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 isNew-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021. I read quite a lot of new-to-me authors last year. These are just 10 of them.
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood – a ‘cosy’ murder mystery, easy to read and fast paced.
Coming Up for Air* by Sarah Leipciger – a mix of fact and fiction, based in truth, which emphasises the importance of the air we breathe and the desire to live.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – a simple story on the surface, told in a few pages, yet full of depth.
The Queen’s Spy by Clare Marchant – historical fiction with a dual timeline set in 1584 and 2021.
The Library of the Dead by T L Huchu – a fantasy novel, set in a future or alternative Edinburgh, with a wealth of dark secrets in its underground.
Girl in the Walls by A J Gnuse – a ‘gothic’ tale influenced by the literary tradition of the Southern Gothic novel.
Inland by Téa Obreht – a novel about life in the American West during the mid-to-late 19th century.
Prophecy by S J Parris – historical fiction about Giordano Bruno, a 16th century heretic philosopher and spy.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles – historical fiction, based on the true Second World War story of the librarians at the American Library in Paris.
Picnic at Hanging Rock* by Joan Lindsay – the picnic, which begins innocently and happily, ends in explicable terror, and some of the party never returned. What happened to them remains a mystery.
*The two books I loved the most are Picnic at Hanging Rock and Coming Up for Air, both are 5* books for me.
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 is2021 Releases I Was Excited to Read But Didn’t Get To but I decided to change it a bit and list ten of the books I bought in 2021 that I didn’t get round to reading. The only reason I haven’t read them yet is that I’ve been reading other books … I can only read one book at a time, regardless of how many I have on the go at once.
The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo – This extraordinary historical novel, set in Medieval Paris under the twin towers of its greatest structure and supreme symbol, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the hunchback; Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer; and Claude Frollo, the priest tortured by the specter of his own damnation.
Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison – she explores our relationship with the weather as she follows the course of four rain showers, in four seasons, across Wicken Fen, Shropshire, the Darent Valley and Dartmoor, and reveals how rain is not just an essential element of the world around us, but a key part of our own identity too.
The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, translated by Robert Fagles – the story of the ill fated Theban royal family. Oedipus, a mythical king, accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, bringing disaster to his city and family. I have a vague memory that I read Oedipus the King at school – but maybe I didn’t. I definitely haven’t read the other two.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – I bought this after watching the first episode of the TV adaptation with David Tenant as Phileas Fogg, who bet his friends in the Reform Club that he can travel across the globe in just eighty days.
How to Catch a Mole: and Find Yourself in Nature by Marc Hamer – A calming, life-affirming book about the British countryside, the cycle of nature, solitude and contentment, by a brilliant new nature writer who spent time homeless as a young man, sleeping in the hedgerows he now knows so well. I’m currently reading this and enjoying it very much.
The Dark Remains by Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney – In this scorching crime prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of D.I. Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.
Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World by Michelle Scott Tucker, a biography. After reading Kate Grenville’s novel, A Room Made of Leaves I wanted to know more about the Macarthurs who settled in Australia in the late 1700s.
The Raven Spell: A Novel (A Conspiracy of Magic Book 1) by Luanne G. Smith – In Victorian England a witch and a detective are on the hunt for a serial killer in an enthralling novel of magic and murder. It’s my Amazon First Reads choice for January.
The Night Hawks: Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 13 (The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Elly Griffiths. I still have books 10 – 12 to read before I can read this one! The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison. Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons.
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 Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the First Half of 2022. I’ve listed these in the order they are to be released. Some of them are review copies from NetGalley. The descriptions are from NetGalley or Amazon.
13 January: The Key In The Lock by Beth Underdown – By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the death of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose murder decades ago haunts her still. For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.
20 January: The Man in the Bunker by Rory Clements – In the gripping new spy thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Hitler’s Secret, a Cambridge spy must find the truth behind Hitler’s death. But exactly who is the man in the bunker?
27 January: The Second Cut by Louise Welsh – – Thrilling and atmospheric, The Second Cut delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.
3 February: The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths – Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are on the hunt for a murderer when Covid rears its ugly head. But can they find the killer despite lockdown?
3 February: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham – Chloe Davis’ father is a serial killer. He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe’s family was destroyed.
10 February: I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomens – Listen to my history. My adventures are worth hearing. I have lived many lifetimes and been loved by emperors, kings and thieves. I have survived kidnap and assault. Revolution and two world wars. But this is also a love story. And the story of what we will do for those we love.
1 March: The Chapel in the Woods by Dolores Gordon-Smith – Jack and Betty Haldean’s weekend in the country is disrupted by sudden, violent death in this intricately-plotted 1920s mystery. This is the 11th Jack Haldean Murder Mystery.
3 March: Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter by Lizzie Pook – 1886, Bannin Bay, Australia. The Brightwell family has sailed from England to make their new home in Western Australia. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them on these shores beyond shining pearls and shells like soup plates – the things her father has promised will make their fortune.
5 May: The Hiding Place by Simon Lelic – Four Friends. One Murder. A Game They Can’t Escape. DI Fleet is up against some of the most powerful people in the country as he attempts to discover the truth about what happened on the day of the game…
2 June: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk – A beautifully crafted historical mystery bursting with wonderfully realised characters, a sense of fizzing energy that brims over every page and immersive storytelling that will take the reader from 18th century London, across Europe and, finally, to the bustling city of Constantinople.
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 Best Books I Read In 2021. I’ve read 18 books this year that I’ve rated 5* on Goodreads, so it’s difficult to choose the 10 ‘best ‘ books, but these are the ones that I enjoyed the most, in the order I read them:
The One I Was by Eliza Graham – historical fiction split between the present and the past following the lives of Benny Gault and Rosamund Hunter. Benny first came to Fairfleet in 1939, having fled Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport train. As an adult he bought the house and now he is dying of cancer. Rosamund returns to Fairfleet, her childhood home, to nurse Benny. I was totally engrossed in both their life stories as the various strands of the story eventually combined.
English Pastoral by James Rebanks – nonfiction, inspirational as well as informative and it is beautifully written. I enjoyed his account of his childhood and his nostalgia at looking back at how his grandfather farmed the land. And I was enlightened about current farming practices and the effects they have on the land, depleting the soil of nutrients.
Ice Bound by Jerri Nielsen – nonfiction – Dr Jerri Nielsen was a forty-six year old doctor, who took a year’s sabbatical to work at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station in Antarctica, the most remote and perilous place on earth. In the dark Antarctic winter of 1999 she discovered a lump in her breast. Whilst the Pole was cut off from the rest of the world in total darkness she treated herself, taking biopsies and having chemotherapy, until she was rescued by the Air National Guard in October 1999.
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson – a novel focused on three main characters, Elizabeth, Liam and Clara, each perfectly distinct and finely described. The setting in a small town in North Ontario in 1972 is excellent. It looks back to events thirty years earlier when Elizabeth Orchard first met Liam who was then a small boy of 3 when he and his family lived in the house next door and the events that followed.
The Killing Kind by Jane Casey, a police procedural and a psychological thriller. It’s a mix of courtroom scenes, police interviews and terrifying action-packed scenes. I was totally engrossed in it right from its opening page all the way through to the end.
Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger – a beautiful novel, a story of three people living in different countries and in different times. How their stories connect is gradually revealed as the novel progresses. As the author explains at the end of the novel it is a mix of fact and fiction and has its basis in truth.
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris – historical fiction about the Dreyfus affair in 1890s France. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish officer, was convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil’s Island. It’s narrated by Colonel George Picquart, who became convinced that Dreyfus was innocent. Harris goes into meticulous detail in staying accurate to the actual events, but even so this is a gripping book and I was completely absorbed by it from start to finish.
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry – a combination of historical fact and fiction, a tale of murder and medical matters, with the social scene, historical and medical facts slotting perfectly into an intricate murder mystery. It’s an exceptionally excellent murder mystery and an informative historical novel, with great period detail and convincing characters.
Fludd by Hilary Mantel –a dark fable of lost faith and awakening love amidst the moors.The story centres on Fludd, a young priest who comes to the Church of St Thomas Aquinas to help Father Angwin, a cynical priest who has lost his faith. I enjoyed it all immensely – partly about religion and superstition, but also a fantasy, a fairy tale, told with wit and humour with brilliant characterisation.
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay – the story of a party of nineteen girls accompanied by two schoolmistresses who set off from the elite Appleyard College for Young Ladies, for a day’s outing at the spectacular volcanic mass called Hanging Rock. The picnic, which begins innocently and happily, ends in explicable terror, and some of the party never returned. I loved the detailed descriptions of the Australian countryside and the picture it paints of society in 1900, with the snobbery and class divisions of the period.
Have you read any of these books? What books have you enjoyed the most this year?
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 on My Winter 2021 To-Read List. I don’t plan what to read in advance, so these are books on my shelves that I want to read – maybe this winter, or sometime next year. They’re a mix of NetGalley books that will be published next year and books that I’ve had on my bookshelves or on Kindle for some time.
NetGalley books:
The Man in the Bunker by Rory Clements (pub 20 January 2022) – a Cambridge spy must find the truth behind Hitler’s death. But exactly who is the man in the bunker?
The Second Cut by Louise Welsh (pub 27 January 2022) – this delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (pub 3 February 2022) – Chloe Davis’ father is a serial killer. He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe’s family was destroyed.
The Hiding Place by Simon Lelic (pub 5 May 2022) – DI Rob Fleet investigates a cold case when the body of a boy, who went missing over twenty years earlier whilst playing a game of hide and seek, is found.
The Second Sight of Zachery Cloudesley by Sean Lusk (pub 2 June 2022) – Set in the 18th century Zachary Cloudesley has grown up surrounded by strange and enchanting clockwork automata. But most extraordinary of all are the things Zachary can see in other people. At the touch of a hand, he can see the secret desires, regrets and inner workings of the people he meets. When his father disappears in Constantinople he sets out to find him.
Books from my TBRs:
Fire from Heaven: a novel of Alexander the Great by Mary Renault – Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece to India. Fire From Heaven tells the story of the years that shaped him.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Set on the Caribbean coast of South America, this love story brings together Fermina Daza, her distinguished husband, and a man who has secretly loved her for more than fifty years.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett – Among the tangled waterways and giant anacondas of the Brazilian Rio Negro, an enigmatic scientist is developing a drug that could alter the lives of women for ever.
The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré – George Smiley launches a risky operation uncovering a Russian money-laundering scheme in the Far East. His aim: revenge on Karla, head of Moscow Centre and the architect of all his troubles.
The River Midnight by Lilian Nattel – this is set in the fictional village of Blaszka in Poland at the end of the 19th century. Myth meets history and characters come to life through the stories of women’s lives and prayers, their secrets, and the intimate details of everyday life.
BooksPlease 