top ten tuesday

Bookish People I’d Like to Meet

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’ topic is Bookish People I’d Like to Meet so I’m going with authors I would love to not only just meet, but sit down and have a coffee with. And I will say that the whole JK Rowling… situation… has made me much much warier of wanting to meet the people whose books I love, I even hesitate at following them on social media – I definitely have a quick google and check their social media history before hitting that button. sigh

But, here we go:
Jaimie Admans
So I have been friends with Miss Jai online for… let’s say a very long time, at this point. The very first book I ever read on Kindle was her debut Kismetology – she’s the reason I even have a Kindle.

The next three are authors whose books are my current auto-buys, and I have interacted with them and fellow fans in Facebook groups, etc and that’s
Mandy Baggot, Christie Barlow and Ali McNamara
I love all their books, reading them is like snuggling into a familiar warm comfy blanket while sipping a mug of hot chocolate!

My current favourite author who I’m busy devouring books by is Talia Hibbert. She writes, and I quote ‘spicy, diverse romance because she believes that people of marginalised identities need honest and positive representation’ and there’s just… informed consent and safe sex and characters LIKE ME. I’m in love and flail madly at Li when I’m reading!

Spots 6-8 go to some of my favourite history folks, who I’d love to sit down and bend their ears about all things Plantagenet, Wars of the Roses, and Tudors and they are of course
Philippa Gregory, Dan Jones, and Alison Weir

The last two have been my among my favourite authors since I was a teenager, are responsible for my love of all things horror, vampire, gothic and New Orleans.
Anne Rice (RIP) and Poppy Z Brite

stacking the shelves

Stacking The Shelves #3

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Reading Reality all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

I’ve been purposefully not adding anything to my reading piles lately, I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed with both the amount of books I’ve managed to end up with in progress and the amount of books on my TBR which doesn’t actually feel like it’s gone down this year.

This last 10 days or so, that kind of went to pot and I ended up with a little collection of new books.


Firstly I had an email from Amazon offering my 40% off the Kindle version of Dan Jones’ The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors. While I generally prefer paperbacks for my history books, what was I supposed to do – ignore the offer?!


Then, I realized I still hadn’t brought myself a copy of The Plantagenets, which I most definitely want to re-read before re-reading Hollow Crown. It’s practically mandatory! So I picked up a cheap used copy from Abe Book.


I recently finished Summer at Skylark Farm – #2 in the Wynbridge series, so clearly had to buy Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market. I’m generally not a big Christmas book reader so it tells you how much I enjoyed the first two books.


I accidentally read all of The Vampire Knitting Club on Monday, so promptly checked the next three out on Kindle Unlimited. I’ve also made a note of the other paranormal cozy mysteries that Nancy Warren has written because I’m already a little bit in love

I also popped into my local library the other day to find out if I could study there, did I need to book in advance and was happily told that no, it was absolutely ok to just rock up with my laptop and textbooks at any time, she confirmed the un-manned opening hours for me. I’ll be trying that one weekend when I need a change of scenery when studying.
However the library was clearly waiting for me and I came home with