As a regular reader of this blog, you know I’ve been blogging about books for years. Throughout my married life, my husband’s illnesses, my academic studies , widowhood and grief. Books have been my companion and often consolation. I’ve usually managed to read four or five books each month. This month  I read only two and half books and you can blame it on The Aussie Bloke.

I’m a British expat and a long-time resident in Australia. I thought I knew all about Aussie blokes, good hearted, salt of the earth types. They had weather-beaten skin, called women Sheila, and enjoyed a beer or three. Loved their cricket and footy, Holden cars and their dog. Mostly inarticulate and at a loss around women.

Then, I met  this guy on a dating site. An Aussie bloke but not the typical Aussie bloke. A decent Ish photo -most blokes have terrible photos with an intelligent profile. Possible, well at least a maybe. Then, he ‘winked’ at me, an invitation to know him better.

We began exchanging messages and not the banal kind.

Credentials were established; he could banter with the best of them. Intellectually provocative and fun!

I could of course, feed his ego more, but its already pretty healthy. He’s tall, but not dark haired. Handsome? Maybe, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 We’ve met twice but there were definite sparks. He’s got the sensuality and the moves. We know we are here to play chess and not checkers.

In the interim we have those long conversations which meander for hours and suddenly its two in the morning. Which explains why I’ve read so little this month.

The Paris Bookshop Secret: An enchanting new historical mystery, the perfect gift for book lovers by Iris Costello

          How far will they go to find their story?
 When Alexis meets Maeve – a reclusive woman in her eighties – they feel an unexpected and beautiful kinship. Alexis is embracing nomad life        after burning out as a big-shot editor. And Maeve is mourning her glory days as a bestselling author.

    Their friendship inspires Maeve to write again. Her last novel pours out  of her – a story of love and heartbreak, centred around a bookshop in  1950s Paris.

     But the line between fact and fiction is as fine as a whisper, and the novel   unfurls a long-buried mystery, one that has haunted Maeve’s existence.

   And will reverberate into the lives of both women, decades later…

          My Review.

 I enjoyed this book although, there were hints of connectivity  throughout. It’s a good story and fascinating how the strands were woven together. After a leisurely introduction the pace speeds up  considerably. Poignant, even heart breaking, dealing with  loss, abandonment ,doubt, and family secrets.

 Onwards and Upwards by Celia Anderson

A retitled alternate cover edition of this ASIN B0D2JFP3WH can be found here A New Lease of Life

A laugh-out-loud story of fun and friendship, for women of a certain age!
Ingrid is desperate to sell up and move on. Recently widowed, she no longer needs the large house or the treasures (and tat) collected by her late husband, Tommy, an auctioneer. Then there’s the debt he left her with, too.

So, she jumps at the chance to downsize and move to Willowbrook on a temporary lease. She’ll open a pop-up shop for just one year – to dispose of Tommy’s accumulated goods – and then move on. No getting embroiled in village life.

But Ingrid hasn’t reckoned on Willowbrook’s extrovert local ladies (known as the Saga Louts). Or handsome local craftsman Joel, with whom there’s a definite attraction. They all want to help set up ‘The Treasure Trove’.
Surprisingly, it turns out Ingrid can also help them.

Will she ever achieve the fresh start and simpler life she craved? Or will Ingrid discover a wonderful new way to move onwards and upwards.

346 pages, Kindle Edition First published November 16, 2024

My Review.

Undemanding reading, but with some twists and turns along the way. There are more than few surprise for Ingrid, about Tommy, and their relationship and about herself. Currently I’m drawn to books about widows and enjoy books about new beginnings.

 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

          A Good Reads readers’ choice

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility, a novel  about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel—a beautifully transporting novel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal. He is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances give him access to a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

495 pages, Paperback First published September 6, 2016

My Review.

The half book of the title. I’ve yet to finish reading, as it is a book to be savoured. Not a fast paced read , more of a meander through a series of vignettes.

Will I get more or less reading time next  month ? Is my dating life going to impact more?  Maybe I can plan my schedule better. Or choose shorter books. Whatever the choice, reading is and always will be a significant part of my life.