The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary

About Me

Welcome to my book blog!

I have been a passionate reader for as long as I can remember and can always be found with a book in my hand!


  • Translation: A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie
    Continuing to progress my learning of Italian, I have started to read Agatha Christie’s A Murder in Announced in Italian! Although I have not read the novel in English before, I found… Continue reading Translation: A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie
  • Book Review: The Blue, Beautiful World, Karen Lord
    A beautiful and optimistic image of the future of mankind where, despite our differences and the ravages we have inflicted on the planet, we emerge as ready to take the first steps on a galactic scale.… Continue reading Book Review: The Blue, Beautiful World, Karen Lord
  • Top Ten Tuesday: May Flowers
    The daffodils are out in force, the apple trees in my garden are ablaze with blossoms, new buds are bursting from the trees in the woods opposite. We are truly in the grip of springtime in the UK. We know this because over the course of the long May Day bank holiday weekend we have had blazing sunshine, heavy winds, torrential rain and thunder! So I thought this would be an easy TTT list to compile: of the 3189 books in my Calibre library – How did that number creep so high? Is this a healthy number of books to own? – I was sure there must be dozens, hundreds, with “flower” or similar in the title… but no! It was a real struggle to find them! It is apparently a component of book titles that repels me. Who knew?… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: May Flowers
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Petty Reasons You’ve DNF’d a Book
    Good evening and welcome to another TTT. The theme this week is focused on books that we have not finished… not books that we have set aside temporarily or that we have not finished yet but books that we have made a conscious decision not to continue with. This is a tricky one for me as I do not tend to make that decision. There are many books that I have begun, not been gripped by and put aside only to return to it later and end up loving it! These might be books that I am not emotionally ready for, or I am too tired for, or which are too close to a particular issue at that moment… or a book might be too similar to a few other books you’ve read recently and you’re just craving something different! There are some examples however, and let’s look at a few of the reasons I may have chosen or perhaps at least been tempted not to continue with a book. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether they are petty or not!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Petty Reasons You’ve DNF’d a Book
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon
    They – whoever ‘they’ may be – say that buying books and actually reading them are two very different hobbies! They must say it, it is a google-able image! And as I am in the process of moving house and trying to pack in advance. What were the first things I packed? Obviously my physical books! And … there have been quite a number of boxes filled already. Old favourites and a few that I have been intending to read and never quite got around to it. Nor will I be able to for a little while as they are all still sealed in boxes. As is my crockery (save for one plate, one bowl, one cup each) and my baking equipment. Clothes? I’ll do that whenever! So, these are a selection of the unread books still waiting to be read.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books Read During Hiatus
    Life chose to become complicated and difficult for a little while back there! Following on from the stress of the landlord giving us notice to quit, the process of finding a new house, deciding to investigate buying rather than renting, negotiating mortgages and making offers and putting together deposits and instructing solicitors… all took some time and generates some stress. And alongside that, my dad’s health took a rapid down hill plunge. He had been suffering from cancer for some years but it had spread from prostate to bowel to bones. In the space of ten days he went from being active enough to be considering going for a drive to unable to manage the stairs to bedbound and then died. Over the last couple of months, I have been travelling up and down to Kent, a four and a half hour trip at the best of times, to initially visit and provide and arrange care, to support my mum when he died, to sort out funeral arrangements and the will… Some things had to give and for a while, the blog was one. There were things that I did keep going to maintain my own mental health though: I kept up my Italian lessons and completed DuoLingo’s course, I kept up my running and of course, I kept up my reading.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books Read During Hiatus
  • Book Review: Maurice and Maralyn, Sophie Elmhirst
    An eminently readable and accessible account of an extraordinary experience, rendered with clarity and precision; for me, however, it seemed to sacrifice the drama and horror of the events. … Continue reading Book Review: Maurice and Maralyn, Sophie Elmhirst
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short
    Well, it has certainly been a week this week: we have just had the landlord around for a property check, during which he chose to give notice to quit the property by the end of May… which feels very close at the moment. And there are not that many homes available in the limited areas in which we are looking in order to avoid disrupting our daughter’s schooling too much… And today, out of the blue, I discover that my boss has been suspended pending investigations… So, the chance to reflect on short book, books to devour in a day, or when time is short, feels rather fitting! Many thanks to Jennifer @ FunkNFiction.com and Angela @ Reading Frenzy for submitting this topic. I may not have managed to keep all of these under 150 pages but the Claire Keegan’s – real gems of tiny novellas – are so short my average is probably about that level! And there are a couple of series here, all of which fit the criteria really… so I have only added the first book in each series.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short
  • Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023
    Is it my imagination or are the days starting to stretch out a little bit again? It’s still pitch dark on my morning runs but I don’t feel that I am both driving to and home from work in the darkness! And this week’s theme is a lovely one, a celebration of the books I have read in 2023 – which already seems a very long time ago and we have not yet finished January! – from authors I have not come across before. We all have those familiar favourite authors, don’t we? Those writers who we just know we will feel welcome and comfortable and familiar with, even in a new book – and that is a wonderful thing! And alongside that, it is a joy to uncover a new author whom we might also fall in love with, possibly with a weighty backlist to enjoy, potentially with a future of more books to come. It is also a feature that I track on my reading spreadsheet – I am such a geek! – so I can easily share my full list of books by new-to-me authors, of which there were 22.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023
  • Book Review: The Mars House, Natasha Pulley
    A tender and sweet story that is in part a political thriller, in part a romance, set on Mars in the near future in which the kindest characters have the most objectionable politics. As a political commentary it was, for me, not unproblematic; as a character-driven romance, it was tender.… Continue reading Book Review: The Mars House, Natasha Pulley
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To
    Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2024
    As a mood reader, bookish goals area a sort of movable feast – an inchoate mass of vague ambition and hopes. Will I be concerned if I don’t meet these goals and ambitions? Not a bit! Is reading a chore or a joy? Definitely a joy for me, and a slavish adherence to goals neither motivates nor inspires me! If they do for you, then I am happy for you but it feels too rigid for me.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2024
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
    The upcoming year holds promise with several anticipated book releases from beloved and potential new favorite authors. From Kiley Reid’s “Come and Get It” to Natasha Pulley’s “The Mars House,” a diverse array of intriguing plots and characters await. The year promises to be a great one for readers!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
  • Book Review: Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
    “Prophet Song” is a chilling and propulsive novel set in an Ireland turning towards tyranny. When Eilish’s husband, a trade unionist, disappears, she is faced with terrifying choices in a society unraveling into oppression and civil war. As she fights to save her family, the novel offers a devastating and deeply human portrait of a country at the brink of war.… Continue reading Book Review: Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2023
    Birnam Wood is on the move… Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice, on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned. But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker – or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2023