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/Bookish Wishes. My holidays have already wrapped up and I don’t expect a visit from Santa… but in case a Book Fairy ever ends up in the neighborhood, here’s what I’m wishing for!
There are a few books here that I’m hoping to read in the coming year, a few that I’ve read but would love to own for myself… and who can resist a bookish Lego set?
Already read – want to own:
Cinder House by Freya Marske: I loved this novella! (review)
Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green: Such a powerful, informative book. I’d like my own copy so I can refer back to it again (and again) (review)
The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage: Loved this one too! I borrowed a library edition, but would really like a hardcover for my shelves. (review)
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews: I’ll be honest — I don’t actually know what this book is about, but it’s so gorgeous that I’m itching to buy a copy every time I see it pop up.
The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty: Yet another book that I’m definitely judging by its cover! The story sounds really good… but that beautiful design is what’s calling my name.
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!
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 Set in Snowy Places.
Note: The Silent Land is an under-the-radar gem! I read it back before I was blogging, so I don’t have a blog-based review to share — but here’s what I posted on Goodreads at the time:
A couple on a romantic ski getaway in the Pyrenees is caught in a sudden, early morning avalanche on the ski slopes. When they finally manage to dig themselves out and find their way back down the mountain, they find their hotel and its village have been evacuated, and they’re completely alone. Or is there something else going on? “The Silent Land” is simply told, but does a masterful job of evoking the glory of a snowy mountain, the joy of being with a soulmate, and the disquiet of realizing that some things defy explanation, no matter how hard you try to understand it all. It’s hard to go any further without divulging spoilers, which I won’t do. Suffice it to say that “The Silent Land” is both beautiful and ominous, gave me the chills, and kept me intrigued enough that I ended up reading in all in one day. Definitely recommended.
Do you have any favorite books with snowy settings?
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 freebie — we choose whatever topic appeals to us! I enjoy finding patterns among my book titles — and I also enjoy having simpler TTT topics during weeks I know will be especially busy — so this week, I’ve chosen books with the word SECRET in their titles. There are a lot of them!
I’m focusing on books on my physical and virtual bookshelves. Some of these are books I’ve read, and some are from my TBR… and there are plenty of others I haven’t included, mainly because I’m trying to keep this list under control!
Reading now:
The Deepest of Secrets (Rockton, #7) by Kelley Armstrong
Read previously:
The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan (review)
The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers (review)
The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2) by Philip Pullman (review)
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (review)
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 Modern Books You Think Will Be Classics In The Future.
I could digress into a whole discussion of what constitutes a classic… but I’ll spare everyone! My feeling is that “classics” are very much in the eye of the beholder. That said, I’m interpreting this week’s prompt in terms of staying power. What book from the past 20 – 30 years (or so) are likely to continue being read and appreciated in the future, and for many years to come?
I’ve decided to focus on science fiction and fantasy for this week’s list. Here are 10 books that I believe will continue to amaze and delight for many, many years!
(Note: After finalizing this list, I realized I’d done a version of this topic in 2022! At least I’m consistent… three of these books were on that list too, which didn’t only focus on sci-fi/fantasy)
Old Man’s War (series) by John Scalzi
The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins
Wayward Children (series) by Seanan McGuire
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
A Discovery of Witches (series) by Deborah Harkness
The Expanse (series) by James S. A. Corey
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
His Dark Materials (series) by Philip Pullman
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Do you have any favorite sci-fi/fantasy books that you can see as future classics?
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 Enjoyed that Were Outside My Comfort Zone.
I don’t know that I have a particular comfort zone when it comes to reading. I read across genres, and wouldn’t say that certain types of books or topics make me uncomfortable. Still, there are books that are more unusual choices for me, and those are the books that I’m highlighting today.
Here are ten books that are not my typical reads! For a variety of reasons, these books were out-of-the-ordinary when it comes to my reading habits… and I’ll share why!
1. The Roommate by Rosie Danan (review): I enjoyed this contemporary romance, but it was WAY more spicy (i.e., extremely explicit) than anything I typically read.
2. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis: If you’d asked me in advance if I’d consider reading a book about football, the answer would have been no! Not a football fan, and really, little to no interest in reading about sports. And yet, after hearing an interview with the author, I decided to check out the book, and found it surprisingly fascinating.
3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (review): After geeking out on Hamilton (the musical), I decided to read the biography that inspired it. I would not normally pick up a massive history/biography like this… but I’m glad I did.
4. Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow: Yet another massive history book that I picked up thanks to pop culture! I went through a phase (many years ago) where I was very into both TV shows and movies set during the Vietnam War, and decided I needed to go deeper. As a fiction reader to the depths of my soul, reading a big history book like this was definitely an unusual step, but it paid off.
5. Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra: A book group I participated in many years ago picked this book, and I was not prepared for the writing style or subject matter! I stuck with it for the sake of the group discussion, but this was not a typical read for me by any means.
6. An Immense World by Ed Yong: I do like to pick up pop science books from time to time. This one was a gift, and was much more science/detail-heavy than what I might typically read. I’m glad I was gifted this one — I might not have picked it up otherwise, and I found so much of it really fascinating.
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: An unusual reading experience for me, in that I only succeeded in finishing this book on my 3rd (or possibly 4th) attempt. At various times in my life, I’d started this book, only to quit somewhere around the halfway mark. For a long time, I considered this my own personal unreadable book… and then finally decided that I was going to give it one more try and actually finish it, no matter what. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t love it, but I’m still glad that I made it happen.
8. Death of an Eye by Dana Stabenow (review): If not for being a fan of the author (I love her Kate Shugak series!), I probably would have skipped right by this book. A mystery set during Cleopatra’s reign, there was so much about the time period and setting that I had to Google while reading that it took real perseverance to see it through. It was a good read, but the subject matter made it an unusual choice for me.
9. Reading Shakespeare for myself, not for a class! A catch-all category here… I’ve now read Shakespeare plays a few times over the past several years, just for my own enjoyment. Again, definitely not something I’d consider part of my typical reading habits! I’m looking forward to continuing — there are still plenty left that I haven’t read or studied.
10. Moby Dick by Herman Melville: At some point a few years ago, I decided that I had to read Moby Dick. Just because. Maybe as a point of pride, to be able to say I’d done it? Overall, it was a rewarding experience… but the endless chapters about different types of whales? Definitely not something I’d ever thought I’d spend that much time on!
And finally…
One extra book — this is one from my to-read pile that truly feels outside my comfort zone… mainly because I keep hearing how hard it is to get through it!
Have you read The Silmarillion? Thoughts on whether it’s worth the effort?
Have you read any of the books on my list? Do you have any particular books that were unusual reading choices for you?
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 The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf, with the prompt:
Stand in front of your book collection, close your eyes, point to a title, and write it down. If you have shelves, point to your physical books. If you have a digital library, use a random number generator and write down the title of the book that corresponds with the number you generated. You get bonus points if you tell us whether or not you’ve read the book, and what you thought of it if you did!
I do have lots and lots of books on my physical shelves… but I also know exactly where each book is, so I don’t think closing my eyes and pointing will help me be particularly random! So, I’m going with the virtual option. I have a spreadsheet (Excel nerd alert!) with all the books in my Kindle library, and I used a random number generator to help me pick books.
Here are the ten books that I landed on:
The Sky Vault (The Comet Cycle, #3) by Benjamin Percy
Read? No
Thoughts: The first two books in this trilogy were great… but I think by the time I got a copy of the 3rd, my interest had waned. I do still want to read this (eventually).
The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri
Read? No
Thoughts: Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about this book! I picked up a copy over five years ago, after seeing positive reviews. Now that I’ve been reminded of it, I may still want to read it!
The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan
Read? No
Thoughts: I’ve read two other books by this author, and thought they were great. This is yet another “someday, maybe” book.
Feed (Newsflesh, #1) by Mira Grant
Read? YES!
Thoughts: I loved it! This series is amazing… I’d love to reread it at some point. (Check out my review of the trilogy, here)
Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery
Read? Yes
Thoughts: Not the best of this author’s works (by a long shot!), but for those who want to explore beyond Anne and Emily, it’s an interesting stand-alone to check out. (review)
And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Read? No
Thoughts: I absolutely want to read this novella! Funnily enough, I’ve only read novellas by this author (although I have a few of his novels on my TBR too). The ones I’ve read have been excellent, so I look forward to checking this out.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Read? No
Thoughts: I think I grabbed a copy when there was a Kindle price break… but given that I’m not much of a non-fiction reader, I doubt I’ll ever get to this book (even though I’ve heard great things about it).
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby
Read? No
Thoughts: Another one I’d forgotten! I remember hearing good things about it, so this is a helpful reminder that I should give it a try.
The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Read? Yes
Thoughts: Now that the 3rd book is out, this trilogy has been on my mind. I’m leaning toward reading #3 (The Rose Field), but I’ll need a major refresher on the previous book first. (Here’s my review of La Belle Sauvage)
Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan
Read? 1 of 3 books
Thoughts: This last item that came up randomly for me is a 3-in-1 edition of the Crazy Rich Asians books. I read the first book earlier this year (review), and I do want to read the rest!
Have you read any of my books? Any that you’d particularly recommend?
I’d love to see other people’s random book selections! If you wrote a TTT post, 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 Cozy Reads. Cozy fantasy is having a moment, but there are so many other types of cozy books too.
I tend to think of cozy fiction as anything with a focus on cuteness, baked goods, restoring an old building, settling in a small town, bookshops, cats… you get the idea!
Here are my top ten:
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (review)
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 Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time. To me, that means books that made a huge impact the first time around — anything from an intense emotional experience to sheer delight to big twists and surprises I never saw coming.
Here are my top ten:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: As a die-hard fan of the series, I can’t help but think back on how powerfully the first book affected me.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: The opening pages knocked me for a loop.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: The jumps between times confused me and delighted me so much.
Fingersmith by Sara Waters: This book made me literally gasp out loud at certain twists.
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans: I just remember sobbing. That’s it.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Such an incredible reading experience. I find something new to appreciate with each reread, but the first time was especially mind-blowing.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal: My heart was in my throat.
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn: Such a delightful, playful story.
The BFG by Roald Dahl: I don’t know if I’d appreciate it on my own, but I read this for the first time with my kiddo when he was about 9 or 10, and his laughter was everything.
Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: This horror novella is like nothing I’d read before, and the key horror element is a knock-out.
What books do you wish you could read again for the first time? Do we have any in common?
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 Satisfying Book Series, with the prompt: Maybe all the books were amazing or there wasn’t any second book syndrome or the final book wrapped everything up soooo perfectly
The prompt seems to put the focus on series that are already completed, but there are at least a few I can think of that really satisfy me even though they’re not done! Here are some favorites:
Series: A Stitch in Time Author: Kelley Armstrong # of books: 4 (plus novellas) Completed? Yes
Amazing timeslip romances with threads to link the stories together, great lead characters, and real emotion!
Series: Folk of the Air Author: Holly Black # of books: 3 (plus stories and a related duology) Completed? Yes
The original trilogy is practically perfect!
Series: Well Met Author: Jen DeLuca # of books: 4 Completed? Yes
This Ren Faire-centered series has great characters, interesting plot complications, and a fabulous setting!
Series: The Expanse Author: James S. A. Corey # of books: 9 (plus stories) Completed? Yes
I absolutely did not want to see this series come to an end! But it comes to such a perfect ending that it’s hard to complain. Love the characters, the complex universe… really, just everything about this series.
Series: October Daye Author: Seanan McGuire # of books: 19 and counting! Completed? No
I honestly hope we never reach the end of this series! I love it to pieces, and there’s not a weak book in the bunch.
Series: Lady Astronaut Author: Mary Robinette Kowal # of books: 4 Completed? Unclear
The Calculating Stars blew me away, and is a fabulous read. The following three books are all good, but none have quite the emotional impact of the first. Still, it’s a great series! And while I thought the 4th book was supposed to be the last one, it now seems that there may be more to come in this world.
Series: The Glamourist Histories Author: Mary Robinette Kowal # of books: 5 Completed? Yes
“Jane Austen with magic” is the short-hand description for this series, but it’s so much more! These five books feature terrific characters, an intricately crafted system of magic, compelling relationships, and high stakes. Completely satisfying from start to finish!
Series: The Interdependency Author: John Scalzi # of books: 3 Completed? Yes
Such an interesting sci-fi world! And yes, it’s funny, even while being more along the lines of “hard” science fiction. I feel like this trilogy is much less well known than the Old Man’s War series (also amazing!), and I think these books deserve more attention! Terrific storytelling.
Series: The Parasol Protectorate Author: Gail Carriger # of books: 4 (plus other related series and many stories) Completed? Yes
I love everything about the Parasol-verse, and this four-book series started it all! The Finishing School and Custard Protocol series are both terrific too!
Series: Gunnie Rose Author: Charlaine Harris # of books: 6 Completed? Yes
Some books in this series are stronger than others, but overall, it’s a terrific alternate world, and I ended up loving the main characters. The series wraps up well… the only unsatisfying thing about it is that I wish the story would continue!
Do we have any series in common? What series do you consider most satisfying?
Bookshelf Fantasies 