Category: Top Ten Tuesday

#TopTenTuesday Books With Inspiring Young Characters

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books for My Younger Self. Rather than stick strictly to the topic, my list contains books (both fiction and nonfiction) that feature young people who do remarkable things. Something to educate and inspire readers of all ages.

The Boy With Blue Trousers by Carol Jones – in the goldfields of 19th-century Australia, two very different girls try to escape their past

The Girl from Vichy by Andie Newton – a young woman joins the French Resistance

The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes – five children of a Jewish family must survive the loss of their home and separation from their parents when Germany invades France in WW2

The Wanderers by Tim Pears – a young boy travels alone through the West Country

The Bird in the Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor – a group of schoolchildren and their teachers endure the Japanese occupation of China

Summerland by Lucy Adlington – a young refugee has to make a life in a new country

Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton – a young girl evacuated from her home in Berlin during WW2 becomes involved in documenting the identities of the survivors of a wartime atrocity

The Hidden Village by Imogen Matthews – young Jewish children are forced to take refuge in a village hidden deep within a Belgian forest during WW2

Song by Michelle Jana Chan – a boy leaves behind his impoverished family in China to travel to Guyana in the hope of making his fortune

Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers – a girl from the slums of Kampala becomes a chess champion

#TopTenTuesday Food, Glorious (And Not So Glorious) Food

whatcathyreadnext15 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday newTop Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books That Make Me Hungry. I’m not sure all the food mentioned in the books in my list whet my appetite but all the books certainly feature food in one form or another. Links from the titles will take you to my review.

20200717_093842-1Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees – in which Edith Graham, teacher turned spy, sends coded messages from post-war Berlin hidden in recipes

Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King – Roman gourmet, Marcus Gavius Apicius, is obsessed with sampling fine meals from exotic places

A Ration Book Christmas by Jean Fullerton – with not always enticing alternative versions of recipes due to wartime rationing

Summerland by Lucy Adlington – in which refugee, Brigitta, experiences for the first time some British ‘delicacies’ and her dictionary proves unequal to the task of translating Toad in the Hole into German

A Clean Canvas by Elizabeth Mundy – in which Hungarian cleaner, Lena, attempts her mother’s recipe for goulash

The Olive Garden Choir by Leah Fleming – “secrets, love and redemption under the Greek sun” and recipes for some of the mouth-watering traditional dishes served at the local taverna

An Edwardian Christmas by John S. Goodall – a feast is prepared for the festive luncheon (see below)

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – in which a pork pie is stolen

V For Victory by Lissa Evans – in WW2 London even a tin of corned beef or peaches counts as a treat

The Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the theft of an item destined to be served for Christmas dinner