Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Books Set in Snowy Places (If snow isn’t your thing, pick another kind of place and share books set there!)
Normally when there is a seasonal theme I swap it to represent the season here in Australia. However, this time I decided to go with the theme even though it is summer here.
The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - I just finished listening to this. There is a lot of snow in this book to the point that the characters get snowed in for some of the book!
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - This isn't a common Australian setting as it is set in the Alps in winter, and there is a lot of snow. (my review)
Meet Me Under the Northern Lights by Mandy Baggot - This one sees our main character heading off on a last minute trip to Iceland (my review)
Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by Rebecca Raisin - This luxury festive train travels across Northern Europe and ending up in Lapland
Small Things Like These by Claire Foster - Now, I didn't read this book all that long ago, and I am relatively sure that there was snow in the book, but I am prepared to be wrong about that!
Escape to the Northern Lights by Carrie Walker - our main character thinks she is going to a luxury spa weekend but really it is a winter back to nature, vegan wellness retreat (my review)
A Winter Wedding Adventure by Leonie Mack - This is the second book in the Adventure Wedding series, set in the Italian Alps, and Mother Nature plays a bit part in the story! (my review)
One Snowy Day by Shari Low - I mean it even tells you about the weather in the title! (my review)
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett - This one is set in winter in Norway! (my review)
Beartown by Fredrik Backman - It's ice hockey season in Sweden. Of course there's snow! (my review)
Big news this week!! I have launched the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2026! If you love reading historical fiction, reading challenges and want to connect with other historical fiction lovers....join us! Here is the sign up post
Given the above I probably should be reading some historical fiction but it feels like I am reading everything but that genre at the moment!
I finished reading Menu of Happiness by Hisashi Kashiwai, which is the third book in the Kamogawa Food Detectives series. As usual I enjoyed the stories in this book, and I will read the next book when it comes out in English.
I also finished listening to The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan. This was connected to a short story she put out last year called The Christmas Book Hunt. This time, Mirren and Theo head to the Scottish Highlands to help a cash poor laird search his book rich castle for a book following a series of clues left for him by his grandfather. It was a fun story, but the audio wasn't fantastic. There were lots of weird gaps so I had to listen to it sped up otherwise it annoyed me!
From here it is all the books I started!
I am supposed to be buddy reading Flashlight by Helen Choi. I have read the first chapter, which was very interesting, but I hadn't gotten to it yet! Will make more in roads this week.
Last year I read A Christmas Carol and The Chimes by Charles Dickens and posted about it here. I decided that I was going to read Dickens' other Christmas stories and so this week I started reading The Cricket and the Hearth. I must confess that I was a bit perplexed by the first part of the book which was all about the cricket, but the story is moving along now!
I also started reading Golden Girls on the Run by Judy Leigh. I need to finish this one first as I am on a blog tour for the book this week!
I normally try to listen to Hogfather by Terry Pratchett every Christmas and I will still try to but I thought I better start Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil first. This is the current Cook the Books selection. I would prefer to be reading it, but this book isn't available in any of the libraries in my state, and the ebook was completely unreasonable priced so I have used one of my Audible credits to get it. I wasn't sure how it work as an audiobook but so far it is good.
I'm watching
I am starting to get my Christmas on, mostly through watching things on TV, but that's a start. This week I watched A Merry Little Ex-mas, which stars Oliver Hudson and Alicia Silverstone as a newly, amicably divorced couple who are trying to look like what Christmas looks like for this first year as a separated family. It was a fun watch.
I did also watch The Chocolate Queen - a Very Chocolatey Christmas. The Chocolate Queen is Australian pastry chef queen Kirsten Tibballs, and she shared a number of relatively simple recipes, along with a couple of guest chefs. I might watch it again to see if I can get motivated to make some of what she shared. Maybe.
We have watched quite a bit of the cricket this week, which is very out of character for us! It's not something we have really done together since we met, but apparently this year we are interested! Australia is playing England, in a test series called The Ashes which has been happening every couple of years since 1882. It helps that Australia is performing pretty well!
On Sunday I went and watched Hamnet which is showing here as part of the British Film Festival. This is the movie adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's book of the same name. It isn't a happy movie, but it was definitely good, and very moving. Definitely worth seeing if you enjoyed the book!
Life
Speaking of getting our Christmas on, we did take a quick trip into the city to check out the Myer windows. Every year they have a specially themed Christmas story. This year it was all Lego and it was a lot of fun. I did try to convince Robert to go and do some other Christmassy stuff in the city but it was the end of a long day, so that will have to be on another day!
We had our book club Christmas lunch yesterday and we did a book gifting! We all ikced a number and then we got to unwrap the corresponding book. I ended up with a book I had already read but someone else had a book they already owned so we did a sneaky swap. The book I bought home with me was Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz. It was a lovely lunch and I got to have my first mince pie and christmas pudding of the season as well as a delicious burrata and tomato salad and some roast turkey!
Finally, a quick shout out to anyone who is visiting as part of Comfy, Cozy Christmas, hosted by Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. I look forward to seeing what Christmassy adventures other people are having! I should warn you though, I am in Australia and our Christmas is less comfy and cozy than hot and sweaty, weather depending! Melbourne does tend to have variable weather so it could be 15C/59F or 38C/100F, or anywhere in between!
Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.
This month the starting point is a novella called Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was fitting given that there was an event called Novellas in November.
Keeping with short stories/novellas and the word wood, I am choosing The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke. This was an Audible original short story that I listened to last year.
I am focussing on the word yellow for my next selection and choosing Yellowcake by Margo Lanagan, which was a short story collection. I really enjoyed Margo Lanagan's writing but she disappeared of the publishing scene years ago now, which is a real shame.
A full length novel from the same author is Sea Hearts. I did think about going down the route of books which have different titles in different markets as this one was called Brides of Rollrock Island elsewhere.
However, I couldn't resist sticking with the sea connection so I have chosen Never Want to Sea You Again by Leonie Mack. This short story was a fun read from earlier this year. One thing about this story is that you can choose your own spice level, so if you like closed door action you can choose one version and if you like it spicy you can read the open door version
If I think of the sea, the one thing we know is that there are plenty of fish in the sea, and so I have chosen The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe. (my review)
The Fish Girl was inspired by a character from a short story called The Four Dutchmen by W Somerset Maughan. In Vaughan's story, the character is a nameless "Malay trollop", whereas in The Fish Girl she is given a name and a whole backstory.
Next month is a wildcard to begin the year so we need to start with the book you finished this month’s chain with. That will be interesting given I haven't actually read The Four Dutchmen. I actually found this month a bit challenging so hopefully next month's will be a bit easier!
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I share everything I have made over the previous month. When I say everything, I mean not much. I am struggling with a bit of motivation to make things and hubby seems happy to just have the same old, same old, so I haven't been making much and when I do make something it is an old favourite.
The first thing I made this month was Banana Bread which is always a winner. I like banana bread with either choc chips or with cream cheese frosting, but Robert just likes plain banana cake which he then has with butter. Now I really want cream cheese frosting on something!
I did try one new baking recipe this month. About 6 weeks ago or so I shared a quote about making scones from a book. In the comments CLM from Staircase Wit shared a recipe that her family uses for choc chip scones. Rather than being the traditional round scones, these ones were made in wedges with quite a different method. They were good but I have now been asked to make normal scones with jam and cream. I think that is more about the cream rather than the scones because my husband is a cream fiend.
We spent the first couple of weeks in the month slowly making through the bag of chocolates that we bought in duty free in Colombo. We bought a bag as we were going through duty free in Colombo and we really enjoyed them. We wanted to buy another bag in Male but they were charging $41USD which is crazy expensive. We ended up buying them again as we transitted through Colombo at a much more reasonable $17. It's still expensive but not extortionate.
Another thing I was excited to pick up in duty free was this bag of treats. We discovered them on our first trip to the together 7 years ago. I then came home and realised we hadn't eaten the last lot that we bought when we were last in the US.
We did get some new glasses this month. They were the free ones that you get from Hungry Jacks with a meal. I don't know why but we really like these glasses and we have quite a lot of them with different patterns on. They are a great size and they feel like they are good quality. I guess we are just suckers for a freebie.
So there wasn't a lot of baking, but what there was is a lot of foodie experiences. The weekend we got home from our holidays it was our 6th wedding anniversary. I wasn't a hundred percent sure of how tired we would be after the holiday so we didn't plan anything that weekend so we didn't go out to celebrate until the week after.
Our anniversary dinner was at something called Le Petit Chef and Friends. Basically it is an animation than uses your table cloth and plate as a screen and tells a story about each course that you are going to eat. It was a lot of fun and the food was surprisingly good as well. The steak was one of the best pieces of steak I have eaten in the last few years and the dessert was amazing, served in a rush of dry ice. I forgot to take a picture of the dessert. Apparently there are at least 6 different versions of this so you could go again and have a different experience. There are at least two other types of this kind of show, so maybe we will do another one eventually
Last week I posted about our three eating on trains experiences recently, two of which occurred in November. One was at a burger joint that is in a repurposed commuter train carriage which is on top of a multi story building, and the other was a fancy meal on Q Train - a moving restaurant that serves good quality regional produced.
Finally, last weekend we went to do an afternoon tea at a place called Oxi Tea Rooms. We have been before, but the menu changes every six month and this was a completely different experience. I will post more about this in a couple of weeks, but hopefully this photo shows just how amazing the food looked! We did also score a couple of spoons that one of the courses was served on. This is because it was the second last day of the menu that we had and so presumably they didn't need them anymore!
52 Recipes Challenge
Here are the new recipes we tried this month.
Jollof Chicken and Rice - I made this for Cook the Books
Saturday - Sunday - Pork chops, mash and cider gravy Monday - Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognaise Tuesday - Chicken Parma, Chips Wednesday - Spanish Tuna Pasta Bake Thursday - Out for dinner Friday - Steak and salad
I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.
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
And just like that, we are almost at the end of the 2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
Whilst there is still another couple of weeks to add your December links (the linky post for December is here), now there is an opportunity for you to add your wrap up post links if you have done one. You don't have to, although it is always interesting to see what people have read throughout the challenge.
I expect that I might read at least one more historical fiction book, but in the meantime, I thought I would share my reads for the year. I am pretty happy with the fact that I more than 50 hist fic novels...so far.
Please bear in mind that I am a bad book blogger and I am a bit behind on my reviews from the last 6 weeks or so. I am aiming to get caught up by the end of the year as one of my goals was to review all the historical fiction I read. Here, though, are the historical fiction books I have read this year so far, including links where there is a review. The ones that have reviews are in bold.
There's some really good reads on this list! I gave 5 of them 5 stars. They were The Jam Maker, The Winter Sea, The Women, The Summer Before the War and The Whisky Widow.
I am already looking forward to next year's historical fiction reads!
I was born in Perth in Western Australia and lived there until I was around 10 years old when my mum, my sister and I moved to Adelaide in South Australia. There isn't a lot I remember about my early years of schooling (or life really) but I do remember going on a couple of school excursions, one of which was to the port city of Fremantle. There we visited the Round House (a prison) and what was then called the Maritime Museum but is now known as the Shipwreck Museum.
I remember seeing the salvaged and carefully preserved hull of the ship known as Batavia which was wrecked on the Abrolhos Islands off the remote northern coast in 1629, and I have been interested in the story ever since. Most times when I go to Perth I will head down to the museum and wander through the galleries. I am moved every time by the grisly fates of the crew and passengers who had to survive not only harsh terrain but also their own murderous companions.
In Amsterdam in 1628 a young woman named Saskia boards a boat named Batavia to take her aunt and her cousin on a journey that will take them to the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) where they will join her uncle. Saskia's aunt had adopted her following the death of Saskia's mother and she rules with an iron fist. The main thing that matters is keeping up appearances. The only thing that Saskia has of her mother's is a small porcelain tulip that she wears as a pendant.
They settle into life on the Batavia where Saskia meets Aris Jansz, the ship's under surgeon. She also makes friends with other passengers, some of whom probably wouldn't meet with her aunt's approval but she is confined to her cabin with chronic seasickness.
However, there are mutinous acts being undertaken by the crew, led by Jeronimus Cornelisz, an under-merchant, and others, and it isn't really a safe place for a young woman to be wandering around a ship.
Fast forward to the present and Tess is a high school teacher who is grieving the sudden loss of her father. She has been tasked with completing an article for a scholarly publication about the shipwreck of Batavia and the subsequent atrocities which led to the survivors of the shipwreck having to fight for their lives, both to survive in the harsh and unforgiving environment but also at risk of being murdered by their shipmates.
Tess heads to the Abrolhos Islands with her guide, Drew, where she is taken to an archaeological dig where the archaeologists are searching for clues about what happened all those years ago.
It turns out that Tess has a recently discovered connection through her mother's side of the family to some survivors from Batavia. The modern day story and the historical run in parallel as the archaeologists locate an item and then we hear the story as it unfolds in the past. While Saskia and Aris do whatever they have to do to survive, Tess is in a fight of her own to try to find a way through the terrible grief she felt at the sudden loss of her father.
The descriptions of what happened to the people on board Batavia are harrowing and made even more so by the fact that many of the incidents are historically accurate. I think that the author was very brave in not shying away from sharing the terrible atrocities that were committed in the days and weeks that followed the shipwreck with the reader.
I listened to the audio of this book. I do often struggle when I transition from one audiobook to another with different accents and this one did take me a long time to get used to the Australian accents. I know that probably a bit weird given I am Australian and so I hear Australian accents all day every day. I liked two of the narrators but the third didn't really work for me and I am not really sure why.
I do want to give a shout out to the cover designer of this novel. It's a really lovely, eye catching novel.
In what is a pretty big coincidence, I found out just before we visited the Netherlands for Christmas in 2022 that the town where my brother in law lives, Lelystad, is also the home of a replica of Batavia and so we spent a morning wandering through the ship and learning all about the techniques for making things like rope, building ships and more.
I am heading to Perth in mid January to watch the sailing, and you can be sure that I will once again be visiting the museum, and this time I will also have the story of Batavia, as told by Stefanie Koens, in mind as I wander the galleries.
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here.
Welcome to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2026! I am super excited to be hosting this challenge again this year. You are welcome to join if you are have participated before or if it is your first time! Reading Challenge details
Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created where you can add the links for the books you have read. To participate, you only have to share your review links!
Everyone can participate! If you don't have a blog you can post a link to your review if it's posted on Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram or Amazon, or you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish.
Add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to the monthly post (please use the direct URL that will guide us directly to your review) Any sub-genre of historical fiction is accepted (Historical Romance, Historical Mystery, Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, History/Non-Fiction, etc.). The link to the monthly post will always be in my sidebar.
During the following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels:
20th Century Reader - 2 books Victorian Reader - 5 books Renaissance Reader - 10 books Medieval - 15 books Ancient History - 25 books Prehistoric - 50+ books
To join the challenge you only need to make a post about it, add your link in Mr. Linky below or just leave a link to your blog if you are not yet ready to post about it yet. If you don't have a blog you can just leave a comment for this post saying that you are joining, and link to your Facebook, Goodreads or other social media page where you will be sharing your reviews.
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