Welcome to another month of WOYBS!
It’s great to have you join us for another month of our What’s On Your Bookshelf Challenge (WOYBS), #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge, hosted by good friends, Sue, Donna, Jo (and me).
One of the joys of being retired is that we get to escape the cold, wet snowy, grey winter of Tumbarumba and head north to spend quality time with our daughter and her family in Brisbane. Which is where I’m writing to you from – in the warm sunshine after a morning walk to the park with my 2yr-old grandson Patrick, who is now asleep for a few hours.
I also get to meet up with my friend Sue, every time we head up this way we arrange a catch-up and it’s a highlight for me.
Jane Eyre by shake and stir theatre co
Sue’s friend Robyn, saw that a performance of Jane Eyre was on at QPAC in June and as we had recently finished the works of the Bronte sisters we jumped at the chance to see this play and met up for High Tea beforehand. Unfortunately Jo was unable to join us after-all and we missed her terribly.
What a fabulous time I had! I caught the train into the city on my own (very brave and wearing a mask), I then sat in the sunshine overlooking the river and watched all the people coming and going around me. It was pure bliss!
I found Sue and Robyn and we munched and chatted through the three tiers of our High Tea at the Lyrebird Restaurant, before heading next door for the 2pm showing of Jane Eyre.
The word amazing doesn’t even begin to cover the experience – there were only four people in the cast, with the set, lighting and music doing a fabulous job of setting the scene in the quite intimate theatre. The story was told really well and stuck perfectly to the book. It was better than I had imagined and we were enthralled for the 2+ hours. I feel I have an even better understanding of Jane Eyre now and have a deep admiration for the the cast who had so many lines to remember which they delivered perfectly.
What have I enjoyed reading lately?
As you can see in the image above, I’ve read a LOT of books by Aussie author Jackie French this past month and so far this year. I must say she is a prolific writer, having written over 200 books so far – and for all ages as well.
From the famous children’s book Diary of a Wombat and many others, to teenage books and the Young Adult series The Matilda Saga and onto historical fiction for adults plus a range of non-fiction titles as well! She’s amazing and I enjoy her writing.
The Matilda Saga – Jackie French
The story of our country, and a love song to our land, told by the strong women who forged a nation.
I’m almost finished the Matilda Saga now that I’m onto book number 7 of 9 in the series. I really enjoy them as I’ve said in most of my recent WOYBS posts 🙂 I also like the titles as they are distinctly Australian.
- A waltz for Matilda (1892-1915)
- The Girl from Snowy River (1915-1924)
- The Road to Gundagai (1932-1934)
- To Love a Sunburnt Country (1942-1946)
- The Ghost by the Billabong (1968-1969)
- If Blood should stain the Wattle (1972-1975)
- Facing the Flame 1978-
- The Last Dingo Summer
- Clancy of the Overflow
Miss Lily’s Lovely Ladies – Jackie French
I’ve also enjoyed the first of the Miss Lily series and started the second book just yesterday. There are six in this series and I’m keen to read them all now.
A tale of love, espionage and passionate heroism. Inspired by true stories, this is the take on how the ‘lovely ladies’ won a war, the first in a new series that explores the changing concept of what it means to be a woman.
No Hearts of Gold – Jackie French
SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO BE LOVED, SOME ARE BORN TO BE USEFUL, AND SOME ARE BORN TO BE BAD … In this magnificent and broad-sweeping saga, award-winning author Jackie French defies the myth of colonial women as merely wives, servants, petty thieves or whores. Instead, in this masterful storyteller’s hands, these three women will be arbiters of a destiny far richer than the bewitching glitter and lure of gold.
I love early Australian historical fiction as the country comes alive through her words and I get a sense of what things may have been like – but if you don’t like Historical Fiction then these won’t be for you!
Dead Horse Gap – Lee Christine
Blurb from Goodreads: When a light plane crashes at night in the midst of the New South Wales Snowy Mountains, Sydney Homicide’s Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder and Detective Constable Mitchell Flowers are sent to investigate what immediately looks like foul play.
My review: I have enjoyed this series immensely and Dead Horse Gap was particularly interesting to me as it is set around my home town of Tumbarumba NSW in the Snowy Valleys. The characters were well written and the story kept me intrigued. The scenery and setting though made the story come alive for me.
Reading opens doors to new worlds
If you’re into reading, please feel free to join us, even if it’s just to leave a comment with what you’ve been reading lately. We’ve added a linkup (at the end of my post) so you can add your posts directly there and see what others have posted about for the month as well.
If you want intelligent children give them a book. If you want more intelligent children give them more books.”
Jackie French
Here’s my happy face from a warm and sunny Brisbane.
Will you join us?
Sue, Donna, Jo and I hope that you will join us in this fun series.
You can read more from my stunning co-hosts here:
Sue from Women Living Well After 50
Donna from Retirement Reflections
We’re all in this together, sharing our love of reading 🙂
Happy reading to you.
Deb xx
All my WOYBS posts can be found here
Guidelines for WOYBS:
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: Linkup below, 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. You can use the hashtag #Whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge
You can also find Deb’s World in lots of other places – stay in touch by clicking any of the buttons below.
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Deb's World 
I can’t find my comment here. Maybe I didn’t get it posted. I wrote my post into the middle of the night and got a little groggy by then. Looks like you really got into a series. I love when there is a good one.
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I will put “No Hearts of Gold” on my TBR list. I am always looking for books about strong women to introduce to my daughter!
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It has lots of strong women in it Julie! Hope you like it 🙂
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I think I’ve only finished two book series. One is The Chronicles of Narnia which I enjoyed from book one to seven. The other series was The Hunger Games and I thought it was okay. I am embarrassed to admit that I did not finish the entire Harry Potter series. I stopped at book five because I found Harry Potter unlikeable. But I was 16 at the time. Maybe I’ll read it again with a different mindset now that I am more than twice that age.
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I liked the Hunger Games series too Julie and I haven’t read all the Harry Potter ones, although my daughters loved them and still do! Thanks for your thoughts 🙂
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I love that you got together at the theatre – how wonderful! I’ve not heard of this Matilda series. So many books!
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Yes Lydia, so many books but all so good! The play was fabulously done and I’d see it again if I get the chance.
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Enjoy your time in Brisbane! Sounds like you are making the most of it already and how fitting to get to see an Austin play after just finishing up her books. I love a good book series and it sounds like you have found quite a few of them this month.
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Thanks Joanne, it’s been such a lovely few weeks and I’ll be sad to start heading home on the weekend. Love a good series!
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More fantastic reading, Deb. I love Jane Eyre, and that play looks wonderful. There have been so many film and TV versions. Toni x
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I think they are going to Canberra Toni, if so I’d highly recommend seeing it if you got the chance.
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Hi Deb – glad you enjoyed the play as much as Sue did. Also lovely that you got to catch up and spend some time together. You’ve certainly been busy with your reading. I’ve just found a new series that I’m enjoying and it’s so nice to see that there’s more books to read when you find an author you enjoy.
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Hi Leanne, I’ve enjoyed the downtime and reading in the sunshine whenever I get the chance. It was great to see the play with Sue and catch up in person 🙂
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Sunshine suits you Deb!! I loved reading this. My daughter, the T/L I wrote about, got to meet Jackie French a while back and just loved her. She is, from what I understand, challenged with some learning issues …I can’t remember…but she has a prolific output and writes from a true Australian life experience for sure. I know she and her husband live in rural NSW. Keeping enjoying the ‘sunshine state’. Thanks for the link up. Denyse.
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Yes Denyse, I think I’m a sunshine girl! Yes I think Jackie French has dyslexia which makes her writing all the more astounding in some ways. Thanks for joining us for the linkup 🙂
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Hi Deb I’m with you on the Matilda Saga. I loved all 9 books along with their titles and covers. I’ve become a huge Jackie French Fan also and loved Hearts of Gold. There are two books you’ve read that I haven’t so they are now on my list
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Thanks Jen, I am so glad you are also a Jackie French fan too.
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Many books to choose from here Debbie. How lovely to spend time with your daughter and friends. I’ve read a few books this month but still have posts to write up about our time in Malaysia so will
have to combine this months with next!
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It’s been so good Ali, I’m so late with replying to comments this month but I’m on holidays!
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You’re definitely excused then! Enjoy the rest and the rest!
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Hi, Debbie – I absolutely love that photo of you and Sue. I’m delighted that you had such wonderful family time, friendship time and theatre time and book time this past month. What could be better?!! Oh, and I neglected to mention High Tea Time – wonderful icing on an already delicious cake!
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Thanks very much Donna, we certainly look happy and bright in our photo don’t we?? And why wouldn’t we be?? It’s been a lovely month visiting with family and catching up with Sue 🙂 Lots of icing on the cake.
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Hi Deb meeting up and seeing Jane Eyre was certainly a highlight and wasn’t the timing perfect! I feel I understand the book having now seen the play. I’ve been reading Ann Cleeves books so I might try to open my mind this month and go for more variety. My problem is, if I love a series I need to read them all. Thanks again for your friendship and also being a fabulous co-host. xx
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Thanks for making it all happen Sue! I have a few Ann Cleeves to listen to on our drive home. I get stuck into a series and must read them all too and as quickly as possible!
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Working on my post! BTW….,did you receive my email about a blog post collab?
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Sure did Carol, I’l be home from holidays soon and will get onto it then.
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I missed you guys so much last weekend… heavy sighs… but am so glad you enjoyed the show – and the high tea. I haven’t yet read any Lee Christine, but really must do so.
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I think you’d enjoy her books Jo. Can’t tell you how much we missed you xx
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