Top Ten Tuesday: How My Blogging Style Has Changed Over Time

 

This week's theme for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is "ways in which my blogging style has changed over time." I love this topic and like reflecting on it, seeing what I do differently now and what I'd like to change in the future. With it only being my fourth year at this I don't feel like the expert some of my fellow bloggers of twenty years are but I certainly now have a good feel for what it entails. 

So this is fun and gets me motivated to work harder to improve and drop the things that just don't work for me. I want to have fun at this and also have a quality blog so you have to modify sometimes! Here are the ten ways I've changed at blogging since I began in 2022. 

1. I don't write opinion posts anymore. I started to in the beginning but found I just didn't enjoy focusing my time on it. Maybe in the future I will again, I'm not against them, but I like focusing on books and authors and podcasts more. 

2. My willingness to review books I really disliked is not there. I don't mean I say every book is fabulous but if I really don't like a book I am hesitant to review it and say only negative things. Authors work very hard and it is discouraging to hear how awful your book was I'm sure. I'd rather review books I love or give an honest, but not harsh, completely negative review.

3. I don't write a book review every single week. I used to schedule a review for every single Friday. But I found it really stressed me out. Sometimes I was just too busy to finish a book that week or maybe I just had a week I didn't want to write a review. When reading long, epic books, a week is not nearly enough time to read it well. So now I'm working on just going with the flow. I have a schedule for blogging and regular posts but......I don't put pressure on myself to write a review every week on a certain day. I'll get to it when I get to it. Or at least I tell my brain that and try to relax, lol.

Stacking the Shelves #56

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week!

Kindle purchase from Amazon

I love this author for non-fiction and she's been featured on podcasts I love. She has a style of writing that is narrative and gets to the point but is also rich in details. This book is one of a kind, narrowing in on the Beaumonts and their influence throughout the Crusader period. I am looking forward to all the new information and research in it!

Kindle purchase from Amazon

This author has a wonderful podcast he runs with another author, Sharon Bennett Connelly. It's called A Slice of Medieval and this is his latest book. It is a non-fiction, straightforward guide to all things Wars of the Roses and even though I'm well schooled in that period now, I enjoy his style of conversation on the show episodes and hopefully that transfers to print. He said he wanted to take a series of episodes for the layperson who doesn't know anything and put it in book form. I know a ton about it all but I love the period and am always happy to re-read about it!

Kindle purchase from Amazon

This author was interviewed about her books on A Slice of Medieval's podcasts recently and it was fascinating hearing her explain about how she writes historical fiction and about her character creation for this series. It is set during the Wars of the Roses and the heroine is determined to save her family home from civil war. It came out in January and is part of The Tarnished Crown series. I probably won't get around to starting it anytime soon but I'd like to read it this year before book two comes out. 

Can't Wait Wednesday: Mydworth Mysteries- Lost in the City of Light (Book 18)

 

For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday, I'm featuring, Lost in the City of Light, Mydworth Mysteries Book 18, by authors Matthew Costello and Neil Richards. They are a friend duo who have been writing together and working on projects for many years. I have not read this series yet and there are a lot of books to go through but I wanted to share anyway. It is rare to find male cozy mystery writers so I wanted to promote them. 

The main characters are a husband and wife team which is also less common in these 1920's historical cozies. In this story they travel to Paris and one of them goes missing and it's up to the other one to find them without being taken too. 

I hope you've found something you can't wait to read this week! Happy reading ya'll!

 

Cozy Mystery/Historical Mystery

 June 1, 2025

Book description courtesy of Goodreads

When Sir Harry is asked to go to Paris for a Secret Intelligence Service meeting, he of course asks Kat to come along. After all, it's Paris in the summer and fun awaits! But the getaway a deux quickly turns dangerous when Harry goes missing. 

Suddenly, with both their lives in danger, it's up to Kat to find out what's really going on. As the trail takes her from grand hotels to the late-night bars of Place Pigalle, it soon becomes clear that treachery has a murderous price in the City of Light.

The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody Book 6)

 

Publication Date:

September 1, 1991

Genre:

Cozy Mystery

Length:

 448 pages

Series:

Amelia Peabody Mysteries

Book description courtesy of Amazon books:

If Indiana Jones were female, a wife and mother who lived in Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson, an archaeologist whose extraordinary adventures are guaranteed entertainment. This time Amelia, her handsome, fearless husband, Radcliffe, and their precocious 11-year-old son, Ramses, are in the Sudan, searching for archaeologist Willoughby Forth, who disappeared 14 years earlier with his new wife. Rescued in the desert after every camel in their caravan dies, the Emersons are taken to a lost city where ancient Egyptian customs have been carried into modern times. 

There, entangled in two half-brothers' battle for the throne, Amelia and family fight for the freedom of the slave class while ferreting out the fate of Forth and his bride, and arranging to escape with their lives. 

Peters ( The Deeds of the Disturber ), who also writes as Barbara Michaels, laces her usual intricate plotting with Amelia's commonsense approach to hygiene and manners, and coyly delicate references to vigorously enjoyed connubial pleasures. Combining a fierce affection for her family with indefatigable independence, stalwart Amelia proves once again an immensely likable heroine.

My Thoughts:

Having finished the previous book in the series in which the family is in England, I was anxious to get back to their usual pyramid digs in exotic places. This time the Peabodys go to Sudan on an epic adventure. They are looking for a man and his wife who have disappeared into the desert 14 years ago and only have a map and their wits to guide them. Facing heat, lack of water and supplies and dying camels the odds are really against them. When they stumble upon an ancient society that has maintained Egyptian customs they are intrigued but soon realize they are also prisoners. The civilization does not want to be discovered and the Peabodys, along with their son Ramses are now coming to understand this is not just a fun history re-enactment but a kidnapping. 

This was truly a wild ride! I honestly enjoyed the first half of the book more, the part where they are asked to search for the Willoughbys, the clues, and just the amazing authentic details that Peters includes as they prepare for the journey and make their way through the desert. I was so excited to know where the map would lead them and was really invested in what they would find. Add to that Amelia and Radcliffe and Ramses banter and it was very entertaining. 

Can't Wait Wednesday: The Tiger and the Thief by Griff Hosker (The East Indiaman Saga Book 2)

 

For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, I'm featuring, The Tiger and the Thief, by Griff Hosker. This is book two in his series about a soldier working for the East India Company, which I have always found fascinating. This premise is unique and of course I'd read book one first but this is his newest one coming out in May. I had not heard of this author before but researching his other books he has been writing awhile and has several other series besides this one. 

I hope you've found something you can't wait to read this week! Happy reading ya'll!

Historical Fiction

May 2, 2025

Book description courtesy of Goodreads

Although now hidden in a company of East India soldiers, Bill ‘Smudger’ Smith still harbours an intention to escape. These plans are put on hold however when his former life as a wharf rat comes back to haunt him. Bill is a skilled thief with a sharp talent for deception. When the Company needs one of their men to infiltrate the fortress of Seringapatam, it falls to Smudger to gather the necessary intel to take down Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. 

Will he succeed in his mission? And what will it mean for his ultimate plans for freedom? Finding himself increasingly tied to his fellow soldiers, the Devil’s Dozen, will Bill be able to part from his new-found family? Or are his adventures with the East India Company destined to continue?