Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for winter 2025/2026

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 Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List.

I’m not sure how it’s winter already — I’m still not done with my fall TBR list! I ended up reading 7 of my 10 fall TBR books; of the three remaining, there are two I’m still fairly committed to reading (eventually), and one I’m not feeling especially drawn to at the moment. For my winter TBR post, I’m featuring an entirely new batch of books… but I’ll probably try to squeeze in those other two fall books down the road too!

Onward to the winter list…

I’ll have a slew of new releases and ARCs to read from about February onward, but before then, I’m going to try to focus on books I’ve been meaning to get to for a while… with maybe one or two new releases mixed in as well. I’ll save the rest of my upcoming new releases for January’s “most anticipated” TTT topic, and meanwhile…

Here are a batch of books I’m really looking forward to reading this winter:

Murder at Haven’s Rock (Haven’s Rock, #1) by Kelley Armstrong: After finishing the Rockton series, I’m dying to start this spin-off!
Through Gates of Garnet and Gold (Wayward Children, #11) by Seanan McGuire: Reading the newest book in this terrific series has become a favorite January tradition.
Anne of a Different Island by Virginia Kantra: On a light note, a retelling of Anne of Green Gables sounds delightful.
The Names by Florence Knapp: One of several 2025 releases that I just didn’t get manage to get to.
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean: I’ve heard good things!
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans: The word-of-mouth on this book is really drawing me to it.
This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer: A book that keeps popping up on my “recommended for you” lists.
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden: Sounds like an intense, immersive read.
Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein: I grabbed a copy on a whim thanks to a Kindle price drop, and still haven’t started it.
The Guest in Room 120 by Sara Ackerman: I’ve only read a couple of this author’s books, but I’ve been wanting to read more.

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

28Oct2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween freebie — Ten horror books on my TBR list (2025 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.)

About half of these are holdovers from last year’s Halloween TBR… giving you some idea of how behind I am when I comes to keeping up with my reading plans! Of the books on my list, most have been around a while, and a couple are upcoming new releases:

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Needful Things by Stephen King
Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson
Dead Weight by Hildur Knutsdottir
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

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!

Save

23Sep2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2025 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. This week’s topic is Books on My Fall 2025 to-Read List.

Once again, summer whooshed by! I read 8 out of 10 books on my summer TBR list, and I’m including one of the two remaining on my TBR for fall. (I do still want to read the other one… eventually.) Looking ahead now that fall is here, I have a new set of books to prioritize — and hope to do a decent job balancing commitment books (ARCs, book group books) with books that I just feel like reading!

In the interest of not repeating myself, I’m not including any of the books already featured in my list of anticipated new releases for the 2nd half of 2025… but yes, I still intend to read the five remaining from that list too!

My top 10 for fall are:

Green Rider by Kristen Britain: I swore I’d start this series in 2025, and the clock is ticking!
Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree: These books are always so much fun.
Alone in the Wild (Rockton, #5) by Kelley Armstrong: I’ve been loving this series, and I’m kinda, sorta hoping to get through the three books I have left by the end of the year.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman: I’ve been waiting for the mood to strike to pick up this book, and I think it’s about time I make it happen.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher: My summer holdover. Again, I’ve just been waiting to be in the mood… which hasn’t happened yet, but I know I always end up loving this author’s books, so I think I just need to commit and get started.
A Pirate’s Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne: The first book in this cozy fantasy series was sweet and entertaining — just waiting for my library hold to come in for book #2.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Another series that I swore I’d finally start, and since this book also checks a box on a reading challenge I’m trying to finish, I think it’s about time to read it.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: I think everyone has read these books but me!
The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell: I apparently have an insatiable appetite for Austen retellings!
A Town with Half the Lights On by Page Getz: I randomly grabbed a copy of this book when I saw I price drop, and I think it sounds like fun.

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

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

Save

24Jun2025

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

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 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!

Save

17Jun2025

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

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 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!

Save

18Mar2025

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

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 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!

17Dec2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for winter 2024/2025

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 Books on My Winter 2024-2025 to-Read List.

My top 10 books on my winter TBR:

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: I keep saying this is a priority read, and yet I still haven’t read it! I’d like to get to it before the end of 2024… but the clock is ticking.
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn: A new release from a favorite author! I haven’t seen any chatter about it yet, but it sounds so interesting.
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer: Another one I’ve been wanting to get to. I loved this author’s more recent book, The Lost Story.
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire: The 10th Wayward Children book will be released in January. I’m always up for another book in this series.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix: Upcoming new release for January. I love the sound of it.
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune: This backlist title is being reissued (with a gorgeous new cover) in Februrary — meanwhile, I have the Kindle version, and can’t wait to dive in.
The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava: My library hold is (finally) almost ready!
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett: It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a Discworld book, but this one seems like a great choice for this time of year!
Ready or Not by Cara Bastone: I stumbled across a description of this romance, and it caught my attention… and was available from the library when I went looking for it.
A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong: This is the 2nd book in the Rockton series; I’m about 50% through with book #1 (City of the Lost), and I know I’ll want to keep going!

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

26Nov2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Thankful titles (a Thanksgiving 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 Thanksgiving Freebie — we choose our own topic related to Thanksgiving.

After playing around with a few different options, I decided to go with books that express some sort of thanks, gratitude, or good cheer in their titles. Here’s my list of 10 11 (sticking to ten has gotten hard for me!):

Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Kunya Katz
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? by Dr. Seuss
Thank You, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
Yours Cheerfully by AJ Pearce
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith

Can you think of other books with “thankful” titles?

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

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

Save

19Nov2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR

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 Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR.

At first, I went to my Goodreads to-read shelf to sort by publication year and look for the earliest, but then realized that I was missing many of the classics I want to get to. So… I went to my handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet (yes, I’m an Excel nerd!) dedicated to my future classics reading, and then did a little mixing and matching.

The results originally showed a few instances of multiple books by the same author, and I made the executive decision to limit it to one book each. In the end, it was very hard to whittle the list down, so…

Here is my list of 10 12 of the oldest books on my to-read shelf!

Belinda by Maria Edgeworth (1801)
Waverley by Sir Walter Scott (1814)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (1826)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (1848)
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860)
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1872)
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (1875)
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1877)
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (1878)

Note: I’ve read Frankenstein, but it was so long ago that I feel a reread is needed!

Have you read any of the books on my list? Any thoughts or recommendations?

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

Save

29Oct2024

Halloween posts for Tuesday!

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Lately, I’ve been bouncing back and forth for my Tuesday posts, alternating between the Top Ten Tuesday and Top Five Tuesday memes, depending on their topics for the week. This week, both are Halloween themed… so I’m doing them both!!

First up… it’s Top Ten Tuesday:

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 (updated for 2024). 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.

Noted with shame: Some of these books were on my Halloween horror TBR list last year! So, you know, I’m not exactly great at following through…

Still, here are a bunch I really do want to get to… including a few upcoming 2025 new books.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Return by Rachel Harrison
Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker
Overgrowth by Mira Grant (upcoming 2025 new release)
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (upcoming 2025 new release)
My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie (upcoming 2025 new release)

Are any of these on your TBR too? Which ones look best to you? And if you’ve read any, let me know what you thought!

Next, let’s take a look at this week’s Top 5 Tuesday:

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 to recommend for Halloween, and the prompt is: It’s trick or treat time — are you going to tell us your best scary books or cutesy Halloween tales?

My picks are mainly ghost stories, plus a funny/clever fantasy that I reread every October!

Save

The Uninvited by Cat Winters (review)
The Veil by Rachel Harrison (review)
Thornhill by Pam Smy (review)
I’ll be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong (review)
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (review) — I’m reading this one again right now! Such a fun annual tradition.

What books do you recommend for Halloween? I love a good ghost story — do you have any favorites? Save

Save

Save

In case it’s not obvious, I’ll probably be spending my Halloween with my nose in a book! Wishing you all a happy Halloween, whatever you’ll be doing!Save

Save