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:
Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman (I ended up DNFing this book, but I still like the cover!)
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton(Bridgertons, #4) by Julia Quinn (I couldn’t entirely omit Bridgerton books!) (review)
The Ladies Rewrite the Rules by Suzanne Allain (review)
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:
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!
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!
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:
Jasmine Guillory
John Steinbeck
Gail Carriger
Armistead Maupin
Daniel Handler
Nina Lacour
Isabel Allende
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ray Bradbury
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?
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.
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 teneleven books — most of which I’ve read, plus one releasing in May that I can’t wait to read — with WEDDING in the title:
Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong — May new release!
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 Surprised Me (in a good or bad way).
I’ve decided to embrace positivity! I’m going to talk about books that provided me with surprises that made me happy, intrigued, or otherwise amused and delighted.
My top 10 are:
Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum
What surprised me: I picked up this book just to read the chapters about Survivor… and ended up reading the whole thing, start to finish. I did not expect to be that fascinated by a book about TV!
What surprised me: Everything! I am not a sports fan. At all. I picked this book up, way back when, after hearing an interview with the author. I did not expect a book about football to interest me in the slightest, but I just couldn’t put it down.
(And yes, this is my 2nd non-fiction book in a row… I am not usually a non-fiction reader, so any time I enjoy a non-fiction book, it’s pretty surprising!)
What surprised me: I was under the impression that this book would be more “literary fiction” than what I enjoy, so I disregarded it whenever it popped up on my recommendations list. Once I finally gave it a try, I was immediately hooked.
Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley
What surprised me: I misread the synopsis for this book and had a completely wrong impression of what it would be about! It worked out fine — I ended up loving the book — but seeing what the plot actually was was definitely a surprise for me.
What surprised me: The intricacy of the language and world-building. The Goblin Emperor is one of my favorite books, but the first time I read it, the storytelling style was not at all what I expected in a fantasy novel. The use of language itself as a key part of the story was one of the biggest surprises. This book is a masterpiece, and I had no idea before I picked it up and started reading it.
What surprised me: With the main character described as someone who hates books, I was prepared to dislike this book (which I got as a “blind date with a book” — otherwise, I probably never would have picked it up). It turns out, the book is delightful, and the issue around hating books is more nuanced than it might seem. And anyway, this is a sweet, upbeat romance — in a bookstore!! — that’s just so much fun.
What surprised me: I was skeptical — did we need another Hunger Games prequel? Surprise! The answer is yes. The story of Haymitch and the 50th Hunger Games pulled me in right away and was impossible to put down.
What surprised me: I suppose I can’t really say this one surprised me — whenever I pick up a John Scalzi book, I know it’ll be amazing. And yet, before reading this one, I just couldn’t imagine how a book about the moon turning to cheese could possible work. But it does! In totally fabulous ways.
What surprised me: Based on the cover, I thought this book would be a bit on the corny side… but it was actually really fun and endearing. I was surprised by how much I liked it!
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 My Unpopular Bookish Opinions.
That’s hard! But I’m up for giving it a try. Maybe these opinions are more popular than I realize, but here goes my attempt:
The Twilight series is actually better than people think. If you read them when they came out, then you remember how all-consuming and impossible to put down these books were. Sure, we can (and do) poke lots of fun at the more ridiculous plot points… but these books were an amazing read at the time.
Wuthering Heights will never appeal to me. I can’t see why this book is so beloved… and believe me, I’ve tried!
Many “classic romantic couples” are dysfunctional as hell. Romeo and Juliet, I’m looking at you… not to mention Heathcliff and Catherine, and many more.
Zombie fiction has passed its peak. Enough, already.
Assassins and killers are not compelling protagonists. Books about killers seem to be all the rage, and I’ve actually read a couple of good ones — but no matter how you dress it up, I still can’t get behind having a murderer (no matter how great the cause!) as a lead character we’re supposed to root for.
Grumpy love interests would just be jerks in real life. Romantic fiction is amazing, and I know people love the grumpy-sunshine trope… but I think so many of these guys would be actually insufferable if you met them in person.
Fourth Wing is nonsense. Don’t throw rocks at me! I know I’m in the minority on this — but to me, this book is a weird mash-up of a [insert any YA about a special school here] + death + sex + dragons. It doesn’t work.
Sprayed-edge books aren’t special anymore. I do love when there’s a gorgeous edition of a book I love, and I’ll happily buy one, but it seems like it’s becoming more and more standard for new releases to have the painted edges, no matter what it is (but especially in fantasy/romantasy). It’s starting to feel like too much of a good thing (and/or, just another excuse to raise prices for a new book).
Reading stats can have a negative effect on reading. I’m guilty of falling into this trap: We set a reading goal to read xx number of books in a year, then plan our reading to make sure we meet that target. I think readers (again, including myself) who focus on the numbers, page counts, etc often end up avoiding longer or more challenging books out of fear of missing their targets.
Celebrity books clubs are good for readers and the book industry. Don’t scoff! I have a post coming soon about celebrity book clubs in general, but my quick take is that there are some really great books that get attention because they’re book club picks, when they might have totally gone unnoticed otherwise. I think these type of clubs overall do a great service for the reading community.
I’ll just wrap things up with what I think should be a POPULAR opinion: People should read whatever they want! Read what makes you happy! That’s it, that’s all that matters.
What are your unpopular bookish opinions?
If you wrote 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 Springy Covers. When I think of springy covers, I think of light colors, flowers… and the occasional cupcake too.
So here we go — my top ten books that give me spring vibes:
Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
Jane in Love by Rachel Givney
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
What books make you think of spring?
If you wrote 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 April Fools Day-themed — officially, it’s Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read. That didn’t really call to me, so I’m taking a simpler approach and highlighting ten books with “fool” in the title.
First, a bunch that I’ve read:
1) Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell: A terrific novel set behind the scenes in Shakespeare’s time. (review)
2) Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: The 2nd book in the Dresden series. This is one of the books that made me realize — yup, I’m hooked!
3) The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory: My first book by this author. I loved the way a Jewish woman serves as a viewpoint into the court of Queen Mary.
4) Fool by Christopher Moore: A brilliant (and super funny) King Lear retelling! Still one of my favorite Moore books.
5) The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George: One of the first Tudor novels I ever read. I remember being totally immersed.
6) Fool’s Paradise by Dale Walker: Non-fiction travelogue about Saudi Arabia. I read this so long ago that I barely remember it — but I do know I enjoyed it at the time.
And to round out my list, a few more that fit my foolish topic:
7) Bloody Fool for Love by William Ritter: It’s a Buffy Spike prequel! How can I resist? I hope to read this later this year, maybe as a nice summer diversion.
8) A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris: This is the 6th book in the Aurora Teagarden series, which I haven’t read… but I’ve been meaning to give it a try, since I’ve enjoyed so many other of her books.
9) Fools Rush In by Kristan Higgins: A few bookish friends have recommended this author over the years, and this book looks especially cute!
10) Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer: I feel like I should have read this story already! I know I’ve heard about it, and we definitely had books of stories by this author in my house growing up.
Happy April Fool’s Day! Do you have any other “foolish” books to recommend?
If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!
End note: Since I mentioned Buffy… Fool for Love is one of my favorite Buffy episodes (season 5, episode 7), and since it fits the theme, I thought I’d end with a little photo montage!
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 spring 2025 reading plans. Earlier in the year, I shared a post on my most anticipated new releases for the first half of 2025 — all of which remain books I’m eager to read (or have read already!).
With that in mind, I’m going to try to avoid repeats — so here are 10 additional books I’m looking forward to this spring:
Swept Away by Beth O’Leary
Run Away with Me by Brian Selznick (I really don’t know much about this one, except it seems to be a novel told with illustrations, and his previous books like this were amazing!)
Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
City of All Seasons by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (an upcoming book group book!)
The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner
It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
What books will you be reading this spring? Do we have any in common?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
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 place in the title, with the prompt: Any location or place in a title is fine — just share your top five with us. I did a TTT post last year with a similar theme, so I’m going to do my best not to repeat myself.
Here are a few from my shelves that fit the theme:
1: The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian: A twisty thriller about a Princess Diana impersonator who gets caught up in a shady, dangerous crime operation. (review)
2: Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti: I didn’t actually love (or even like) this book (the author’s previous book, Dava Shastri’s Last Day, was amazing!), but it kept my attention, and it fits the prompt! (review)
3: The Bookseller of Inverness by S. G. MacLean: A book club pick! We really enjoyed this historical novel set in 18th century Scotland. (review)
4: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid: TJR’s books are always a great read! Malibu Rising doesn’t quite rise to the level of some of her other books (Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, my two favorites), but it’s still really entertaining and worth checking out. (review)
5: Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean: The first in a fabulous duology! I loved both books. (review)
What are your favorite books with place names in the titles?
Bookshelf Fantasies 