Tag Archives: top 10 tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish wishes to wrap up 2021

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by
snowy10

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 Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes, with an option for people to share their wish lists and then grant one another’s wishes. Check out the info over on the host blog if you’re interested!

I’m not sharing an actual clickable wishlist, and I’ve already either received or treated myself to a lot of books this holiday season… but here are a few bookish items that I dream of, even though they’re mostly big splurges or hard-to-find items or just silly treats that I wouldn’t ever expect to spend money on.

One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I borrowed a copy from the library and loved it. I’d really like my own hard copy, but the physical book was released as a limited edition hardcover and the few sellers I’ve seen listing it have it marked very high. This is a someday, maybe wishlist item for me!

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

I would love a hardcover edition of The Goblin Emperor, but these are very hard to come by, as far as I can see. I’m hoping there will be a reissue at some point, with a cover to match The Witness For the Dead (and the upcoming new release The Grief of Stones).

Pride & Puzzlement jigsaw puzzle

The price isn’t bad — but I just have so many puzzles in my house already that I can’t justify buying another right now!

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

This isn’t hard to find or outrageously priced… it’s just that I really don’t need to buy myself more physical books right now. I’ve been wanting to read this, but it’s not a big enough priority for me to rush out and grab a copy.

Elizabeth Bennet Pop Funko

How did I not I not know this existed? This is Elizabeth Bennet from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (which I’m not ashamed to admit that I love!). There are other characters too, including Jane Bennet and Lady Catherine. Awesome!

Word Cloud Classics

I love these fresh-looking editions of classics! I have a couple, but would never say no to more.

Book Plates

I think it would be fun to have some pretty or whimsical book plates to put inside my books — for those rare occasions when I actually agree to lend a book.

Wooden Book Stand

Or really, any pretty or unusual or decorative book stand. Do I need this? No. But there are occasions (like when I’m eating a big sandwich but don’t want to stop reading) when I could see this being really handy!

Bookish socks (or any other bookish apparel)

I love Out of Print, and have so many of their t-shirts… but not nearly enough socks, hats, totebags, or accessories. There’s always room for more, in my humble opinion.

Saga Deluxe Editions

I love the Saga series, and have the trade paperback editions of all published volumes… but for years, I’ve had my eye on these hardcover deluxe editions too.

OK, so most of these aren’t at all practical, but isn’t that the point of wishes?

What’s on your wishlist? Share your link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for winter 2021/2022

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by
snowy10

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 winter reading plans. I love putting together these quarterly TBR posts!

This time around, my list is split between upcoming new releases and book on my shelves that I’m dying to finally get to. My top 10 priorities to read this winter will be:

New releases:

1) Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children, #7) by Seanan McGuire: Starting the year off with a new novella in this series is becoming an annual tradition! This one releases January 4, 2022.

2) Spelunking Through Hell (InCryptids, #11) by Seanan McGuire: Also an annual tradition from the same author, the next new installment in the ongoing InCryptids series, releasing in March 2022.

3) The Unfamiliar Garden (The Comet Cycle, #2) by Benjamin Percy: The first book in this series (The Ninth Metal) was so weird and so good — can’t wait for more! Releases in January.

4) When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord: Another January release — looks like a lot of fun.

And books I already own:

5) Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto: I hear it’s great!

6) Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger: My book group’s pick for January (and we’ll be Zooming with the author!)

7) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: An LGBTQ love story set in San Francisco in the 1950s. Sounds amazing!

8) The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: I see to be gravitating toward light romances a lot lately, and I love that this one features a woman in science.

9) Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6) by James S. A. Corey: The last season of the TV series is airing now, but there are still plenty of books left to read!

10) The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery: This specific book is a maybe, but I do want to read more L. M. Montgomery, and this is one of four options for me.

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Give me more! Authors whose entire works I NEEDED after reading just one of their books…

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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:

  1. Diana Gabaldon: Once I read Outlander, I was a goner!
  2. 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!
  3. 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!)
  4. 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.
  5. TJ Klune: I adored The House on the Cerulean Sea, and absolutely want to read more.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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!
  9. 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!
  10. 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: My daughter’s favorite reads from the past 12 months

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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!)

  1. Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
  2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  3. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
  4. Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
  5. Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
  6. Umami by Laia Jufresa
  7. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
  8. The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air trilogy) by Holly Black
  9. Good Talk by Mira Jacobs
  10. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  11. 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: Book Titles That Are Complete Sentences

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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:

  1. Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit by Amy Stewart
  2. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
  3. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
  4. Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan
  5. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
  6. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (New Outlander book! Coming November 2021!!!)
  7. Please Send Help by Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin
  8. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
  9. Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh
  10. 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: Books with Nature on the Cover

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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!

  1. Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
  2. Orfeia by Joanne M. Harris
  3. The Familiars by Stacey Halls
  4. America Pacifica by Anna North
  5. Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
  6. The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss
  7. The Fall of Koli by M. R. Carey
  8. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
  9. If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende
  10. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Animals from Books

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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.

My top 10 animals from books:

  1. S.T. (crow) from Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
  2. Rocinante (horse) from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  3. Crookshanks (cat) from Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
  4. Rollo (dog) from Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
  5. Adso (cat) from Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
  6. Rosie (elephant) from Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen
  7. The owls in Hoot by Carl Hiaassen
  8. The Adelie penguins in How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
  9. Buck (dog) from The Call of the Wild by Jack London
  10. Carl (dog) from Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (represented here by the dog flying a plane, in case you’re wondering…)

What animals in books do you especially love?

Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

Top Ten Tuesday: Colorful Book Covers

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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:

  1. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
  2. Icons by Monica Ahanonu & Micaela Heekin
  3. Jane Was Here by Nicole Jacobsen
  4. The Roommate by Rosie Danan
  5. Outlawed by Anna North
  6. Mythos by Stephen Fry
  7. The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes
  8. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
  9. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
  10. 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: If books were crayons…

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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:

Source: Jenny’s Crayon Collection http://www.jennyscrayoncollection.com/p/crayola.html

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:

Source: http://www.datapointed.net/visualizations/color/crayola-crayon-chart-bow/#

Onward to books!

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!

  1. Cress by Marissa Meyer — a fresh green, of course
  2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer — from the same series (the fabulous Lunar Chronicles) — a light, ashy grey
  3. Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown — a brown/black blend
  4. Iron Kissed by Patricia Brigg — this would have to be a steel grey with a hint of rose mixed in
  5. Firefly Beach by Luann Rice — I’m picturing a bright, sandy color
  6. Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire — maybe something electric blue?
  7. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer — a deep, bloody red, of course
  8. Storm Front by Jim Butcher — a deep bluish-gray, veering more toward the dark side
  9. Rainwater by Sandra Brown – something pale and silvery
  10. 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: Under the Sea

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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!

  1. The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M. Harris: A beautiful little illustrated book telling a wonderful selkie tale. (review)
  2. The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan: More selkies! Gorgeously written. (review)
  3. One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire: The 5th book in the October Daye series. And yes — more selkies!
  4. Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: Killer mermaids! One of my favorite horror novellas. (review)
  5. The Mermaid by Cristina Henry: A mermaid in a historical fiction setting. Loved it. (review)
  6. The Deep by Alma Katsu: Supernatural goings-on on the Titanic. I didn’t love it, but it’s a cool concept. (review)
  7. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my shelf and I can’t wait.
  8. All the Murmuring Bones by A. G. Slatter: Another one to be read.
  9. Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel: Excellent graphic novel. And yes, more mermaids. (review)
  10. 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!