This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books on my Spring TBR”.

I’m expecting to read more than ten books this spring, but here’s a selection that are coming up soon on my TBR:

Some NetGalley review copies:

1. Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
2. The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews
3. Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
4. A Different Sound by various authors

From my Classics Club list:

5. The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
6. The Black Lake by Hella S. Haasse

For Read Christie 2024:

7. Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie
8. Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

From the Walter Scott Prize longlist:

9. The Fraud by Zadie Smith
10. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

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What are you hoping to read this spring?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short”. I am listing below a selection of ten books with fewer than 200 pages – perfect if you don’t have much time to read.

1. Every Eye by Isobel English – A beautifully written novella published by Persephone in which a woman on her honeymoon in Ibiza looks back on her life. (144 pages)

2. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu – This early example of the vampire novel was first published in 1872 and is thought to have influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (160 pages)

3. The Man from London by Georges Simenon – One of many standalone novellas by Simenon, this psychological thriller from 1937 is available in an English translation by Howard Curtis. (160 pages)

4. Water by John Boyne – The first in a new quartet of books based on the four elements. I’m looking forward to reading the second one, Earth, soon. (161 pages)

5. The Beacon by Susan Hill – An atmospheric and unsettling story about a family living in a lonely farmhouse in the north of England. (162 pages)

6. Mr Harrison’s Confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell – This 1851 novella about a young doctor working in a small, rural community is a prequel to Gaskell’s better known book, Cranford. (113 pages)

7. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot – I think this science fiction/horror story will surprise a lot of people as it’s not typical of Eliot at all! My edition also includes her essay, Silly Novels by Lady Novelists. (110 pages)

8. Chocky by John Wyndham – This short book about a boy with an imaginary friend is one of my favourites so far by Wyndham! (164 pages)

9. The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson – A moving little book in which a man with only a month to live sets out on a tour of the world, visiting each place on his list in alphabetical order. (128 pages)

10. The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins – I love Collins and enjoyed this novella based on the ill-fated 1845 Franklin Expedition to the Arctic in search of the North West Passage. (112 pages)

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Have you read any of these? Which other short books have you read and enjoyed?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023”. There were lots of authors I tried for the first time last year, but the ten I’m listing below are all authors whose books I enjoyed and would consider reading again.

1. Edgar Rice Burroughs – His more famous books have never really appealed to me, but The Efficiency Expert was recommended to me and it was very entertaining.

2. E.C.R. Lorac – I’m not sure whether Death of an Author was really the best Lorac to start with, as I liked it but didn’t love it. I hope to try another one soon!

3. Helen Scarlett – I enjoyed The Lodger for its portrayal of London in the aftermath of World War I and must try Scarlett’s previous novel at some point.

4. Geoffrey Household – A man goes on the run after a failed assassination attempt in Household’s 1939 novel, Rogue Male. An interesting read, but I’m not sure if any of his other books appeal.

5. Dolores Hitchens – I read The Cat Saw Murder, a Rachel Murdock mystery, for Mallika’s Reading the Meow week and would like to read some of the others in that series.

6. Ursula Bloom – Wonder Cruise was my first Ursula Bloom book; it seems she was a very prolific author, so I have lots more to look forward to.

7. Patricia Highsmith – Having meant to try something by Patricia Highsmith for years, I finally read her classic psychological thriller Strangers on a Train in 2023!

8. J.B. Priestley – Benighted, Priestley’s 1927 novel, was a creepy and unsettling read, perfect for October!

9. Kate Grenville – Restless Dolly Maunder, based on the story of Grenville’s own grandmother, was an interesting look at life in Australia in the early 20th century.

10. Rebecca Netley – I enjoyed The Black Feathers, a Gothic novel set in Victorian England, and I would like to read Netley’s previous book, The Whistling, now.

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Have you read any of these authors? Which new (or new-to-you) authors did you discover last year?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Halloween Freebie”.

Today also marks the start of Witch Week, hosted by Chris and Lizzie, and their theme for this year is…Cryptozoo, “all about legendary animals, fantastic beasts and literary monsters.” I thought this would make an interesting top ten, so I am listing below a selection of monstrous animals and mythological creatures, all of which have appeared in books I’ve read and reviewed on my blog.

Not all of these are traditionally associated with Halloween, but I don’t think you would want to meet any of them after dark!

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1. The Minotaur
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

I’m starting my list with one of the most famous creatures from Greek mythology. The Minotaur has the head of a bull and the body of a man and is imprisoned in the Labyrinth of Knossos on the island of Crete. He appears in many novels and books of mythology, including Saint’s Ariadne, written from the perspectives of the Minotaur’s sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra.

2. Mari Lwyd
Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper

This final novel in Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence features several beasts and monsters, including the afanc, a Welsh lake monster, and some very threatening black minks and polecats. Most terrifying of all is the skeleton horse known as the Mari Lwyd, another creature from Welsh folklore.

3. Medved
The Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden

This is a wonderful fantasy trilogy set in medieval Russia and grounded in mythology, folklore and fairy tales. The novels feature several chyerts, or spirits, including the demonic Medved, who at one moment can appear to be a man, the next a bear.

4. Ox-headed demons
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

The Ghost Bride is a very unusual historical fantasy novel in which a young Chinese woman receives a marriage proposal from a dead man, then enters the underworld to investigate his murder. Here she finds that the Chinese afterlife is populated with many ghosts, spirits and monsters, among them the sinister ox-headed demons, guardians of the underworld.

5. Tintaglia
The Realm of the Elderlings sequence by Robin Hobb

There are several dragons who appear throughout Robin Hobb’s sixteen-volume fantasy sequence, but for this list I have chosen Tintaglia, the blue female who is the first to hatch when dragons begin to return to the world during the Liveship Traders Trilogy. Like the other dragons in the series, Tintaglia is proud and unpredictable, and for the human characters she can be either an ally or a danger.

6. Jörmungandr
Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt

Another mythical being, this time from Norse mythology. Jörmungandr, also known as the World Serpent, encircles the Earth and bites its own tail. When it releases its tail, Ragnarök, the final battle of the world, will begin. Byatt’s novel is written from the perspective of a little girl who has been evacuated during World War II and relates the Norse myth to her own life in wartime Britain.

7. Kikimora
The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

Like the Katherine Arden books above, this one combines Russian history and folklore, this time telling the story of the witch, Baba Yaga. The kikimora, a secondary character in the novel, is a house spirit from Slavic mythology. She has a birdlike appearance and lives in a swamp, where she plagues the dreams of any human who falls asleep near her watery home.

8. The Leviathan
The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

At first this appears to be a novel about a woman accused of witchcraft in the 17th century, but halfway through it develops into something quite different with tales of a fearsome snake-like sea monster. I loved the foreboding atmosphere of the earlier chapters and would have preferred the book to continue that way, but I know other readers enjoyed the second half a lot more than I did!

9. The Beast Folk
The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells

Sometimes the most frightening monsters are those that could really exist. In Wells’ classic science fiction novel, a man is shipwrecked on an island inhabited by a scientist who has been experimenting on animals. Thankfully Wells doesn’t go into those experiments in too much detail, but the results are both sad and horrific.

10. Behemoth
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

This list wouldn’t be complete without Behemoth, the demonic, chess-playing, vodka-drinking black cat from Bulgakov’s Soviet classic. I loved this book and must read it again to see if I can pick up on some of the things I know I missed the first time!

What do you think of my list? Which other literary beasts and monsters would you include?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year”.

In January I made a list of some reading resolutions for the year ahead, so I thought I would return to them here and see how I’m progressing. There are only seven, so this is not a full top ten list this week!

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1. Finish my Classics Club list.
At the start of this year I had sixteen books remaining on my Classics Club list. I had hoped to read all of them during 2023, but as usual I’ve been distracted by other books and so far have only read seven of them, leaving nine still on the list. I’m planning to read at least some of the others before the end of the year, but I think this is one goal that won’t be complete until 2024.

2. Re-read some old favourites.
I’ve only managed one re-read this year – The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier – but it was one I particularly enjoyed as I wasn’t sure I’d interpreted things correctly the first time I read it. I really need to find time for more re-reads!

3. Resist the temptations of NetGalley.
At the start of January, the number of books I had waiting on my NetGalley shelf was down to single figures for the first time in years. I’ve been making an effort this year to be more restrained and request fewer books, but my reading slowed down for a while in the summer so the number on the shelf has slowly built up again. They are all books I really want to read, though, which is the most important thing.

4. Make some progress with my Reading the Walter Scott Prize project.
Unfortunately, I haven’t made much progress with this at all! I’ve read three books from this year’s Walter Scott Prize shortlist, but there were seven on the list so I still have the others to catch up with. I also still have lots of books to read from the previous years’ shortlists – I haven’t even managed to read last year’s winner yet!

5. Continue with some of the series and trilogies I’ve started and never finished!
I’ve had some success with this goal, finishing Robin Hobb’s Fitz and the Fool Trilogy and picking up the next books in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. On the other hand, I’ve also started two more trilogies – the Eliot Chronicles by Elizabeth Goudge and the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. Who knows when I’ll get round to finishing them!

6. Take part in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Read Christie 2023.
I’m doing very well with the Historical Fiction Challenge, which isn’t surprising as it’s my favourite genre. My target for the year was 50 books (‘Prehistoric’ level) and I’ve read 39 with almost three months still to go. For Read Christie 2023, I joined in with the monthly reads in January, February, April, May, August and September. I’m happy with that as I hadn’t planned to participate every month – I love Christie, but twelve books a year by the same author can be too much. I have Endless Night lined up for November, but not sure yet whether I’ll read anything for October or December.

7. Make every book I read a potential book of the year.
This is always the ultimate goal of every reader, surely? Of course I haven’t achieved it and have been disappointed in some of the books I’ve chosen to read during 2023, but I’ll stay optimistic and hope I find some more books of the year in the remaining three months!

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Did you make any reading resolutions in January – and if so, are you sticking to them? What are you hoping to accomplish with your reading before the end of the year?

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books on My Fall 2023 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 Read Christie 2023 challenge:

1. Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Some possible reads for the upcoming 1962 Club:

2. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
3. The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer

Books from my Classics Club list:

4. The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
5. Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault

Some NetGalley review copies:

6. The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by various authors
7. The Devil’s Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
8. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
9. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
10. Water by John Boyne

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Have you read any of these? Which books are on your autumn/fall TBR?