Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Top Ten Books I’m Looking Forward To For The First Half Of 2017. This is week is quite easy for me, as I only buy paperbacks as a rule, mainly because of the price, and also because they look out of place on my bookshelf, so there’s been lots of hardback releases in the latter half of 2016, that I’m desperately waiting for.
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016. I read more books in 2016 than I ever have before, and most of them were new authors, so here’s my ten favourites!
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Ten Books I’ve Added To My To-Be-Read List Lately. I forever adding things to my TBR, often with no immediate intention of actually reading them, so here’s ten that I actually do intend to read in 2017, I just haven’t bought copies yet. I’ll probably end up pretty much duplicating this post in December for my 2017 TBR post.
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Top Ten Books To Read If Your Book Club Likes _______________. I’ve decided to go for Historical Fiction, as I’ve done a top ten thrillers list recently.
My favourite book of all time. It’s a very marmite type book, so I imagine it would provoke some interesting discussion in a book club setting. The narrative is very unusual, as is the main premise of the story really. In my opinion, it’s a true masterpiece of writing.
Good for book clubs that enjoy a good romance. This trilogy is so, so good, with characters that you will fall head over heels in love with. The setting of the first book is the Siege of Leningrad, during World War Two, and it is unbelievable harrowing.
Perhaps these are a little long for a book club, being over 1000 pages each, but I’d recommend it to those who have plenty of time! The first two are brilliant tellings of 20th Century history, from the start of World War One, through to the end of World War Two. The third one is set during the Cold War, and is no where near as good as the first two, so probably best to be avoided.
Not strictly historical fiction, but it is set in 1920s Australia, so it does slightly fit into this genre. I can imagine this providing plenty of book club debate as it has the question of right and wrong at its core. Highly recommended.
The parallel stories of a blind French girl and a German boy during World War Two. Really beautiful imagery throughout. (My review here)
A stunning account of a black woman in 1960s Southern America.
Another ‘Set in World War Two France’ book, but a completely different spin to anything I’ve read on that topic before.
I’m sure many people will have already read this, or at least seen the film. There’s something so brilliant about the way it’s written that I instantly felt the need to discuss it afterwards. I’m sure many others felt the same.
The story of two brothers, one adopted, during the rise of Nazism in Berlin. One is discovered to be from Arayan parentage, while the other is from Jewish. It is partially based on Ben Elton’s own family.
Not really historical fiction, but it is set in the 1970s, so it’s not entirely modern either. It’s a very deep and really quite disturbing book, yet so beautifully written. I loved it, although I know many people found it a bit much. I’m sure a book club would enjoy discussing it regardless. (My review here)
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Halloween Freebie, so I’m going to do Top Ten Books to Read if You Don’t Like Being Scared! Although I like the idea of halloween, I hate anything scary. i never watch horror films, I never read horror books, I just don’t get why people enjoy being scared. So here’s ten books so help you escape all the scariness!
That’s the only seven I can think of that don’t actually have any element of fear in them. I suppose Life of Pi is pushing it a bit, he is on a boat with a tiger. But anyway, please enjoy these nice reads, and be happy this Halloween!
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Ten Characters I’d Name A Child/Dog/Cat/Car/Etc. After. I’m not a massive lover of characters as such. I rarely have favourite characters, or characters I fall in love with. I know I’m going to struggle to come up with ten! Most of these aren’t characters I like, simply names. Continue reading
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is All About Books You Read Because of Recommendation. Most of the books I read are on recommendation. I like to know that someone else has enjoyed it before giving it a go myself, so I take recommendations from my friends, family and other bloggers.
The most recent recommendation I read was from Juliet @ Not Capulet, who kindly leant me her copy of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I’m not a lover of fantasy at all, so I was a bit wary, but she assured me I’d love it, and as it was only around 200 pages long, what did I have to lose? To my surprise, this turned out to be one of the best, if not THE best, books I’ve read this year. You can read my glowing review here.
Again, this was on the recommendation of Juliet @ Not Capulet, who leant me the book for me never to return it (sorry!). I wasn’t sure this was going to be my sort of thing at all. I love historical fiction, but I normally prefer it 20-30 years earlier than the 1960s. I absolutely adored it. The story was so moving and brilliantly written, that I couldn’t put it down. 
This was on recommendation from my mum, right in the middle of my deep historical fiction phase of 2013! I ended up loving it and it’s two sequels so much that I based my final year dissertation on it. Well, in the period and the Siege of Leningrad, rather than Tatiana and Alexander themselves!
Another recommendation from my mum, this was the start of my love of historical fiction. The first book in the trilogy is really great, entwining historical events with brilliant characters across the globe, during World War One. The second one, Winter of the World (set around World War Two) is also very good, but the final one, Edge of Eternity (Set around the Cold War), really fell flat. It turned into a encyclopaedia with really dull characters.
Another mum recommendation. I wasn’t sure what to make of this, she just assured me it was brilliant and that I’d cry ugly tears. She was right. This is such a beautiful story, although I know the reviews on Goodreads are quite mixed. I’m looking forward to the film coming out later this year.
A mixture between my mum and Juliet @ Not Capulet. My mum had told me to read it ages ago, but couldn’t find her copy of the book, so when Juliet’s mum told her to read it, I asked if I could borrow it after her. This is such a good book; I love that it’s not your typical chic-lit, and it deals with some pretty deep and controversial issues. (My review here)
My sister recommended this to me when I wanted something short and quick to read on holiday. I’d heard about the Emma Watson film so was quite excited to read it. While not my favourite book ever, there is something so special and precious about it, that will stay with me forever. I love the realness of the characters.
Another sister recommendation for the same holiday. This was just as the hype was reaching its peak, so I felt I should read it. My sister said she loved it, so I assumed I would too. I was so wrong. I have never despised a book as much as I despise this one. I hate everything about it, the unrealistic and quirky characters, the use of illness as a novelty, the disgusting disrespectfulness of that Anne Frank House kiss. I hate it.
I actually also read this on the same holiday, but this time by my mum’s recommendation. I’ve just been on a trip to Berlin, which made me think a lot about this book. It’s the semi-true story of two brothers, one of them adopted, during the rise of Nazism in Berlin. Despite being raised together from birth, one is from Arayan blood, the other from Jewish. It’s based on Ben Elton’s own family, and is really interesting and moving.
This was recommended to me by my English teacher at school. It was in the middle of our A Levels when the whole class was getting a bit down about the endless Jane Austen. She said that if we wanted something a bit more modern and easy to leisure read, this was the best thing out there at the moment. Who was I to argue with that? She was right by the way, I loved the whole trilogy!
There’s ten. Make sure you leave links to your TTT in the comments, so I can read them!
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is All About the Villains. Thinking about it, although I read a lot of thrillers and a lot of quite dark books, very few of them actually have a villain as such, or not one that I admire in any way. Maybe I’m just not reading the right kind of thrillers! Continue reading
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is Books on my Fall TBR List. As I’ve just started back at uni, I won’t have as much time to read, so it’ll probably take me the rest of the year to get through this, but here you go anyway.
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this through NetGalley, so it’s top of my list. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, so I’m really looking forward to getting started. I’ve read quite a few ‘missing’ books recently, some good and some bad, so hopefully this is on the good side.
The Reader on the 6:27 by Jean-Paul DidierlaurentQuite a few people have recommended this to me, so I finally bought myself a copy. I’m not sure when I’ll read it, probably as a filler when I’m getting bored of thrillers, but I am looking forward to it.
This has been on my TBR for so long. I received all three C. L. Taylor thrillers as a set for my birthday and I still have this one left. The other two were very quick reads, so I’ll probably read this when I’m busy and need an easy-read break from studying.
ofi OksanenThis has been on my TBR for even longer. I’ve been in a very long historical fiction lull, but I’m reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah at the moment and loving it, so hopefully my brain is back into historical mode!
I bought this on recommendation of the Waterstones shop assistant. After I got it home I sort of regretted my decision, do to the very mixed review on Goodreads, so I’ve been putting it off a bit. I will get round to it though. My main goal for the rest of the year is to finish all the books I have physical copies of, so I’ll get this in somewhere.
The Snow Child by Eowyn IveyI borrowed a copy of this from my bestie Juliet (Not Capulet) and haven’t got round to it yet. She had mixed feelings about it so I think that’s what’s putting me off, but again, it will get read this year!
Missing, Presumed by Susie SteinerThis is another that I bought on a whim in Waterstones after seeing it floating around for a while. It was only when I got home that I realised again the review on Goodreads aren’t that great. Hopefully I’ll be in the few that did enjoy it!
ll Great Things by Jodi PicoultThis is another ARC that I’ve had sitting on my Kobo for a while. I’ve never read any Jodi Picoult, but I’ve always heard good things, and my mum has read most of her books. I’ve heard this book is back to her best, so I’m looking forward to giving it a go.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel ShriverI’ve started this before and it’s been sat on my Currently Reading shelf on Goodreads since then. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it then, so I put it to one side. It’s one that needs to be read slowly, a bit at a time, so I think it’ll be good when I don’t have much time to read over the next few months. I’ll be able to dip in an out of it and not worry how long it’s taking me to get through.
Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is All About Audio. I don’t listen to audio books at all. Whenever I’ve tried, I just get distracted by other things, or end up falling asleep and missing several chapters. Instead I’ve decided to do a list of my Top Ten Pieces of Classical Music in honour of my Masters in Musicology that I started yesterday. I’ve spent the last year just listening to popular music, and I now really need to focus back on classical, so hopefully this will inspire me, and give you all some lovely music to listen to.
Anyone who know me, knows that Shostakovich is the absolute love of my life, so here he is at the top of the list. This whole piano concerto is great, but if you don’t have much time, I’d recommend just listening to the second movement (at 6:30 in the recording below). You will never have heard anything as beautiful, I promise.
There’s nothing so quintessentially English as Vaughan Williams (ok, maybe Elgar!), and this, in my opinion, is one of his finest. I’ll probably include a few more of his works in this list because his music is just so stunning.
Another wonderful English piece. This was included in this year’s Last Night of the Proms and I adore it. Butterworth was killed in the Somme before he had the chance to write more stunning pieces like this one. I originally discovered this when I played a flute choir arrangement at university. (Please ignore the cheesy video!)
I spent a lot of my university life singing Michael Head. My favourite is his Elizabeth’s Song, but it’s a bit obscure and I can’t find recording, so have this instead.
While we’re on the subject of English Song, Vaughan Williams’ Silent Noon is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of singing. Of course, I sang it in a higher key than this recording, as I’m not a man!
Inspired by the treatment of Jews by the Nazis in the late 1930s, this oratorio is truly haunting, thought-provoking and really rather unique.
This is my favourite of Shostakovich’s 15 symphonies, as I imagine it is for most people. Again, if you’ve only got time to listen to a bit of it, I’d recommend the really powerful second movement (23:25 in this recording).
I think a lot of people would say The Lark Ascending was their favourite Vaughan Williams, but I think this is better. Please take 20 minutes out of your day to turn the volume right up and enjoy this absolutely incredible recording by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Gloucester Cathedral.
Judging from this list, you’d think I only listen to 20th Century British composers and Shostakovich…and you’d be right. So to add a bit of variety, I’ll include my favourite Beethoven symphony.
Although 20th Century, Faure is French so still some slight variety here! The whole requiem is beautiful, but I particularly love the In Paradisium (32:16).
So there’s ten. I hope you all enjoy this list as much as I do. I’m now blasting the Tallis Fantasia and trying not to cry happy tears. I’ll be back to books next week!
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