Tag Archive for: top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Really Hope Santa Brings Me This Year

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year.  This is probably the easiest topic of the year for me since books and preorders are the main things I ask for every year for Christmas.  Based on this list, I think it’s safe to say that I’m entering my sports romance era so if you have any recs in addition to the ones I’ve already listed here and on my Amazon Wish List, please feel free to drop them in the comments below. And I’m only sharing this for fun, so please, no one needs to actually buy me any of these.

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Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year

 

 

1. ABSOLUTELY NOT IN LOVE by Jenny Proctor

2. BUTCHER & BLACKBIRD by Brynne Weaver

3. ECHOES OF YOU by Catherine Cowles

4. FIRST DOWN by Grace Reilly

5. HOOK SHOT by Kennedy Ryan

6.  INTO THE TIDE by Laura Pavlov

7.  THE OFF LIMITS RULE by Sarah Adams

8.  REWRITE OUR STORY by Kat Singleton

9.  SAY YOU SWEAR by Meagan Brandy

10. PUCKING AROUND by Emily Rath

 

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Question:  What books are you hoping to get this holiday?  Did any of these make your list?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books On My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Books On My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List.  I decided this week to just share ARCs that I am planning to read this winter but may share another post in the near future about books from my shelves that I also want to prioritize.  As always, it’s a mix of romance, thrillers, historical fiction, and whatever else has caught my eye.

Books On My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List

1. BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood

2. THE CATCH by AMY LEA

3. EVER AFTER ALWAYS by CHLOE LIESE

4. THE GETAWAY LIST by Emma Lord

5. THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden

6. HAPPY MEDIUM by Sarah Adler

7. THE HEIRESS by Rachel Hawkins

8. LAST CALL AT THE LOCAL by Sarah Grunder Ruiz

9. ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY by Stacy Willingham

10. THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah

 

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Question:  Are you planning to read any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday – Some of My Recent Favorite Books Set in NYC

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Books Set In X (Pick a setting and share books that are all set there. This could be a specific continent or country, a state, in outer space, underwater, on a ship or boat, at the beach, etc.).  I decided to go with my favorite city in the world, New York City, and since I’ve probably done a similar topic in the past, I decided to focus on more recent favorites.

Ten of My Recent Favorite Books Set in NYC

 

 

1. BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS by Mary Kay Andrews

2. THE SEVEN YEAR SLIP by Ashley Poston

3. THE SPECTACULAR by Fiona Davis

4. ONE LAST STOP by Casey McQuiston

5. STAY AWAKE by Megan Goldin

6. MADE IN MANHATTAN by Lauren Layne

7. THE AMERICAN ROOMMATE EXPERIMENT by Elena Armas

8. EMMA OF 83RD STREET by Audrey Bellezza & Emily Harding

9. A WINTER IN NEW YORK by Josie Silver

10. IN A NEW YORK MINUTE by Kate Spencer

 

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Question:  Do you have a favorite city, state, or country for book settings?

Top Ten Tuesday – Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books.  This is a great topic for this week since we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving here in the U.S. later this week.

Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books

 

1. Books provide me with the ultimate escape when reality is just too much to deal with. I think they saved my mental health during the pandemic.

2. Books have led this introvert to find her people in the online bookish community. I’m so thankful for all of you!

3. Audiobooks have given me a way to make even the most mundane tasks like driving and folding laundry less tedious.

4. Because of books, we have libraries, which are one of the greatest community resources we have.

5. Along similar lines, because of books, we have bookstores, which are my favorite places to quietly browse when I’m out and about and decide I need some downtime.

6. Books of all genres always give me food for thought, which I think is so important.  Sometimes they reaffirm something I already believe, but often times, they challenge me to think about something in a different way.

7. Books appeal to my sense of wanderlust and allow me to travel to places I’ll probably never make it to in my real life.

8. Even though books provide me great comfort, they have also led me to expand my horizons technologically speaking, in terms of creating this blog and constant troubleshooting it, starting a bookstagram account, etc.  I never could have imagined myself doing any of that if not for my intense love of books.

9. Books teach me so much. I read a lot of historical fiction and I love that I’m always learning new things about historical events that I thought I was pretty well-schooled in.

10. I’m speaking mainly of my own community here, but I love when people are passionate enough about books that when someone in a position of authority advocates the banning and burning of books, they can band together and vote that person out of office.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating and I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Top Ten Tuesday – Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines.  This is such a fun topic but also one that I found to be super challenging. I’m not sure the ones I picked would actually make good newspaper headlines, but I’m going to try to explain what my thought process was for picking each of the titles I chose.

Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines

 

1. CHECK & MATE  –  In my head, I see this one as possibly being political in nature, particularly with some of the manueverings we’ve seen lately.

2. THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER   – This one also made me think of politics, but something more global. Russia immediately came to mind.

3. BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS – This title made me think of a either an article advertising an upcoming holiday event or perhaps reviewing the event.

4. CARRIE SOTO IS BACK  – I imagine this was probably TJR’s intention, but this one definitely feels like it could be a news headline announcing a big comeback.

5. THE FINE PRINT – I could see this being the title of one of those buyer beware kind of articles warning people about scams.

6. NONE OF THIS IS TRUE – My local paper prints so many downright heated letters to the editor about local politics and other local hot button issues and I could easily see this one being a title to one of those letters.

7. HOW NOT TO FALL IN LOVE  –  This just screams headline in the Style/Leisure section of the paper to me.

8. THIS SPELLS DISASTER – I can easily imagine this one as an op-ed headline since so many of those seems to predict doom and gloom lately.

9. THE GIRL WHO COULD MOVE SH*T WITH HER MIND  –  Minus the sh*t obviously, this sounds like it could be a headline announcing a scientific discovery.

10. BETTER THAN FICTION  –  This one jumped out at me as perfect for one of those stories you read about where something so outlandish has happened, you can hardly believe it’s true.

 

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Question:  Do you agree with my selections and rationale for choosing them? 

Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Before the End of 2023

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is a freebie and I feel like I’ve already posted everything spooky season related I wanted to, so today I’m sharing ten books I’m determined to read before the end of the year.

Also, just a side note, that I have been having tremendous issues with the comment feature on my site since last Thursday.  I think it’s related to a Jetpack plugin, either a bad update or a conflict with another plugin, and I’ve been trying to resolve it but I’m not tech savvy and just don’t know who is having issues commenting or what the specific errors are. If you are still unable to comment on my posts, can you either DM me on twitter (x) or on Instagram with any specific error messages that you’re seeing?  Thanks!

10 Before the End of 2023

   

 

1. CHECK & MATE by Ali Hazelwood  –  “In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.”

2. A DEMON’S GUIDE TO WOOING A WITCH by Sarah Hawley  – “Calladia Cunnington curses the day she met Astaroth the demon, but when he shows up memoryless, why does she find him so helpless . . . and sort of hot?”

3. WOKE UP LIKE THIS by Amy Lea – “Planning the perfect prom is one last “to do” on ultra-organized Charlotte Wu’s high school bucket list. So far, so good, if not for a decorating accident that sends Charlotte crash-landing off a ladder, face-first into her obnoxiously ripped archnemesis J. T. Renner. Worse? When Charlotte wakes up, she finds herself in an unfamiliar bed at thirty years old, with her bearded fiancé, Renner, by her side…Navigating a series of adventures and a confounding new normal, Charlotte and Renner will do whatever it takes to find a way back to seventeen. But when―and if―they do, what then?”

4. THE FAKE MATE by Lana Ferguson  – “Two wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson.“

5. BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST by Travis Baldree – “When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek. In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.”

6. JUST DON’T FALL by Emma St. Clair – “Just Don’t Fall is a small town, closed door hockey romcom with all the fake dating, brother’s best friend vibes. You’ll get smoking chemistry and characters to root for but NO spice. (Yes, you read that right–a low spice hockey romance.) Perfect for fans of sports romance who want a less heat.”

7. THE PREDICTABLE HEARTBREAKS OF IMOGEN FINCH by Jacqueline Firkins  –  “A beautiful story of friendship, and second chances at love.“

8. HOMERUN PROPOSAL by Maren Moore – “Cocky pitcher. Player on and off the field. The life of every party. And the same guy I’ve crushed on in secret since we were kids. He’s always been out of my league. That is until he signs the dotted line on a proposal that wasn’t meant for him, and offers to teach me… everything. His one and only condition? Don’t get attached. Easier said than done when my heart is involved. Now, it’s a whole new ballgame..”

9. DO YOUR WORST by Rosie Danan  –  “Sparks fly when an occult expert and a disgraced archeologist become enemies-with-benefits in this steamy romance.”

10. HUNT ON DARK WATERS by Katee Robert  –  Witches and pirates! “Sail the magical high seas with this first book in a new sexy fantasy romance series from Katee Robert, the New York Times bestselling author of the TikTok smash-hit Neon Gods.”

 

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Question:  Have you read any of these or are you planning to read any of them?

Top Ten Tuesday – Atmospheric Reads to add to Your TBR

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Atmospheric Books (The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.”)

I honestly don’t know if the reads I picked are truly atmospheric reads or if their covers are just what I think of when I hear the word atmospheric.  They all definitely have the same overall vibe anyway, haha.

Atmospheric Reads to add to Your TBR

   

 

 

1. DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney

2. THE HACIENDA by Isabel Cañas

3. THE BOOK OF COLD CASES by Simone St. James

4. THE BOOK OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman

5. VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by Isabel Cañas

6. THE NATURE OF WITCHES by Rachel Griffin

7. THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden

8. SPELLS FOR FORGETTING by Adrienne Young

9. BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT by Rachel Griffin

10. THE WILDERWOMEN by Ruth Emmie Lang

 

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Question:  Have you read any of these or are you planning to read any of them?

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with Weather Events in the Title

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is  Books with Weather Events/Words in the Title/on the Cover.  This one was harder than I thought it would be, but I did finally manage to find ten titles that fit the topic.

Books with Weather Events in the Title

storm swords

 

 

1. A STORM OF SWORDS by George R. R. Martin

2. THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey

3. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein

4. A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon

5. LET IT SNOW by Beth Moran

6. HURRICANE SUMMER by Asha Ashanti Bromfield

7. THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah

8. PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan

9. PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir

10. EMPIRE OF STORMS by Sarah J. Maas

 

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Question:  Have you read any of these or are you planning to read any of them?

Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Jobs I Would Love to Have

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Bookish Jobs I Would Do For Free (Real or Imaginary).  I tweaked the topic just a bit since I don’t see myself doing much for free these days, haha. Instead, I’ve broken the jobs down into what I consider to be somewhat realistic options if I were to ever decide to make a career change versus jobs I would love to do if such jobs even existed and if I have the skill/creativity to do them.

Bookish Jobs I Would Love to Have

 

Semi-Realistic Ones Based on My Actual Skill Set:

1. Any job in publishing –  If I could go back in time and plot a different career path for myself, I definitely would have loved to go into publishing and relocate to New York.

2. Librarian – Another option I would love since it would mean interacting with readers all day and helping them find books I hope they will love.

3. Book Shop Owner, ideally the owner of a shop that is part bookstore, part wine bar or bakery – Same as number 2, but with the added bonus of food and/or wine.

4. Literary Agent – What a thrill it would be to discover and represent new authors!

5. Elementary School Reading Teacher – While I was a teacher many years ago, I was a high school English teacher. If I could go back and do things differently, I think I would have loved teaching young children the joys of reading.

 

Dream Jobs If They Actually Exist and/or I Actually Had the Skill to Do Them:

6. Professional Bookworm – Who wouldn’t want to get paid to just read all day?

7. Book Cover Designer – If I had any artistic ability, this would be such an amazing job.

8. Book Club Coordinator – This doesn’t really exist but I think it would be so much fun to help people who are looking for book clubs to find one that is perfect for them.

9. Designer of Bookish Merchandise – There’s just something about bookish merch that brings me so much joy so I really wish I had the artistic talent to design and sell merch of my own.

10. College Professor who specializes in teaching Contemporary Romance – I think this one springs from both my love of contemporary romance novels and my desire to defend the genre against those who always belittle it.

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Question:  What would be your dream bookish job?

Top Ten Tuesday – Reading/Blogging Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year

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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year.  I’m adding in blogging goals since I focused on both in my initial post about goals for 2023.  I have to admit that most of my goals have been a huge fail this year.  When Jetpack started trying to charge money to be able to auto-share across platforms – something that had been a free feature ever since I started my blog, I got discouraged. Then I got even more discouraged when good old Elon made it so you can’t use Jetpack to share to twitter, X, or whatever he’s calling it these days.  On top of that, I’ve been having so many database corruption issues. I’m hoping those are resolved now that I stopped trying to fix it myself and paid my ISP to figure it out.  In the meantime, I’ve been focusing more and more on my Bookstagram account.  I still love my blog and the blogging community though so here’s where I stand on my 2023 goals and which ones I think are still doable.

 

via GIPHY

Revisiting My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2023

 

1)  My number one goal this year is a repeat goal from the past three years and that is to read more of the books I own.  My goal for this was 70 and I’ve read 52 so not too bad.

2)  This is also a repeat goal from 2022 and 2021.  I really want to continue to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book.  I’ve only done a handful of blog tours this year and those were almost all for Berkley Romance, specifically some of my most anticipated reads of the year so I’m happy with my progress here.

3)  This is also an ongoing goal since my struggle to finish series continues.  I’ve not done very well on this one at all.

Series I Want to Finish or Get Caught Up On: 

  • Lifelike by Jay Kristoff (2 books left) – I did finish this series.
  • The Aurora Cycle (2 books left) – Still have 1 book left as of this post.
  • The Inheritance Games (2 books left) – I did finish this series.
  • City of Brass (2 books left) – Haven’t touched this one.
  • Crescent City (Re-read book 1, then read book 2) – I’m all caught up on this one.
  • Bridgerton (5 books left) – I’ve only read one Bridgerton book this year but do hope to read more before the end of the year.

Series I Want to Start:

  • The Consortium Rebellion – Fail
  • Six Crimson Cranes – Read both books.
  • The Celestial Kingdom – Fail
  • The Great Library – Fail – I’m no longer interested in reading this one.
  • The Invisible Library – Fail – I’m no longer interested in reading this one.
  • The Bloodsworn Saga – Fail

4)  This is also a repeat goal from the past two years.  I really want to continue to grow my Bookstagram account.  This is probably the goal I’ve done the best with all year, having reached 10K followers last week.  If you have a bookstagram account and are not already following me, you can give me a follow at https://instagram.com/thebookishlibra

5)  Re-reading more.  This is also a repeat goal and one I failed at in 2022. And I’m failing again in 2023, lol.  I re-read the first three on this list and haven’t touched the others.

  • House of Earth and Blood
  • Aurora Rising
  • Ninth House
  • The Handmaid’s Tale
  • The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
  • The Chronicles of Narnia (5 books) – I did manage to re-read the second book in the series in 2022.
  • Pride and Prejudice
  • Jane Eyre

6) I am aiming to keep my Netgalley percentage at 85% or above in 2023.  I’m doing well with this goal too and am actually at 93%, although with 53 arcs waiting to be read and reviewed, I’m clearly failing the whole requesting less ARCs goal. I obviously just love new releases too much to ever succeed at that one, haha.

 

7)  I say this every year, but in 2023, I want to read more Nonfiction.  Another huge fail for me. I’ve not read any of these, although I do hope to at least read Michelle Obama’s new one before the end of the year.

  • What Unites Us by Dan Rather
  • The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
  • We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII by Liza Mundy
  • D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII by Sarah Rose
  • Spare by Prince Harry
  • Untamed by Glennon Doyle
  • Where the Light Enters, Building a Family, Discovering Myself by Jill Biden

8)  This is a forever goal, haha.  In 2023, I really want to work on being better organized, particularly when it comes to blogging ahead.  Nope, still a fail.

9)  Revisit Shakespeare.  Fail unless revisiting him through retellings counts, lol.

10) I am doing the Goodreads Challenge and have set my goal at 175 books.  I’ve read 156 so far so I think I’ll exceed this goal pretty easily considering I still have 3 months to go.

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How are you doing with your reading/blogging goals this year?