Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Cozy Reads. My list is of Cozy Mysteries, all of which I’ve read or have waiting to-be-read*. A  cozy mystery is a mystery that doesn’t usually have any bad language, sex scenes, or gruesome details about the killing, and the main character is often an amateur detective.

Betrayed in Cornwall by Janie Bolitho – the fourth book in the Rose Trevelyan series. When a young man falls off a cliff in suspicious circumstances, Rose starts to make connections and things start to go terribly wrong. The characters are quickly drawn, but I still felt they were believable, the writing is fluent, and the Cornish location is superb.

The Body on the Beach by Simon Brett – the first in the Fethering Mysteries. It’s an easy read, set in a fictitious village on the south coast of England, where Carole Seddon has taken early retirement from her career at the Home Office. One morning she discovers a dead body on the beach, but by the time the police go to investigate it had disappeared.

Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody  – the first of the Kate Shackleton Mysteries set in Yorkshire in 1922, with flashbacks to 1916. Bridgestead is a peaceful mill village, until the day in 1916 when mill owner Joshua Braithwaite went missing after apparently trying to commit suicide.

Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn – the first Daisy Dalrymple book, a quick and easy read, a mix of Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse, set in 1923 at the Earl of Wentwater’s country mansion, Wentwater Court. 

Faithful Unto Death by Caroline Graham – a Midsomer Murder Mystery. I’ve enjoyed watching the TV series over the years. Midsomer is obviously a dangerous place to live with all those murders happening so regularly, but they are not the gory kind – it’s murder of a sanitised nature.

The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood – easy to read and fast paced. Seventy-seven year old Judith, and her friends discover who killed Stefan, who was found dead in the Thames, with a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. The first book in the Marlow Murder Club series.

The Heiress of Linn Hagh* by Karen Charlton – the first book in the Detective Lavender Mystery series. Northumberland, November 1809. A beautiful young heiress disappears from her locked bedchamber at Linn Hagh. The local constables are baffled and the townsfolk cry ‘witchcraft’.

Stealing the Crown* by T P Fielden – London, 1941: Major Edgar Brampton is found shot dead in his office in Buckingham Palace. All signs point towards a self-inflicted tragedy, but when Palace authorities hurry his body away and order staff to stay silent, fellow courtier Guy Harford’s suspicions are raised. The first book in the Guy Harford Mystery series,

Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House by M C Beaton – there are three deaths for Agatha to resolve when an old woman reports that her house is haunted and is later found murdered. More deaths follow. I thought this book was all rather silly and Agatha herself is a silly woman.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman – in a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings. This is quietly humorous in parts, not laugh out loud funny, but it did make me smile in a few places. The murder mystery element is over complicated with far too many twists and turns, suspects and false trails. It didn’t turn out to be as good as I’d hoped!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Favorite “Aww” Moments In Books (Share those sweet/cute moments in books that give you warm fuzzies.) Well this was hard as I don’t read much romantic fiction so I’ve twisted it a bit to include books that moved me to tears. And that was hard too as there aren’t many books that do that. But anyway, here’s my offering today and I’m amazed I found ten – maybe I do like romantic fiction after all:

Saving Missy by Beth Morrey – a special book, full of wonderful characters, ordinary people drawn from life, about everyday events, pleasures and difficulties. the joys that friendship can bring, and the love and companionship that a dog can give you. It moved me to tears.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – the sacrifice that Sydney Carton made to save Charles Darnay from the Guillotine, with these words, which close the book: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. It just loved this the first time I read it as a teenager – still do.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford  – another book that brought tears to my eyes, a beautiful book moving between two time periods, the early 1940s and 1986, set in Seattle, about the friendship betweena Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl.

The Hopes and Dreams of Lucy Baker is a romantic novel with a touch of magic about it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would – a novel about friendship, family relationships, love, caring for others and the importance of finding your own inner strength.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – left alone, Kya survived with help from Jumpin’, the general store owner, who lived in Colored Town and his wife, Mabel, and also from Tate, an older boy who taught her to read and write. It’s a story of survival and the power of love combined with a murder mystery, which didn’t actually bring tears to my eyes, but one I enjoyed.

Star Gazing by Linda Gillard – Marianne who has been blind from birth falls in love with Keir, a solitary Highlander and geophysicist, who works on the oil rigs, but who spends his time on shore at his house on Skye. The locations in Star Gazing are just beautiful, described so vividly you could almost be there. Marianne falls in love with Keir and with Skye and I loved this book.

Atonement by Ian McEwan is another book that moved me to tears, even reading it for the second time when I already knew the story. It is a captivating story of the use of imagination, shame and forgiveness, love, war and class-consciousness in England in the twentieth century. The depiction of the Second World War is both horrifying and emotional as British troops were withdrawn from France in 1940.

Persuasion by Jane Austen – I’m including this as it is one of those books that does give me an “aww” feeling telling of Anne Elliot’s constancy in her love for Captain Wentworth. I switch between this book and Pride and Prejudice as my favourite Austen novel – I love watching Elizabeth Bennet’s realisation that she loves Mr Darcy.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – it is ultimately about life and death, love and friendship, loyalty and the fight between good and evil. There is humour, sadness and suspense. Above all it is about growing up and the excitement and expectations that Bod has about life. Quite simply it touched me.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is one of the most moving books I’ve read and I was emotionally drained by the end of the story. It tells of two French sisters and their experiences during the occupation of France in the Second World War. I was in tears at the sadness and pathos of it all.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic this week is Series I’d Like to Start/Catch up on/Finish, and because I listed some of the book series I’m still reading in an earlier post, I’ve decided to look at some series I might like to start reading.

Liveship Traders – Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

Siri Paiboun – The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

John Shakespeare – Martyr by Rory Clements

Detective Joe Sandilands – The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly

The Mistra Chronicles – The Walls of Byzantium by James Heneage

Harry Bosch – The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

Inspector Albert Lincoln – A High Morality of Doves by Kate Ellis

Tom Hawkins – The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson

DI Nikki Galena – Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis

Flavia Albia –  The Ides of April by Lindsey Davies

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog. The topic this week is: Books I Read On Vacation.

Ammonites and Leaping Fish: a Life in Time by Penelope Lively –

Looking back I remember buying three books in Gatwick airport bookshops before boarding planes to go on holiday:

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – I bought this just before boarding a plane to go on holiday to Cyprus, so I read it on the plane and by the swimming pool.

Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve – another book I read on holiday in Cyprus.

Happenstance by Carol Shields – I read this one in Tunisia. I began reading it in the departure lounge, then on the plane and round the hotel pool.

The next four in a holiday cottage near Painswick in the Cotswolds.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

I read the next three in Caldbeck in the Lake District.

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

Entry Island by Peter May

Testament of a Witch by Douglas Watt

And I read the last one in an isolated converted barn on the North Yorks Moors.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog. The topic this week is: Typographic Book Covers (Book covers with a design that is all or mostly all words.)

At first I didn’t think I’d have enough typographic book covers for a post so I was surprised to find that I have, although some do have a small illustration. These are all books I own, some of which I’ve read (marked with asterisks * and with links to my posts).

I was shocked and saddened to hear that Hilary Mantel died on 22 September, aged 70 after suffering a stroke – here’s a link to an obituary. I’ve enjoyed a lot of her books, including the one list below.

*After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell – Alice is in a coma after being in road accident, which may or may not have been a suicide attempt. She has been grieving the death of her husband, John.

*He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr – a locked room’ type of mysteries/impossible crimes, featuring Dr Gideon Fell, an amateur sleuth.

*Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor – nonfiction that recreates Shakespeare’s world through examining twenty objects. It reveals so much about the people, their ideas and living conditions, who went to see Shakespeare’s plays.

*The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse – the first novel in a trilogy set in Languedoc in the south-west of France. It’s set in 1562 during the French Wars of Religion.

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel – life in Saudi Arabia seen through the eyes of Frances, the wife of an ex-pat British engineer. The streets are not a woman’s territory; confined in her flat, she finds her sense of self begins to dissolve. This was her fourth novel, inspired by the four years she lived in Jeddah.

The Women’s Room by Marilyn French – described as ‘one of the most influential novels of the modern feminist movement.’ It was first published in 1977 to a barrage of criticism

Amo, Amas, Amat … And All That by Harry Mount – a guided tour of Latin featuring everything from a Monty Python grammar lesson to David Beckham’s tattoos. I’ve dipped into this one.

Nothing But the Truth by Adrian Plass – a collection of short stories and parables, both serious and comedic.

Persephone Book of Short Stories – an anthology of women’s short stories organised in chronological order through the twentieth century ranging from 1909 to 1986 with mini biographies at the back. I’ve read some of these.

*Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill – a memoir about what it is like getting towards the end of her life. At the time of writing she was 89 years old and looking back on her life with few regrets. She died in 2019 aged 101.