Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie — 10 celebrity memoirs I’ve read… and a few from my TBR too

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Genre Freebie — which means we all pick a genre to focus on and build a top 10 list from there.

I bounced back and forth a bit, but decided to go with celebrity memoirs for my freebie theme. Not that I’m a huge celebrity follower! I rarely care about movie stars or other fancy folks… but I do find myself drawn to interesting life stories or memoirs that give insights into something I’m interested in. When I started this list, I was actually surprised by how many I’ve read!

Here are 10 memoirs I’ve enjoyed in recent years (with links to my reviews, if any):

Waypoints by Sam Heughan
Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
Spare by Prince Harry
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello
I Want To Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Life by Keith Richards
Broken Music by Sting

Plus, here are a few on my TBR list that I hope to get to eventually:

Do you have any favorite memoirs to recommend? What genre did you feature for this week’s TTT?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

15Aug2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters from Different Books Who Should Team Up

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Characters from Different Books Who Should Team Up. I couldn’t actually come up with a list of ten, but here are a few characters who I think should hang out, make a connection, maybe share advice…

1. Mercy Thompson & October Daye: My two favorite heroines from favorite ongoing fantasy series! They’re quite different, but both are fiercely loyal, protective of loved ones, brave to the core, and amazing when they need to do battle. They’d be unstoppable together!

2. Adam Hauptman (Mercy Thompson series) and Tybalt (October Daye series): These two are leaders who are also absolutely besotted with their mates/lovers. They’re probably both too alpha to tolerate each other for long, but perhaps they could form a support group for supernatural men who love semi-mortal women with a tendency to run toward, not away from, danger.

3. Charlie Spring (Hearstopper) and Ox Matheson (Wolfsong): Charlie is such a lovely snowflake who’s endured horrible bullying as a teen, and Ox is the ultimate protector. I wish Charlie had had Ox to walk through the school halls by his side!

4. Elizabeth Zott (Lessons in Chemistry) and Olive Smith (The Love Hypothesis): I wish there was a way for Elizabeth to see into the future and see that while not without challenges, there are many more opportunities for women in STEM than in her own time.

5. London Kelley (The Hookup Plan) and Harriet Kilpatrick (Happy Place): I loved Happy Place, but did not like (spoiler alert!) that Harriet ends up leaving medicine altogether as a way to find happiness in her life. Why not look for a career using her medical degree in some other way? I feel like if Harriet had a friend like London, a passionately dedicated physician as well as a devoted support to her friends, she might have an outlet for talking about her frustrations and thinking more clearly about her options.

6. Edward Cullen (Twilight) and Matthew Clairmont (A Discovery of Witches): I’d like Edward to have a good role model, to show him that an immortal vampire has career options beyond going to high school for eternity.

7. Claire Fraser (Outlander) and Emmy Lake (Dear Mrs. Bird): At the time of the Emmy Lake books, Claire would not yet have traveled through the stones and discovered her true love, Jamie Fraser — she spent WWII as a battlefield nurse. It would be amazing if the two women could meet somehow and Emmy could write a profile of Claire for her magazine — how inspiring for the readers of Woman’s Friend!

What book characters would you want to introduce to one another?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

8Aug2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’ve added to my TBR because of other bloggers

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books I’ve Read/Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday — but I (unfortunately) don’t usually remember to keep track of where I first heard of a book, so I couldn’t be sure that the books I thought of were actually ones I learned of through TTT posts.

So… instead, I’ll just list some books that I became aware of thanks to other bloggers — through book review posts, cover reveals, “waiting on…” post, and yes, even TTT lists. Please consider this a THANK YOU to those who featured these books, even if I can’t quite remember specifically where I came across them!

My top 10 are:

The Real Queen Charlotte: Inside the Real Bridgerton Court by Catherine Curzon (added based on review at Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)
Love Theoretically (and other books) by Ali Hazelwood: I don’t think I would have considered these books without having seen all the raves on various blogs! I’ve read two of her novels so far, and I’m glad I did.
The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer: A review at Literary Potpourri convinced me to add this author’s mysteries to my TBR, when previously I’d only been aware of her historical romances.
Various novels by Judy Leigh: This is an author whose books I definitely was not aware of until I started seeing bloggers talking about how much they enjoyed them. I’ve seen read two, and have my eye on a bunch more.
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus: I first added this book to my TBR thanks to an early preview via Books, Bones & Buffy… and I can’t wait to read it.
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry: This book popped up in my feeds quite a bit, but it was a review by Jonetta at Blue Mood Cafe that convinced me to add it to my TBR.
The Spectacular by Fiona Davis: This book wasn’t on my radar at all until I saw a great review at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Blog.
Wildwood Magic by Willa Reece: Another one from Books, Bones & Buffy! I read Tammy’s review this week, and that was enough to convince me to add it to my TBR.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: This book is everywhere (including all over the bestseller lists), but I know I first became aware of it via multiple TTT posts.
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley: The only one on this list that I’ve actually read! I had skipped right by it originally, but after seeing a few posts featuring this as a “most anticipated” book for 2023, I had to know more… and I absolutely loved it.

Putting this list together makes me realize I should keep better track of where I first learned about the books I add to my TBR list. (I have a friend who keeps a huge spreadsheet for this, but I’m not quite ready to go that far just yet!)

What book did you read or add to your TBR lists because of other bloggers?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

1Aug2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Forgotten Backlist Titles

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!).

I’m not sure that I’d consider these books “forgotten” — but I’ve put together a list of earlier books by authors with more recent books making a big splash. Here are my ten:

1) Green Creek series by TJ Klune: This may be a bit of a cheat, since this series is being reissued this year and next. TJ Klune broke into bestseller stardom with The House in the Cerulean Sea in 2020, but before that, his books included this outstanding werewolf series (of which, I’ve read books 1 & 2 — Wolfsong and Ravensong — and can’t wait to dive into 3 & 4!)

2) Lord John books by Diana Gabaldon: Sure, everyone knows about Outlander, but die-hard fans also read the Lord John books, which fill in critical pieces of LJ’s story and help a lot by the time you get to later books in the Outlander series as well.

3) Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid: This was my TJR gateway book! Before Daisy Jones or Evelyn Hugo, I read this one, then all of her earlier books. These books deserve love too!

4) A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher: I loved this magical fantasy! My first introductions to T Kingfisher were horror novels, but going back and reading her fantasy stories is a total kick.

5) River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey: This author has had some big hits since, but I will never get tired of talking about the American Hippo books!

6) The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black: I’ve since read many more Holly Black books, including the Folk of the Air series (my favorite) — but I remember loving this one, and have been thinking I should go back for a reread.

7) The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi: You really can’t go wrong with a Scalzi book. I don’t know many people who’ve read this one, but it’s hilarious (especially if you listen to the audiobook version).

8) The Pact by Jodi Picoult: This author is a huge bestseller, but of all her books, this is the one that’s really stayed with me across the years. It’s the first of her books that I ever read, and maybe because of the combination of subject matter and the particular time in my life that I read it, it’s haunted me ever since.

9) Rosie Hopkins series by Jenny Colgan: I love this author’s books, with their sunny outlook on life, quirky characters, and cakes, cookies, and candies to die for! I feel like this series is very under-the-radar, but I thought it was a stand-out.

10) Newsflesh series by Mira Grant: Mira Grant is one of Seanan McGuire’s pen names, under which she writes terrific horror. This series is outstanding, and I don’t know that I’d consider it forgotten in any way… but I just don’t see it getting mentioned very often. I love these books, and recommend them whenever I get a chance.

Have you read any of my backlist books? What backlist books do you wish more people would read?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

25Jul2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish.

I struggled for a bit to come up with a list, since lately, I don’t even really consider a book a DNF if I put it down after only a few pages. Finally, though, I came up with 10, from the last couple of years of reading:

1) Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling: DNF at approx 20%. The book was bleak and just did not grab me at all.

2) Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty: Such a disappointment! I’ve really enjoyed other books by this author. This book felt like it was trying too hard to be cute, with forced humor and inconsistent plotting. I quit after about 25%.

3) The Only Purple House in Town by Ann Aguirre: It definitely was not clear from the synopsis that this book belonged to a series, or that there was some sort of witchcraft/paranormal element. I thought I’d give it a try anyway, but I just didn’t get along with the writing and DNFd after one chapter.

4) On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi: This book may have turned out to be fine, but there are footnotes on practically every page, and you can’t really skip them and still follow the story — which made this a nightmare to read as an eARC. DNFd after trying to stick it out, somewhere about 2 or 3 chapters along.

5) The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo: I’m not even sure that this counts as a DNF, since I dropped it almost as soon as I started it. I hadn’t known ahead of time that this would be a Gatsby retelling, and as soon as I realized that, I lost all interest.

6) For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten: I read several chapters, which was enough for me to know that I didn’t care for the story or the world-building.

7) Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman: I’ve read a couple of really good horror novels by this author, but I found the first chapter off-putting and couldn’t bring myself to continue. (Terrible ARC formatting didn’t help either.)

8) Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert: Unpopular opinion time! I know people love these books, but within the first two pages of this one, I remembered everything I didn’t like about the first book in the series and realized this just wasn’t going to be for me.

9) In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce: I guess super-bleak books don’t tend to be what I feel like reading these days. I tried, but felt so unhappy every time I picked up this book to read another chapter that I had to stop.

10) The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult: I enjoy so many of Jodi Picoult’s books… and this one made no sense to me at all. DNFd after about three chapters.

What books have you DNFd recently?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

18Jul2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With One-Word Titles

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books With One-Word Titles — a topic I’ve done multiple times over the years (see here, here, and here). So, the challenge for me today is finding ten MORE books with one-word titles without repeating myself!

Here’s what I’ve come up with — all books that I’ve read within the last year or so:

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Reputation by Lex Croucher
Waypoints by Sam Heughan
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Scorpica by G. R. Macallister
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Passing by Nella Larsen
Anatomy by Dana Schwartz

What books made your list this week?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

11Jul2023

Top Ten Tuesday: My daughter’s top 10 books from the past 12 months

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week is a Freebie week, so we all come up with our own topics. I was drawing a complete blank, so I decided to enlist my daughter once again! Not only is she an amazing human being — she’s also an amazing reader, so seeing her top 10 lists is always a treat.

She originally sent me a list of 20, but put in a valiant effort and narrowed it down to 10. Here are the books she’s loved recently:

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola
Love Radio by Eboney LaDelle
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
The Street by Ann Petry
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think? (I’ve read 3 out of 10, have one all queued up to read this summer, and have my eye on at least two more of these!)

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

4Jul2023

Top Ten Tuesday: A Salute to the Red, White & Blue (Happy 4th of July!)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Book Covers In the Colors of My Country’s Flag. Since I live in the US, that makes my colors this week Red, White & Blue!

Here’s an assortment that fits the theme (not sticking with a list of 10 this week):

Starting, of course, with Outlander!

Some others that make a nice red, white & blue pattern:

And a few more that fit!

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Happy 4th of July!

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A final note: I’d love to see your flag-themed posts, so please share your link if you have one!Save

27Jun2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2023

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023.

There are so many books I’m looking forward to! Here are some highlights that I’m excited to read during the 2nd half of 2023… trying not to repeat the books highlighted in last week’s summer TBR post (except for the October Daye books, because those are absolutely at the top of my “most excited for” list this year!!).

The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Sleep No More (October Daye, #17) by Seanan McGuire
The Innocent Sleep (October Daye, #18) by Seanan McGuire
California Golden by Melanie Benjamin
Dreambound by Dan Frey
Saga, volume 11 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub

What new releases are you most looking forward to? Please share your links!

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20Jun2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for summer 2023

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books on My Summer 2023 to-Read List.

I’m hoping to get to a LOT of books already on my shelves… but I also have a bunch of new releases coming up that I’m really looking forward to, so the key will be finding the right balance of old and new!

For this list, I’ll just focus on some upcoming (and recent) new releases that I’m excited for: