Top Ten Tuesday: Series Reading

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is the theme is Book Series I Want to Catch Up On (or series you’d like to start)

I know that the prompt says series I want to catch up on or start, but I am simplifying it to the most recent books I have read that are part of a series

Heartstrings series by B K Borison -And Now Back to You -  I am reading a couple of different series by B K Borison at the moment. This is the second book in the Heartstrings series.

Cruise Escapes series by Caroline James - The Nile Cruise - This also has another cruise based series by this author called Diamond Star Cruises.

Pelican Crossing series by Maggie Christensen - Finding Forever in Pelican Crossing was the ninth book in this series.

Threads of Resistance series by Jenny O'Brien - The Secret Dressmaker is the second book in this series featuring undercover agents in Paris in WWII.

Wartime Librarians series by Kate Thompson - This isn't linked as a series on Goodreads but there are three books connected by theme and some characters.  Recently this author announced a new librarians book and she called it the wartime librarians series so I am counting it! The most recent book I read was The Secret Society of Librarians.

Holiday Romance series by Carrie Walker - Escape to the Turquoise Seas is the fourth book in the Holiday Romance series. I haven't read books 1 or 2 yet. I do normally try to read series in order. 

The Millbrook series by Hannah Claire - The Book Lovers Bucket List is on Amazon as being part of the Millbrook series

The Ernest Cunningham series by Benjamin Stevenson - Everyone in this Bank is a Thief is the fourth book in the series. I am now all caught up with the Ernest Cunningham series. 

Head Over Wheels duology by Leonie Mack - Don't Brake My Heart is the second book in the duology which features professional cyclists.

The Italian Legacy trilogy by Sue Moorcroft - Secrets of the Italian Guesthouse is the first book in the trilogy which is set on the shores of Lake Como.

Weekend Cooking: Truffled Chicken with Champagne Sauce (Valli Little)

Last week I talked about three cook books I had out of the library. One of those was Delicious: Love to Eat: Around the World in 120 Simply Delicious Recipes by Valli Little.

There were quite a few recipes that we have made in this book, but the one that I specifically wanted to share was the one for Truffled Chicken and Champagne Sauce. I know it sounds fancy, but it actually wasn't too difficult. The first time we made this recipe it was just for us, but we also made the champagne sauce when we did a roast chook for Christmassy in July and we had guests over. 

Just in case you think we are springing for truffles on a regular basis, we did a little bit of adapting to the recipe. I had bought some truffle butter when I visited the French festival and so we used that which we spread under the skin. We also used the humbler chicken Maryland instead of the cut they mentioned. We also did potatoes and you will note no green vegetables, as I had to specifically have to request them otherwise they will not make it onto the plate when my husband is cooking

Truffle Chicken with Champagne Sauce (Valli Little)

4 chicken breast fillets, skin on (with the wing bone attached, often referred to as supreme or Kiev)

60g unsalted butter, softened
3 leeks (white part only) each cut into 4 lengths
1 small black truffle
1 tbs olive oil
1-2 tsp truffle oil (optional)

Steamed baby vegetables, to serve

Champagne sauce

20g unsalted butter

1 tbs plain flour

1 garlic clove, crushed
100ml champagne or other sparkling white wine

2 sprigs of thyme

1/ cup (125ml) pure (thin) cream

1/2 cup (125ml) chicken stock

Pre-heat oven to 180c. Grease a 2L (8 cup capacity) baking dish.

Place leeks in prepared baking dish and dot with 30g butter. Sason, then pour over the chicken stock. Place a sheet of baking paper over the top, then bake for 30 minutes or until tender. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, gently loosen the skin from the breasts. Thinly slice the truffle and place a few slices between the skin and flesh of each breast. Season. Heat remaining 30g butter and olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken, skin-side down first, for 3 minutes each side or until light golden. Place the chicken on top of the leek mixture in the baking dish, then return to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, drain off 100ml of the cooking liquid and reserve. Set aside the chicken, loosely covering with foil.

Meanwhile for the Champagne Sauce, heat the butter in a frypan over medium heat, add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the garlic, champagne, thyme, cream, stock and reserved cooking liquid, gently whisking until smooth. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced. Season well.

Thickly slice each chicken breast. Divide leeks among 4 plates, top each with a sliced chicken breast, then drizzle with champagne sauce and truffle oil, if using. Serve with steamed baby vegetables.

Classics Spin #45

This year I started participating in the Classics Spin and I have really enjoyed both books that I read 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 October 4.

Here's my list

1. Jane Eyre by Jane Austen 
2. The Tree of Man by Patrick White 
3. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 
4. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell 
5. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare 
6. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark 
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 
8. The Women in Black by Madeleine St Johjn 
9. Eveline by Frances Burney 
10. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh 
11. Middlemarch by George Eliot 
12. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin 
13. Tales of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu 
14. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 
15. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 
16. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier 
17. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham 
18. The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 
19. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 
20. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson

Have you read any of these? Do we have any classics in common? Are you participating in the Spin this time?

Top Ten Tuesday: On this day...

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is the theme is Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years (Stolen from Anne @ HeadFullofBooks) (This might be tricky if you don’t use a reading tracker like Goodreads, but the idea is to share what you were reading on August 11th of 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. If you have no idea, pick a book you loved that you read at any time during each of the last ten years. And if you still have no idea, pick a book you loved that was published during each of the last ten years. Make this work for you!)

I have done this kind of post before, but every time I am grateful for my handy dandy spreadsheet which tells me the books I was reading back to 2004! Here's what I was reading on this day, or at least close to this day over the last 9 years!

2026 - The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin - This is the book that I am reading right now ready for a blog tour next week! 

2025 - Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - This was a fun read and a bit different to what I normally would read! (mini review)

2024 - The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - This was a Cook the Books selection. (my review)

2023    - All Good Things by Amanda Prowse - I didn't really love this one! (my review)

2022 - Love Stories by Trent Dalton - This one, however, I did love! I listened to this one on audio. It was narrated by the author and it was fantastic!

2021 - The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - This book was way outside my comfort zone but I did like it a lot! I don't read a lot of sci fi usually. 

2020 - The Secrets of Saffron Hall by Clare Marchant - This was a rare foray into Tudor historical fiction for me. (my review)

2019   The Last of the Bonegilla Girls by Victoria Purman - Good to see another Aussie author on this list. This was a really interesting read too.

2018 - Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen - I read this book which was first in a series, and never read any further. Not sure why really. 

2017 - Island in the East by Jenny Ashcroft - This is a WWII book set in Singapore!

It is always interesting to take this kind of look back. 

This week

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading week this week. On Monday last week I still had two books to finish for blog tours last week so my first priority was to finish both of those. The first one was Finding Forever in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen, which I reviewed here. The second was The Nile Cruise by Caroline James, which was a fun trip down the Nile!! I reviewed that book here.

I have been listening to Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens which was written and narrated by British comedian David Mitchell. It was a really fun audio experience, especially when he went on one of his middle-aged man rants! This was a rare foray into non fiction for me. I read it as it qualified for one of the Goodreads Summer Challenge.

I had previously listened to the first 10 minutes or so of Before I Knew I Loved You by Toshikazu Kawaguchi before I switched to Unruly. I have now gone back to that book on audio.

My read on a theme book club theme this time is "environment" which is the perfect reason to read my first book by Charlotte McConaghey. I chose to start with her latest book, Wild Dark Shore, because it also counted for two Goodreads categories. I thought it would take me a while to get through, but i twas so good that I ended up reading it over the course of two days

Finally I started The Little Porto Book Club by Rebecca Raisin which I am on the blog tour for next week. Originally, I was going to read this on holidays and just take my laptop and write the review while I am away, but if I can get it read and scheduled this week, along with any other posts for next week then maybe I won't take my laptop. We'll see.

I'm watching

We finished rewatching Ted Lasso season 3 and of course went straight onto the first episode of Season 4. Such a good show. 

We also watched a fair bit of Bake Off this week. We binge watched 6 episodes of Bake Off: The Professionals on Saturday night, and we also watched the first episode of Celebrity Bake Off as well. Interestingly Cherish Finden was the guest judge on Celebrity Bake Off, and she was also on the grand final of Masterchef Australia! We haven't watched the Masterchef final yet as we were out last night but we will probably watch it tonight.

I did watch a Japanese film last week called Perfect Days which is about a man who is a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. It follows his very regimented life as he goes about cleaning a series of architecturally designed toilets and how he finds joy in the little things around him. It was a lovely film and it had a great soundtrack. Here's the trailer

Life

We've been talking for a while now about what the best way to store our travel memento magnets and this week we actually did something about it, and we are really happy with how it looks! You can see that there are still some gaps, so it might be lucky that we are going on holiday at the end of this week!


We had a pretty quiet Saturday, but on Sunday we went to see Six which is the rock musical about the six wives of Henry VIII. It's such a fun musical. We went to see it last time it was on and there's every chance we will go to see it again next time as well! 


Max


Max went to the spa this week so he is looking very handsome as you can see from the pic above! She puts the bandana on all the dogs to take their photos!

Posts from the last week



Top Ten Tuesday: Shhh....don't tell anyone!
Blog Tour: The Secret Dressmaker by Jenny O'Brien
Blog Tour: Finding Forever in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen
Blog Tour: The Nile Cruise by Caroline James
20 Books of Winter: July recap!

Weekend Cooking: Library Loot!
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: July 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: July 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.

July was a big month. There were 70 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 18 participants. There were 69 individual titles reviewed, written by 62 different authors. There were 5 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 9 or just 1.

In the recap posts for May and June we had no books that were reviewed more than once in May and only one in June. We didn't have any authors who had more than one book reviewed in either month which was quite unusual. This month is unusual because we had a LOT of authors who had more than one book reviewed. 

First though, there was one book that was reviewed twice this month. It is the new one from Lisa See, Daughters of the Sun and Moon which was reviewed by Deb at Readerbuzz (on Goodreads) and Laura from Reading Books Again. 

We had 6 authors who had more than two books reviewed, with two authors having three books reviewed and linked up. The first was Laura Ingalls Wilder. Deb from Readerbuzz had just completed reading all nine books in the Little House on the Prairie series. Coincidentally, the second was the author combo of Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie (yes, another Laura). Laura from Reading Books Again read My Dear Hamilton, America's First Daughter and A Founding Mother.

There were quite a few books read on American history in July, which I guess makes sense when you consider that America was celebrating a big birthday (you know, one ending with a 0!)

The other authors who had more than one book reviewed were Jean Plaidy, Lee Strauss and Manda Collins.

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.

Weekend Cooking: Library Loot!

 

I am trying to make sure that I borrow cookbooks from the library where I can so that I can literally try it before I buy. To be fair, sometimes it does seem as though I am just delaying the inevitable because so far this year I have ended up buying 3 cookbooks after I initially got them from the library! 

Today I am sharing the three cook books that I currently have out from the library right now. I also have numerous novels out that are a bit foodie, but I am focussing just on actual cook books for now!

Delicious: Love to Eat: Around the World in 80 recipes by Valli Little

The author of the month for July in the Lambs Ear Cookbook Club was Valli Little who was the editor in chief for Delicious magazine. This book is decided in sections based on countries ranging from European (Italian, Spanish, French and British) to Austalian, Inidan, Asian and Middle Eastern. The first time I went through the book there were a few things that looked nice but only a couple that I had to make. However, every time I go through it now I find more and more. If I had more time with the book I would like to cook at least one thing from most of the chapters. So far, we have cooked

Chocolate Orange Cake (Spanish) - This is one of those cakes where you boil the whole orange for a couple of hours and then use it in the cake. It was a really delicious cake.

Slow Cooked Mexican Beef with guacamole and lime crema (Mexican)- We are actually cooking this one in the coming week. 

Truffled Chicken with Champagne Sauce (French) - I think this champagne sauce is going to become a regular whenever we do a roast chicken.

Sticky Date Pudding Cake (British) - This was an absolute winner of a recipe! Easy to do and tasted delicious!

Thai: Anywhere and Everywhere by Nat Thaipun

Nat Thaipun was the winner of Masterchef Australia in 2024. In one of the episodes, she won a prize to go to the UK to visit Jamie Oliver, and he has provided the foreword to the book, as well as chosen this as one of his cook book club selections, which is where I heard about it! I was kind of surprised that I hadn't heard of it before this!

If you love Thai food, this book is exceptional. She spends time talking about the different regions of Thailand and how the flavours vary in each area, how to make the staple pastes, seasoning, marinades and garnishes 

Each recipe has the title written three ways. The first is in the Thai writing, then in western style of writing but with the Thai name and then the English translation. 

It is a beautifully presented book, and I look forward to cooking some more out of it before it has to go back to the library! The one dish we have cooked from it so far is Grapow Moo which is a Basil stir-fry with pork. It is served with rice and a fried egg on top! It was pretty easy, and very tasty. 

Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For) by Ella Risbridger

This is the book that I picked up from the library this week, so I haven't really had a chance to go through it properly yet. I have, however, heard so many good things about this book. One of the interesting things about this book is that there are no photos of the recipes. Instead, the book is filled with beautiful illustrations. 

I have heard that this is the kind of cook book that you can read like a novel, from beginning to end. It charts the story of how cooking helped her rise from the depths of grief and mental health issues. I am looking forward to digging into it soon!

This was a Cook the Books selection a few years ago but I never explored it at the time. I can't remember if it was difficult for me to track down or what. Better late than never though!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Scrambled Eggs on Toast
Sunday - Lasagne
Monday - Swedish Meatballs, mash and broccoli
Tuesday - Thai
Wednesday - Bacon, Risoni and Vegetable Soup
Thursday - Lasagne
Friday - Bacon, Risoni Vegetable Soup