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 That Made Me Laugh Out Loud.
I know I did a similar post last year for a top 5 list, but here goes again!
(Okay, that’s more than ten… I couldn’t decide which ones to leave out!)
What books make you laugh out loud? Please share your link so I can 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 Purple, Yellow, and/or Green Book Covers, in honor of Mardi Gras.
Fun and festive! And a great excuse to visit my bookshelves to find the right colors…
What green, purple, and yellow books are on your shelves?
Please share your link so I can 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 Love Freebie, which means we all put our own spin on the topic of LOVE.
Just like I did for February 2020’s Love Freebie TTT, I’m going to keep it simple and highlight my ten favorite love stories that I read in the past year:
1. The Duke & I by Julia Quinn: Like just about everyone else, I have firmly jumped onto the Bridgerton bandwagon! I loved the Netflix show, and I’m finding the books pretty charming and fluffy too.
2. The Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal: This five-volume historical-fiction-with-magic series is EVERYTHING, and includes one of my very favorite fictional couples, Jane and Vincent, who embody what a truly loving partnership of equals can and should be. LOVE these books.
3. Recipe For Persuasion by Sonali Dev: A spice-infused retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, set at a cooking competition show with sweet romance and great characters. Lots of fun.
4. Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black: I seem to take every opportunity to talk about these books! This is not a romance series, but there is a great love story mixed in with all the intrigue and scheming and magical goings-on.
5. Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald: I totally fell for the love story at the heart of this timey-wimey tale. Bonus points for taking place in Grand Central Station in New York, which is just an ultra-romantic setting, in my humble opinion.
6. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade: Sweet and sizzling romance, plus fanfic and fandoms and body positivity… great read!
7. A Stitch In Time by Kelley Armstrong: More timey-wimey goodness! A timeslip romance that’s well-done, full of mystery and passion, with an awesome setting in a haunted house on the moors.
8. Well Met and Well Played by Jen DeLuca: What could be better than romance at a Ren Faire? How about two romances at two Ren Faires? Can’t wait for book #3 to come out later this year.
9. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan: I always love this author’s books, but this one especially appealed to me, and I loved the love story at its heart, which is both a story about a couple falling in love, but also about a woman finding love for the children she’s hired to take care of. All around sweet and lovely.
10. Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston: The Once Upon a Con series is so much fun, and the mismatched pair at the heart of this geeky love story are really sweet.
What were the best love stories you read during the past year?
If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link and let me know your topic!
And PS – Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!
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 Written Before I Was Born.
Oh dear. Is this topic just an under-handed way to get me to disclose how old I am???? Because I’ll tell you, relative to the majority of the book bloggers I know, sometimes I feel like I’m ANCIENT. (OK, so I’m in my 50s, which isn’t completely over the hill just yet!)
Anyhoo… I thought I’d zoom in on children’s books, written before I was born, that stand the test of time! Almost all of these are books that I read myself as a child, and then shared with my own kids too.
Honorable mention: I’d include these books as well, but I didn’t read them until I was an adult! Still, they definitely belong on a list of favorite children’s books — and they were certainly written before I was born:
Are any of these your favorites too?
What books written before you were born do you really love?
Please share your link so I can 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 New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020.
There were so many great authors whose works I got to experience for the first time in 2020! Here are 10 favorites (although I think I could come up with a lot more!)
What new-to-you authors did you discover in 2020? Any particular favorites? Do we have any in common?
Please share your link so I can 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 Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To.
I recently did a similar post about the books I bought in 2020 but didn’t read. For this week’s prompt, I thought I’d look back at the quarterly TBR list Top Ten Tuesday posts from 2020, and see how well I did at reading the books I said I’d read.
Overall? Not too shabby!! Here are the books that are left, along with a note on whether I still plan to to read them. Starting with:
Winter 2020: Only two left unread:
Summer 2020 – I read all the books!
That’s seven, so I’ll also include unread books from my “most anticipated” posts from 2020:
What books did you mean to get to in 2020, but didn’t? Have you read any of the books on my list? And if so, which do you think should be top priority?
Here’s hoping we all get to our 2020 books, plus all the great books ahead in 2021!
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 Resolutions/Hopes for 2021.
I’m not a big fan of making resolutions. I’ve been around enough years to know that most don’t stick. But I’m not opposed to setting a few goals, so…
Here are some low-key bookish goals for 2021:
Read whatever I feel like. Okay, I say this every year… and every year it’s worth repeating. It’s easy to get caught up in ARCs and reading schedules, and that’s fine — but I know what makes me happiest is to read whatever I want, whenever I want. And reading is for happiness, right?
Resist the urge to over-request. I’m looking at you, NetGalley request button! I love NetGalley, and I so appreciate how wonderful it is to have access to all these amazing early review copies! But I need to keep better perspective, and not allow myself to overwhelm my to-read plans with nothing but ARCs.
Organize my bookshelves — again! — and donate the never-gonna-read books and the read-’em-but-don’t-need-to-keep-’em books to the library (once their donation center reopens).
Stick to my series reading plans for 2021! Subject to change, of course, but I do want to get to the books and series that I set as my priorities.
Updated to add: After this post was already up and published, I realized I forgot one goal! So, my late addition is… Tackle one or two of the heftier non-fiction books on my shelves (mostly a variety of history books) by reading them in small bites, just a few chapters per week. Slow and steady, so I get to enjoy them without feeling like I’m missing out on reading fiction too.
And a couple of blogging goals too:
Update my Book Blog Meme Directory page. It’s been a while since I’ve gone through and checked all the links, made sure all the listed memes are still current, etc. It’s clean-up time!
Go through old posts to make sure that images and links still work. This is a big, tedious job, but if I do it in little bites over the course of the year, it should be okay.
What are your bookish, non-bookish, or blogging resolutions for this year? Whatever you’re resolving or hoping for, I’m wishing you all a happy and healthy year. It can only get better, right?
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 Book Releases for the First Half of 2021.
I highlighted some of the upcoming releases I’m most excited for in my winter TBR post from a couple of weeks ago — but it’s always fun to look ahead and make even more reading plans! So, here are ten MORE books releasing between now and the end of June that I’m super excited to read.
What new releases are you most looking forward to in 2021? 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 Favorite Books of 2020.
2020 was a dismal year in so many ways, but on the bright side, being stuck at home most of the year meant lots of time for reading! I read so many great books this past year — here is a selection of my favorites. (Some of these are 2020 releases, and some are older — but all are books I read in 2020).
What were your favorite books of 2020?
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 Hope Santa Brings.
Well… I don’t celebrate Christmas, so I don’t expect any visits from Santa. But, I did give some wonderful books as gifts in 2020, so I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorites as an alternative to this week’s topic.
1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: MinaLima Edition: This gorgeous book is perfect for Potter fans! MinaLima is the graphic design house that provides so many of the graphics for the HP films. This book includes full-color illustrations, plus fold-outs and little extras, as well as the full orignal text. (I gave it as a gift, but liked it so much that I bought one for myself too!)
2) Tales of Beedle the Bard illustrated by Chris Riddell: Another treat for HP fans! Chris Riddell is such a talented artist (I have his editions of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and How To Stop Time by Matt Haig). It’s a large-sized book with amazing illustrations, and was a big hit with the person I gave it to.
3) March trilogy by John Lewis: I gave this set to a graphic novel fan who also happens to be fascinated with US history. She loved it.
4) WordCloud editions of classics: I’ve given a few of these over the years, as well as buying a couple for myself. They’re such a fun and cheerful way to share classic fiction.
5) A few picks for Outlander fans — assuming they own all the books in the series already, can’t go wrong with any of these:
6) For a native San Franciscan now living far from home:
7) Birthday gifts for a friend who tends to be my bookish soulmate:
8: Gifts for an Octavia Butler fan:
Not quite 10 separate items… but when all else fails, can’t go wrong with a bookish giftcard!
What books do you love to give? Any particular books you hope to receive? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
Bookshelf Fantasies 