@Reggie this is the Shambles, a preserved medieval street in York with timber framed buildings that overhang cobbled streets. They say it was an inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. One of the few sites I visited that had some literary connection! I will do better next time I visit England - I want to get to the Globe theatre and to Charles Dickens house 😍

This novel broke my heart. A wonderful story of messy relationships, damaged hearts and found family. Set in Trinidad and in New York. Trigger warnings in my comment below.
Photo is a fence full of locks with love messages on them at Sacre Coeur Paris.

I got to Shakespeare and Co in Paris. Thats the queue to the left! I bought one second hand book for me (a Margaret Drabble I hadn‘t read) and one for my daughter (Jean Rhys - couldn‘t pass that up in Paris!) Didnt do any other bookish things but ate a LOT and practiced my high school French, which people were very polite about but rarely made any sense to them 😂😂😂

I tried to do a #Top25of25 but only managed a Top Twenty. I havent read as much as other years! Thanks to all the Littens who recommended so many of these books to me - I get to read such great books thanks to you!
The top two lines are my top ten in no particular order, but I think The Safekeep is probably my book of the year. And props to Arkady Martine, Ive loved her sci fi So Much, shes here twice 🙌

This bookshop in Cambridge is just lovely! They have a curated selection of second hand books on the lower level. Miles of classics in different formats on the ground floor and lots of gifts as well as the front list books. The staff were arty and cool but so friendly. I bought an almanac - seems a strange choice for a NZer but I love reading about the English seasons and traditions.

This bookshop in Cambridge is just lovely! They have a curated selection of second hand books on the lower level. Miles of classics in different formats on the ground floor and lots of gifts as well as the front list books. The staff were arty and cool but so friendly. I bought an almanac - seems a strange choice for a NZer but I love reading about the English seasons and traditions.

Visited Haworth a few days ago to finally see the moors and the Bronte parsonage. It was better than I could have hoped! (The Bronte museum was unfortunately closed - but that had the benefit of making the town nice and quiet!) We did a tour of the area with a Bronte expert and he read some beautiful excerpts to us as we stood in the relevant places 😍

Just finished this book on the train. Its an absolute gem of a book - very philosophical. Inside a wealthy apartment building in Paris, we are in the POV of Renee the concierge, a 54yo woman from a peasant background who hides her genius in order to have a quiet life and peace from the privileged so and sos around her. But there are others in the building who have kindred hearts. A delightful story with lots of cultural and arts references.

While Ive been in airports and on planes this has been an easy, propulsive read. Thanks @Ruthiella for mentioning its connection to The Tainted Cup. I have copied the wikipedia entry as it mentions Stout uses the archetype of the Genius Detective & the Hard Boiled Sleuth. It was fun to have these two tropes/stereotypes mixing and clashing. Published 1934 it has the slang & attitudes of the era - racism, sexism etc - but still interesting to read

We are in the Northern Hemisphere for our first ever winter Christmas! Went to New York for 4 days & were so excited to be treated to real snow! Although we‘ve driven to a mountain to go tobogganing in NZ we‘ve never seen falling snow or snow on the streets of a city. So exciting & luckily my boots were up to it! Also went to Strand books - such a special store but enormous crowds because its obv the Christmas rush. Will have to come back one day!

This is a book about monsters - but this is a photo of a baby Orca! Not a monster I promise! 😍
Cleaning up my Kindle and read this Victoria Schwab in a single afternoon. Just a fast paced dystopian with monsters - reminded me a little bit of Arcane (not so complex though) or Naomi Novik‘s Scholomance series. Definitely my wheelhouse.

A compulsive read. Chidgey takes a dystopian premise (I wont describe because spoilers) & carries it off in a completely fresh way. I think her strength is her ability to build multiple authentic, compelling characters - every interaction btwn them is interesting, you‘re awake to every clue as to who knows what about the mystery in the background. The blend of cheerful, domestic detail with an increasing creepy tension had me glued to the page.

Absolutely loved this - almost “light Hilary Mantel” if that makes sense. More license taken with plot & characters,plus a whole lot of sarcasm & swearing! But it really puts you in a Tudor world, amongst the servants w their POV, or amongst the scheming nobles. Good writing, great understanding of the time, a little modern sensibility of the prejudices, and lots going on as a young boy falls into a plot against the new king.

Really enjoyed this and have Vol II waiting for me. It‘s the first “stuck in time” book I‘ve read that really considers what the inner journey would be like. And some beautiful writing, capturing the feelings of being alone, feeling isolated. I almost found it too imaginable, it felt so real and oppressing in parts!
Photo is from a sunny weekend away in Wellington.

This is a really interesting and odd little book. Amane lives in a near future Japan where conception takes place solely by artificial insemination and sex is no longer considered civilised. The family unit is also being revolutionised as living alone may just be more convenient. Its a fascinating concept and as Amane is one of very few still having sex she deeply questions her morality. ⬇️

This was really sweet and fun - just wished it was MUCH longer as @RamsFan1963 has already said! The world building was so well done, I‘d love to see more robot centred stories here. Did you know the merch that is sold in the book is actually available on the authors website? Brilliant. www.automaticnoodle.website

If you like #spinsterlit, or books about books, or academics and their research, then you might like this. It was a 5 star read for me! Im going to say its like Possession meets The End of the Affair. Elizabeth, an academic in her fifties returns to Oxford to unearth some little known papers by TS Eliot. But once there she finds she must deal with her own past as well as the poets.

Took my daughter to the movies on Halloween to see Frankenstein, by Guillermo Del Toro. It veers from the book but it was a beautiful adaptation, Elizabeth has far more of a role and the Creature‘s initial innocence is so well done. Daughter wept - I nearly did - really moving. Also a bit gory in places. I saw a great meme titling the movie “Frankenstein - or how to DIY Jacob Elordi in your basement” 😂

Im reading this book you bought me in Melbourne Carolyn! @CarolynM
Matches my cup and saucer unexpectedly! 😁

Somebody must have mentioned this book recently to put it on my radar. Its Maggie O‘Farrell‘s debut. I really like a debut novel - they seems to be patchworks of brilliant bits and messy bits, and I like seeing where a polished writer once started from. This was really enjoyable - although the structure/set-up was a bit unwieldy in parts. Alice is in a coma and her mind is flitting through bits of her life ⬇️

I loved Brooklyn & I loved this follow up. Its perhaps 20 years later, Eilis is married with teen children, and returns to Ireland. We see the previous characters, older, carrying griefs or frustrations, having made compromises or changes, life has marked & changed them. I like the way Toibin shows rather than tells. We see family dynamics at work, he shows us what is hidden or goes unsaid. ⬇️

I love a time travel book so I went into this with high expectations and it was enjoyable - most of the time - especially the first part where our main characters Melisande (languages professor) and Tristan (military colonel) are figuring out why magic disappeared in the 19th century. Then as time travel is developed and a govt dept springs up to control it, the novel gets more farcical and the plot more convoluted. Amusing but also lengthy!

I read this thanks to Carolyn‘s review and loved it. A writer struggles to write a biography of Hortense Cezanne while watched by Hortense‘s ghost. A story of older women with time to reflect on their griefs & secrets. Isolated by the pandemic, Hortense observes & learns more about the writer than the writer has learnt about her. The observed becomes the observer. OKeefe does so much in limited time &space. A book with beautiful sentences.

Loved this! For those who havent read this, it‘s a novel told in a series of thoughts. You‘re reading this woman‘s thoughts and figuring out that she is entering a relationship, starting a job, struggling with anxiety etc. Its a format that could lose the reader, if the thoughts and fragments werent so beautifully crafted and sharply insightful. Some of the metaphors Offill came up with felt very new and superbly apt. ⬇️

(Images of old pub in Russell)
I finally got around to reading Villette! Poor Lucy Snowe has it tough - and I can imagine Bronte wanted to paint for the world the complex inner life of a plain woman, middle class but fallen on hard times. Both the vulnerability and the strength. Bronte does setting and mood and side characters so well too. I liked that noone was only good or evil, there were many shades of grey.⬇️

My daughter asked me to have a book club with her and I‘d just bought this book so we took turns reading sections. A lovely short classic from 1943 dealing with a love affair and feelings of isolation. From my 50+ yr perspective - it reminded me of other books and ideas - from her 20yo perspective it was utterly new and devastating. Also: spring blossoms!

(Not book related)
So I got a new part time job a few months ago. There‘s a local free magazine (distribution of about 20,000) - I started doing some editing and proof reading, and now Im doing a monthly column and sometimes a feature article. (Local news and not book reviews unfortunately!) Writing an article on bush walks this month, so Ive been doing some new ones. The one on the left has a tree top section that is 18m (59 feet) high!

I kept hearing that Book number 2 is on its way so I thought I‘d better read this. And I loved it! Not at all what I was expecting - I thought it was going to be a slow, atmospheric read about feeling like an outsider. (A vibe I like for sure) But this book runs and jumps and does flips, it has teeth. The “outsider” characters have some fantastically sharp remarks in here, I grinned like a Halloween pumpkin. Have you read this @Reggie ?

For the first couple of chapters, I wondered if the form of this novel was going to become overdone and affected - a POV narrated by a book, disagreeing at times with the boy at the center of the story. But then i relaxed and just let the story wash over me - and I loved it.
This isnt an easy story. Benny and his mother Annabelle are having a very hard time, traumatised by the death of their father/husband, ⬇️

@CarolynM @Reggie our NZ “big sheep” isnt quite as big or as stoic as your one Carolyn! And of course its made out of corrugated iron because why wouldn‘t you?! This is in Tirau - a town everyone stops in on the way to somewhere else. 😜

This was a lovely read - Sybil is determined to never give up the art of letter writing as its brought her joy over many years - we see her relationships with friends, family, penpals and strangers morph and change through the impact of her letter writing. This made me think of Ove a little bit although Sybil isnt quite that prickly! Definitely felt the feels with this one 💕

Finally started this series and it was really good! @CarolynM @TrishB I think it was you two who put this on my radar years ago! I do love a detective novel with interesting character work - and the setting and community was warm and friendly.
This isnt a photo of Three Pines of course - my local beach walk on the other side of the world 😁

Oh I do so love the Cazalets @LeahBergen @Ruthiella I bailed on a couple of books mid August and it was such a relief to pick this up and be absorbed in the familial bonds, heartaches, small and large tragedies of this sprawling family. This is the second volume where World War 2 is under way. Keen to step straight into Vol 3 but so many library holds have come in for me while I was reading this!

Thanks for reviewing this book @Jeg encouraging me to read it. I havent read a book about estranged family members for a long time, and this was just written so well. Hillary is the widowed mother of two daughters who are no longer speaking to each other. We have her POV, Esther and April, the two middle aged daughters, and Lawrence, Esther‘s ex-husband. Each of them are at a crossroads. ⬇️

Here you go @merelybookish this is the very colourful childrens author Margaret Mahy who wrote over 100 picture books as well as a couple of dozen novels. She was also a librarian and dedicated to growing young readers. She would be the most well know author in NZ because everyone (around my age at least) grew up reading her books.

Just a cheery nearly Spring photo from NZ for those of you feeling very hot at the end of Summer! #notbookrelated

I am currently audiobooking Barkskins which is taking me a LONG time.

Hows the season going where you are?

Margaret Forster wrote a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1989 and some years later wrote this novel about her Ladys Maid, Lily Wilson, based on the bare few facts that are known about her. Its a really deep imagining of what it was like to be in service in the 19th C and to have an intense and complicated relationship with your frail mistress. Great historical writing, slow moving and character driven - a bit depressing at times! ⬇️

Fell in love with The Tainted Cup so I had to get quickly into the sequel - Drop of Corruption. This is like Holmes and Watson in a fantasy world which also has a complicated Empire, political, class and race issues and a variety of villainry. The relationship between Kol and Ana is full of sarcasm and sass. The mystery is complex and kept me 100% involved - its great world building, character driven, fantasy mystery. My catnip!

I love movies and reading about behind the scenes and Im a Gen Xer too so OF COURSE I was going to enjoy reading Ione Skye‘s memoir. There were so many touchpoints I remembered, movies, music, models. Ione had a wild ride through teen movie stardom and looking back can see the motivations that drove some toxic relationships. She delves into her feelings of abandonment by the father who wouldnt acknowledge her. ⬇️

There is a large black cat in this book so my large black cat thought he should feature. Jasper will be unimpressed that this isn‘t a glamour shot though 😂😂

I love this series, I think this is about Book 10. There‘s a little less of Peter here and a lot more of Abigail (his neice) so that was fun. Plenty of fantastical hi-jinks. Nothing ground breaking for this world and these characters just good solid fun.

This book is going to stay with me because the imagery was so vivid. Bo lives in San Fran in about 2050. The city is flooded - everyone that hasnt evacuated lives in apartment buildings above the third floor. Markets happen on rooftops - you move from building to building across bridges. Why does Bo, a traumatised artist stay, when she could leave? This is a character driven novel, a slow thoughtful novel ⬇️

Been away to a little town with hot springs and they were having a Winter Lights Festival!
Listened to the audiobook. I am a massive Billy Connolly fan and it was a joy listening to his voice. His wife Pamela wrote a biography of Billy which goes into more depth about his childhood abuse. This one stays out of the details - its more anecdotes and memories of a childhood in Scotland. Made me think as well as laugh out loud a number of times. ⬇️

I really enjoyed the premise of this novel - a woman grieving the loss of her teenage son finds herself in a parallel universe where her son is alive, an adult and estranged from her. She spends the novel trying to find out who this alternate version of herself is and how she got to this point. Mesmerising and unsettling! I wish I had figured out more about this woman in the parallel universe and what motivated her decisions in the past ⬇️

Ali Mau is a famous journalist and TV presenter in NZ who led the reporting here on #MeToo and broke stories on abusers. (And is an Australian originally!) This is her memoir about her life, breaking into journalism, and her own childhood abuse which was repressed for many years. She also went through hell in the 90s when the press discovered her same sex relationship. Well written and thought provoking, ⬇️

I finally got around to reading this and LOVED it. Such a huge cast of characters but each one unique. I do love a book that when you change POVs you get insights that change your initial view. I have to say though one man did a thing & Lord I stomped around the house desperate to murder the guy. Fictionally murder him but still.
If you havent heard of this it‘s set just before WW2 with a very extended family gathering for the summer ⬇️

If you‘re a sci fi fan this duology is SO GOOD! It makes me think of that Keri Russell series The Diplomat but the politics are interplanetary. You have a colonising empire, a barbarian non empire station that wants to be left alone and now a new alien species that is creating havoc and looks like a civilisation ending threat. In THIS universe there just may be a possibility of peace.

There is such a good, propelling story at the heart of this book, but for me, that story became a bit overwhelmed with multiple POVs and side characters that didn‘t feel fully fleshed out. I see it was made into a tv series and it felt like it had great bones for something like that. Would be interested in trying this author again.

This is a beautifully written book about three young Japanese women - all struggling with identity, relationship with family, men (oh some terrible men), and trauma. One in the UK, one in Tokyo and one that has moved to London from Tokyo.
I‘m surprised more people havent read this! It‘s a 5 star read IMO, strong emotional pull and I cant say much more without spoiling it - except that i see @squirrelbrain liked it too!

It was this tv show in the late 70s that made me love time travel - being able to visit your grandparents as children in the early 1900s! Time travel novels for me can be escapist fantasy or dystopian sci fi - sometimes a delight, sometimes a disaster - and my tastes have moved from fantasy towards dystopia lately #timetraveltop5 @Ruthiella
1 - The Time Travellers Wife
2 - Outlander
3 - Doomsday Book
4 - Black Out/All Clear
5 - Kindred

You know I like a time travel novel? This is a little more high octane than I usually read, but a lot of fun. January is Head of Security at Paradox - a hotel for the ultra rich who can afford to vacation in a different era because Paradox has an entry into the Time Stream. January used to be one of the people policing the time stream but now she‘s becoming unstuck, seeing things from the past or future flash across her current world. So ⬇️