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 2021 TBR.
This is really just scratching the surface — so many books to read! Here are 10 of my upcoming reads, all being released in June, July or August. Six out of ten are sequels or continuations of series, and four are new stand-alones. They all sound amazing!
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (set in the world of The Goblin Emperor)
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (the 3rd Simon Snow book)
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev (fun series of Jane Austen retellings)
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton (sequel to Hollow Kingdom)
Sunrise By the Sea by Jenny Colgan (another book in the Little Beach Street Bakery series!)
What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your links!
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 Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them — which can be interpreted a bunch of different ways.
For my purposes, I thought I’d focus on authors whose works I feel in love with after just one book. For all of the authors below, once I read my first book by them, I immediately needed to read ALL (or, okay, A LOT) of their books!
My top ten are:
Diana Gabaldon: Once I read Outlander, I was a goner!
Jojo Moyes: I think my first book of her was The Ship of Brides, but I’ve made it my business to read as many of her books as I could get my hands on. I think there are a still a few earlier books that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I’ve now read 10 of her books!
C. Robert Cargill: This is a recent addition for me, but now that I’ve read Day Zero, I need to read everything else he’s written. (Fun fact: He’s also a screenwriter — for movies including Marvel’s Doctor Strange, which I just watched last night and hadn’t realized he’d written!)
John Scalzi: My first book by this author was Redshirts, and it was a case of insta-love for me. I’ve now read everything of his except a book of essays, I believe.
TJ Klune: I adored The House on the Cerulean Sea, and absolutely want to read more.
Octavia Butler: Kindred felt like a life-changing read for me, and I immediately picked up copies of Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and Fledgling as soon as I finished. I still have a big chunk of her oeuvre yet to read.
Georgette Heyer: My book group picked a GH book for a discussion a few years ago, and it made me want to read more and more and more of her works! I’ve made a point since then of looking for her books whenever I’m in a used book store, and have quite a collection so far.
Jenny Colgan: My first Jenny Colgan books was The Bookshop on the Corner, and I was totally smitten with her rosy-eyed view of quirky village life. I’ve read a whole slew of her books since then, and still have more to go!
Mary Robinette Kowal: The Calculating Stars blew me away, and I’ve since read the next two books in that series, plus her Glamourist Histories books (loved them!) and a collection of short stories. More, please!
Seanan McGuire: I don’t even remember which book of hers came first for me, but once I started, I was totally hooked. And considering she publishes about four books per year, that’s a lot to keep up with!
Have you ever read a single book by a new-to-you author, then turned around and read ALL the books? Bookworm problems, amirite?
If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!
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. Since my wonderful, amazing, book-loving daughter is home this week, I thought I’d make her the star, and have her pick her top 10 reads from the past year.
Here are the books she’s loved recently:
(She couldn’t quite narrow it down to 10, so here are the 11 top books!)
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
Umami by Laia Jufresa
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air trilogy) by Holly Black
Good Talk by Mira Jacobs
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think? (I’ve read 5 of her 11, and clearly need to read at least a few of the others!)
If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!
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 Are Complete Sentences.
I was surprised by how many I found just by looking at my review archives! Here are 10 of my favorites:
Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit by Amy Stewart
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (New Outlander book! Coming November 2021!!!)
Please Send Help by Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!
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 Nature on the Cover.
I thought I’d focus on flowers and plants, but a few landscapes and animals snuck into the mix as well!
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
America Pacifica by Anna North
Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss
The Fall of Koli by M. R. Carey
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!
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 Animals from Books. I did a TTT post this past November about great pets in fiction, so I may have some overlap here.
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 Colorful Book Covers. I misread the topic, so I had a completely different list ready to go… but I guess I’ll save that one for another time! I went back to my shelves and looked through all the covers there, and came up with this collection of colorful book covers:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Icons by Monica Ahanonu & Micaela Heekin
Jane Was Here by Nicole Jacobsen
The Roommate by Rosie Danan
Outlawed by Anna North
Mythos by Stephen Fry
The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes
The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
What colorful book covers did you feature this week?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
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 Sound Like They Could Be Crayola Crayon Colors. Checking out the existing Crayola colors, I fell down a deep rabbit-hole of Pinterest boards, graphs, charts, images… but I really like this one, which is a great visual reference of currently available Crayola crayons:
I also found this awesome chart that shows the evolution of Crayola colors over time — and if you go to the original site, you can hover over a color to see its name:
I went through my shelves (physical and e-book), and came up with a list of 10 book titles that I think could also be great names for crayon colors. Tell me if you agree!
Cress by Marissa Meyer — a fresh green, of course
Cinder by Marissa Meyer — from the same series (the fabulous Lunar Chronicles) — a light, ashy grey
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown — a brown/black blend
Iron Kissed by Patricia Brigg — this would have to be a steel grey with a hint of rose mixed in
Firefly Beach by Luann Rice — I’m picturing a bright, sandy color
Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire — maybe something electric blue?
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer — a deep, bloody red, of course
Storm Front by Jim Butcher — a deep bluish-gray, veering more toward the dark side
Rainwater by Sandra Brown – something pale and silvery
The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley — a lovely red/pink mix
And just because I never get tired of looking at books, here’s a collage of the books on my list:
What book titles do you think would make good crayon names?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
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’d Gladly Throw Into the Ocean. I just wasn’t feeling the topic at all. I don’t want to throw any books into the ocean! Except maybe as an offering to the merpeople…
Anyway, that got me thinking, and I decided to go with a altogether different sort of ocean theme. Here are 10 books (most that I’ve read and loved, plus a couple still sitting on my shelf waiting to be read) that focus on people of the sea — merfolk, selkies, and other underwater spirits. I didn’t realize I had so many until I started creating this list!
The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M. Harris: A beautiful little illustrated book telling a wonderful selkie tale. (review)
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan: More selkies! Gorgeously written. (review)
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire: The 5th book in the October Daye series. And yes — more selkies!
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: Killer mermaids! One of my favorite horror novellas. (review)
The Mermaid by Cristina Henry: A mermaid in a historical fiction setting. Loved it. (review)
The Deep by Alma Katsu: Supernatural goings-on on the Titanic. I didn’t love it, but it’s a cool concept. (review)
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my shelf and I can’t wait.
All the Murmuring Bones by A. G. Slatter: Another one to be read.
Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel: Excellent graphic novel. And yes, more mermaids. (review)
The Deep by Rivers Solomon: Powerful and unique! (review)
Do you have any mermaid or selkie books to recommend? And sticking with this week’s official TTT topic, do you have books you want to throw in the ocean?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
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 Places In Books I’d Love to Live. This was a bit of a challenge, but in the end, I have 9 places — some real, some fictional — that I’d love to at least visit, and maybe possibly live… and one place (although I’m sure I could come up with a lot more) that I definitely don’t want to go anywhere near!
1. Lallybroch: The Fraser family home in the Scottish Highlands, from Outlander. Lallybroch is fictional, but the Highlands and all of Scotland are a dream destination for me.
2. The House in the Cerulean Sea (from the book by the same name, by TJ Klune) — I love the description of the house and sea and the forest!
3. Pemberley: I’d be happy to live at Mr. Darcy’s estate forever!
4. Elfhame: From the Folk of the Air books by Holly Black, I think I’d like to at least vacation in Elfhame to see the beauty and the strangeness of the faerie kingdom — but with a great deal of caution, because they really aren’t particularly kind to mortals there.
5. Anywhere in Alaska, particularly the parts described in the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow. Although maybe just in the spring and summer. Winters? Brrrrrrr.
6. Prince Edward Island: An absolute dream of mind is to visit PEI and visit all the beautiful spots described in Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon!
7. Australia: I’ve never been, and I’d love to visit to see the landscapes described in books such as The Thorn Birds and The Exiles.
8. Tuscany: So many books describe this gorgeous region. My most recent read set there, My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith, convinced me that I need to go to see the landscapes and eat the amazing food.
9. Willow Creek, Maryland — a fictional location that hosts the amazing Renaissance Faires portrayed in Jen DeLuca’s Well Met and Well Played.
10. Please do NOT send me anywhere near the Scholomance, the school of magic in Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education. I don’t think I’d survive even my first hour there.
What bookish locations are your dream destinations? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!