#tuesdaytunes
You know when your music streaming service plays you music based on other stuff you like? I think thats how i only recently stumbled onto Troye Sivan‘s 2018 album Bloom, but in particular this song Seventeen Ive been playing and replaying.
“I went out looking for love when i was seventeen. Maybe a little too young but it was real to me” 💔 https://youtu.be/4pxdGNVqwnA?si=dl5a39kjaU-NxKkm

I needed an easy read & this fitted the bill perfectly. A fantasy that reads like a modern fairytale with found family & great side characters. Marra is the youngest princess of the Harbour Kingdom. Her oldest sister is promised to the Prince of a more powerful neighbour kingdom. When her sister dies Marra suspects something is terribly wrong. This is lighter and faster moving than it might sound. Sweet with some bone magic & a few ghosts.

A beautifully written book about a young woman who sublimates her own scientific ambitions in order to accompany her older “scientific genius” husband working in Los Alamos in the 1940s. There is some lovely nature writing in here as she continues to spend time watching birds in New Mexico. For all that this sounds like my kind of quiet thoughtful book, i struggled to connect with the protagonist and her timidity. Probably me and not the book!

Just finished watching the Netflix version of 3 Body Problem and thoroughly enjoyed it - although of course the books are better. As @vivastory said in his review they had to make changes for cost and marketing reasons. In my heart i always want the entire complexity on screen with no conjoining of characters - but thats never possible. I loved seeing the game in full glory, and the Ye Wenjie section was PERFECT. Love Benedict Wong too 🙌

This is a short, fast moving piece of noir crime fiction from 1943. Its deliciously dark, a man and a woman join to commit a crime - possibly the perfect crime. Will they be caught? Can they trust each other?
This is a great single afternoon read - you wont get hugely involved with the characters - but enjoy the plot and the style.

Sometimes i read a book about one historic period and it makes mention of preceding events i know next to nothing about, so then i have to read another book! This is about William of Orange and Mary, daughter of James II, who after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 became joint monarches of England. This had just the right level of detail for me - thorough but included enough personal and domestic detail to stop it being too dry. A fascinating read

I so enjoyed Translation State that i jumped into Provenance, another stand alone novel in the same universe. Again we‘re getting to know other cultures and species - this time its the Hwae and the Geck. Im kinda fond of the Geck - aquatic aliens who stay in water on their ships and interact with humans on land by piloting mechanical spidery things. Theyre kind of grumpy and demand humans stay consistent to their stated ethics 😂 ⬇️

Havent read much romance lately so i thought i would try Ali Hazelwood for a change. Really enjoyed the academic setting and the light humorous writing style. The set-up has lots of tropes but it has a sense of humour about using them. Im often wary of the “young girl whose life is chaotic” character falling for “older more successful cold guy ” but Hazelwood makes it clear that Olive is driven & successful too & she instigates most action.

Photo: Lake Tekapo, NZ

This book was a RIDE - reminded me of Foundation - the way we move forward & see how humanity changes based on decisions in the past. This is a galactic chess game, earth playing a civilisation it knows little about, and scientists and military creating strategies with little to go on. I dont even try to understand the science, just the big picture of each manoeuvre. Completely absorbing - i loved it even more than Book 1.

Look what i just pre-ordered! The debut short story collection of our very own Litten @RohitSawant
A reviewer on Good Reads describes it as “a rich collection of tales from the place where weird fiction interacts with horror” and from the blurb
“Anomalous physics, a cosmic game of dice, a mobile bookstore from an outer world” “certain to please both aficionados of weird fiction and readers of Stephen King alike”
Cant wait!

Possibly the best bar for Littens in New Zealand is The Library Bar in Wellington. Lots of spaces to read! Lots of old books! Very cool staff who look like they know a book or two or three…

I love how vintage everything is including the jazz they were playing.

Forgot to post this when i was there but highly recommend if youre an NZ Litten or visiting 😍

I absolutely loved this. Went into it knowing nothing (which is my preference) and started out thinking okay this is a relationship novel with a messed up and unlikeable young protagonist. I guess im up for that. And then she made hilarious dark & deadpan remarks to her sister that honestly cracked me up. And then we get her childhood backstory and then we watch her unravel….⬇️

Just serving you up more beach photos - i never get bored taking photos of this stuff!
I loved the Raddch series by Ann Leckie and now she sets us back in this universe with 3 new characters & we learn more about the Presger & other (human & non-human) civilisations that are not Raadchai. It feels a little Becky Chamber-ish in a “lets understand our differences” way - which i love. Its fascinating to get more insight into this complex universe ⬇️

Finally getting to this debut novel from 2018. It was fascinating to view the protagonist from the internal view of the spirits that occupy her body. I had read reviews where people found this bizarre and confronting. I guess my worldview has been widened by my other reading because it didnt seem so strange - very interesting and engaging. Have you read this @Reggie ?

Thanks to reviews from @Ruthiella @batsy and @erzascarletbookgasm for putting this on my TBR 😘

Scratch beneath the surface of a pretty little English village and you get a variety of small minded self centred people being nasty to each other. But could one of them go as far as murder? We know right from the first sentence who has murder on his mind but the delight of this book is the dark humour as the plot unfolds ⬇️

I was checking out my family tree on Ancestry (its been years since i worked on it!) and got excited when i found records for one of the ships my ancestors came to NZ on - the Roman Emperor in 1860. When i googled that i found one of the men onboard was Samuel Butler who wrote this book. So i get to read a few chapters about what the crossing was like for them! Thank you internet, youve been very helpful today ☺️

I was looking for a book about women‘s lives in 18th century England and found this one which led me down so many fascinating rabbit holes. The 4 Lennox sisters are unique in that they had a huge correspondence with a lot of intimate detail from the 1750s to 1830. By telling the story of each family Tillyard covers important historical events as well as the social context. We have elopements, adultery, ⬇️

A wee #bookhaul from Wellington. I found three Secret Seven hardbacks from the 1960s with paper dustjackets in a great condition. A Nesbit book I‘d been looking for and a Borrowers hardback that is in much better condition than the old paperback on my shelf. And an Angela Thirkell i have been eyeing up online 😍 There would have been more but i was sharing one suitcase with my husband 🤪!

Finished listening to this audiobook in such a cute little cafe.
This is definitely a memoir for foodies to enjoy. Tucci adores food and his descriptions of food and cooking are SO mouth watering. He shares memories around food from times spent with family, friends and on movie sets. He briefly covers his first wife‘s death and his own cancer diagnosis but this is not a memoir for sharing every emotion - and I appreciated his restraint. ⬇️

In Wellington ostensibly for work. May have wandered into a bookshop. May have issues getting my suitcase closed. 😝😝😝 Unfortunately did not have room for all these Pollyannas!

Thank you for the gift of this book @CarolynM It was such a wild ride and kept me horrified in the best kind of way.. This book is a vehicle for Kuang to explore a variety of terrible behaviors. Beyond the protagonist‘s actions to the way in which an industry can pay lip service to and build PR around diversity while the real power and money still funnels through the existing channels. (The meeting with the Hollywood guys 🤯) ⬇️

I read this book after watching @shawnmooney interview the author and finding her very interesting. I picked it up thinking ill read a few pages - and didnt stop until i was halfway!
We spend the book in Marge‘s head - she is a bus driver, a strong, self reliant woman who falls in love with Peg, a bundle of thought and energy. Marge‘s examination of their relationship and it‘s ups and downs is unfailingly honest ⬇️

Had to jump in for #TuesdayTunes thanks to @TieDyeDude for thinking of it!

Two years ago my daughter introduced me to Kpop and now it is most of what i listen to. Amazing dance tracks, beautiful ballads, the most incredible dance moves … whats not to love??? This is NMIXX and a current fave song is Home. On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/0nYtg6MqCDmolLI5vsSAy1?si=ql4DaQPdRnmrrf-GzWCPWQ&...

Finally getting around to reading this Kiwi author. And it was a masterpiece IMO. Yes the subject matter is harrowing (the wife of a Nazi officer living next door to the Buchenwald work camp meets a doctor who is an inmate) but seeing these horrors from the perspectives of some of those who were nearby asks fresh questions. The format is also clever - we have the perspective of the wife and doctor but also the Nazi husband and the villagers nearby

Published in 2002, its taken me over 21 years to get to this book! You get a taste of the 80s and 90s, Michael‘s childhood and time in Hollywood - but of course so much of this is about his Parkinsons diagnosis and dealing both with that and his turbulent “young Hollywood star” lifestyle. I was amazed at the perspective he had for 2002, not just in considering illness and his life purpose but also understanding ⬇️

1970s Uruguay in the midst of a dictatorship where family members disappear, where curfews keep people indoors and where secrets could get you killed - five queer women take a huge chance to escape to a deserted seaside village for a week where they can be free to speak and love openly. But can one week change anything? This novel is filled with heat - both passion and rage. All five characters are unforgettable I ADORED this book!

Listened to this read by Meryl Streep which was fantastic. The set up here is a mother telling her grown children about her past as a young actress. There was so much i could recognise in having an adult child and talking to them about your past - Patchett made me laugh so much and feel so much for the joys and frustrations in those relationships. Its a contemplative book with a lot of heart. Image is a river rather than a lake! Waipapa River

Felt like something sweet and picked this based on the reviews from the #furrowedmiddlebrowclub It was so sweet and i really enjoyed the insight into the way department stores used to work and the jolly antics of this spry little family. Of course being a “good girl” is the idea being celebrated here and its all a bit of a fairytale - but lightly done and with plenty of humour. ⬇️

A random selection from my TBR - probably inspired by your review @vivastory 🙌 Ive been reading this slowly since Christmas. It is tumultuous, vibrant, both sweet and sickening, opening glimpses into lives that can be in turmoil or at a crossroads or just surviving. These are stories of second generation Cambodian Americans for the most part. Living with their parents‘ generation of survivors and their unfathomable trauma. ⬇️

This is so hard to review - there is so much space in here for the reader to create their own understanding - or to get hopelessly lost! I did feel lost at points but also extremely moved by the beauty of the writing, the incredible imagery used to experience one person losing language while another loses vision. Perhaps it is exploring the separateness of human existence, of individual grief and pain, the importance of being seen or heard. 😢

#bookerdozen
Oh wow @vivastory this is such a great idea but its SO hard to choose between favourites 😬

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Midnights Children
The Bone People
The Remains of the Day
The God of Small Things
Atonement
Wolf Hall
The Childrens Book
The garden of evening mists
The Luminaries
Underground Railroad
Shuggie Bain

Cant believe i couldnt fit in Brookner or Lively or Strout or Toibin or Waters!

Thank you to @CarolynM for gifting me this book! It took me a little while to get into this (i think just because the pov changes interrupted my reading flow at first) but then the plot started to wind up and it was GRIPPING! Walter can really write and while there are many agreeable characters to connect with here, i really adored his villains and ne‘er-do-wells. 4.5 stars for me 😍 ⬇️

A lovely little bittersweet novel from Brookner - which I‘m pairing with a teeny village hall in the Bay of Islands.
If you already know you like Brookner you‘ll like this! If you‘re new to Brookner, its a slow unravelling of the life of Kitty - a quiet, elegant, intellectual, almost “out of time” woman in her late twenties. Kitty is an English literature lecturer; we see her analysis of a 19th c novel as well as her academic life. Quite lovely.

(More gratuitous summer holiday photos!)
I had low expectations for this book. I loved The Luminaries and the idea this was a thriller didnt thrill me. Well gosh darn and blimey, i loved this too!
Catton skewers and dissects a number of people‘s ideologies and political discourse as she builds her characters backgrounds - not in a dismissive “theyre totally wrong” way i felt - more as if challenging everyone to go deeper, to debate ⬇️

A little fangirling moment that i thought bookish people would appreciate - also shows how small NZ is! @CarolynM @Rissreads
My brother returned from camping and says “the guy at the next campsite was a really nice Dad. He takes his kids away by himself so his wife can have alone time to write novels. She's on her 10th one, & won NZ author of the year”
So guess who the wife was - Catherine Chidgey! I must hurry up and read this novel now!

As expected after @Megabooks review i totally loved this! The premise and structure of following one location over multiple generations (each chapter moves ahead to a new protagonist) really appealed to me. Mason does some really interesting things with the natural & the supernatural too and i loved the way future chapters were touched by themes and objects/actions from the past. I would like more books to try this & go even deeper & more complex.

Oh my goodness @LeahBergen have you read this book? It is Noel Streatfeild examining (fangirling over?) the life and works of E Nesbit. It is just SO delightful. I think 2024 might be the year to revisit my favourite classic childrens literature - this is enticing me in that direction as surely as the smell of fresh cookies. 😍😂 (library copy - i need to find my own copy)

Finally some great summer weather! (Gratuitous boat pic)
This YA thriller was my 1st read of the year - a random selection from TBR. Steph is a young woman whose only friends are those she‘s made online - because her Mom keeps shifting town every few months to escape her ex. This is a fun read if youre prepared to suspend your disbelief and if the concepts of “found family” and “sentient AI” appeal to you. Ie maybe just me and @Ruthiella 😂😂⬇️

I stayed up reading past midnight (happy new year!) so i could finish my 90th book for 2023. This is not a genre i typically read so it was a nice change, and i was completely engaged - but I had to gloss over things i thought were heavy handed. In the police/detective novels i read theres more logic perhaps, & not as much emotional investment btw investigator/victim/suspect - it is quite fun to have more personal “secrets” in this genre. ⬇️

Alan Davies is a British actor and comedian that i have watched for many years. He wrote this book in his fifties, finally unpacking the child abuse from his past. Its a hard read but also enlightening in terms of the way his abuser ensures he is isolated from any support or nurturing. Incredibly brave of him to put this out into the world and hopefully it helps others.

Although the pretext for two characters being thrown together in this romance is ridiculous (feigning amnesia) - it doesnt matter AT ALL because Alexis Hall writes such wonderful characters with realistic and funny banter. I loved the side characters too, who had some of the best lines. Made me laugh out loud a couple times! I love that her characters have imperfections and baggage that makes them more rounded too 💕

Boxing Day is a great time to read a book in a day - which is a rare event for me! And this tale went so fast.

Enormous skill on Groff‘s behalf to instil so much grief and joy into so few chapters, the hardship, visceral fear and relief of escape and survival told predominantly through our protagonist‘s solitary journey in nature. This is a real feat of writing that probably should have made my #top23of23 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My #top23of23 is actually 15 5 star books. Each of these i really enjoyed reading at the time and am still thinking about much later.
Im enjoying seeing everyone‘s lists and i know there will be some great ones waiting tight till NYE!
Happy holidays to all and wishing peace and love to our friend @Cinfhen

Very much enjoyed this mystery set in WW2 London. Its probably a common trope to have a pair of detectives, one sensible and one eccentric and misunderstood but the setting made it more interesting. There was a little sexism, some of which was due to the setting, but hopefully thats handled better in the rest of the series because I‘m keen to try more.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book - a quiet and clever novel, using actual events as a starting point to tell a story of gendered roles, homophobia and the ways we conceal our true selves in a repressive social structure.
It is subtle and slow moving with a great sense of setting.
I can imagine this being turned into a really beautiful film.

Photo of a proper summer‘s day and a pohutakawa tree.

Just a #christmasflowers photo for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere - its peony time here in New Zealand. I put some plastic holly berries in there to make it more Christmassy 😂😂 ( @CarolynM $20 worth of flowers from the local fruit shop - love our fruit shop! 😀)

@CarolynM Thank you so much for the Christmas beauties! I couldnt help myself but had to open it straight away. And how well you know me! Day was on my Santa list this year (so i had a word in santa‘s ear this morning just in case 😂). And the desk calendar is gorgeous and the chocolate has already been opened! So appreciate your thoughtfulness and it just brought so many smiles!

I enjoyed having Colin Firth‘s voice in my ears for a few hours, but oh, Maurice, you are a self centred jerk. I love Graham Greene and this is a marvellously written novel about a man who is consumed by hatred at the end of an affair. I do hope Greene was purposefully showing us the errors in Maurice‘s possessive “love” ! A very good book but I was cross for such a lot of it!

@Rissreads Nerissa! Thank you so much! I couldn‘t help myself, i had to open your gift straight away. It really made my day. I love Amy Tan and this book is all about her life - just perfect for a long time fan like me. And the book bag is so CUTE.
I have sent you something from Readings (a couple of my faves that are on your TBR) so fingers crossed it gets there by Christmas.

A lovely light romp of a book - a historical heist that doesnt require much thought, but kept me amused - and thats high praise with my scattered thoughts at the moment!