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Posted on by Debbie

What’s on your Bookshelf #1

Welcome to our new challenge!

Welcome to What’s On Your Bookshelf, #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge, hosted by Sue, Donna, Jo and me.

The simple purpose of this challenge is to share our love of reading.

Why do we read?

Everyone has their own reasons for reading. My main reason is for relaxation, escaping to other worlds, stress relief and a love of words.

I love travelling to different times, past and future, through books, learning about other cultures, history and seeing the world through different eyes. I am in awe of the clever authors who manage words, plots, personalities, all the while weaving stories for us to lose ourselves in.

There isn’t much I won’t read and I love getting recommendations from others. Goodreads is a great way to see what others are reading and what’s been enjoyed and why – are we friends there yet? I sometimes leave reviews and always rate books based on my personal rating system.

The rating system I use:

1* = did not finish/terrible; 2* = OK; 3* = enjoyable; 4* = really good; 5* = excellent

You can see the full list of books I’ve read so far this year, complete with my ratings, here: Reading Challenge for 2021 – I love challenging myself to read a variety of genres, although I draw the line at some!

If I’ve read a really intense book which I adored, say like Hamnet, I might choose a softer read next to mix it up a little and give myself a break from the intensity. I often have a few books on the go at once, depending on how I’m feeling. I read quite fast and can lose hours, do you do that too? I definitely count ‘listening’ to books as reading, I’m not a huge fan of audio books but I find I’m better if I’m driving or walking.

recent books read
A list of some of the recent books I’ve read

Book Clubs x 2

I’m currently in two book clubs (one is local, and the other is online is with my co-hosts).

Online group

Since early January 2021, Sue, Donna, Jo and I have been reading our way through the Brontë sisters. So far we’ve read Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Agnes Grey by AnneBrontë, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and currently we’re working our way through The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. They are all so different, diverse and way more interesting and engaging than I’d first thought!

The way we do it is to divide each book into three or four sections, then read, discuss, read, discuss, read, discuss and then we bake! We usually take a few weeks/months for our reading and discussing, over Zoom for an hour or so at a time. After we have finished reading and discussing each book, Jo (who is a very talented author, blogger, baker and photographer) leads us in baking something from the time period of our novel, again over Zoom. So far we’ve made Crumpets, Soda Bread, Fat Rascals and for our current novel, it will be Bakewell Tarts, which may be interesting as I’m not known as a particularly good cook. It’s just so much fun cooking with friends that I forget my inadequacies and just do what Jo says!

Local group

My local book club is a lovely mix of 10 women, who have been meeting in each others’ homes once a month for over 25 years. I’ve been involved for many years and just love the friendship we have. It’s a very sociable group and lots of catching up gets done as well as talking about the current book – although the Mathematician doubts that! He’s been known to time our discussions on the actual book and compare it with our time socialising – how rude!

Just a few weeks ago, due to lockdown restrictions, we met in the local park for an afternoon tea to catch up and discuss some of our recent books. We arrange the books with the help of the library (we pay an annual fee), who provide each of us with a copy of the chosen book and a set of questions to help the discussion along. Our current book is Danger Music by Eddie Ayres, which is quite fitting due to what’s going on in Afganistan at the moment. At the beginning of each year we get a list to choose from and each select a book, we never know what we’re reading next, it’s usually a good surprise!

Are you in any bookclubs too?

Book Club in the park on a cool Sunday afternoon

So what’s on my bookshelf?

For the first WOYBS, I’m going to have a look back at my ‘most…’ books so far this year. So without further ado:

Most surprising – The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison by Meredith Jaffe. Given my background as an Education Manager in a Men’s Prison this was right up my alley from the start. A great read!

Most intriguing – The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. This had me on edge all the way through and I just couldn’t put it down. A lot of history was incorporated.

Most fun – Spring Clean for the Peach Queen by Sasha Wasley (and her subsequent books in this series).

Most inspiring – The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Most scary – The Darkest Shore by Karen Brooks. Why? It was based on a true story and that makes it very scary!

Most heartbreaking (but uplifting) – Sam Bloom: Heartache and Birdsong and Penguin Bloom. So sad and sweet and a fabulous movie too.

Most Historical – The Good Wife of Bath: A (mostly) true story by Karen Brooks (based on Chaucer’s work). I hadn’t read Chaucer so don’t think you need to have that background, it was a really good read!

Most worthy of a mention – The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald and Wild and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I gave them all 5 stars for a reason.

Most compelling series – The Joseph O’Loughlin series by Michael Robotham – easy to read, intriguing, suspenseful, scary but not too bad, full of psychological twists and turns. I’ve been working my way slowly through these and always enjoy a good thriller.

I’m now reading Louise Penny’s Inspector Armand Gamache series and they are proving to be compelling too. A Canadian Detective series which is quite gentle and easy to enjoy!

Book of the Year (so far) – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell – yes that’s a big call but I loved it!

What am I currently reading?

Up until last month, I was in the habit of writing a Friday Fiction post towards the end of each month, but from now on, I’ll be joining my friends to share What’s on your Bookshelf instead – on the third Friday of each month. Reading, like life, is always more fun with friends. Hope you enjoy our offerings!

What’s on your bookshelf guidelines:

What: What’s On Your Bookshelf #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge
When: Third Thursday PM (Northern Hemisphere)/ Third Friday AM (Southern Hemisphere).
Why: Share a love of reading.
Where: Blog, Blog Comments, Instagram or other Social Media.
Who: This linkup is open to everyone.
How: You can share in the comments, with a blog post, or on other social media of your choice. Include the special hashtag #Whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge so that we can find you and include your link in our posts.

But Wait, There’s (Even) More!

To show our appreciation to all participants, contributors are welcome to display this badge on their blog, website or social media. Cool, Huh?!
Simply take a screenshot of the image below, and follow these easy-peasy instructions here. Prefer a jpg? Drop me your email, and I’d be happy to email one to you.

Contributor’s Badge

Now it’s over to you, will you join us?

Sue, Donna, Jo and I hope that you will join us in this new series! If you have any questions just ask us. You can also link to any, or all of our posts, with a pingback, that way we get to see your posts quicker!

Don’t forget to tell me about the book(s) you’re reading at the moment!

You can read more from our co-hosts here: Jo , Sue and Donna

Also joining us are:

We’re all in this together 🙂

Deb xx

You can see all my reading challenges and books here on my Book Page

You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.

Everyone has a story to tell!

Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. You can read more of Deb’s story here

Copyright © 2024 debs-world.com – All rights reserved

72 Replies to “What’s on your Bookshelf #1”

  1. Pingback: Little Milestones – August Recap – Picture Retirement
  2. Pingback: July and August 2021 #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge (plus why I read for fun) – Eat, Play, Live

  3. Hi Deb.
    I’m late this week due to the crunch of work last week. I did carve out enough time to get two new stories out the door, but am still trying to catch up on almost every thing else.
    I miss our old book club back in the late 1980s just before our children started arriving. It was a great group, diverse and opinionated and often sarcastic. We dug into our books and our conversations were all over the map. I still recall one book that was chosen almost at random by my friend’s wife and everyone of us, even her – HATED that book. It was brutal and fun. We heard about how one of our members was so appalled that she threw the book across the room at one point. A couple could not / would not even finish it.
    It was all great fun.
    I don’t have time to read as much as I used to and am trying to spend a bit more time creating my own stories to share.
    With that, I’d like to ask if you would consider reading my longest posted story. It’s about an hour long and is the result of a shorter story about the same thing, but many of my readers told me it needed to be longer. Having worked so hard to cut it down, I was keen on the idea of recasting it with more words. It’s a positive piece of fiction, redemptive in theme and a bit gutsy in how it concluded, but I’ve had some good feedback from some of the readers I really respect. I’d love to count you among them if you were willing.
    Here’s the link ::

    Ayem Notthymn: The Second Door


    You could tell me if you think Havilah acted credibly or ???

    Regardless, thanks for this visit. Sorry for being so late.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Gary, I enjoyed reading your thoughts here and also your story. You have a real talent and as i said in the comment I left you, I’m not sure I would have been so forgiving as Havilah but you wrote it really well!

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      Reply

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