Top Ten Tuesday: Books with a High Page Count

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 today is Books with a High Page Count (Share those doorstop books!) Today I’m sharing ten of the longest books I’ve ever read.

  1. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 1,463 pages
  2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 1,276 pages
  3. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 1,095 pages
  4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett 1,076 pages.
  5. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 1,008 pages
  6. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 965 pages
  7. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman 886 pages
  8. Tombland by C J Sansom 866 pages
  9. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 834 pages
  10. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 777 pages

Top Ten Tuesday: Genre freebie

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 today is a Genre freebie (Pick any genre you’d like and build a list around it. You can even narrow the topic if you’d like, such as: thrillers with unreliable narrators, fantasy romance with fae characters, or historical romance with suspense elements.)

I decided to list ten of my favourite historical fiction books:

  1. Nero by Conn Iggulden. Ancient Rome (beginning in AD37)
  2. The Abbess of Whitby: a Novel of Hild of Northumbria by Jill Dalladay (7th century Britain)
  3. The Raven’s Head by Karen Maitland  (13th century England)
  4. Turn of the Tide by Margaret Skea (16th century Scotland)
  5. Dacre’s War by Rosemary Goring (16th century Scotland and England)
  6. Catching the Eagle by Karen Charlton (1809 -1811 Northumberland)
  7. The Potter’s Hand by A N Wilson (the Wedgewood family 1785 – 1805)
  8. Silver Lies by Ann Parker (1880s USA)
  9. A Medal for Murder by Frances Brody (1922 England and 1899 South Africa – the Boer War)
  10. A Climate of Change by Hilary Mantel (1950s Africa and 1980s England)

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List

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 today is Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List. I’m taking part in the 20 Books of Summer but didn’t make a list this year because In the past I don’t think I’ve ever managed to read the lists I’ve compiled because I just can’t stick to reading from a list – as soon as a book is on a list my desire to read it just dies. So, I decided to make it simple and read from my TBRs and the books on my Netgalley Shelf.

Anyway, here is a list of books I might read this summer, just picked at random from the e-books on my Kindle, without thinking too hard about which ones to list.:

  1. The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry (A Raven and Fisher Mystery Book 5) Historical fiction set in Victorian Edinburgh, a mix of fact and fiction incorporating the social scene, historical and medical facts.
  2. The Elopement by Gill Hornby, historical fiction about the life of Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight and her stepdaughter.
  3. One Dark Night by Hannah Richell, a gothic thriller about the murder of a young girl at Halloween.
  4. The House of Seymour by Joanna Hickson, (The House of Seymour, Book 1) historical fiction set in the 15th century during King Henry VI’s reign.
  5. A Cold Wind from Moscow by Rory Clements, (Tom Wilde Book 8) historical fiction set at the start of the Cold War,
  6. All that Matters by Chris Hoy, a memoir cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy reveals the truth of his cancer diagnosis and how he is determined to find hope and happiness on the home straight.
  7. Meetings With Remarkable Animals by Martin Clunes, the Heartwarming Journey of Animals Who’ve Guided, Rescued, and Saved Us in Surprising Ways.
  8. The Neighbour’s Secret by Sharon Bolton, a psychological thriller.
  9. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier, historical fiction set in Venice in 1486.
  10. Written in Bone by Sue Black, hidden stories in what we leave behind.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Feature Travel

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 today is Books that Feature Travel and the books I’ve chosen feature different types of travelling in a variety of countries – on a bicycle, on boats and ocean liners, as well as on foot. I’ve read all of them except for Sea Change, which is still sat on my bookshelves.

  1. Full Tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi on a Bicycle, first published in 1965  by Dervla Murphy this is an account of her journey in 1963, which took her through Europe, Persia (Iran), Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan and into India.
  2. Maiden Voyages by Siân Evans – transatlantic travel between the two World Wars on magnificent ocean liners undertaken by many women. Some travelled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. 
  3. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. She travelled to Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and Indonesia (Love) spending four months in each place, searching for pleasure in Italy, mainly through food, God in India at an ashram, and balance in Indonesia.
  4. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson about his hike along the Appalachian Trail, the longest continuous footpath in the world.
  5. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, first published in 1889. He intended it to be a serious travel book about the Thames, its scenery and history, but, as he wrote it turned into a funny book. It’s a story of a journey, comparing their trip to Stanley’s expedition to Africa searching for Dr Livingstone. 
  6. A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor in which he describes his travels on foot in 1933 from the Hook of Holland through Germany, to Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, on his way to Constantinople.
  7. The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane, with a map showing the places he visited from the cliffs of Cape Wrath, to the holloways of Dorset, the storm-beaches of Norfolk, the saltmarshes and estuaries of Essex, and the moors of Rannoch and the Pennines.
  8. Wildwood: a Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin about his journeys through a wide variety of trees and woods in various parts of the world. It’s a memoir, a travelogue and also it’s about the interdependence of human beings and trees
  9. The Marches Border Walks With My Father by Rory Stewart walking in the borderlands between England and Scotland, along Hadrian’s Wall and his coast to coast walk from Cunbria Cumbria to Berwick-upon-Tweed.
  10. Sea Change: The Summer Voyage from East to West Scotland of the Anassa by Mairi Hedderwick, describing her journey in an antiquated 26-foot long yacht through the Caledonian Canal to the fjords of the west: Lochs Linnhe, Etive, Ailort, Moidart, Nevis and Leven.

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country

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 Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country. I live in the UK. I’ve chosen authors who live/have lived in two Counties of the UK – Northumberland, where I now live and Buckinghamshire, where I used to live. The titles marked with * are linked to my reviews and the rest to Goodreads.

Northumberland:

  • L J Ross — Holy Island – crime fiction (DCI Ryan)
  • Tricia Cresswell – The Midwife – historical fiction
  • Karen Charlton – Catching the Eagle – historical fiction*
  • Ann Cleeves – The Glass Room – crime fiction (Vera Stanhope)*
  • Mari Hannah – The Lost – crime fiction (DS Frankie Oliver and DI David Stone)

Buckinghamshire

Have you read any of them?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word HOUSE in the Title

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 with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title. I decided to choose books with the word HOUSE in the title. These ten books are all books I’ve read.

The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths – a Ruth Galloway mystery.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – more of a psychological study than a horror story.

The Power-House by John Buchan – a thriller, the first of five featuring the barrister and Tory MP Edward Leithen.

The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken – a love story.

Slade House by David Mitchell – a mixture of a ghost story, science fiction and horror.

A House Divided by Margaret Skea – historical fiction set in 15th century Scotland.

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz – a Sherlock Holmes novel.

The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine – a psychological thriller.

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie – a Poirot mystery.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton – historical fiction.

Have you read any of them?