Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl
We could choose any back listed topic from Top Ten Tuesday so this is mine, books I have loved but never reviewed here on my blog.
The Reading List. Sara Nisha Adams.. 2022. This was a very good read, it is more character driven than plot driven but … things do happen. There is inter-generational friendship, family difficulty, loneliness, mental health problems, grief and loss, and best of all books and a library. I came to love and care about the characters and cheer them on. Set in Wembley, London. 4.25 stars. Debut book. Author has another book coming out this year and I’ll want to read it.
The Winners. Fredrik Backman. 2022. What an amazing read. So sad and yet so heart warming. I almost want to go and live in Beartown or even Hed! My heart bled for the inhabitants of these towns and my heart cheered for them. Backman really completed the end to this trilogy in such a wonderful way. I read it as slow read over about a month or so. I found just a small visit each day meant I really lived in this book, and deeply cared about all that happened. It’s tough but rewarding reading. Only read it though after the first two. 5 stars +
Someone Else’s Shoes. Jojo Moyes. 2023. A throughly entertaining read that kept me up at night reading on to find out what these women would get up to next. Two women mix up their gym bags and there is huge complications for both of them. It’s entertaining and light, yet explores values, women standing up for themselves and “boys’ club”. workplaces. I know of one author I follow that read this and it took her out of a book slump. 5 stars.
Lessons in Chemistry. Bonnie Garmus. I loved this audiobook version of Lessons in Chemistry. It was so well narrated. Loved so many of the characters, it had me chuckling out loud, a few times my heart was touched by sadness and always engaged. It highlights how difficult it was for women not so long ago, and let’s be honest it hasn’t all gone away. I loved Mads the daughter and her ability to cut through all the garbage and say it like it is. I just didn’t want to say good bye to these characters. I’ll read it at some point. This won best Debut novel on Goodreads 2022. 5 stars.
Thank You for Listening. Julia Whelan. 2022. Absolutely delightful listening. The story is great, loved the characters and the variety therein. It’s a Rom Com that I really recommend, but its more than that. It has wisdom and growth of character and things to think about. This is about a book narrator who has had a tough time and now is no longer going to narrate romance – except for one last time for a special narrator. Julia Whelan is a fabulous narrator. Oh my I want more where this comes from. Another entertaining easy listen. 5 stars.
I’m Watching You. Karen Rose. 2004 Well I dislike the crime parts, I might skip a little here and there! But it is so fast paced and the characters are so likeable. I love the Reagan family. Part of what I like about these books is the family aspect and the friendships. And often we get ongoing updates as other members of the family or friends get a book of their own. The crimes escalate and its more than one perp. Creepy deaths, maybe they deserve it but… Points to the corruptness of the system really. Romantic aspect – top notch. The book is part of a series but can be read as stand alone. 5 stars
A Mother’s Heart. Carmel Harrington 2022 A Mother’s Heart is a beautiful bittersweet yet heartwarming read. My heart ached for the ever gracious Rachel, who was an excellent mother to 5 year old Dylan and 8 year old Olivia. The three of them have been through the wringer with Lorcan’s death. And now one set of grandparents seem determined to take Rachel on and challenge her for the children’s care and loyalty. Set in Ireland and New Zealand. 5 stars
In The Middle of Hickory Lane. Heather Webber. 2022 A really delightful story, with great characters. Friendship and family are strong themes. A little bit of magical realism thrown in. I listened to the audio and it was really well done. True justice was done to the characters and the story just sprung alive. 5 stars
A Gentleman in Moscow. Amor Towles. 2016 What an unusual book. I read it over a month as a slow and steady read and it did deserve that. So I was reading to appreciate rather than gobble down. What a character the Count is. A man who takes his circumstances and chooses what he does with it. I think I will need to read it again to fully appreciate it. “A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.” 5 stars
An Island Wedding Jenny Colgan. 2022. I really loved another visit to Mure and wedding planning that goes awry but finally sorts itself out. One storyline in particular is heartbreaking – please let there be another book in this series. The way to read this book is via audiobook. The narrator is excellent, with consistent voices for all the characters. If this is the first book in this series you are reading drop it and begin with the first one, you will miss out on so much otherwise. There are five in the series, the first being The Café by the Sea. Set in Scotland on an island, full of quirky characters and heart warming and heart breaking scenarios. Every book in the series earned 5 stars from me. 5 stars
Well obviously this has a library in it. It’s not really about the library as such, but… it is an important place in that one of the characters finds refuge there. Another loves coming there for book club and the librarian is afraid her job is going because the council are threatening to close the library.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles presents us with the American Library in Paris in the months leading up to WW11 and during the war. Like all stories set in this era at times it is stark and heart breaking. The people suffer so much.
This one The Giver of Stars along with The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – I read both – gives us insight to the courageous librarians of the WPA Packhorse Library in rural Kentucky from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1940’s. The Appalachian mountains were challenging to say the least. I really enjoyed both books set here. Both very worth reading. I listened to The Giver of Stars which was excellent.
I’d forgotten this one has a librarian but it does. Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way.
Jojo Moyes. I haven’t read all her books and must pick out another one to read. I see I have a couple of her older ones on my bookshelf. My second Jojo Moyes book and I enjoyed it in spite of the serious nature of the underlying choice that Will makes. I liked how Will and Lou interacted and the difference they made in each others’ lives. I liked the chapters from three other characters’ points of view. I would have liked one or two from Wills, but I guess that might have given away too much too soon. I’ve read the three in this series.
Sarah Morgan. Another author I have read a lot of books by her. Family for Beginners – Wonderful heartwarming and uplifting family. Characters so delightful, family, friendship, trials, secrets, fears and so much more. Wisdom too! I haven’t read all her books and think I have one or two already on my Kindle. Plus of course she’ll have something new out before long.
Beth O’Leary I have read two by this author and I see another one in the shops that I will get at some point from the library. The Road Trip.
I read a book review of this on Mary’s blog 
My niece Amanda recommended this book to me as it was one of Jojo Moyes books she really liked. It is historical fiction and tells the story of a group of women travelling from Australia to England to join the men they had married from Britain during the war years. All I can say is they were very courageous and the trip was not easy. Some got telegrams mid sail saying they were not wanted and they were put off the ship to be returned home at the next port. At times I found It dragged for me, but on the whole I found it insightful and well worth the read. I am already a Jojo Moyes fan but only picked this book up because Amanda had enjoyed it.
This book was first recommended by Elizabeth at 
At first I passed this by on NetGalley but then I read Katherine’s review over at
The Book Date 