Tag Archives: TBR List

March 25, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Genres I Want to Read More of This Year

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Simple black sketch of how protons and electrons move around an atom. There appears to be three protons or neutrons in total, but it doesn’t give more information than that. This year I’m hoping to read more nonfiction about medical and scientific advances.

I’m keeping the specific sub-genre open. Biology is interesting, and so is palaeontology, archeology, chemistry, astronomy, and a wide variety of other subjects. I will even read about math so long as you’re not actually expecting me to solve any equations. Ha!

The important thing to me is that they’re taking abut positive developments because I need more good news in my life.

A book about the invention of the atom bomb or how many airborne diseases spread so quickly in the winter, as interesting as they may be, isn’t quite what I’m looking for.

Something that talks about promising treatments, preventions, or cures for life-threatening illnesses, or what scientists are discovering about distant solar systems, or new species of plants or animals we’re discovering in remote corners of the Earth would be right up my alley.

If you’ve read something along these lines, I’d love to hear about it.

In the meantime, I’ll be scouring the Internet and my local library for hopeful scientific and medical news.

7 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Medicine, Nonfiction, Science, TBR, TBR List, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

March 24, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2026 To-Read List

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A few of these books have already been released. As usual, I’m including publication dates for the rest of them.

I have two Top Ten Tuesday bloggers to thank for blogging about a couple of these titles earlier, so keep an eye out for those mentions.

Book cover for Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer. Image on cover is a photo of Judy Blume with short curly hair and in a black turtleneck sweater. She’s smiling faintly and looking off to her left.

1. Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer

Why I’m Interested: I adored her books when I was in elementary and middle school but know nothing about her personal life.

Book cover for Poisonous People: How to Resist Them and Improve Your Life by Leanne ten Brinke. Image on cover shows a neon green background and what appears to be a black puddle of something possibly poisonous off to the right.

2. Poisonous People: How to Resist Them and Improve Your Life by Leanne ten Brinke

Why I’m Interested: Hopefully it will have some excellent advice for identifying and neutralizing troublemakers in any community.

Book cover for Phases: a Memoir by Brandy Norwood. Image on cover is a close-up photo of her face as she wears a blue silk garment and gazes thoughtfully off into the distance.

3. Phases: A Memoir by Brandy

Publication Date: March 31

Why I’m Interested: This is at least the third time I’ve blogged about this memoir while waiting for its release due to how excited I am for it. One more week to go before I hopefully get to learn more about my favourite singer’s life behind the scenes. In the meantime, I’m trying to get on my library’s waitlist for it as soon as I possibly can today as they generally open it up for requests a week before a book is published. Wish me luck!

Book cover for What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed. Image on cover shows a drawing of a white flower with thin yellow petals forming a ring around the thick white petals. This image is half covering a black circular object that I can’t identify. It looks like a black moon hanging in a blue sky, though.

4. What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed

Publication Date: April 7

Why I’m Interested: Science fiction set on other planets often grabs my interest.

Book cover for American Fantasy by Emma Straub. Image on cover shows a drawing of a white cruise ship sailing on the ocean on a mostly cloudless day.

5. American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Publication Date: April 7

Why I’m Interested: Actually dating a member of a boyband or other type of touring musician? No, thank you. Having a spouse who travels for work for most of the year sounds terribly lonely. Reading about a character who dates her boyband teenage crush, on the other hand? Sign me up.

Book cover for Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Image on cover shows a train travelling along a train track next to a field of wheat. The image is warped, though, and has an unnatural bend to it.

6. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Thank you to Living on the Sunny Side for bringing my attention to this title!

Publication Date: April 7 (I am apparently going to be doing nothing but reading on April 7. Ha!)

Why I’m Interested: No offence to anyone who likes this stuff, but I find tradwife content terribly confusing. It seems odd to me to make a living telling other women that they should not have jobs or ambitions outside of the home. By that logic, then, shouldn’t tradwife creators stop making new content and delete all of their old stuff, too? I love the fact that this novel is exploring those contradictions.

7. Canon by Paige Lewis

Publication Date: May 19

Why I’m Interested: This sounds delightfully campy and silly.

Book cover for The Redemption Centre Is Closed on Sundays by Andrea Hairston. Image on cover shows a computer-generated drawing of a little brown and white dog looking up at an ominous old house just after dusk. There is light streaming through one window in the house, and a shadowy figure is standing there looking down at the dog.

8. The Redemption Centre Is Closed on Sundays by Andrea Hairston

Thank you to Spirit Blog for letting me know about this book.

Publication Date: May 26

Why I’m Interested: Mixing the mystery and science fiction genres together is a good way to get my attention.

Given that I have published seasonal TBR posts with as few as two books on them in the past, eight books is an excellent number for me even if it’s still a little less than the recommended amount.

64 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Nonfiction, TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

January 13, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Drawing of the outside of a blue multi-story building. Snow is falling gently outside as the street lamp glows dimly.Inside a window on the second story of this building, a pale-skinned man and woman who both have black hair sit by the window wearing sweaters and reading books in companionable silence.

Image credit: ninikvaratskhelia_

We’ve reached what is often Southern Ontario’s snowiest and iciest portion of the year.

This is when I often get a disproportionate amount of reading done due to how cold, slippery and dark it is outside.

(We have about 9 hours of daylight per day now. It’s nothing at all like how things are way up north where they have months of darkness, but it’s quite cloudy most days and I do definitely miss the feeling of sun of my skin right about now).

I’m writing this post in advance beginning in November. As I only had three titles to add in when I began, I am hoping that by the time this is published that number will have grown a little.

Let’s see what future Lydia can do!

Book cover for Phases: a Memoir by Brandy Norwood. Image on cover is a close-up photo of her face as she wears a blue silk garment and gazes thoughtfully off into the distance.

1. Phases: A Memoir by Brandy

Publication Date: March 31

Why I’m Interested: Yes, I have mentioned this book a few times lately, including the most recent Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge post. I’m too excited about it not to talk about it again today. I loved Brandy’s music growing up and am curious to learn more about her life.

Book cover for What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed. Image on cover shows a white flower with yellow spines, or possible very thin yelllow petals, sticking out from it. The other half of the image shows a black moon slowly merging with the flower.

2. What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed

Publication Date: April 7

Why I’m Interested: The alien planet described in this novel sounds so creative albeit dangerous.

3. Canon by Paige Lewis

Publication Date: May 19

Why I’m Interested: Weird fiction is alluring to me, and this was so odd I’m struggling to condense the plot into one sentence.

68 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

January 7, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Books I’m Looking Forward to This Year

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Top Ten Tuesday has a similar topic coming up next week, so today I’m going to be narrowing my list down to my most highly anticipated reads of 2026 so far.

This is going to jump around genres a bit because, as usual, that’s how I prefer to read!

Book cover for Onward: Climate Fiction to Inspire Hope by Erin Entrada. Image on cover is a drawing of two birds sitting at the mouth of a cave whose entrance is shaped like an hourglass. Beyond the birds there are numerous tree branches and a calm body of water, perhaps a sea.

1.Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope by Erin Entrada Kelly

Publication Date: February 24

Solarpunk is my new favourite subgenre of speculative fiction. I love reading about possible ways the future could be much better than life is at the present, so my fingers are crossed this will be an uplifting read.

Book cover for Phases: a Memoir by Brandy Norwood. Image on cover is a close-up photo of her face as she wears a blue silk garment and gazes thoughtfully off into the distance.

2. Phases: A Memoir by Brandy

Publication Date: March 31

As a preacher’s kid, I wasn’t always allowed to listen to secular music, but Brandy was one of those wholesome artists who passed my parents’ standards once the rules loosened up a little. I’m so curious to read her story from her perspective and hope she has a lot of interesting stuff to say about the parts of her life she hasn’t always been forthcoming about in the past. This is by far my most anticipated read of the year.

Book cover for Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel. Image on cover is a stylized painting of what appears to be rays of yellow sunshine flowing out from a large orange and yellow sun.

3. Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Publication Date:May 5

In a recent Top Ten Tuesday post, I talked about my desire to read more books about protagonists who are senior citizens. This definitely belongs in that category, and I look forward to see how Pepper adjusts to being forced to move into a retirement community only to discover that she’s pregnant shortly after that. What an unusual combination of conflicts!

Book cover for The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden. Image on cover is a painting of a white woman in a medieval-style flowing white dress standing in front of a multi-story window and looking out at what appears to be an ornate garden.

4. The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

Publication Date: June 2

I enjoyed her Small Spaces quartet and hope the storytelling in this fantasy novel will be just as playful.

I suppose the second half of the year will remain a mystery for now as there weren’t a lot of books scheduled for release then yet, and none of the ones I did find gave me that, “I must read this!” sort of feeling.

12 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as TBR List, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

December 30, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Library Books With Long Waitlists

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The original topic for this week was Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf, but I’m tweaking it a little bit as nearly everything I read comes from my local library.

Black and white photo of someone walking down a desolate road next to a line of street lamps that are closely packed together but not turned on. Here are ten books with long waitlists that I hope to request from the library once the demand for them isn’t quite so high. Yes, I know I did this same topic a while ago, but might as well recycle it every now and again.

Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging by Angela Buchdahl

Wait Time: 12 weeks

Why I’m Interested: Earlier this year I met someone who is on the heart transplant list. I continue to think of him and hope he gets his transplant.

Recitatif by Toni Morrison

Wait Time: 12 weeks

Why I’m Interested: I generally enjoy her work quite a bit.

On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters by Bonnie Tsui

Wait Time: 15 weeks

Why I’m Interested: The science of fitness is interesting and can change rapidly.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Wait Time: 16 weeks

Why I’m Interested: Terrifying vampires are the best sort of vampires if you ask me.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

Wait Time: 16 weeks

Why I’m Interested: I like the idea of memorializing a child who died young a very long time ago (even if a good deal of this is probably fiction). Too often their lives were forgotten.

Ingram: A Novel by Louis C.K.

Wait Time: 2o weeks

Why I’m Interested: It predicts how climate change will affect us all in the coming decades.

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Wait Time: 22 weeks

Why I’m Interested: It appears to be long and character-driven. If I’m going to read a long book, it needs to have excellent character development, so I’m hoping this will fit the bill.

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by

Cory Doctorow

Wait Time: 22 weeks

Why I’m Interested: I may or may not have ranted about this phenomenon a few times this year.

Are You Mad at Me? by Meg Josephson

Wait Time: 23 weeks

Why I’m Interested: This is something I struggle with.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Wait Time: 25 weeks

Why I’m Interested: Climate change, seed banks, and literary fiction sounds like an interesting combination.

62 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Library, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

December 16, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A sprig of holly lying on an opened hardcover book that itself is lying on some rough rocks at the beach on a sunny day. Just so you all know, I’ve been having trouble leaving comments on some WordPress blogs recently. They ask me to log in even though I’m already logged in, and then when I leave my comment it never appears on the post. If I don’t comment on your post, I am not ignoring you.

The photo I included in this post made me chuckle because the beaches in Ontario are often inaccessible in the winter.

Windy days are common here in Southern Ontario, and in the winter all of that wind can blow freezing water up the shore and onto any sidewalks or piers nearby.

So not only it is well below freezing for us then, the land next to our lakes is often coated in a thick layer of ice that can be incredibly slippery and dangerous.

I’m glad that people in some other parts of the world can take leisurely strolls next to their lakes or oceans in the winter without possibly slipping straight into the freezing water, though. It must be lovely, and I mean that sincerely if also slightly humorously.

With that mental image firmly in place, here are some books I’m looking forward to checking out this winter.

Book cover for “Is This a Cry for Help?” By Emily Austin. Image on cover is a drawing of two pale legs sticking out from behind a gigantic stack of books.

1. Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily R. Austin

Publication Date: January 13

Why I’m Interested: Book bans are something I’m always curious to read about, especially from the perspective of a librarian who is fighting them.

Book cover for How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage by Jessie Sylva. Image on cover shows flowers growing around a golden mirror or some other similar round object.

2. How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days: Tales from Hawthorne Cottage by Jessie Sylva

Publication Date: January 20

Why I’m Interested: Honestly, the title is what drew me to this one. I love puns and cozy speculative fiction.

Book cover for Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett. Image on cover shows a drawing of cats of various colours sitting in a large wooden piece of furniture that looks like it may have originally been built to hold china instead. It has little windows and recesses to put your valuables, like cats for example. Ha!

3. Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Publication Date: February 3

Why I’m Interested: Animal rescue is one of those topics that will draw my attention to all sorts of different books. There’s nothing like reading about an abandoned animal finding a happy new home.

Book cover for The Daughter Who Remains by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover is a drawing of a black woman being enveloped in a yellow-green mist as she holds both arms up and embraces whatever is happening to her. There also appears to be a snake writhing near her neck for reasons I do not know as I haven’t read this book yet.

4. The Daughter Who Remains by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Date: February 17

Why I’m Interested: It will hopefully encourage me to finally begin this trilogy. I’m generally a fan of Ms. Okorafor’s work and the afro-futurism genre as a whole.

Book cover for Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope by Erin Entrada Kelly. Image on cover is a drawing of a sandglass-shaped hole in a cave that opens to show the viewer a bird sitting on a ledge in the cave looking down at a serene pool of water in the forest.

5. Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope by Erin Entrada Kelly

Publication Date: February 24

Why I’m Interested: To be honest, climate change is not looking good at the moment. I worry about what the future may hold as the Earth continues to warm up. My fingers are crossed that this book will imagine some cleaner, cooler futures for us all.

74 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

October 7, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Hope Will be Satisfying

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Several bunches of lilacs lying on or next to an opened hardback book that’s laying on a wooden porch or bench. The original theme for this week was “Satisfying Book Series,” but it’s been a long time since I read a series that I was quite happy with. So many of the series I have read start off fantastically but then fizzle out in the end.

Therefore, I am going to list some series that I have not yet read but hope will end on a high note. If you can confirm or deny that they have great endings (at least so far if they’re still ongoing) without sharing spoilers, I’d love to know your thoughts on anything on this list.

1. Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1) by Diana Wynne Jones

2. The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1) by Robert Jordan

3. The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N.K. Jemisin

4. Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) by Seanan McGuire

5. Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1) by Anne Rice

6. Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert

7. The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) by Lev Grossman

8. Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes, #1) by Elizabeth Lim

I wasn’t able to make it to ten answers this week, but my fingers are crossed that some of you will have great suggestions.

60 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Series, TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

September 23, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2025 to-Read List

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two freshly picked apples and several apple leaves lying on an opened book that itself is lying on a wooden surface, possibly a picnic table. I have the full ten books this time, and I’m excited about all of them.

Brandy Norwood’s autobiography that I mentioned in one of my summer TBR posts has been pushed back to a March of 2026 release. I hope to feature it again on a winter or spring TBR list if the publication date remains more or less the same in several months.

There are a few Top Ten Tuesday bloggers who talked about some fabulous books I ended up adding to this list, so I will be thanking them today as well.

Book cover for Seven Ways Through the Woods by Jenn Reese White. Image on cover is a painting of a pale-skinned child with dark brown hair wearing a bright red coat and green hat. She is smiling as she walks into a dark woods at dusk.

1. Seven Ways Through the Woods by Jenn Reese White

Thank you to Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits for this recommendation.

Why I’m Interested: I love picture books and the woods, so this is going to be a fun read for me.

Book cover for The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson. Image on cover shows a painting of a foreboding statue or figure wearing a white hood and cloak and standing in the middle of a garden. Weirdly enough, all of the plants are blood red and there is blood dripping from the bottom of the painting as well.

2. The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson

Why I’m Interested: Two words for you all: cursed paintings. Such a scary topic as we slide into Halloween season.

Book cover for Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood. Image on cover shows a white cat standing underneath a neon light and looking up expectantly. Various parts of its fur are orange, red, green, yellow, or purple depending on which lights illuminate it.

3. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Release Date: Today

Why I’m Interested: Chronic illness amidst a global pandemic sounds intense for sure…but you also don’t get to read about disabled characters in this setting very often. I’m intrigued and hoping this is fantastic.

Book cover for Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach. Image on cover shows a human face that is, oddly enough, comprised by dozens of ears, noses, eyes, lips, and pieces of skin that look like they were taken from a variety of donors. There is blue space between each piece and the pieces do not match up evenly.

4. Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach

Thank you to AJ Sterkel for this recommendation.

Release Date: September 26

Why I’m Interested: I know a bit about organ transplants and cadaver skin being used to help heal burn victims but not about all of the other body parts that could be used to give the living better and longer lives. This could be quite interesting.

Book cover for The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee. Image on cover shows a painting of a frightened woman standing in the shadow slightly hunched over and looking over her right shoulder.

5. The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee

Release Date: September 30

Why I’m Interested: Yes, I know I may be repeating a few answers from this past summer, but this still sounds like such a good read. I love books that follow the same family through multiple generations.

Book cover for Good Spirits by B.K. Borison. Image on cover shows a man and woman embracing. Snow and autumn leaves are tumbling down around them as they kiss. They’re both wearing warm clothes and look cozy despite the cold.

6. Good Spirits by B.K. Borison

Release Date: October 7

Why I’m Interested: October is often a horror-heavy month for me because Halloween is my favourite holiday, but as I slowly drift away from (most) horror I’m finding other festive books to read. This one looks cute, especially given that I reread A Christmas Carol every December.

Book cover for Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia . Image on cover shows a heavily-muscled white man embracing a middle eastern woman who is wearing a purple dress as she floats underwater with him.

7. Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia

Release Date: October 14

Why I’m Interested: It looks silly and fun, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Book cover for Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines. Image on cover is a drawing of a black cat who has ten eyes on its head and octopus tentacles growing from its backside. The cat is winding its legs around someone who is wearing yellow trousers and using a cane.

8. Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines

Thank you to Annemieke @ A Dance With Books for this recommendation.

Release Date: October 21

Why I’m Interested: Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of my favourite shows back in the day. I’ve always wondered what a slayer (or other chosen one) does after they retire.

Book cover for The Look by Michelle Obama. Image on cover shows Mrs. Obama wearing a stunning, floor-length, light blue gown. She’s standing at a window and looking out at the light and whatever is on the other side of that glass. She looks thoughtful.

9. The Look by Michelle Obama

Release Date: November 4

Why I’m Interested: Fashion is generally a topic that doesn’t’ interest me at all, but I’m hoping Mrs. Obama might throw some more stories in with the photos of her various outfits over the years.

Book cover for Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood. Image on cover shows Ms. Atwood smiling and holding one finger up to her lips as if to shush the viewer. She’s wearing a bright read sweater and red gloves, too.

10. Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood

Release Date: November 4

Why I’m Interested: I know almost nothing about Ms. Atwood’s personal life but am curious to change that.

68 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

September 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Keep Meaning to Read (but Haven’t)

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A dozen hardbacked books placed with their spines sticking up. The angle of the photo isn’t quite high enough to read their titles, but you can see their white pages and the yellow wall behind them. Since I’m such a huge mood reader, some books hang around on my TBR list for a very long time. Here are some of them:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert

3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

5. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

6. Children of Time (Children of Time, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Now I’m drawing a blank at what else to add!

12 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as TBR List, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

August 5, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Nonfiction Books on My TBR List

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A beige agaric mushroom growing in a lush patch of grass. I am grateful for all of the Top Ten Tuesday participants who blog about nonfiction and enjoy talking about it. One of my quiet hopes for the future for this blog hop is that we’ll get even more nonfiction readers to join in on the fun.