Category Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Genre freebie — time travel (and other time oddities)!

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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, with the prompt: Pick any genre you’d like and build a list around it. You can even narrow the topic if you’d like, such as: thrillers with unreliable narrators, fantasy romance with fae characters, or historical romance with suspense elements.

I considered and discarded a bunch of options before settling on time travel as my theme for the week. I’m sure I must have covered this topic before — many times!! — but it’s just such a good one, and there are always more books to add.

Here are some favorite, beloved time travel books*… plus a smaller handful that I read but didn’t love, although in most cases, there were at least a few elements to appreciate.

*Technically, these aren’t all exactly time travel. Some just have time-related weirdness (such as extraordinarily long lives) that make me include them in this category!

LOVED:

Best of the best:

**Which I read because of my undying love for the gorgeous movie version! Which I really must watch again one of these days…

LIKED (or merely tolerated):

All of these have at least something interesting about them, but for various reasons, simply did not work exceptionally well for me.

Do you have any favorite time travel books?

What genre did you focus on this week? If you wrote a TTT list, please share your link!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Beachy reads

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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  Beach/Beachy Reads, with the prompt: Share books you’d take to the beach OR books that take place at the beach.

I love books with a summer vibe, and all of these take place at or near a beach of some sort… or at least include a brief visit! Here are ten of my favorites:

  • Beach Read by Emily Henry (review)
  • Every Summer After by Carley Fortune (review)
  • Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino (review)
  • The Beach Trap by Ali Brady (review)
  • The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner (review)
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
  • Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (review)
  • The Love Haters by Katherine Center (review)
  • Its a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan (review)
  • The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren (review)

What books made your list this week? Please share your TTT links!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Books to Read (2025 update)

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s is a Freebie/Throwback, with the prompt: Come up with a topic you’d like to do or go back and do an old topic you missed or just want to do again! Looking back at earlier TTT topics, I thought I’d go back and provide an update on my freebie topic from spring 2024: Backlist Books To Read.

What you’ll see below is a duplicate of my 2024 list… but with notes on which books I’ve read, which I’m still interested in, and which I’m not planning to pursue. I’ve actually read a decent amount of these… yay, me!

Here’s my 2025 update on my 2024 backlist post:

1. Kristin Hannah – Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I read The Nightingale earlier this year, and loved it! My review is here. I’d still like to get to the other two, and probably more beyond that.

2. TJ Klune: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

(Note: Same book; original cover on the left, new cover for the 2025 reissue on the right)

2025 update: Read it, loved it! My review is here. I do have a few other early books by TJ Klune marked as to-read:

I’m not necessarily rushing to pick these up — but please do let me know if you’ve read them and recommend them!

3. William Kent Krueger: Backlist title (series) identified in 2024:

2025 update: Probably going to pass. I’m not really looking to get involved in even more series at the moment, and mysteries aren’t my go-to genre in any case.

4. Dana Stabenow: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Again, probably not. I do love this author, but I think I’ll hold off on any backlist titles, and will look forward to her upcoming 2026 new release, The Harvey Girl.

5. Abby Jimenez: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! Read them all! I didn’t love this trilogy quite as much as the Part of Your World trilogy… but I still enjoyed all of these (especially the 2nd book) and I’m glad I read them!

6. Rachel Harrison: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: Yes! This book was so creepy and disturbing, and I loved it! My review is here. And now, I’m eagerly awaiting her 2025 new release, Play Nice, coming this fall.

7. Kelley Armstrong: Backlist titles identified in 2024 (two different series starters):

2025 update: I read City of the Lost, book #1 in the Rockton series, and I’m eager to continue! In fact, I’m hoping to start the 2nd book this month. As for the Cainsville series, this will remain a “maybe someday” read for me, but I don’t feel any urgency about it.

8. Jenny Colgan: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I did read Where Have All the Boys Gone (review)… and didn’t especially love it. I have a feeling that her earlier books may all feel a bit dated to me at this point, so I don’t think I’ll follow through with any others. (But who knows? Never say never, when it comes to favorite authors…)

9. Eva Ibbotson: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to any of these, but still want to!

10. Katherine Center: Backlist titles identified in 2024:

2025 update: I didn’t get to either of these… but I still intend to! And then I’ll have made it through all of her backlist books.

BONUS PICKS: Because why stop at 10? Here are a few more authors I’m adding to my 2025 list, whose backlists I need to explore:

  • Victoria Schwab: After loving both The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (review) and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (watch for my review later this week!), I’m feeling like I really should try her YA fiction too. Any favorites? Suggestions on where to start?
  • Jennifer Weiner: I’ve read lots of her books, but there are plenty more that I’ve missed over the years. The two highest on my priority list are Mrs. Everything and Big Summer.
  • Colleen Oakley: I’ve read her more recent books, but still need to get to You Were There Too and Before I Go.

Have you read any of my backlist picks? Any you especially recommend?

If you wrote a freebie post this week, what topic did you choose? Please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025

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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 in the Second Half of 2025.

All of a sudden it’s summer, and… whoosh!… time is flying by. It’s hard to think about the 2nd half of 2025 already, when I’ve barely kept up with my reading plans from the 1st half.

Here are ten books scheduled for release from July through December that I’m looking forward to:

  • A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (7/15/2025)
  • The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose, #6) by Charlaine Harris (7/55/2025)
  • Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (8/19/2025)
  • Play Nice by Rachel Harrison (9/9/2025)
  • The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures, #2) by Katherine Rundell (9/11/2025)
  • The Shattering Peace (Old Man’s War, #7) by John Scalzi (9/19/2025)
  • Silver and Lead (October Daye, #19) by Seanan McGuire (9/30/2025)
  • The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow by Kelley Armstrong (10/14/2025)
  • The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (10/14/2025)
  • Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs (10/21/2025)

What upcoming new releases are you most excited for? Please share your TTT links!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for summer 2025

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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 2025 to-Read List.

It’s impossible to keep up with all the books I have my eyes on! Here are the top 10 I most want to make time for… preferably for reading outdoors, in the sun, with warm breezes and a big iced coffee to go with them!

  • Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong
  • Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
  • The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
  • Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
  • The Last Wizards’ Ball by Charlaine Harris
  • Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
  • Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
  • The Fair Folk by Su Bristow

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your TTT links!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish wishes (summer 2025)

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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 Bookish Wishes, with the prompt: List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wishes. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address or include the email address associated with your e-reader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!

When wishlists come up as a TTT prompt, I typically don’t share a link… but what the heck! I’ll jump in with my Amazon wishlist this time around. Really, I’m not terribly comfortable asking people for anything! Mainly, I’m posting this to say — here are books I want to get my hands on… and here’s hoping the Library Hold Fairy works her magic and gets them to me quickly!

Featured authors:

  1. My Friends by Fredrik Backman
  2. Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstong
  3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
  4. Every Summer After (deluxe edition) by Carley Fortune (yes, I’ve read this one already, but I’m dying over the gorgeousness of this new edition!)
  5. Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words by John McWhorter (to satisfy my inner grammar geek)
  6. The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
  7. Overgrowth by Mira Grant (I read this already as an ARC, but feel like I NEED a hardcover edition for my shelves)
  8. The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (not due out until the fall, but I’m already waiting for it!)
  9. Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
  10. The Names by Florence Knapp

What books are you wishing for right now?

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

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 books with ballgowns on the cover

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Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.

This week’s topic is Top 5 books with a ballgown on the cover, with the prompt: We are hitting it old school and FANCY this week. Your top five books with ballgowns on the cover, if you please. State of the ballgown is up to you. 

My first thought was that I could just go with five books from the Bridgerton series! But I’ll try to expand my reach just a bit beyond that.

Here are a few from my shelves that fit the theme:

  1. Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman (I ended up DNFing this book, but I still like the cover!)
  2. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4) by Julia Quinn (I couldn’t entirely omit Bridgerton books!) (review)
  3. The Ladies Rewrite the Rules by Suzanne Allain (review)
  4. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer (review)
  5. Valour and Vanity (Glamourist Histories, #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal (review)

What covers did you feature this week? Do you have a favorite “ballgown” books on your shelves?

If you wrote a T5T post, please share your link!

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 books with stars on the cover

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Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a T5T post — not for any specific reason, but just because my blogging habits have been a bit scattered lately. Too many real life distractions! Anyway, this topic caught my eye and seemed like fun, so here I am.

This week’s topic is Top 5 books with a star on the cover, with the prompt: Time to find your fave books with a (or multiple) star(s) on the cover. And in the immortal words of Nicola Yoon: The Sun is Also a Star. (Just saying!).

Here are a few from my shelves that fit the theme:

  1. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (review)
  2. A Brilliant Night of Ice and Stars by Rebecca Connolly (on my TBR!)
  3. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (review)
  4. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (review)
  5. The Midnight Watch by David Dyer (review)

Interesting… my five include two Titanic books!

So, those are my five top books with actual (astronomical/celestial) stars… but I’ll add two more books as a bonus, since I loved them both. These books’ covers have stars representing military service — another type of star!

  1. Blue Stars by Emily Gray Tedrowe (review)
  2. You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon (excellent book of linked stories; I read it before I started posting reviews)

What “star” covers did you feature this week? What other books with stars on their covers do you especially love?

If you wrote a T5T post, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: California dreaming… authors who live (or lived) in my state

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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 Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State. I’m including some authors who are no longer living, but who are certainly very much associated with my (adopted) home state of California!

Via Etsy – JuniperTrailPrints

Although I’m not a native, I’ve been living in California for almost all of my adult life — so it’s home! Here are a selection of books by authors who either live or lived in California. I love my literary neighbors!

Featured authors:

  1. Jasmine Guillory
  2. John Steinbeck
  3. Gail Carriger
  4. Armistead Maupin
  5. Daniel Handler
  6. Nina Lacour
  7. Isabel Allende
  8. Taylor Jenkins Reid
  9. Ray Bradbury
  10. Lisa See

It actually was a bit of a challenge to come up with my list this week — I had to do a bit of fact-checking to make sure that authors who I thought live/lived in California actually did! Did anyone else struggle with this week’s prompt?

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Going to the chapel… books with “wedding” in the title

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Setting the mood with a song…

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 the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title, with the prompt: Choose a word and find ten books with that word in the title.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I’m in countdown mode until a family wedding at the end of May, so that’s what’s been on my brain, and that’s the word I’m going for! Here are ten eleven books — most of which I’ve read, plus one releasing in May that I can’t wait to read — with WEDDING in the title:

  1. Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong — May new release!
  2. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (my review)
  3. Amanda’s Wedding by Jenny Colgan — on my TBR
  4. On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn (my review)
  5. An Island Wedding by Jenny Colgan (my review)
  6. The Wedding Setup by Sonali Dev
  7. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (my review)
  8. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan (my review)
  9. Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaladdin and Marissa Stapley (my review )
  10. Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto (my review)
  11. My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding edited by P. N. Elrod

I originally had ten, but couldn’t resist adding #11 because the title makes me laugh every time I see it!

What word did you choose for this week’s prompt?

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

In case you’re interested in quick links to buying sites for the books mentioned above:

Note: These are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

  1. Death at a Highland Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  2. The Wedding People: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  3. Amanda’s Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  4. On the Way to the Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  5. An Island Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  6. The Wedding Setup: Amazon
  7. The Wedding Date: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  8. The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  9. Three Holidays and a Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  10. Four Aunties and a Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop – Libro
  11. My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding: Amazon – Bookshop