Top Ten Tuesdays: 10 Authors I am Looking Forward to Meeting at the Rachael Johns Book Club Retreat this weekend

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wish. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address [here’s how to do it on Amazon] or include the email address associated with your ereader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!)

I am always a bit uncomfortable with this prompt, so I am changing the theme to suit me, which I do pretty regularly to be fair. This coming weekend I am heading down to Geelong, a regional city just over an hour away from where I live, and I will be attending the 2027 Racheal Johns Book Club Reader Retreat. I have been to all four of these and they are such a good weekend. There are usually around 100 readers and 20 guest authors. So here are books by 10 of the authors I am looking forward to meeting or seeing again this weekend.

The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns - Of course I had to have Rachael Johns on the list.

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - Anthea is the co-host of the retreat so I had to have her on the list as well. I really liked The War Nurses by this author. We started hearing about this book at the last retreat and it sounds great. It is one of the book club choices for the weekend!

A Woman's Voice by Alli Sinclair - Last year I went to hear Alli Sinclair talk about this book and it sounds so good. 

The Paradise Pact by Anita Heiss - Anita Heiss is an amazing person to spend time with. Can't wait to hear more about this book! (Update - since I wrote this post a few weeks ago, it has been announced that Anita can no longer attend)

Where the Birds Call Her Name by Claire van Ryn - I have absolutely loved both of Claire van Ryn's books so I am very excited to meet her!

The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Club by Kate Solly - I have booked a couple of times to go to author events with Kate Solly, but it just hasn't worked out, so I am pleased she is one of the feature authors this weekend.

The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton - I was supposed to go to the launch of this book a few weeks ago but I ended up having to work late so I didn't make it!

Better than the Real Thing by Brooke Crawford - Last year I ran into this author at quite a few events, so looking forward to seeing her again.

Sunrise at Sunny Cross Farm by Maya Linnell - I have read a couple of books by this author. This is her new book which has just come out!

The Wedding Forecast by Nina Kenwood - This sounds like such a fun read!

Have you ever been to a reader's retreat?

This week....

I'm reading

My big news this week....I finished War and Peace! Yes! I started this for the second time in January last year and was determined to finish it by June 30 and made it!

In other reading news, sometimes a book feels as though it was specifically written with me in mind, and that is definitely the case with This Book Made me Think of You by Libby Page. I loved it from beginning to end. I loved how bookish it was, it was sad but also hopeful, warm and uplifting! This will be on my best of list for 2026 for sure!

This week I also finished reading my first ever novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere, which I read to fulfil two categories in the Goodreads Spring challenge. It is kind of funny that I was reading this book and listening to Project Hail Mary at the same time! I am making some progress with PHM, but it will be a while until I actually finish it.

I also finished reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon which was another Goodreads challenge read. It's my first book by her and it won't be my last.

Now I am reading The Model Murders by Amanda Hampson, which is the fourth book in the Tea Ladies series. It's so much fun visiting with these characters again!

We had our read on a theme book club meeting this weekend, and for the first time since we started this book club I didn't read a book to match the theme. I thinks on the shelf I could of read but they just didn't really appeal. The next theme is Secrets and I feel like both of the last two books I mentioned could fit for that theme!

I'm watching


On Friday night we went and saw a Peruvian movie called Mistura which is set in the 1960s in Lima and features a woman who needs to come up with a plan to save her house after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. It was very foodie and worth a watch!

On Satruday night we watched two movies. The first was a WWII file called Into the White which was set in Norway. It was based on a true story where a German plane crew and a British plane crew come together in a remove cottage in the middle of nowhere and have to work out how they are going to survive.

In a change of pace we then watched Office Romance which stars Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein as the boss and her lawyer who begin an inappropriate office relationship. I actually laughed out loud several times!

And for old times sake I watched First Wives Club with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton as three women whose husbands left them for younger women.

Life

Not a lot to tell this week!

Max


Happy birthday to the Max! This good boi turned 4 this week! 

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books with handwriting on the cover
Blog Tour: Charlie's Last Angel by Maggie Christensen
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
Afternoon Tea Diaries: Paradox at Oxi Tea Rooms
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: May statistics



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: May statistics

 

 Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in May, there were 51 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. There were 51 individual titles reviewed, written by 51 different authors. There were 3 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1.

Now, if you look at those numbers carefully, you might note that there were 51 reviews of 51 individual titles and 51 different authors. It occasionally happens that we might not have a single title reviewed more than once, but it has never happened that we didn't have an author with multiple titles reviewed. Never!! I guess that is an interesting statistic in and of itself!

One thing of interest. We had two books reviewed this month that featured Abigail Adams, wife of US President John Adams. Laura from Laura's Reviews shared her review of Three Queens by Rebecca Connolly and Kim reviewed A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams  by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie on Goodreads!

If you enjoy reading Historical Fiction why not join us? You can find all the details here.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

Afternoon Tea Diaries: Paradox

 

Welcome to another entry in my irregular event, Afternoon Tea Diaries. Last weekend we headed into our favourite afternoon tea destination to celebrate my birthday. This is our fourth time visiting Oxi Tea Rooms and once again we had an amazing experience.

One of the reasons we love going to Oxi Tea Rooms is that the food looks and tastes amazing, and the themes are always high concept, interactive and different. The themes change every few months which means that every time you go there are some things that are the same, such as the two different pressings of tea, but the food is always very different and often there is a little keepsake to take home as well.

There are about 30 different varieties of tea that are available to choose from. I do try to choose different flavours every time, which doesn't always work. For example, I didn't really like the tea I chose last time. This time I chose a Kenyan Chai flavour and it was really good! 

The current theme is Hatched: The Loop / The Paradox, which takes the participant from our earliest solid food through different experiences in life through to a representation of the end of life. It is high concept and lots of fun. For example, the image on the top right is representative of the baby porridge that so many of us start as our first solids.  This time the menu also featured quite a few native ingredients such as green ants and finger lime.

There is often a bit of theatre, from how beautiful everything looks, to the crack of ultra thin chocolate shells encasing creamy mooses. This time, the final course took that to the next level.

We are big fans of Oxi Tea and will be back again for the next menu. There was a four course dessert menu that we might try another time.  I am also conscious that there are lot of other afternoon teas that we can try so we will need to make a concerted effort to go to other venues. They will have to be exceptional to live up to the Oxi Tea Room experience.

You can read about our previous visits to Oxi Tea at the following links

Red

Palate Through Time

Victoria: The Place to Be

Weekly meals

Saturday - 
Sunday - Out for dinner
Monday - Tomato and Rice Soup with pork dumplings
Tuesday - One Pot Pizza Mac (new)

Wednesday - Chicken Shwarma
Thursday - Beef and Pepper Pot Pie
Friday - Out for dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

 

In 1942, Bethnal Green library in London was destroyed by a German bomb. The head librarian is killed and so children's librarian Clara Button starts a library in the tunnels of the nearby Tube station which is being used as a refuge from the nightly bombing raids for thousands of locals. Ably assisted by her best friend Ruby Munros, the library provides many valuable services to the community. They provide books to the local factory girls, they do children's story time, start a book club for the many women who otherwise wouldn't have any personal time and so much more. 

Both Clara and Ruby have strong back stories. Clara is a widow whose mother and mother in law both dislike that she is working in the library. They both believe that she should be at home grieving her husband even though he has been dead for quite some time.  Ruby has also suffered significant loss. She lost her older sister in a terrible tragedy and she blames herself. To numb the pain she drinks a lot, and parties hard, masking how much she is hurting underneath her brash exterior.. 

Clara clashes against her boss, the grandly named Mr Pinkerton-Smythe, who seems to think that libraries should only be available to the well to do, that only literature with a capital L should be available to readers. What libraries should absolutely not do is provide women with information or books that encourage them to take their own lives into their hands and decide things like they don't want any more children or that they don't have to stay in violent marriages. He does everything in his power to close Clara's version of the library down.

I loved the part of the book where the library is donated multiple copies of Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. It is a book that I have read a couple of times back in my late teens initially and it is an absolute romp.  Amber is resourceful and ambitious, will do what it takes to get what she wants. What a woman! I am tempted to find it and read it again. I am pretty sure I still have a copy on my shelves somewhere.

I love a good WWII historical fiction novel, and this is undoubtedly one of the better ones out there. What makes it even more interesting is that it is based on little known true life events. There really was a library in the rail tunnels under Bethnal Green station. Unfortunately, the terrible tragedy which shaped Ruby's life so much is also based on a tragic, real life event. 

I really enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter which come from real life librarians, including contemporary librarians. From the authors notes, it is clear that she is passionate about libraries and has been involved in some battles to save local libraries when the politicians decide to cut back services.

Having now read this book and The Wartime Book Club I can now declare myself a Kate Thompson fan. While she keeps writing about libraries I will keep reading the book. I am now on the waitlist for her latest book from my library!

This was a 5/5 read for me and I highly recommend it.

I am sharing this review with British Isles Friday hosted at Joy's Book Blog, Bookish Books Challenge hosted at Bloggin' Bout Books and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.

Blog Tour: Charlie's Last Angel by Maggie Christensen

 
When Harri met Charles....

Harriet Caldwell is the headmistress of a prestigious girl's school in Brisbane. She has been content to have her successful career. She has never married and she is okay with that. And then she meets Charles Kaye, prestigious barrister and well known man about town and he sweeps her off her feet. Harri isn't Charle's normal type. He is known for dating much younger and glamourous women and regularly features on the society pages.

Harri is happy for this relationship to remain something special between just the two of them, but she is aware that at some point, his three daughters are going to need to know, especially once he proposes. Soon they are planning a life together.  What Charles doesn't expect is the vehement disagreement from two of his daughters. Harri doesn't wan to be responsible for causing arguments in the family and so she is torn. Does she step away to enable Charles to repair his relationship or is she going to fight for the man that she loves.

I liked Harri and loved that she was successful and content with her life before meeting Charles. It did seem like Harri was being requested to make a lot of changes in order to accommodate her relationship with Charles. It's no wonder that she struggled with her decisions.

Charles was an interesting character given his change from chasing attractive, young women, who the media had dubbed Charlie's Angels, to falling head over heels for an elegant, confident, successful woman. His oldest daughter, Nicole, was a bit over the top in her opposition to the relationship. She was old enough to know that her dad should be entitled to have a life on whatever terms he wanted. I do, however, know that sometimes there are dramas when people recouple later in life. I was fortunate to only have a few very small incidents like this when I got together with my husband when I was in my mid 40s.

It's no secret that I am a bit of a Maggie Christensen fangirl. I have read 27 of her books over the last 5 years, all but one of which were part of series set in small country towns. I did miss the country towns, the seaside setting and the community that is such an important part of her series. 

What was still present in this book was the really lovely later in life relationship between Harri and Charles and the same comforting style of writing which I have come to rely on whenever I pick up a Maggie Christensen book. I already have my next of her books lined up ready to read in a few weeks time!

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Thanks to the publisher and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour below too!

Rating 3.5/5

About the book

Charlie’s Last Angel

In her early fifties, Harri Caldwell has always prided herself on being a strong, independent woman. Content with her single life, she loves her role as headmistress at the prestigious Lilian Cooper College for Young Ladies in Brisbane.


High profile barrister Charles Kaye has lived a charmed city life. With an amicable divorce behind him and three grown daughters, he is often featured in gossip columns alongside beautiful young women, a revolving cast his daughters nickname Charlie’s Angels.

When Charles and Harri meet at an art gallery opening, the instant connection is undeniable and, much to the chagrin of Charles’ daughters, a relationship quickly ensues. Their romance attracts media attention, not only because of Charles’ public profile but because Harri is so different from the women he is usually linked to. Older, private and firmly outside the socialite mould, she becomes an unexpected fascination for the press.

As the media attention and his daughters’ disapproval weigh on Harri, she begins to question whether their love can withstand the pressure. Will this prove to be the breaking point for their relationship or will Harri be Charlie’s last angel?

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/CharliesLastAngel

About the Author 

After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.

From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call to ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!



Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/maggiechristensenauthor
https://x.com/MaggieChriste33
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120020.Maggie_Christensen
https://www.instagram.com/maggiechriste33/
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/maggie-christensen?list=about
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Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Handwriting on the Cover

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. 

This week theme is Books with Handwriting on the Cover (Or fonts that look like handwriting. Titles, subtitles, covers with letters on them, etc.). There is a publisher that I read quite a lot from who tends to put their author names on the cover in a cursive like font, but I am going to see how far I can get but focussing only books where it is the title that is in cursive. On some covers it might be the whole title but on others it is just words like the or on!

A Venice Summer by Lynne Shelby - I read this a couple of months ago and enjoyed it a lot.

The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - This one was sitting on my desk right in my eye line so I couldn't not have this on the list even though I haven't read it yet!

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page - same with this one really

An Italian Island Love Story by Leonie Mack - This might look more like handwriting if you squint at it slightly but it is there!

Hopes and Dreams at the Chocolate Pot Cafe by Jessica Redland - Isn't this cover fun?

The Seaside Book Club by Helen Rolfe - This is a cute cover too!

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - This is such an eye catching cover. I am glad that it is the one that got.

The Cottage at the Edge of the Woods by Jane Lovering - The contrast between the block letters and the cursive is very effective as we can see on several covers in this list.

The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O'Brien - It's only one word but it still counts!

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan - And now I want to eat France and eat lots of fresh bread.