Spell the Month in Books: January

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Jana @ Reviews from the Stacks.

The idea is simple: find a book title for each letter in the month's name, write a post and share the link on that month's link up page. There are optional challenges for each month. This month the theme is "new", to be interpereted anyway you want.

I'm going with titles added to my TBR and earmarked for

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

Spell the Month in Books - August 2022

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on her blog Reviews from the Stacks on the second Saturday of each month.

The aim is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. Easy! More information here.

I've watched this challenge doing the rounds for sometime now, but never joined in. Usually because I missed when it was due. Today, however, I made it!

Six in Six is Back for 2022!

Another July has come around which means it's time for this fun meme hosted by Jo @ The Book Jotter, now in its tenth year.

The aim of Six in Six is to share what we've read in the first six months of the year by choosing six of the categories given and listing six books under each category. More information and the list of categories can be found here.

This meme is a great way to look back on what you've read so far in the year and to see any emerging trends. Looking at what I've read over the past six months,

Six Degrees of Separation: From True History of the Kelly Gang to Jack and the Beanstalk

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang. Ive only read one book by this Australian author and that is Jack Maggs, which I liked.

As I'm pressed for time, this book is my first link and sets the theme for my quick, pictorial post: books with the name Jack in the title.

My Six Degrees of Separation includes a popular maritime series, an Australian classic, a military series, an infamous historical figure and a well-known fairy tale.

Top Ten Tuesday Authors I Haven’t Read, But Want To

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

Six Degrees of Separation: From Our Wives Under the Sea to All the Rivers Run

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I don't read much contemporary fiction these days so it is unlikely that I will ever read this novel. However, part of the book's description:

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her,

Top Ten TuesdayBooks on My Autumn 2022 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

Six Degrees of Separation: From The End of the Affair to Lady's Maid

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. I've not read any of this author's novels, although I do vaguely remember seeing the film based on one of his books, Our Man in Havana. Whether I enjoyed it or not, I also can't remember. As I'm lacking inspiration for my first link, I'll take the easy route and use the word affair.

Lauren Willig is a favourite author of mine and I'm linking to her first standalone novel.The Ashford Affair. This is a dual-time historical romance set in the Edwardian/post-World War I era of England and Africa, and present day New

Six Degrees of Separation: From No One is Talking About This to Heidi

It's the first Saturday of the month and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. Usually when I haven't read the novel I look to Goodreads for help. Unfortunately, the book's blurb didn't provide any flashes of inspiration so I'm going with a book that I have flagged as "Want to Read": The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healy.

In 1939, Hetty Cartwright is given the job to evacuate and look after a collection of mammals from the natural history musuem. Lockwood Manor is the destination, where Hetty and her charges are to remain for the duration

Top Ten Tuesday Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

Six Degrees of Separation: From Rules of Civility to Murder at Melrose Court

It's the first Saturday of the month (and year) and time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. I haven't read this novel and have relied on the Goodreads' book description for inspiration. The shorter one gave me my first link: paper planes.

In a jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn't afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew. By the end of the year she'd learned - how to launch a paper airplane high over Park Avenue, how to live like a redhead, and how to insist upon the very best.

Top Ten Tuesday Books on My Summer 2021 Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. A topic is assigned to each Tuesday. For that topic you are encouraged to make a top ten list, putting your own spin on it, if needed. Upcoming topics and

Six Degrees of Separation: From Ethan Frome to The Age of Innocence

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, a sad and tragic story, and not one I will ever read again. A sledding scene in the novella takes me to my first link - a much more uplifting one than what happened in Ethan Frome

The Bobbsey Twins Annuals were a staple of my Christmases growing up, as was the fun of sledding. We had a few mishaps, but the worst thing that happened to us was that we went home cold and wet!

Another childhood delight was the Bunty and Judy girls' comics filled with stories of boarding

Six Degrees of Separation: From What Are You Going Through to At Summer's End

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, which centres around a woman dying of cancer. This brought to mind The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard where a group of friends travel to Scotland to be with another friend who is also terminally ill with cancer.

Scotland is the link to my next book, Strings of Murder by Oscar de Muriel, the first in a Victorian mystery series that features a mismatched pair of detectives. McGray believes that the supernatural is behind many of their cases and Frey believes there is a

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Lottery to Falling Creatures

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is The Lottery, a short story by Shirley Jackson. I read this yesterday, which means this is one of those rare occasions where I come into this meme better prepared.

The Lottery is a disturbing story, set in America, where a village gathers for their annual lottery, a tradition to ensure a good harvest. The winner, however, is not as happy as you would expect a lottery winner to be.

Supersition and bizarre rituals immediatley brought to mind The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer. This is the

Six Degrees of Separation: From Second Place to The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Second Place by Rachel Cusk, a novel I haven't read, in which an artist plays a major role.

Art and painting is the obvious way to go for that first link, and indeed that's where I'm heading with this novel by another Rachel, The Glass Painter's Daughter by Rachel Hore. The story does involve painting, but in a different medium: stained glass.

Creating pictures of glass leads me to animals made of glass in Tennessee William's popular play The Glass Menagerie. Whilst I haven't read the play, I do remember the 1950 film

Six in Six is Back for 2021!

Here we are in July, which means it's time for this fun meme hosted by Jo @ The Book Jotter.

The aim of Six in Six is to share what we've read in the first six months of the year by choosing six of the categories given and listing six books under each category. More information and the list of categories can be found here.

This meme has been going since 2012, but I've only participated since 2016. I found it's a great way to look back on what you've read so far in the year and to see any emerging trends.

Six Degrees of Separation: from Eats, Shoots & Leaves to Valentines from Bath

The first Saturday of the month is time to play Six Degrees of Separation. This meme is hosted by Kate of Books Are My Favourite and Best. The aim is to link six books to each other from the starting point.

This month the starting point is Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, a book that topped the critics ‘best of 2019’ lists. It is about punctuation told in such away as to make it a fun read. I haven't read this book, but am adding it to my TBR pile.

I haven't participated in this meme for a while as I was unable to launch from the starting book. This time that first jump came to mind instantly and the rest followed on easily from there.

Punctuation goes hand in hand with writing, which uses some sort of writing implement

Throwback Thursday The Warning Bell by Tom Macaulay

Today, I’m linking up with Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog for Throwback Thursday.

This is the opportunity for me to feature some of my old reviews and also to tweak and finally publish a number of draft reviews going back a number of years.

For today's post, I've revamped a review that I wrote in 2014 of Tom Macaulay's novel, The Warning Bell, where the main character goes off in search of his father's wartime past in an effort to salvage their relationship.

Many readers will know this author as T.D. Griggs. Sadly he passed away in 2013.

Read my review of The Warning Bell here.