Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favorite Secondary/Minor Characters. However, I am following on from last week's post and giving you the second part of my 20 Books of Winter list.
Here are the second group of ten books that I am intending to read before the end of August.
The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin - I really enjoy this author's books. I already had it on my list as a review book but now I am going to be on the blog tour for it in July.
The Palace of Lost Virtue by Anthea Hodgson - I am attending the Rachel John's Bookclub Readers Retreat in June and this is one of the two book club reads.
The Couples Retreat by Mercedes Mercier - This is the second book club read
The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien - This is a blog tour read for July
The Nile Cruise by Caroline James - Another July blog tour read
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak - This is a library book that I have borrowed a couple of times now. Hopefully I will read it this time!
First Time Caller by B K Borison - I have really enjoyed the two B K Borisin books I have read so I am looking forward to this one!
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - This is a historical fiction novel that has had good reviews since it's been released
Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson - This will be a book I read for the Goodreads challenge
Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott - This is my Classics Spin selection
Last week I finished reading The Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn. This is the current Cook the Books selection. Now I am just trying to figure out what to cook to accompany my review. I am not sure exactly what yet but I will come up with something this week
After that I read the recently released The Seaside Book Club by Helen Rolfe which I enjoyed.
Next up I started The Venice Summer by Lynne Shelby which I am on a blog tour for later this week!
Finally, I started Poppy Kuroki's Gate to Kagoshima which is a time travel where a modern woman ends up living in 19th century Samurai Japan. In the end I finished this one as well on the train today. I have to say that there are some pretty scathing reviews on Goodreads but I really enjoyed this one!
I'm watching
It has been a good viewing week. We watched what is being called the third season of Good Omens but it was more a movie to finish off the story which started in seasons 1 and 2. I did enjoy the ending but it did feel like there was a story that was cut short.
It was my husband's birthday on Saturday and we chose to have a fairly quiet day. We did however go to the movies to see The Sheep Detectives. I can't remember the last time I went to the movies to see a family movie. It was a really lovely movie and I am so glad we saw i! It's funny, charming, deep and features some very big names! Go see it if you can! Here's the trailer
We also started watching Welcome to Wrexham season 5. Both of the first two episodes have been very emotional! Such good TV!
I was excited to see that the new season of Tucci in Italy is out so we watched the first couple of episodes as well! So far we have watched the episodes on Naples and Sicily
Life
Work is frantic and I can't see it changing any time soon!
Last Classics Spin was my first time participating and really enjoyed my experience of reading The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa so I am excited to see what the spin throws up for me this time!
The idea is that you put up a list of Classics you want to read numbered 1 to 20, the spin will happen and that is the number book that you have to read. You can find a much better explanation of the rules at the Classics Club itself, but I am sure you get the idea.
The lucky spin number will be announced next Sunday so not too long to wait to see what book the fates have selected for me. The big challenge will be to see if I can complete the read and share a review by July 5!
Last week I shared a post about a foodie walking tour that we did in Istanbul. Today, I am going to talk about some of the food highlights from the rest of our trip.
It seem a bit strange but I am going to talk about Chinese food first. It does make sense I promise. When we first booked our flights we were going to be flying via Dubai, including a stopover on the way back. However, with everything going on in the world, we had to decide if we were going to cancel our trip or if we were still going to proceed. In the end, we decided to rebook our flights via China. That meant an 11 hour layover in Guangzhou. What to do in a very boring airport for that length of time!
It turns out that the good people at Guangzhou have a solution. If the times work, and your layover is more than 6 hours there is a free city tour that you can do. This includes stops at Huacheng Park where there is a really great view of Canton Tower, Archaeological Site Museum of Nanyue Palace (ruins of a 2000 year old palace), and the shopping streets of Beijing Road. And, most importantly, it included a free yum cha lunch in a local restaurant. The dishes included noodles, dumplings and spring rolls.
The most surprising thing we tried was a cheese and pumpkin pancake which is not something I have had before and it was so good! It almost tasted a bit cheesecakey which was a surprise. I would totally order this if I saw it on the menu somewhere.
One thing that was interesting is that the guide shared with us a particularly Cantonese tradition of using the first pour of your tea to in effect wash your chopsticks. Again, haven't seen that before.
I do have to mention we found a really lovely Chinese cake. It was light and fluffy with what was like a custard flavoured layer. We had one cake before we went on our day tour, and then we bought two more before we got on our flight. We then bought another one on our way home. You could say it was a hit.
Now, onto Turkiye! We had some really, really great food during our time in the country, and I learned some things about myself.
As an aside, if this is how much I have written about the first day, this is going to be a very long post, so I am going to sort of skip over a few things even though they were highlights. On our first full day in Istanbul, we did a lot of walking, but we also had our first of many baklava and we went on a dinner cruise on the Bosphorus which featured a 3 course dinner and cultural dancing. It was a really fun night and the food was fine. The next night we had a lovely dinner with our daughter and her partner who had come to spend the weekend with us. They live in London and we hadn't met her partner before. We were at a rooftop restaurant with an amazing view!
After doing the walking tour we knew that we wanted more Turkish breakfasts, and we had a couple of really delicious ones over the first few days. The first one in this photo was up near Taksim Square, after which we walked down İstiklal Avenue. And yes, we had kunefe for as our second course for breakfast!
However, if you want to talk about the total experience, probably my favourite Turkish breakfast was the one that we had at Dolmabahce Palace, which was literally a 5 minute walk from where we were staying. We sat right on the waterfront and watched the ships go buy. It was a beautiful morning and the typical Turkish breakfast was really good! Even our travel companion Ellie enjoyed it!
Of course we had to get ice cream from one of these guys. Have you ever tried Turkish ice cream, which is called Dondurma. The dondurma is delicious, so creamy, but it has a very different texture to our ice cream, to the point that it is possible to eat it with a knife and fork. Because of the ingredients it doesn't melt in the same way and it has a kind of chewy texture.
One of the more unusual things that we tried was jug kebab. The idea is that all the ingredients are put inside a clay jug, and it is then cooked. It is bought to the table and then they break it open while you watch! So fun!
One thing that surprised me was the Turkish Delight. In Australia if you buy proper Turkish Delight it is in the traditional cube shapes but in Istanbul in particular there were many, many shops where your could buy different flavours and the big piles just look so gorgeous in the displays. Among the flavours we tried were banana and walnut, rose, kanefe inspired flavour and more.
Once we on the tour, obviously there was a lot of time on a bus. When we visit new countries we like to try some of the snacks and along the way we tried a number of different types of biscuits. We particularly like the cheesecake flavoured biscuit
One of the reasons why we went to Turkiye was to attend the Dawn Service at Gallipoli on Anzac Day. The town that we stayed in was called Cannakale. One of the regional specialities is a baked polenta dessert which was delicious. Another specialty that we tried on a different day was a yoghurt dish that is apparently only made at one specific roadside stop. It features yoghurt which is then topped with honey and sesame seeds. It is not dissimilar to the clotted cream and honey that featured at most breakfasts. It was so good.
I mentioned that I learnt a couple of things about myself. One of the things is that generally I don't enjoy nuts or honey. It turns out that when it comes in baklava or kunefe format I am more than happy to eat it. Maybe it's only shop bought Australian honey that I don't love. Or maybe I just need to try it again here to see how I feel about it now. And as for nuts, I think it is mainly only peanuts that I don't lvoe.
I haven't even touched on all the kebabs we ate, or the great pide I had in a city called Konya, home to Sufi sect and the whirling dervishes, the various flavours of tea that we had in copious amounts or the lunch that we had at a restaurant in Cappadocia.
Speaking of Cappadocia I have to mention our balloon trip there. Whilst this cake and drink would not necessarily be that special in any other circumstance, it was served up after we had done our dawn balloon flight which was an experience of a lifetime!
As you can hopefully tell, we had an amazing time in Turkiye. We loved Istanbul including visitng the mosque, the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, experienced a Turkish bath, cruising the Bosphorus and more. The experience of visiting the Gallipoli Peninsula and attending the Dawn Service was inspiring. Visiting places like Ephesus, Pammukale and Cappadocia was awe inspiring. We would love to be able to go back!
Weekly meals
Saturday - Sunday - Chips, cheese and gravy Monday - Pressure Cooker Spag Bol Tuesday - Spanish Tuna Pasta Bake Wednesday - Pie and chips Thursday - Korean Chicken Burger Friday - Egg Curry
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
Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is May Flowers (This is a companion to the April Showers topic from last month. Interpret however you’d like: books with flowers on the cover, colorful covers, books set in springtime, books where flowers/plants are a common theme, titles with flower names in them, characters named after flowers, covers that are as pretty as flowers, books featuring gardens, etc.)
However, I have done a flowers on the cover theme for the last couple of years now, so I am turning my thoughts to the 20 Books of Winter which is hosted by AnnaBookBel this year. So here are 10 of the 20 books I am planning on reading for at some point between 1 June and 31 August. I'll be back next week with the next 10 (assuming that I have completed building my list!)
This list is subject to change but at this stage, this is the plan
Charlie's Last Angel by Maggie Christensen - I read a lot of Maggie Christensen's books that are part of series, but this one is a blog tour for a standalone novel.
Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse by Sue Moorcroft - I do enjoy Sue Moorcroft's books. It's been a while since I read one of her books set in Italy. This is also for a blog tour
Escape to the Turquoise Seas by Carrie Walker - My final blog tour book is this one which is the fourth book in the Holiday Romance series. I am due to review this in July but it looks like publication has been pushed back to October so that date might change.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal- This is the next Cook the Books selection
Three Juliets by Minnie Darke - The next three books are all books that I meant to read last year but I ended up swapping out so they are back on the list for this year. I actually read at least a third of this book but I will have to start again now.
The Kings Jewel by Elizabeth Chadwick - It's been so long since I read an Elizabeth Chadwick so I need to prioritise this one.
The Story Collector by Evie Woods - I have had mixed results with Evie Woods books so far, so I am interested to read this one to see where it lands for me!
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Last year I was trying to read War and Peace and I was doing pretty well until I started work again in August at which point I stopped. I think I have about 300 paged to go so my plan is to finish it. This will also count for a Goodreads challenge.
The Maid by Nita Prose - Both this and the next book are for Goodreads challenges
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon - This book has been on my TBR pile for a long time now. I plan to read it before the end of June.
Are you planning to participate in the 20 Books of Summer/Winter?
This week I read A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang by Lee Onhwa. The main reason I read it is because it fits the AAPI month category for the Goodreads challenge, but as a bonus it also counts for the Speccy Fiction Challenge. Hopefully I will will review it soon!
I also started The Call of the Camino by Suzanne Redfearn. This is the next Cook the Books read so I need to finish it and cook something inspired by it too before the end of the month.
I did go to one event for Melbourne Writers Festival this week. As part of the in the suburbs series author Benjamin Stevenson came to visit my local library. Unfortunately I could not fit in any other events for the rest of the festival so I am glad that I at least got to attend this one! Benjamin Stevenson is the author of the Ernest Cunningham mystery series. It was very interesting to hear about his inspirations, about a potential TV adaptation, about how he nearly killed off Ernest at the end of the second book and so much more!
It was our read on a theme book club meeting this weekend. There were only 4 of us there but we still managed to have some lively discussion feature books about Mothers and Daughters. I read Amy Tan's book The Bonesetter's Daughter. Our next theme is Immigration, so I will have to see what books I have that suit this theme.
I'm watching
Now that we are back from holiday we have started watching Masterchef Australia. I wasn't sure whether we should go back and watch all the episodes from the beginning but in the end we just jumped in at episode 8 or so and went from there!
We also finished watching Alan and Amanda's Greek Job which features them renovating a house in Corfu! The series is always a lot of fun!
Life
It was back to work this week. I might have only done four days but I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the week!
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 March, there were 46 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. There were 46 individual titles reviewed, written by 44 different authors. There were 5 reviewers who reviewed 4 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1.
Interestingly, there were no individual titles that were reviewed more than once this month! This only happens occasionally. As I was visiting all the links I was beginning to wonder if I would have anything interesting to share this month! Thank goodness some of you enjoy reading series!
We did have two authors who were read more than once this month! Barbara from Stray Thoughts read both The Prince of Spies and A Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden. These are the second and third books in the Hope and Glory trilogy.
As always I added several titles to my TBR list after visiting all the posts this month. Goodness only knows if and when I will be able to read them though! There was quite a mix of settings this month including Australia, Bulgaria, Ireland, China and more!
If you enjoy reading Historical Fiction why not join us? You can find all the details here.
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