The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary

Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday – a week where I have finished two books and am a fair way into another two, or three if you include Fiore sopra l’inferno which I am reading in Italian… sometimes I am studying it for the language and carefully making notes and new vocabulary; other times I am just reading it as a novel. It is slow going though! This week’s post is a regular seasonal glance at my to-read list… and I offer my usual caveat that I don’t really do to-read lists, being a complete mood reader. But these are currently the books that I am hoping to read over the next few weeks and then over the long summer vacation!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2024 To-Read List →

Looking back on the last year – and as a teacher I am counting it from September – it has been a nightmare! Genuinely. New schools, hospitalisations, a cancer scare, our landlord choosing to evict us, the search for a new home, mortgage and legal issues, my father’s sudden health deterioration, death and funeral, chaos at work… The idea of sending this year on its way with a very bookish summer, in a new house that I have finally been able to own rather than rent – with all the security that that will bring – would be delightful, however. And this week’s theme is a celebration of all things bookish and the chance to grant each other a little gift, or at least revel in our wishes for the Summer. My List is here: Amazon Wish List Bookish Wishes 2024… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes Summer 2024 →

There are so many reasons why books get left behind, lost in the meandering paths of the to-be-read pile, superceded by other releases and purchases, swamped by life and family and work commitments. Or perhaps you do pick them up but they don’t chime with your mood at that point or your expectations… So, this Tuesday, let’s take a gander at those books that I was excited about but which – for whatever reason – I have not read…… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read →

Good evening all and welcome to another Tuesday.. This week’s topic to which I must turn my thoughts is authors who I’d like more from…. the easy route here, as a reader who loves the classics, would be to go down that route! Who wouldn’t want to see Jane Austen’s take on social media? Or Mary Shelley’s imagination spliced with our AI technologies! Dickens’ response to the cost-of-living crises… It is quite scary to imagine how similar some of our concerns are to theirs, how little the world has progressed in some ways. But let us turn our thoughts to contemporary writers instead, those whose books I love but from whom I have heard very little recently. Of course, the fact that I have not been aware of them may not mean that they have stopped writing; it may reflect more on my not being up to date!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’d Love a New Book From →

A gripping twisty little thriller set in a evocative – if underused – location and populated by a range of deeply unpleasant characters, one of whom doesn’t survive much beyond the opening scene!… Continue reading Book Review: Murder on Lake Garda, Tom Hindle →

Quotations… as an English Literature teacher and English Literature graduate, there are so many quotations bouncing about in my head! And we are also in the midst of GCSE Exam season so I hope – please god I hope – that there are plenty in my students’ heads too! And for me, you say quotation, I go to Shakespeare!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Quotes →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →