This Week I....

I'm reading....

If you follow Sheila at Book Journey you would now that each year she hosts an event called First Book of the Year, where she asks you to take a picture of yourself with the book that you are planning to read as the first book of each year. I don't necessarily plan that far in advance and so mine needs to be a retrospective picture, but I thought I would share it here. My first book that I finished this year is Someone I Used to Know by Paige Toon. It was a really good book to start the year with.

Today, I also finished The Girl from Paris by Ella Carey which I will be posting a review of tomorrow  as part of a blog tour.

I have also read one chapter of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison so expect to hear more about that next week.

I'm watching...

I've had the last week off and we have managed to watch quite a lot of  TV during that time and it has been quite varied from Sing! to Death to 2021,

We started watching Book of Bobba Fett, the latest Star Wars spin off and started rewatching Friday Night Dinners which is one of our favourites. We also finished watching season 2 of The Witcher which we really enjoyed. My husband got a soundbar for Christmas so we put that on and then turn it up and listen to Henry Cavill booming through the room!

I also started a New Zealand series called Under the Vines, which looks like a bit of fun. I think I will continue it at some point.

My favourite thing I watched this week was an Australian series called Love Me! It is about a family from Melbourne who we observe as they experience love in the context of a major event in their lives. It is adapted from a Swedish series. I really, really enjoyed it, and loved the way it showed this lovely city that we live in!

Life

All of the visitors who were here have now gone back home and I am back to work tomorrow. These last ten days have been a good mix of rest, some because it was required, some because it was was so darn hot. There was also social events, activities. I am not quite sure I am ready to go back to work, but we do have a plan for another week off in the next month or so. We'll see.

Our New Years's Eve was very 2021. We had plans to go to my sisters for dinner and a swim (it was very very hot here on the day), but it was cancelled at the last minute because she was identified as a close contact and so had to isolate. Instead, we got takeaway and started watching Friday Night Dinners from the beginning. We were in bed at 10.30.

We went to the museum to see an exhibition on Treasures of the Natural World which was very interesting. Today, we wandered around the Botanical Gardens seeing an augmented reality art exhibition called Seeing the Invisible. It was a much cooler today so it was lovely to wander around the gardens looking for the installations, which aren't really there! It was very cool.

Reading challenges

I mentioned last week that I am going to be doing the Aussie Author Challenge and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge (which you can still sign up for here) but I am also going to be doing the WWII challenge hosted by Becky (details here)

The other challenge I am going to participate in is the Twelve Challenge. The idea is that you Read 12 books recommended by 12 friends in 12 months. These are the books that I have so far

1. Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman (Karen)

2. The Carrier and the Swift by Minette Walters (Bree)

3. The Painted Man by Peter V Brent (my husband)

4. The Thicket by Joe R Lansdale (BFR)

5. Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna (Kelly)

6. Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Leslie)

7. Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce (Bookgazing)

8. Beginners Luck by Kate Clayborne

9. Still Life by Sara Winman (Anita)

10. Modern Marriage by Filip Vukasin (Lisa)

11.

12.

I am sure that I will fill the last two places in due course.

Festive treats...

The season for festive treats is nearly over. This week I watched Messy Christmas which was an Italian movie. The premise was that there have been no babies born in a small Italian village for years and now they need a new baby for the live nativity. They approach the local Muslim community to see if they can use one of their children. 

Here are the festive treats I have read, listened and watched so far this year:

1. Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop by Rebecca Raisin (book)

2. The Happiest Season 

3. The Christmas Secret by Karen Swan (book)

4. Love Harder 

5. A Castle for Christmas

6. Hawkeye

7.  Christmas Train - Paul Kelly (music)

8. Christmas with my Father

9. Wintertime Dreams: A Parisian Christmas- Tatiana Eva-Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band (music)

10. Single all the Way

11. Christmas in Rome

12. Christmas in Paris

13. The Hogfather (Audiobook)

14. Christmas on the Farm

14. Messy Christmas

Posts from the last two weeks

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books of 2021

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: January 

Weekend Cooking: I've Been Good!

Six Degrees: Rules of Civility to Venetia

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date