This week it just seems a good idea to sit back and say I am really thankful for all the books I could ever want to read being available to me.
Books – all kinds. Paperbacks, Hardbacks, Kindle and audiobooks
I give thanks for the variety of formats I can access and read books. In 2020 there is no end to books, truth be told sometimes I am overwhelmed by all I might read.
The oldest book I have from childhood. Re covered thanks to one of my sisters.
The latest books I’ve bought for future enjoyment.
Authors – old and new
The list grows all the time of authors I enjoy. The latest are not sewn onto a quilt but many of those engaging authors I have and do appreciate are…
Libraries.
I grew up with no local library. Now I have a library to visit and online access that allows me to request from other libraries and all I have to do is go and pick them up! I don’t necessarily read every one of them but it gives me the chance to browse through it to see if I want to read it. Thankful for hardworking Librarians too.
Bookshops – Local and Online our local and Amazon and the Book Depository
I did have one little bookshop in our village growing up, but mostly it was out of my spending range. Now we have a couple of large bookshops plus if I can’t get it here I can order online at a good variety of shops.
Bookshelves I love them
And I am thankful that I have a bookshelf that holds my books and reminds me of the happy hours spent reading.
I am reading this at present. I think it will hold up – it has a theme of all the choices unchosen in life and what would it look like if you had gone down that path. The heroine is depressed and with no felt sense of any purpose in her life decides to end it. Instead of ending up dead she lands in the in-between of a library that is going to enable her to examine the choices she didn’t make.
I read this via audiobook and I think because I read it in this format that I fell for it. It really put me on a Jane Austen path – I loved the setting – the time … just at the end of WW2 and the various characters just took hold of my heart. The narration by Richard Armitage was superb. And that’s saying something because I am not that keen on a male narrator but he nailed it. I also voted for this one in the Debut section.
I had also read Beach Read in this category but I liked The Switch a lot more. Again I think because I read it via audiobook and that aced it for me. It’s fun, interesting characters and was well narrated by two narrators. Had a great older character too.
With wonderfully real examples Anne Bogel depicts the over thinking that many of us engage in (from time to time) and gives us tips to manage this little habit that robs us of energy and time. In one place it had me chuckling out loud. Anne doesn’t spare herself.
Okay this is the one that I haven’t read but voted for anyway! I plan to read it and will most likely do via audiobook.
I have read all the Outlander books and will read another if or when it publishes. I have the first two DVD’s of the screen version and its on TV too at the moment. And… so far I haven’t been able to be a fan of the screen version. I know of many who love it on screen, I know Diana Gabaldon is closely linked to the screen version, but I just prefer the book world.
I am in process of reading Pride and Prejudice but have previously viewed a couple of on screen versions. I have really enjoyed both and would watch again. I think a screen version done really well can lead me to a book and in this case that’s how it worked.
Virgin River series is another set of books I’ve enjoyed and followed through as they were written. I’ve watched most of Season 1 of the onscreen version but fell by the wayside. I know Season 2 is due out soon. I may give it a go, just to see.
This is a middle grade book I read to my class when I was teaching and we all loved it. Well I gave it five stars anyway! So when I heard there was a movie out for it I wanted to see it. But I never got to the movie theatre for it. However one day it was on TV and I was there for sure. I thought it was done well, held to the spirit and theme of the book and I’d watch it again and re-read the book – I did leave my copy behind in the classroom when I left but can always get another!
Lastly one book I read a while back that I don’t remember that well, set around WW2 and in letter form. I didn’t fall for it as much as many other readers have, but when the movie was on TV I thought I’ll give this a go. I haven’t yet viewed it but have it recorded. I am anticipating that it will be good and will help me visualise how this all worked out and I suspect and hope it may lead me to re read the book.
In Beach Read we have January – a romance author who just can’t get the deadline book written. She has lost her father in the last year and has had another nasty shock as well and she really isn’t dealing. She goes to the beach house her father has left her, and finds out her neighbour is Gus, a literary fiction writer and they went to writing college together. And so the tango begins. Emily Henry will eventually get January to the place where she can write, but how she does that… well I can’t give that away. I don’t think this book is a beach read, or an out and out romance, more a mash up of sorts!
Another book I’ve just recently read also has a romance author struggling to write. Kaylee has just recently experienced a loss and takes off to Virgin River to write in a quiet spot where she can hopefully write. Will Virgin River be able to work that kind of magic for her?
Another by Robyn Carr, this time a stand alone from quite awhile back -1999. One of my keepers. This has just not one author in the book but a group of friends who are authors and all struggling in one way or another, but especially over the death of a friend. I feel a reread coming along.
I really enjoyed this book, it was excellent. Again it is about four writers. One of them has her life fall apart and the other three come to her rescue. To help her they co author her book that must be written to meet a deadline. Of course no one else knows that. Each chapter starts with a wonderful little quote that are gems in themselves. It is extremely well written and once started fully engages the reader. As I was reading I found plenty to enjoy and ponder on. Another keeper on my bookshelf from 2009 and I need a reread of this one too.
Firstly its made me want to actually read the first Pride and Prejudice so I have ordered the book – the annotated version. I thought while I was buying it I’d get the notes that might help me get a feel for and better appreciation for those times. If the notes become too much I’ll just pick and choose! We’ll see how I get on.
In the meantime I watched this version of the movie on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just the scenery alone would make me enjoy it, but I feel I got a handle on the characters, and I could see how the audiobook Unmarriageable that I am listening to is so close a retelling as you’d most likely get. With a Pakistan flavour though!
Well of course I wanted to watch this one too, but couldn’t find a place I could stream it from here in NZ. So I ordered the DVD’s from a local online store. My DVD player isn’t the best but hopefully it will manage it. I think I have seen this years ago on TV but I ask – who wouldn’t want to watch it again!
I want to watch or actually re watch this, as I have seen it before on TV. However now I want to see it again as I freshen up my memory. Also I really like Keri Russell as an actress. I can stream this one I think from Apple TV and probably a few other places. Oh and I see there is a book called Austenland by Shannon Hale might be interesting, but I’ll watch the movie version first.
And while I am falling down the rabbit hole of Pride and Prejudice I thought I’d add this book into my reading, a modern retelling that has given many of the readers I follow happy reading. Plus I have been wanting to try a Curtis Sittenfeld book.
This is that 2020 debut novel. It is a very insightful novel about mother/daughter relationships, friendships and really finding out who you really are, and fighting that people pleaser syndrome. It’s told in the context of the Indian culture, but really has quite universal application. That said, I really liked the look into the culture. Yes will want to read this author again if she writes another.
I have mentioned Ten Thousand Doors of January before – its sort of fantasy, imaginative, magic and coming of age story. Yes I do want to read this author again and her next book comes out in about a month. I’ll be reading it.
This one has Canadian/Muslim/Indian culture vibes and is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I’ve mentioned it before but this time just noting its a debut novel that published 2019. No sign of another book as yet, but I’d read it if she did write another, in the meantime this is worthy of a reread at some point.
Evvie Drake Starts Over was another 2019 debut novel I really liked listening to the audiobook version last year. I can’t see any sign of another novel but I’ll check again because I’d certainly read another by Linda Holmes. The characters and situation was well explored.
Finally an author’s debut novel that is still sitting on my TBR shelf – A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza that explores an American Indian Muslim family. This one published in 2018. I need to get onto it this year.
Spring Fever by Mary Kay Andrews was a great listen. Very entertaining and Kathleen McInerney made it even more so. I loved her voices for the characters, especially Sophie.
When a favorite customer on his delivery route needs a favor, Tanner Richards agrees to help without a second thought. The last thing he expects is to face off against the man’s spitfire granddaughter. I enjoyed this one but have forgotten it, I always think I can go back and read such books and enjoy them all over again!
And what is more appropriate. Because that’s what we are getting now, just the very first kiss of Spring. This is #14 in Emily March’s Eternity Springs series. 
On the eve of the London Season, Jane Chance is about to make her entrance into high society. And after a childhood riddled with poverty and hardship, Jane intends to make a good, safe, sensible marriage. All goes according to plan until a dark, dangerous vagabond helps her rescue a dog. This is #3 in the Chance sisters series by Anne Gracie. I really enjoy her historical romance books.
This one is published October 29th, although I do have a NetGalley review copy, so all set there. Women’s Fiction by an Australian author I tend to auto-read.
And lastly an author I haven’t read for quite awhile but I do enjoy some of her historical fiction so I am putting this on the list and it does come out earlier than the others on September 1st. Set in 1853 in Oregon and has to do with women’s rights and suffrage. A fictionalised story of a real life person Abigail Scott Dunniway. It is a possible.