Barbara O’Neal – The Book Date

Month in Review

April Reading Round up

May 2, 2024 Kathryn

Total books read this month: 17

Book Ratings

Worst Wingman Ever. Own audio -short story. 4.25 stars.
Legends and Lattes. Library book. 4 .25 stars
The Beautiful Mystery Own print book. 5 stars.
The Underground Library. Library book. 4.25 stars
Just for the Summer. Own audiobook. 5 stars.
Secrets of Riverside. Review book. 3 stars.
The Wanderer. Audiobook. 5 stars. (Reread)
What Happened to Nina? Review book. 3.75 stars
Grown Ups. Own print book. 4 stars.
Love, Just In. Library book. 3.75 stars
The Radio Hour. Review book. 4 stars
The Library of Borrowed Hearts. Review audiobook. 4.25 stars
The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue. Review book. 3 stars.
The Rivertown Vet. Library book. 4.5 stars.
The Grazier’s Son. Library book 4.5 stars
Death at a Scottish Wedding. Own kIndle book. 4 stars.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Own print book. 4 stars.

Settings:

USA 6
Canada 1
England 1
Fantasy world 2
Australia 5
Ireland 1
Scotland 1

New to me authors:

8 new to me authors. And probably a first for these month in reviews that I’d read all of these authors again – with different books of course!

Travis Baldree. *
Natalie Murray*
Lucy Gilmore*
Dervla McTiernan*
Marian Keyes *
Jennifer Scoullar*
Cathryn Hein*
Jessica Townsend*

*Authors I’d read again.

Top Books for April

Looking forward to publishing in May

I’ll be listening to these.

2024 Reading Goals check

24 in 24 books that I own. (on a list made in January). No additions this month. Still 12/24

Emilie Richard Reader Challenge. April. Book that makes you laugh. Worst Wingman Ever. Abby Jimenez. And Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. Well a couple of LOL moments.

Rachael John’s Book Club selection for April. Love, Just In. Natalie Murray

Slow Reading book – 24 minutes at least a day. Grown Ups. Marion Keyes Completed. Now reading a middle grade book. Not a big book, but one way to fit it into my reading. Finished The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Going to read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld next as my slow and steady.

Genre Check

Cozy Fantasy 2
Contemporary Romance 8
Crime/Mystery 3
Historical Fiction 2
Contemporary Fiction 2

Buy 2 – 4 books per month

Books bought in April

Linking up with Nicole from FeedYourFiction Addiction.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 Kathryn

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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Well another week goes by. It was a good reading week with some sunshine and walks (short!) thrown in. I didn’t do that much really, just all the usual daily things. And as I just heard of someone very sick I can definitely count the ordinary and usual as a blessing.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

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Listening to

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I finished my slow and steady read book cover

So I have opted to read as a slow and steady book a middle grade book.

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Up next:

Not sure maybe one of these just collected from the library on Sunday.

Last Week’s Posts

What Happened to Dervla McTiernan

The Wild Lavender Bookshop Jodi Thomas

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Top Ten Tuesday

Bookish Wishes. Top Ten Tuesday

December 19, 2023 Kathryn

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Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl.

These are books I’d like to read, either they are the next in a series or ones that published this year and I missed out on reading. There are a few backlist ones as well.

And another five

And now of course that I have listed these, I’ll be wanting to read them. Now to let Santa know! Is it too late to write to the North Pole?

Month in Review

September Reading Wrap

October 2, 2021October 3, 2021 Kathryn

Total books read this month:12

New to me authors:

Ali McNamara
Lucy Parker
Carol J. Perry

Top Book for September

Second one in the series. I am hooked.

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Book that Most Surprised me.

I have had this book sitting on my shelf for awhile now, and kept putting it off because well when a husband and wife are really happy and then she gets terminally ill. Not really calling to me. Yet once I was reading it I was sucked in, in spite of its more serious subject. Still so well written and the characters were great.

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Book that I least liked.

It was a second chance romance, but well, it just didn’t hit the mark with me.

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Looking forward to reading in October

Review of Reading Goal for September

My main goal was to read up my Netgalley review books and catch up on them. I didn’t have that many but I had fallen behind. I caught up and so now I can relax a bit about them. Only 4 I think in the queue.

Libby App at the library. Our library has now switched to this app and it is a lot friendlier. I tried it out and listened to Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer. Not her best book but still good enough.

I cut back my Audible Credits to one a month and I will see how that goes. I still have 8 in hand and some books not listened to.

Main Reading Goal for October

Read some of the more recently acquired books sitting on my print TBR shelf. So a sort of 2:1 ratio. Two print books from my TBR or the library and then one Kindle, be that mine or Netgalley.

Linking up with Nicole from FeedYourFiction Addiction.

Review

Write My Name Across the Sky. Barbara O’Neal

September 8, 2021 Kathryn

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Publisher: Lake Union
Date: 10th August 2021
Source: Publisher via Netgalley

Life’s beautiful for seventysomething influencer Gloria Rose, in her Upper West Side loft with rooftop garden and scores of Instagram followers—until she gets word that her old flame has been arrested for art theft and forgery, and, knowing her own involvement in his misdeeds decades earlier, decides to flee. But that plan is complicated when the nieces she raised are thrown into crises of their own.

Willow, overshadowed by her notorious singer-songwriter mother, has come home to lick her wounds on the heels of a failed album and yet another disastrous relationship. Sam, prickly and fiercely independent, is on the verge of losing not only her beloved video game company but the man she loves, thanks to her inability to keep her always-simmering anger in check.

With the FBI closing in, Willow’s career in shambles, and Sam’s tribulations reaching a peak, each of the three woman will have to reckon with and reconcile their interwoven traumas, past loves, and the looming consequences that could either destroy their futures or bring them closer than ever.

Write My Name Across the Sky is the story of two sisters, who have had a rather challenging upbringing. Both of them are at tough points in their lives now.

Sam is a creator of video games, but her company is failing and she has fallen out with her best friend Asher. She seems to be a little bit of a loner and really when it comes to some people in her life, has a very sharp tongue that wounds the chosen recipient.

Willow is a talented musician but her life is down in the doldrums as well. She is a gentle, caring person and I liked her.

Gloria their aunt has looked out for the two and lives in the apartment their mother bought from her days of music fame. She loved being a world traveller but some involvement in an art scam years back seems to be catching up with her.

It took me a little while to get engaged with their lives but very soon I was very involved and wanting to know what would happen to them. And I loved that New York apartment. At the end I think prickly Sam turned into someone I was cheering on.

A warm hearted story of sisters and their aunt, the past catching up with each and a new and better future possible. I really liked the choice of facing up to past mistakes and moving on.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021 Kathryn

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Hope you are all doing okay in this ever changing world. I am hoping for a going down of levels of lockdown announcement today for my area. Although that means tidying up the house a bit as it allows for us to intermingle more.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

Battle Royal And listening to

Checked Out for Murder

Up next:

From the recent addition to my bookshelf shelf!

Last Week’s Posts

August Reading Wrap Up

At Times Something Comes Last

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#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Am I Reading

August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 Kathryn

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Greetings to you all. Hope you are keeping safe. Thinking about those facing a hurricane, or fires or Delta. I always like visiting so many of your posts and finding out how you are all doing in your place in the world.

We are still in lockdown although my area will lessen a little, with those who work in construction can go back to work safely on Wednesday and people can get takeaways in non contact way. However Auckland where the big outbreak is, they don’t have any of that.

After my first week in lockdown and a bit of moping, I’ve now got myself into a rhythm and am keeping myself occupied happily.

What I read last week:

What I am reading now:

Ever wanted to inherit a castle!!!

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And listening through and enjoying The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Up next:

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Last Week’s Posts

Book Family Complications

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Book Connections

Garden Books.

February 26, 2021February 26, 2021 Kathryn

I am not a gardener although there are plenty in my family who are and my forebears were gardeners too. Most of my garden is very dry at present, and I do have a small veggie garden. Love picking from that.

There have been quite a few books I’ve read that have almost at centre stage – a garden.

book cover The Unfinished Garden is the author’s debut novel and the only one I hadn’t read of hers until now. Tilly the main woman character is into gardens and garden and loves it. Both in North Carolina where she has a business and in her home in England where she spends some time as well. Then there is James who wants Tilly’s help with a garden for his place. He has OCD and can’t put his hands near the earth. This book I think is titled The Unfinished Garden because a garden is never finished. How true! Barbara Claypole White always presents a very compassionate stance towards her characters with mental illness and I always love her knowledge and the help she provides her readers to take these people into their hearts.

book cover A Home Like Ours also has a special Australian garden at its centre. It’s very important and brings a community together. My review for this one will be up soon. It was a 5 star read for me.

book cover This was an engrossing tale, told from a few different viewpoints and times. The story and mystery unfold – the reader has enough clues to see what has happened before the characters. Its both sad and and uplifting. What a complicated family! It involves a kind of secret garden.

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The Garden of Happy Endings involves sisters and a community garden in a poor part of town. I loved this story, so thoughtful and enjoyable. Loved the women and each of their stories. Their search and exploration of what makes them happy was important. I especially appreciated Elsa’s journey – her spiritual one and her search for her partner in life. Felt very real and authentic.

book cover The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman. Witty and insightful. Wonderful group of characters. Two sisters, well two sets of sisters who made me laugh and at times sad. A group of people who come together around a gardening project and form what I think will be lasting friendships. Tons of good hints about gardening.

There is another book I’ll be wanting to read… The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly which comes well recommended.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This September?

September 2, 2019September 2, 2019 Kathryn

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Well August has ended, on Saturday I had a wonderful “bookish moment” when my niece and children and sister and brother in law turned up to sing happy birthday as the children had been sick and had missed my birthday. We had a lovely morning and I loved their birthday wishes singing of course. I was also given this gorgeous painting by my niece Sonia (artist) of Max (5) and Scarlett (4) sharing a book. It will be treasured evermore.

Two children reading

What I read last week:

I enjoyed When We Believed in Mermaids, if you like stories about sisters, you’ll like it. Rival’s Break review will post this coming week. The Shell Seekers was a delight on audio.

What I am reading now:

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And I’ve started to listen to Connections in Death. #48 in the series.

Up next:

Not sure! Either a library book or one from my TBR shelf.

Last Week’s Posts

Connect Five Books Link for August – October

August Month in Review

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#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

August 26, 2019August 26, 2019 Kathryn

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Well some days of rain, and one or two sunshiny days. Those days took me outside to do a bit of weeding and admire the freesias beginning to flower. Signs of Spring! The winter veggie garden needs digging in, in preparation for potatoes. If all goes well I’ll have some help with that. So plenty to keep me occupied when I am not reading! Makes me sound like a gardener, but I am not really, just a basic one!

What I read last week:

Life and Other Inconveniences was a good read. A Thread of Truth was okay but a little wordy but I hung in because of the quilting link and Waiting for Tom Hanks just really wasn’t my kind of read. I think I am not a Rom Com reader!

What I am reading now:

I like Barbara O’Neal’s books and she has set this one in New Zealand, so a little bit of extra fun seeing what she has highlighted.

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I have almost finished listening to The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, has been a bit of a mission but enjoyable. Listening is always a great way to do a reread, and really I had totally forgotten the story.