Claire Hadleigh: reading lists

Showing posts with label reading lists. Show all posts

1/8/19

Join me!

I'm starting something new for 2019, and I hope you'll join me on upcoming Tuesdays when I stop and take some time to brew a pot of tea, take out one of my little treasures -- a lovely fine bone china teacup and saucer -- and share my thoughts with you about what I'm currently reading.

BTW, the image of the teacup and saucer is mine -- the imprint is Limoges with a hand-painted set of initials and date -- NB '94. Each Tuesday, I'll share my tea cup collection with you and the tea I'm drinking, too. I have a growing collection of loose teas that I'm enjoying this winter -- another break from the daily coffee habit. Today's tea? Winter Chai by Tea Forte -- perfect for a cold January day!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm changing my reading diet a bit this year. For the past four or five years, I've predominantly read romance, both historical and contemporary, because it was a new uncharted territory for me. And I truly loved it, so much so that I started writing and publishing romance.

But romance can be somewhat of a rich diet, like existing on chocolate truffles and champagne -- quite wonderful but a bit rich. So in an attempt to strike some balance in my readings, I'm adding in memoirs -- mostly those that have to do with cooking and travel -- and historical fiction that explores the Colonial and American Revolutionary periods, which I find sadly lacking in today's market. Of course, I'm still hooked on romance -- after all, there's always time for romance in our lives, but I want to expand my reading horizons, and I hope you'll join me in the coming weeks.

Now that was a long introduction and thanks for sticking with me -- here's my comments on what I'm currently reading this week:

Ann Mah has led an intriguing life as a diplomat's wife and moving about the globe at a dizzying pace. But Paris and France are what draw her and her husband time and time again, until one day he's assigned to Paris. Amidst their delight, he's shifted to Baghdad for a year and she cannot go with him. Desolate, she turns to food and recipes and finding out about the various regional cooking of France to fill her time and loneliness.

Mah has a dry sense of humor and a perceptive eye, bringing her visits around France to the reader, as well as the often delicious, mouthwatering recipes and the people who create them, always with grace and her sense of honoring the French way of cooking and eating.

She also has two novels -- "Kitchen Chinese: a Novel about Food, Family and Finding Yourself," and a more recent publication, "The Lost Vintage" -- both of which I plan to order soon.

Happy Reading and see you

next Tuesday! Claire H.

1/1/19

Top 25 Reads for 2018

2018 was a busy year for reading -- lots of great books, so little time, right?

Although I must admit that this year I was immersed in Susan Mallery's Fools Gold series, as well as Jill Shalvis' Lucky Harbor and Heartbreaker Bay series -- and I do mean totally immersed. These two writers can world build like no other! But for the sake of the Top 25, I am putting Mallery and Shalvis in their own kingdom and let you decide.

Also, please note that I am not driven by the NYT Bestseller List or any other "lists" -- I tend to like to find my writers in a more organic way, mainly by browsing in real brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, so some are "newish" and some are older. If I'm starting a new series, I like to start at the beginning, which means I'm reading past bestsellers.

So, here's my top 25 titles that I heartily recommend to readers (broken down by genre / subgenre):

Regency Romance:

Sherry Thomas, His at Night
Tessa Dare, The Dutchess Deal
Suzanne Enoch, The Care and Taming of a Rogue
S. Enoch, The Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior
Grace Burrowes, Douglas
Sally MacKenzie, What Ales the Earl (no, that's not a misspelling)

Historical Romance & Mystery -- Colonial America / American Revolution:

Laura Frantz, The Lacemaker (gentle)
Donna Thorland, Turncoat
Karen Swee, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Murder (mystery)
Barbara Hamilton, The Ninth Daughter (mystery)

Contemporary Romance:

Jennifer Crusie, Bet Me
Elisa Lorello, Pasta Wars
Nora Roberts, Inn Boonsboro Trilogy (counts as 3 books)
Vicki Lewis Thompson, The Nerd who Loved Me
Julia Gabriel, Drawing Lessons
Elizabeth Adler, Summer in Tuscany

Other:

Marlena DeBlasi, Thousand Days in Venice (memoir, travel, romance)
M. DeBlasi, Thousand Days in Tuscany

Stay tuned as I begin to post my 2019 "Intentional" Reading List(s) -- good intentions sometimes fall by the wayside, depending on time, health, weather, which side of the bed I woke up on . . . ah, so many variables!

To sit alone in the lamplight with a book

spread out before you . . . is a pleasure beyond compare.

~Kenko Yoshida, Buddhist monk (ca. 13th c.)

Happy New Year!

1/11/18

New Reading List for New Year

Well, it's time for a change! Oh, sure, I'll still be reading my romance novels (already have a stack waiting by the fireplace), but I still have this feeling that I'd like to expand my reading choices, to stretch myself, both as a reader and a writer, sort of replenish the well of inspiration.

So here's my new reading theme for 2018 -- Armchair Travel! Yes, it's easy, not costly and yet I can travel as far and as wide as I'd like, when I like. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And, in the meantime, these books may spark the little gray cells as to new venues for my romance stories -- it's a win, win, as far as I'm concerned. Once again, I am not providing links to purchase; this is purely for your exploratory pleasure!

MEMOIRS: