This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024”. There were lots of authors I tried for the first time last year, but the ten I’m listing below are all authors whose work I enjoyed and would consider reading again.

1. Benjamin Myers – I read Cuddy early last year and although I wasn’t sure at first if it would be my sort of book, I enjoyed it much more than I’d expected. I have The Gallows Pole waiting to be read!

2. Alexander Lernet-Holenia – Count Luna was a great book – so unusual and thought-provoking! I’m pleased to see there are more of Lernet-Holenia’s books available in English translations.

3. Tove Jansson – I finally read my first Moomin book, Finn Family Moomintroll, thanks to last year’s #MoominWeek. I might read more of them at some point, but would also like to try one of Jansson’s adult books.

4. Charlotte Armstrong – I didn’t know where to start with Charlotte Armstrong’s books, but I think I made a good choice with Mischief. There are lots more to explore now!

5. Clare Whitfield – I loved Clare Whitfield’s Poor Girls, about the fascinating Forty Elephants gang. Now I’m looking forward to reading her previous novel, People of Abandoned Character.

6. Akimitsu Takagi – Takagi’s The Noh Mask Murders is one of the best Japanese crime novels I’ve read so far. I would like to read more of his books, although I think there’s only one other currently in print in English – The Tattoo Murder.

7. Penelope Mortimer – I read a short story by Penelope Mortimer in A Different Sound, a collection of stories by women authors of the mid 20th century. It was one of the highlights of the book and made me want to read more of her work.

8. Kate Foster – I read Kate Foster’s The King’s Witches last year and enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to reading my review copy of her new novel, The Mourning Necklace.

9. Jane Thynne – Midnight in Vienna, a thriller set in the 1930s, is the first Jane Thynne novel I’ve read, but I’m sure I’ll be reading more of them now. I really liked this one!

10. Alice Loxton – I read very little non-fiction in 2024, but I did enjoy Alice Loxton’s Eighteen, which explored the history of Britain through the lives of eighteen famous young people. She has written another book about Georgian London which also sounds interesting.

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Have you read books by any of these authors or would you like to? Which new authors did you discover last year?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection (or to your to-read list!)”.

These aren’t strictly the last ten as I wanted to highlight books I haven’t already mentioned in other posts, but they are all books I’ve acquired recently. Let me know if you’ve read them or are planning to read them!

1. The Official Agatha Christie Puzzle Book – This was a Christmas present from my sister. It will take me a while to work through all 100 of these Christie-themed puzzles, but I’m enjoying them so far!

2. The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley – I didn’t get on with Pulley’s The Bedlam Stacks and thought she probably wasn’t an author for me, but then I read one of her short stories and enjoyed it. I have a NetGalley copy of her new book, out in March, and look forward to giving her another chance.

3. The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor – I want to read more non-fiction this year and have enjoyed Helen Castor in the past. This is her most recent book, about the relationship between Richard II and Henry IV.

4. The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo – I’ve already read this one and my review will be up later this week. I enjoyed the five previous Yokomizo mysteries published in new English translations by Pushkin Press and this is the sixth.

5. There’s a Reason for Everything by E.R. Punshon – This mystery from 1945 was a Dean Street Press free ebook of the week just before Christmas. A few people reviewed it for Dean Street December and it sounded interesting.

6. Secrets of the Bees by Jane Johnson – Another review copy from NetGalley, but it won’t be published until June. I’ve enjoyed some of Jane Johnson’s other books, particularly the ones set in Morocco, although she also writes beautifully about Cornwall, which is the setting for this new one.

7. Cleopatra by Natasha Solomons – This, as you may have guessed, is a novel about Cleopatra – also from NetGalley and being published in May. I’ve loved some of Solomons’ books but not others, so I’ll be interested to see what this one is like.

8. Theirs was the Kingdom by RF Delderfield – The second book in the Swann family saga. The first one, God is an Englishman, was one of my favourite books of last year so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this one.

9. The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie – I’m not joining in with the Read Christie 2025 challenge this month because I’ve already read the selected book (and the suggested alternatives) but I haven’t yet read the February choice, a collection of Miss Marple stories.

10. This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith – This 1960 psychological thriller is one of ten classics reissued as Virago Modern Classics this month. I’ve been wanting to read something else by Highsmith since reading Strangers on a Train a few years ago.

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What have you added to your book collection recently?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025”.

I’ve already listed some of my most anticipated historical fiction releases in a recent post, which you can see here. I’m listing below another ten books that I either found out about after putting that post together or that fall into other genres – so these are not necessarily my *most* anticipated books, but are still some that I would like to read.

The covers for the last two books haven’t been revealed yet.

1. Black Wood, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey (4th February 2025) – I’m pleased to see there’s a new Eowyn Ivey book on the way. I enjoyed her first two.

2. The Morrigan by Kim Curran (6th February 2025) – An Irish mythology retelling, which makes a change from the Greeks!

3. Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton (20th February 2025) – A new novella from Bruton about a painting in the Rijksmuseum.

4. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4th March 2025) – It’s been such a long time since Adichie’s last novel!

5. The Other People by CB Everett (10th April 2025) – I have this one from NetGalley and it sounds intriguing.

6. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (10th April 2025) – A third Atticus Pünd book at last! This is definitely one of my most anticipated books of the year.

7. The Pretender by Jo Harkin (24th April 2025) – A new historical novel based on the story of the royal pretender, Lambert Simnel.

8. Air by John Boyne (8th May 2025) – The final book in Boyne’s Elements quartet. I enjoyed all of the first three.

9. Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay (27th May 2025) – I always enjoy Kay’s historical fantasy, so I’m looking forward to this.

10. The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin (5th June 2025) – An older book set to appear in a new edition from Faber & Faber.

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Do you want to read any of these? Which new releases are you anticipating in the first half of 2025?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Destination Titles (titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fictional).”

Here are ten books with real cities, countries or islands in the title. These are all books that I’ve read and reviewed on my blog. I would have liked to have been able to represent all of the continents but I couldn’t quite manage it – I had plenty of titles with European destinations to choose from, but not as many for other parts of the world.

1. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

2. The Lost Book of Salem by Katherine Howe

3. China by Edward Rutherfurd

4. To Calais, in Ordinary Time by James Meek

5. Death in Zanzibar by M.M. Kaye

6. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

7. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brian

8. Night Train to Marrakech by Dinah Jefferies

9. The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato

10. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

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Have you read any of these? What other books with destination titles can you think of?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Covers with [Item] on the Cover (You choose the item! It can be anything at all.)”

Tonight is Bonfire Night here in the UK (also known as Guy Fawkes Night or Fireworks Night), where we remember the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Here are nine books I’ve read and reviewed on my blog – and another that I’m reading now and haven’t reviewed yet – which all have fire or flames on the cover.

1. Fire by John Boyne

2. Dark Fire by CJ Sansom

3. The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor

4. Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

5. Fire by CC Humphreys

6. Villette by Charlotte Brontë

7. Priestess of Ishana by Judith Starkston

8. The Trap by Dan Billany

9. There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes

10. The Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons

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Have you read any of these? Can you find any other books with fire on the cover?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List”.

I have a lot more than ten books I’m hoping to read this autumn, but here’s a selection of them:

For the upcoming 1970 Club:

1. God is an Englishman by RF Delderfield
2. Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

For Margaret Atwood Reading Month:

3. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

For Novellas in November:

4. Fire by John Boyne

Some review copies:

5. The Bells of Westminster by Leonora Nattrass
6. The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
7. The Royal Rebel by Elizabeth Chadwick
8. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker
9. The Significance of Swans by Rhiannon Lewis
10. The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

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Which books are on your autumn/fall TBR?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Planes, Trains & Automobiles/Books Featuring Travel (books whose plots involve travel or feature modes of transportation on the cover/title) (submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next)”.

I have listed below four books featuring planes, four with trains and two with automobiles!

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Planes

1. The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin – The story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, and an accomplished pilot in her own right.

2. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson – I’ve just recently finished this one, so no review yet. A group of ladies in post-WWI England form a motorcycle club, then come up with the idea of expanding to offer flying lessons to women.

3. Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie – A Poirot mystery in which a woman is found dead on a plane flying between Paris and London. After landing in England, Poirot must decide which of his fellow passengers was responsible for the murder.

4. The Wild Air by Rebecca Mascull – I loved this novel about a young woman who decides she wants to become an aviator and sets out to pursue her dream.

Trains

5. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith – Only a small part of this psychological thriller is actually set on a train, but it’s the scene of a very significant meeting between a pair of strangers who find themselves discussing a plan to commit two perfect murders!

6. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie – Christie wrote several novels set, or at least partly set, on trains: Murder on the Orient Express and 4.50 from Paddington are two others. In this one, Poirot investigates the murder of an American heiress found dead in her compartment on the famous Blue Train.

7. The Venice Train by Georges Simenon – Another psychological novel in which a man travelling from Venice to Paris by train agrees to deliver another passenger’s briefcase to an address in Switzerland. I read an English translation by Ros Schwartz.

8. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks – An alternative history/fantasy novel set on the Great Trans-Siberian Express in 1899. A book that leaves us with lots to think about!

Automobiles

9. Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart – This suspense novel set in Provence is one of my favourites by Mary Stewart and features a very memorable car chase scene.

10. Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce – A sequel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, in which Harold’s wife, Maureen, travels by car from the south of England to the north to visit a garden containing a memorial to her son.

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Have you read any of these? Which other books can you think of featuring forms of transport?