day, but it’s not a priority at the moment.

10. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle-Stuart Turton

I’ve heard so much good stuff about this one, my friend really enjoyed it and it sounds super up my street, but again, it’s a longer book and I’ve been putting it off. I’m also slightly nervous just because the hype has been so great around this one, so hopefully it lives up to it.

So there we go, those are just some of the most hyped books on my TBR that I’ve still not read yet. Have you read any of these? Which should I start with? Do you put off hyped books for a long time too? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is meant to be Fictional Crushes, but as a 24 year old who reads mostly YA, it feels a little weird to making a list of 16/17 year old fictional crushes. So instead, I’m going to do Favourite Audiobook Narrators, as I think I’ve listened to enough audio now that I can make a list of these!

Top Ten Tuesday #329

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I had a great weekend, Hairspray was really amazing, the show was generally incredible anyway, but the atmosphere in the theatre was so electric because we’d all been away for so long, it was a really awesome audience to be a part of, which made the show even more amazing I think because everyone was so excited to be there and so appreciative of all the actors. I’m back down in London over the weekend for another show, the new musical, Back To The Future, which I’m super excited for, we wouldn’t usually do two theatre shows on back to back weekends, but my mum was really excited for this one as she loves the film.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, which means another Top Ten Tuesday courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Favourite Places To Read. I’ve slightly twisted the topic as I tend to read in one of maybe like four places regularly, so instead I thought I’d do an update on a topic I did a few years ago, Books I Read On Holiday as being on holiday is one of my favourite places to read, so it does kind of fit the theme this week:

1. Things A Bright Girl Can Do-Sally Nicholls-Carcassonne

I read at least part of this one whilst I was on holiday with my family in France in about three years ago, I was hoping to be reading sun soaked by the pool but sadly the weather wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for on this holiday and I read most of it inside!

2. The Dead Queens Club-Hannah Capin-Stirling

Not the most exotic or far flung of locales, but I go back to my University city quite a lot as my family has connections to the area, and when we were back up there on holiday last summer, this was the book I was reading, I’ve read a lot in Stirling over the years, from family holidays when I was a kid, to Uni, and various trips back since.

3. Into The Crooked Place-Alexandra Christo-Carcassonne

I didn’t read much of this in Carcassonne, in fact I think I finished almost all of it on the flight over and just finished the last few pages when I arrived in France, but I’m counting it anyway! I really enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel whenever this reading slump of mine finally breaks!

4. Truthwitch-Susan Dennard-Cape Town

Naturally since I was in Cape Town for almost three months last year, I read quite a bit whilst I was out there and this was one of them. I remember sitting and trying to read this on the beach whilst the other volunteers were surfing and the pages kept blowing away because it was so windy!

5. Stalking Jack The Ripper-Kerri Mansicalco-Carcassonne

I read this one on the same holiday that I read Into The Crooked Place, this was the other book I brought as I’d almost finished Into The Crooked Place. I have to admit, this series was kind of uneven, and there was too much focus on romance in later books, but I really enjoyed this first instalment.

6. Circe-Madeline Miller-Cape Town

I started this just before I left for Cape Town, but I did read the large majority of it whilst I was out there. This was the book I was reading whilst we were on the Garden Route tour, so I was soaking up Circe’s adventures whilst we were driving through the most beautiful African landscapes, which was pretty cool!

7. Blind Beauty-KM Peyton-Coach through UK, France and Switzerland

The first time I went to Switzerland with Guides when I was about 11, we took a coach there (our second trip when I was 14, we flew) and so it was quite a few days on the coach before we actually got to Switzerland, which naturally meant a LOT of uninterrupted reading time, so this was one of the books that I read on that coach trip.

8. Allegiant-Veronica Roth-Carcassonne

I started reading this book just before Christmas in 2015, and my family was in France for New Years, so this was the book I was reading whilst I was over there celebrating New Years. I remember finishing it on the super long car journey back from France, this was a good couple of days in the car reading the book and being super frustrated with it!

9. Challenger Deep-Neal Shusterman-Amsterdam

I think I started this in the airport whilst I was waiting to get my flight home, so I didn’t read very much of it in Amsterdam (my main book for that trip was Empire of Storms, which I mentioned in my other post) but since I did start it there, I think it still counts!

10. Night Spinner-Addie Thorley-Cape Town

Reading this in Cape Town was kind of a funny contrast because the setting in the book is so cold and frosty and I was obviously reading this during Cape Town’s summer but I’ve never been one for seasonal reading anyway. This was one of my favourite books I read out in Cape Town, such a fun and creative retelling of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

So there we go, my updated edition of Books I’ve Read On Holiday. I can’t wait to be able to add more to this list when we are finally able to travel a bit more, though I don’t think I’ll be adding any non-UK destinations till next year! Have you read books in any cool places? Have you been to any of the places on my list? Any fun stories about books you’ve read on holiday? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is meant to be Books I Wish I Could Read Again, but I did that topic a few years ago and I’m not sure I have anything new to add, so I think I’m going to go off in my own direction again. I thought I’d do Most Hyped Books On My TBR That I’ve Not Read Yet.