Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes… straight from my wish list

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 — and here’s the description:

{Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl’s} birthday is today, so celebrate with me by granting the wishes of your friends! This is a popular thing to do on Twitter, but today we’re blog hopping. List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to a wishlist so that people can grant your wish. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address or include the email address associated with your ereader 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. Don’t feel obligated to send anything!

Okay, so I’m NOT actually sharing links to a wishlist or at all asking anyone to grant my wishes! But still, it’s always fun (and a little crazy) to take stock of how many more books I’d like to get sooner or later… despite the huge number of unread books sitting on my shelves.

Here are my top 10 wishes: 

  1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to the Buffyverse by Nancy Holder: This one has been on my wish list for years! I’d love to have a copy… but enough to actually spend money on it.
  2. Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel: I’ve actually read this one already — it’s a fabulous mash-up of Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice, and I really need a copy of my own.
  3. Victories Great Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders: I have copies of her other books, and need this one too!
  4. Seed to Harvest by Octavia Butler: This is an all-in-one edition of the Patternist series. I do have these books on my Kindle already, but I’d love a hard copy too.
  5. The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker: Since I have a copy of The Golem and the Jinni, I’d like the sequel to go with it.
  6. The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The hardcover edition is from Subterranean Press, and their books are always so pretty (but expensive).
  7. One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky: No particular reason — it just sounds like fun!
  8. Jane in Love by Rachel Givney: It’s Jane Austen plus time travel! How does that not sound cool?
  9. Network Effect by Martha Wells: I can’t believe I stalled out on the Murderbot books before getting to this one! There’s no good reason — I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I’d love to own copies of the entire series.
  10. Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley: The book sounds so good, and the cover is too pretty not to have my own copy.

What books are you wishing for the most? Please share your links!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Summer 2021 TBR

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 2021 TBR.

This is really just scratching the surface — so many books to read! Here are 10 of my upcoming reads, all being released in June, July or August. Six out of ten are sequels or continuations of series, and four are new stand-alones. They all sound amazing!

  1. Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
  2. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison (set in the world of The Goblin Emperor)
  3. The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
  4. While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
  5. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
  6. Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (the 3rd Simon Snow book)
  7. Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev (fun series of Jane Austen retellings)
  8. Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  9. Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton (sequel to Hollow Kingdom)
  10. Sunrise By the Sea by Jenny Colgan (another book in the Little Beach Street Bakery series!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…

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

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!