Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my wishlist (winter 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 about our bookish wishes.

My holidays are already over — and while my family was very good to me, many of my bookish wishes came true because I treated myself to great sale prices! Still, I do have remaining books I’d love copies of at some point.

Here are 10 books (not including books not yet released) that I’ve recently added to my wishlist:

The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
Get Lucky by Katherine Center
The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers
Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch
The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee

What books are you wishing for? If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

12Dec2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for winter 2023/2024

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 about our winter reading plans.

As always, there are endless options! Since next week’s topic is about new releases in 2024, this week, I’ll focus on already released books that I’m determined to read during the next few months.

My top 10 books on my winter TBR:

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Vintage Village Bake Off by Judy Leigh
Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley
The Guncle by Stephen Rowley
Death of an Eye by Dana Stabenow
One Girl in All the World by Kendare Blake
The Thorns Remain by J. J. A. Harwood
Emmett by L. C. Rosen
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

What books will be keeping you warm this winter? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

5Dec2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Share the Light! (a December freebie)

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 freebie — which means we all choose our own topics.

Hanukkah starts in just two days (this Thursday night), and since Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, my TTT post will be all about candles, lights, and flames!

Here are 10 books whose titles fit my topic — all are books that I’ve either read or plan to read!

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoka
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2) by Terry Pratchett
Light Years From Home by Mike Chen
Midnight Blue-Light Special (Incryptids, #2) by Seanan McGuire
Light a Single Candle by Beverly Butler
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

What was your TTT topic this week? If you wrote a post, please share your link!

Wishing all who celebrate a very happy Hanukkah!

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21Nov2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books

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 Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books. What a great topic!

Here are 10 of my reasons why I’m thankful for books:

Escape: I love immersing myself in the world of a book and shutting out reality while I’m reading.
Learning: Although I’m almost exclusively a fiction reader, I still find myself learning so much from what I read — from medical conditions to world history to cultures that are different than my own, there’s so much to explore and experience.
Connection: When I meet someone new and learn they’re a reader too, suddenly, there are endless topics to discuss and bond over.
Comfort: When days are stressful or my brain feels overloaded, it’s lovely to be able to curl up with a well-loved book and feel calm and cozy again.
Boredom busters: I can never be bored if I have a book with me (and I always have a book with me). Waiting rooms? Long lines? Holding for customer service? That’s okay — I have something to read.
Book buddies: I love my inner circle of book buddies, those real-life people who love books as much as I do — we swap, share thoughts, make recommendations, and have book-related experiences that our non-bookish friends just don’t get.
Nostalgia: Certain books take me back to places and people from my earlier years, so reading them again is not only a wonderful reading experience in and of itself, but also brings memories of family and experiences that are tied to those books.
Imaginary journeys: I love it when the world of a book is so immersive that it just sweeps me away.
Words, words, words: Beautiful writing, intricate wordplay, unusual vocabulary… these are a few of my favorite things.
The glamour of it all! Oh, I’m kidding, but I do love just looking at my bookshelves and enjoying how pretty they all are.

What are you thankful for when it comes to books?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

Wishing all a very happy Thanksgiving!

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14Nov2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read

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 Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read. I’m not sure what “mainstream” means (in the eye of the beholder, I suppose), but these are all authors who gets lots of buzz and/or time on bestseller lists… and I haven’t read their books!

Colleen Hoover
Elizabeth Gilbert
Elin Hilderbrand
Nora Roberts
Janet Evanovich
Jesmyn Ward
Abraham Verghese
Brandon Sanderson
Sarah J. Maas
Patrick Rothfuss

A few of these I just haven’t gotten to yet but likely will eventually; and some of the authors write in genres or styles that don’t always click for me.

Are there any here that you really love? If you think I should try any of these authors… let me know and try to convince me!

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

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7Nov2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines

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 Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines. I’m not sure that the books I’ve chosen would make great headlines, but hey, I tried!

My list:

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
The Underside of Joy by Seré Prince Halverson
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab

Do any of these sound like newspaper headlines to you?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

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31Oct2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween freebie — Ten horror books on my TBR list (2023 edition)

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Happy Halloween!

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 Halloween freebie! For my Halloween post, I’m going to focus on horror novels on my to-read list. (I’ve done this topic a few times in the past several years, and given the state of my TBR list, it’s time to do it again.) Some of these books have been around a while, and some are upcoming new releases:

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry
How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Have you read any of these (or for the upcoming new releases, do you plan to read them)? Which ones look best to you?

What’s on your Halloween TTT this week? Share your link, please, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

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26Sep2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2023 TBR List

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. I wasn’t particularly into this week’s topic (Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book), but since I missed TTT last week, I decided to go ahead and do that topic instead!

My list this week is is Books on My Fall 2023 To-read List. My list includes combination of upcoming new releases, books I already own but haven’t read yet, and one on my library hold list.

My top 10 for fall are:

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
Heartsong by TJ Klune
The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub

What books are you most excited for this fall? Do we have any in common?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

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29Aug2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Water, water, everywhere…

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 Water — as a topic, title, book cover element, or whatever we want.

I decided to keep it simple and feature ten books I’ve read that have Water in the title:

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
Circles on the Water by Marge Piercy
Rainwater by Sandra Brown
Dead in the Water by Dana Stabenow
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain by Joe Hill
Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

What “watery” books have you read?

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

22Aug2023

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):