Tag: memes

#TopTenTuesday Books I Eagerly Anticipated #TuesdayBookBlog

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Top Ten Tuesday

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 Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I’ve Read/Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday, a topic suggested by Ellie at Curiosity Killed the Bookworm. It’s a great idea for a topic and I probably have read books or added titles to my wishlist as a result of seeing them mentioned by participants in Top Ten Tuesday but I’d struggle to remember any specific examples. Instead I’ve looked back at one of my previous Top Ten Tuesday posts – Most Anticipated Reads Releasing July to December 2022 – to see how many of the books I said I was itching to read I actually did. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

Katastrophe by Graham Hurley – Read & reviewed
That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn – Read & reviewed
The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh – Read & reviewed
The Night Ship by Jess Kidd – Read & reviewed
The Iron Way by Tim Leach – Read & reviewed
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris – Still sitting on my bookshelf 😦
Essex Dogs by Dan Jones – Read & reviewed
All The Broken Places by John Boyne – Read & reviewed
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson – Still sitting on my bookshelf 😦
Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce – Not only unread but I don’t even own a copy! 😦

So that’s seven books read of the ten I said I wanted to read. What did we learn? I like lists and I like to stick to them…

#6Degrees of Separation From Romantic Comedy to The ABC Murders

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It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

Romantic ComedyThis month’s starting book is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld which, as usual, is a book I haven’t read.

Curtis Sittenfeld is also the author of American Wife, a fictional autobiography of the wife of a US President, reputedly based on the life of Laura Bush. Therefore my first link is to a novel about another US president. Ike and Kay by James MacManus is a fictionalized account of the real life relationship between General Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, a young woman assigned to be his driver during a visit to London in 1942.

Also set in 1942 is The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley which depicts the disastrous Allied raid on Dieppe in August of that year, partly through the eyes of a young Canadian journalist.

Staying with WW2 and journalism, in Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce, Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming ‘a Lady War Correspondent’ but ends up answering letters sent to newspaper advice columnist Mrs Henrietta Bird.

Letters also feature in The Letter Reader by Jan Casey in which Connie Allinson, wanting ‘to do her bit’ for the war effort, joins the WRNS and is given the role of letter censor, tasked with reading and, if necessary, altering correspondence to ensure no sensitive information reaches the enemy.

In Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, estranged sisters, Clara and Madeleine Sommers, agree to fulfill their grandmother’s last wish by travelling across Europe to deliver three letters in which she will say goodbye to people she hasn’t seen for forty years.

If you want to write a letter you need to know your alphabet so the final link in my chain is The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie in which a serial killer seems to be targeting victims in alphabetical order.

#6Degrees of Separation August

My chain started with romance and ended in murder. Where did your chain take you?