top ten tuesday

Random books from my TBR

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’s prompt is The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf (close your eyes and touch/grab/point to 10 random titles and tell us what they are! And tell us what you thought if you’ve read them!)

OK so to be honest, I know where all the books on my shelves are, they’re organised by author surname so anything I grabbed wouldn’t be too random. But, Storygraph will display a random 4 books from my TBR, so I’m just going to reload the page a couple of times, and tell you about those instead

Jaimie Admans – It’s A Wonderful Night
I have known Jaimie online for… many many years at this point, her books are an auto-buy for me, even her Christmas ones – and not just because I consider her a friend, but because I do genuinely fucking adore the stories she writes.

Mira Grant – Feed
I loved the Parasitology trilogy, and this is more medical biotechnology horror but with more zombies – how can I not be super excited to read it?!

Belinda Jones – Divas Las Vegsa
I read most of the LoveTravel series about 8 or so years ago but it was one of those I never finished when I had the mental health crash after my mum died. So, book 1 is back on the TBR and I’ll hopefully get through them this time. I absolutely loved the books when I was younger and I’m excited to revisit and finish the series.

Kelley Armstrong – The Summoning
I read this many many years ago, read the whole series and loved them – scientist who’ve performed experiments on kids and given them powers. Lovely eerie paranormal horror, in the same vein as Stephen King’s Firestarter, but YA. It’s back on my TBR because it’s the oldest book shelved as ‘read’ on my goodreads without a read date.

Dan Jones – The Plantagenets
Another re-read, for absolutely no reason other than my sheer love for Dan Jones and how he brings history and some of my favourite figures to life. Originally read as a library book but now I’ve picked up a second hand copy for myself, and it has to be read before it’s shelved, right?

Neil McGregor – A History of the World in 100 Objects
We listened to a couple of bits of the podcast the other year as part of a history module I was studying, and I loved the idea – but struggle with podcasts – so picked up the book. And it’s sat on my TBR for a while.

Carrie Fisher – Shockaholic
I haven’t read any of Carrie Fisher’s books, I don’t know why – but Li has them all on Kindle and we share a Kindle library, so now I have them all on Kindle too. And they’re sitting waiting for me to read them

Alix E Harrow – The Once and Future Witches
This is one I picked up having seen it reviewed in the book community. It sounded amazing, I looked it up, it sounded even more amazing. I picked up in the shop, read the first page and… it’s sat on my TBR for like 4 months. It’s pretty close to the top though, I will admit.

CS Lewis – The Last Battle
I first read The Chronicles of Narnia 35 years ago. I revisit them every couple of years. I’m half-way through The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe right now and still as every bit in love with the books as I was when I was 7. And still trying to get to Narnia.

Ali McNamara – From Notting Hill With Love… Actually
Ali has become one of my favourite authors over the last few years, I’ve read most of her more recent stuff – but never her earlier books so I’m really looking forward to reading this one and working through her full bibliography again!

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

top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Back To School – Non-Fiction History Books

Firstly: 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’s topic is ‘ School Freebie (In honor of school starting up soon, come up with a topic that somehow ties to school/education. The book could be set at school/college, characters could be teachers, books with school supplies on the cover, nonfiction titles, books that taught you something or how to do something, your favorite required reading in school, books you think should be required reading, your favorite banned books, etc.). Since I’m about to start my second year of a Classical Studies degree and because I absolutely love history, I decided it would be my Top Ten Non-Fiction History Books

In no particular order we have:

Peter Ackroyd – The History Of England
Liv Albert – Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook
Bill Bryson – A Short History of Nearly Everything
Jessie Childs – God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England
Terry Deary – Horrible Histories

Patricia Fara – Science: A Four Thousand Year History
Dan Jones – The Hollow Crown. And The Plantagenets. And The Templars. Look, I like Dan Jones, ok? LOL
Ian Mortimer – The Time Traveller’s Guide To…  (and I’m trying super hard not to list all of Ian Mortimer’s Books too, I also really love 1415: Henry V’s Year Of Glory)
Roy Porter – Quacks: Fakers & Charlatans in English Medicine
Alison Weir – Lancaster and York – The Wars of the Roses. I love both her fiction and her non-fiction, not going to lie.

… and argh there’s so many that I feel like I’m leaving out, so I’m making this a Top Twenty!

Matthew Baylis – Man Belong Mrs Queen
Guy de la Bedoyere – Gods With Thunderbolts: Religion in Roman Britain
George Goodwin – Fatal Colours
Sean Lang – British History for Dummies
Nigel McRery – Silent Witnesses
Helen Morales – Classical Mythology
Mary Roach – Stiff: The Curious Life Of Human Cadavers
Alison Sim – Pleasures & Pastimes in Tudor England
Brian Switek – Written In Stone: The Hidden Secrets of Fossils and the Story of Life on Earth
Christian Wolmar – The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground was Built & How It Changed the City Forever

I tried super hard not to just make them all Wars Of The Roses or Tudor themed. I think I managed ok, but you can tell it’s my favourite era. And, to be honest, I could probably have done it with just Dan Jones and Ian Mortimer LMFAO