Tag Archives: TBR List

June 24, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A row of colourful beach huts painted red, blue, yellow, green, and other primary colours. The beach has white sand and looks pristine. This week’s list is going to be a shorter one because there aren’t many books that have been announced for the second half of this year yet.

It will remain as eclectic as always, though! Jumping around between genres is so much fun.

I’m sure I’ll find more titles that pique my interest once we’re further into the year.

In the meantime, I’m excited about….

 

 

Book cover for The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson. Image on cover shows a painting that has blood dripping out from behind it. The painting itself shows a faceless figure wrapped in white gauze standing in front of a terrifying forest where all of the trees are red and look like they’re covered in blood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson

Publication Date:  September 9

Why I’m Interested: Haunted paintings are so interesting to read about.

 

Book cover for Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood. Image on cover shows a possibly AI-generated image of a white cat sitting and peering up at a light that has a rainbow assortment of coours in it. The cat’s face is orange, purple, green, blue, white, and pink depending on where you look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Publication Date: September 23

Why I’m Interested: The protagonist has a mysterious disease that is resistant to all treatments. I am so hungry for more books about characters who are not perfectly able-bodied and healthy.

 

Book cover for . The Hunger We Pass Down  by Jen Sookfong Lee. Image on cover shows a painting of a frightened-looking woman who is peering over her shoulder at you from the shadows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. The Hunger We Pass Down  by Jen Sookfong Lee

Publication Date: September 30

Why I’m Interested: The comparisons in the blurb to The School for Good Mothers and Jordan Peele’s Us make me think this will be exactly the sort of story I like.

 

Book cover for Good Spirits (Ghosted, #1) by B.K. Borison. Image on cover shows a drawing of an olive-skinned man kissing a pale blond woman gently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Good Spirits (Ghosted, #1) by B.K. Borison

Publication Date: October 7

Why I’m Interested: I reread A Christmas Carol every year and am curious to see how this spinoff of it goes.

 

(This book doesn’t have a cover or a specific publication date available yet.)

5. Brandy Norwood’s untitled memoir. That link goes to the People article about it. 

I will probably include this title again in an autumn TBR post once we have more details.

Publication Date: October 2025

Why I’m Interested: I was a huge Brandy fan as a kid and am curious to read her life story from her perspective. There are some interesting clues about her life in her music, but of course you never know how much artistic license may have been taken with lyrics or storytelling. Will she discuss her occasional past controversies in her personal and professional life? Is she happy now? I hope she’s thriving!

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June 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

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


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A 1970s, muted rainbow-themed graphic that reads “here comes the sun.” The rainbow colours are arranged to look like a circle or the sun instead of a traditional rainbow. I have been saving some of these titles in a document for months as I slowly accumulated them in an attempt to make my seasonal TBR posts a little longer than they have been previously.

Here’s hoping they are all excellent reads.

Do you all do similar things with these seasonal TBR posts and have to do a lot of digging to find books for them?

I am so impressed with Top Ten Tuesday blogggers who routinely come up with ten or more answers for these prompts.

 

 

 

Book cover for The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed. Image on cover looks like an oil painting of a valley filled with spruce and fir trees that has a meadow in the centre of the valley. It looks like it was painted in the 1800s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed

Why I’m Interested: I love science fiction novels about time travel and trying to save humanity from extinction!

 

Book cover for One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford. Image on covers shows a stylized drawing of a pale person turning their head away from the viewer. In place of hair, they have fire flickering their head. As well, a portion of their neck skin is missing and you can see the various muscles and tendons in the neck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

Publication Date: July 15

Why I’m Interested: Of course some people would try to cure their loved ones if zombies were real. I like it when this genre explores what those cures might look like.

 

Book cover for The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Image on cover shows a drawing of a pale-skinned hand reaching up and out to a small golden phoenix that is flying away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publication Date: July 15

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Moreno-Garcia writes such interesting premises.

 

Book cover for  The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman. Image on cover shows a painting of a little farmhouse sitting next to the woods at dusk. There are a few fireflies flying around outside as well as some flowers of various hues at the top of the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Thank you to Susan @ Blogging’Bout’Books  for alerting me about this title.

Publication Date: July 29

Why I’m Interested: Eugenics was an ugly chapter of history that still echoes loudly through to the present.  I shudder and then become angry when I read about folks who think people with disabilities are somehow less valuable than the able-bodied or express even more horrifying opinions than that one.

 

Book cover for Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. Image on cover is a neon drawing of a large robot picking up red neon noodles from a gigantic neon orange pan of noodles while a small golden robot stands next to the pan and looks on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Publication Date: August 5

Why I’m Interested: Science fiction has given us so many frighting stories about robots that a cozy one is a refreshing change. I wonder what sorts of dishes service bots make?

 

Book cover for The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows a drawing of a tabby cat that’s lying comfortably on the word Space in the title and peering ahead at the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Date: August 12

Why I’m Interested: She writes such interesting stuff.

 

Book cover for Legendary Frybread Drive-In by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Image on cover shows a drawing of two Native American women holding a platter of fry bread in a parking lot and gazing down at it as a red heart blooms from it. Behind them there is a car and a few other people standing around. Perhaps they are waiting for food?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Legendary Frybread Drive-In by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Publication Date: August 26

Why I’m Interested: I love interconnected collections of short stories and poems.

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March 18, 2025 · 1:00 am

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


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The first book on this list is one has already been released, and I’ve included publication dates for the rest.

Book cover for They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran. Image on cover shows a realistic drawing of a young Asian woman with long black hair submerged in water and staring at the audience with a frightened expression on her face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Why I’m Interested: Water is an underused trope in the horror genre. Frightening things can happen in it if you’re unlucky or not careful!

 

Book cover for  Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed. Image on cover shows a large orange moon or planet hanging low in the sky over a grassy field and some foothills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed

Release Date: April 8

Why I’m Interested: While I’d never want to live on Mars personally, I love reading books about how humanity might be able to survive there one day.

 

Book cover for One Way Witch by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows drawing of a young black woman whose torso has a yellow galaxy superimposed onto it. It’s hard to say where the stars end and the woman begins. There is also a mirror effect going on here, so you can see another copy of her head and the galaxy as an upside down image on the bottom half of the book cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. One Way Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Release Date: April 29

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Okorafor is on my short list of authors whose new works I always check out (eventually), but I do need to read the first book of this series before diving into this one.

 

Book cover for The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig. Image on cover shows a large spiral staircase in a dark woods. The staircase illuminated by a bright yellow light and you can see the small figure of a person - possibly a child - walking up the staircase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

Release Date: April 29

Why I’m Interested: Today I’d like to confess to the  Top Ten Tuesday community that I have started reading all of Wendig’s old books but always stopped reading them at some point because they were too scary for me. Will this book be the one of his I actually finish? Only time will tell. He’s a great storyteller from the bits I have read.

 

Book cover for  The Road to Tender Hearts  by Annie Hartnett. Image on cover is a simple, 1970s-style drawing of a person wearing a teal sweatshirt and brown shorts who is standing behind a station wagon and pushing the back of it as someone in the vehicle is driving. They must be stuck! They appear to be in the desert somewhere as there are cacti and a small, red mountain or large hill in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  The Road to Tender Hearts  by Annie Hartnett

Release Date: April 29

Why I’m Interested: Road trips are so much fun to read about.

 

Book cover for  The Road to Tender Hearts  by Annie Hartnett. Image on cover is an underwater drawing of three young white people who are swimming in a pool while facing each other. Their bodies almost form a circle, and I can imagine them chatting as they gently swim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Release Date:  May 6

Why I’m Interested: Mr. Backman is one of those authors I keep meaning to read. His stories always sound so interesting, but none of them have made it off my TBR list yet. Maybe this one will?

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March 5, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book I’m Nervous to Read (and Why)

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

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

Photo of a wooden fence with barbed wire strung at the top of the fence. The sign on the fence reads, “private no public right of way.” On the other side of the fence you can see a large grassy area and, in the distance, a grove of trees separating this grazing area from the next one. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is my answer for this week’s prompt.

Why am I nervous to read it?

While I’m usually pretty good at ignoring short-tempered curmudgeons in real life, I developed that skill by emotionally distancing myself from them, setting firm boundaries, and accepting that they are (probably) never going to change.

From what I understand about the plot, Ove does eventually change and become a (slightly? moderately? dramatically? ) more tolerable person to spend time with.

I’ve avoided reading this book so far because I’m worried about being annoyed by how unrealistic the character development will be and how much the narrator will expect the kind characters I’m assuming the protagonist meets to bend over backwards to accommodate his surliness.

I am courteous to people like Ove and help them if I can do so without harming myself in real life, but I also don’t think the onus should be on those of us who are easy going to absorb other people’s anger. It reminds me of when teachers would sit me next to the class troublemakers because I was one of the quiet and  studious kids in the classroom. (Yes, I know teachers in some districts have limited options when dealing with disruptive students, but expecting their good students to be the first line of defence against kids who can’t or won’t follow simple classroom instructions is a terrible strategy!)

People like Ove are presumably competent adults who are choosing to behave badly while many of us are quietly dealing with all sorts of problems without ever taking our pain and frustration out on others. A one-time or rare outburst can easily be forgiven, of course, but I avoid people who turn such behaviour into a habit or make excuses for it.

Frankly, I have my own troubles to deal with and simply don’t have the time or energy to try to “fix” the Oves of the world. I wish them well and genuinely hope things improve for them while also believing that it’s ultimately up to them to decide whether or not they will choose to behave in a way that makes others enjoy their company.

Yes, this can be harder for some people than it is for others for a variety of reasons, but part of being an adult is developing these coping skills and taking accountability if you hurt someone else just like you’d work on any other fault. I don’t expect perfection, just effort.

Maybe someday I will have the time and energy to read this book and see if my assumptions about it are valid, though!

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February 4, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: 2024 Releases I Was Excited to Read but Still Haven’t Gotten To


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of a white woman sitting on a bench on a cold wintry night after dark. She is wearing a winter hat and warm coat and staring up at a streetlamp next to the bench. The light from the lamp illuminates the surroundings just enough for the viewer to see some snow gently falling down to the ground. This is a cold scene due to the weather, but the woman looks contemplative as she gazes upon the street lamp. I’d sit by her. Those of you who have read my blog for a while might notice that I don’t post reviews for a lot of the books I put on my seasonal TBR posts, and part of that is due to how long it takes me to read them in some cases due to factors that are sometimes within and sometimes out of my control.

Since I rely on my local library for most of what I read, I can’t predict which books they will buy soon after the release date versus which ones might show up in the new book section a few months from now or maybe not at all.

If they happen to buy a specific title and i love it, I will almost certainly review it here! In the meantime, I wait patiently to see what shows up each week on the lists of new books and feel gratitude for all of the hard work librarians put into making sure we have lots of new titles to browse through.

Here are ten books published in 2024 that I have not actually read yet even though I was – and still am – excited for them. Maybe 2025 will be the year I read them?

 

Book cover for Escaping Mr. Rochester  by L.L. McKinney. Image on cover shows a drawing of Jane Eyre wearing a red, 1800s style dress and the first Mrs. Rochester wearing an off-white 1800s style dress. They are both young black woman who have determined expressions on their faces.

1. Escaping Mr. Rochester  by L.L. McKinney

 

 

Book cover for My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez. Image on cover is a drawing of wheat or some other type of grassy plant bending and swaying gently in the breeze.

2. My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

 

 

Book cover for Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler. There is no image on the cover. Just black text against a cream background that has one yellow stripe on the left and one purple stripe on the right side of the cover.

3. Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

 

Book cover for The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon. There is no image on the cover really. It starts off as lime green at the top of the cover and gradually shift colour to a sea green at the bottom. The title and author are written in a white font whose style is reminiscent of chalk on a chalkboard.

4. The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon

(My local library does have a few copies of this title now, though, so hopefully I’ll make it to the top of the waitlist soon!)

Book cover for The Afterlife of Mal Caldera by Nadi Reed Perez. Image on cover shows a series of seven images that look like stained glass windows. They show a skeleton doing things like dancing, singing, playing a trombone, and, at the top image, talking to someone who is still alive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. The Afterlife of Mal Caldera by Nadi Reed Perez

 

Book cover for querade by O.O. Sangoyomi. Image on cover is a comic-style drawing of a little orange cat who has a speech bubble above her head with the title written in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair (Library Binding) by Lucy Knisley

 

 

Book cover for We Carry the Sea in Our Hands by Janie Kim. Image on cover shows a stylized, oceanic-themed drawing of a pair of blue hands attempting to clasp a liquid swirl of gold and blue matter as it drains and disappears from view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. We Carry the Sea in Our Hands by Janie Kim

 

 

Book cover for  Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman. Image on cover shows a close-up photo of two ears of corn that have black kernels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.  Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman

 

 

Book cover for Sally's Lament (A Twisted Tale) by Mari Mancusi. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young girl standing in a forest. She is bathed in shadow and only a dim outline of her body can be seen. At the bottom of the image you can see a small drawing from The Nightmare Before Christmas where the ground slowly unfurled as the protagonist walked on it. It was an iconic scene in that film that happened during one of the songs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Sally’s Lament (A Twisted Tale) by Mari Mancusi

 

 

Book cover for The City in Glass by Nghi Vo. Image on cover is a drawing of a city on fire just after dusk. We are looking at the flames from far away while standing under two carved stone pillars that are still connected by a piece of stone placed on top of them. There are female figures carved into the pillars. They look a little like Greek goddesses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

 

 

Book cover for The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen. Image on cover shows a tabled filled with autumn fruits like apples, some of which are rotten, and a human skull placed on the side of the table. This is an unsettling scene that made me shiver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen

 

 

Book cover for Masquerade by Mike Fu. Image on cover is a drawing of a chrysanthemum-like flower blooming under a full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Masquerade by Mike Fu

 

 

Book cover for We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson. Image on cover is a drawing of two people, one adult and one child, walking together in a forest that has a thick layer of fog in it that obscures most other details about the scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson

 

 

Book cover for The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso. Image on cover is a drwaing of three different clocks. One is a normal analogue clock like you’d see anywhere on Earth. The second one has far too many hours noted on it. Instead of 12, there are more like 24. The third clock has interesting symbols by each hour marked on it. They look like they might be Chinese symbols.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14. The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

 

Yes, I know I went a little over the 10 book maximum today, but I couldn’t figure out which books to trim out. I want to read them all once I can.

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January 7, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

You all might remember that I struggle with these seasonal TBR posts because I’m a mood reader who relies on my local library for most of what I read. Therefore, there’s not a whole lot of planning ahead for me unless we’re talking about my all-time favourite authors or something.

So guess who came up with seven answers for this prompt? Maybe next time I’ll be able to come up with the full ten!

Book cover for All the Water in the World by Eiran Caffell. Image on cover shows skyscrapers poking out of the water in a city that’s been flooded by rising oceans in a warming world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the Water in the World by Eiran Caffell

Publication Date: Today!

Why I’m Interested: I loved Station Eleven and hope this is just as poignant and hopeful.

 

Book cover for The Other March Sisters by Linda Epstein. There’s a going on with this cover. The background is dandelion yellow. There is a sea blue silhouette of someone’s head over it. There are three smaller black silhouettes of people - presumably women - wearing 1800s style dresses around the head. Inside of the head you see the winding branches of some sort of ivy or fern as well as various types of flowers in all of the usual flower colours: pink, blue, yellow, red, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other March Sisters by Linda Epstein

Publication Date: February 25

Why I’m Interested: Little Women is such a classic, but I wondered how certain scenes would have looked from perspectives other than Jo’s as well as what was going on the other sisters’ lives that maybe she didn’t know about. Now we’ll get to find out.

 

Book cover for Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey. Image on cover shows black stylized swords and crosses and swirly lines against a blood-red background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey

Publication Date: March 4

Why I’m Interested: Carey is on my short list of must-read authors. At first I thought the protagonist was a vampire, but he may be something else instead. Either way, count me in.

 

Book cover for Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Image on cover is a drawing of a flame that has a blue centre, a white middle, and then various shades of red and orange as one moves closer to the edges of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publication Date: March 4

Why I’m Interested: Ngozi Adichie is also on my short list of must-read authors! I’m excited to read something new from her as I don’t think she’s written much fiction (if any?) before.

 

Book cover for Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green. Image on cover is a stylized drawing of tuberculosis germs swimming around on a slide that’s under the microscope. What’s interesting about this image is that you see the slide front and centre in all of it’s pink and yellow glory but the microscope is drawn so simply it’s easy to misunderstand it as something else entirely like just an abstract triangle. So the focus is on the disease here, not the doctor or scientist studying it or curing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Publication Date: March 18

Why I’m Interested: Tuberculosis is a sad but intriguing subject. I like learning more about it, especially since it remains a threat to human health to this day. May we someday have much better medications to treat it.

 

Book cover for When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. Image on cover shows an astronaut standing on the moon which, upon closer inspection, is made of yellow cheese instead of, you know, rocks and dust instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Publication Date: March 25

Why I’m Interested: Scalzi has such creative ideas. Sometimes I love his work and other times they’re not quite what I’m looking for, but I do give him another shot with every new book either way.

 

Book cover for Don't Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo. Image on cover shows a drawing of a gigantic heart - possibly human? - floating over an equally white city below. Everything looks like it’s had the life drained out of it, and I feel sad when I see this image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo

Publication Date: April 8

Why I’m Interested: This is a bit of a risky pick for me because I loathed The Great Gatsby when it was assigned to us to read in a high school English class and have refused to read anything else from Fitzgerald in the years since then. Can a retelling change my mind, or will this be a rapid DNF? Only time will tell..

 

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January 1, 2025 · 8:07 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Books I Want to Read this Month/Year

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and 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 had a similar topic last month and another one coming out later on this month, so there will be some repetition in my answers.

Book cover for Isaac's Song by Daniel Black. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man whose facial features are just barely included. You can see his eyebrows and the ridge of his nose. He’s standing in front a city filled with skyscrapers as an orange bird flies in the air behind him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My #1 answer is  Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black

Publication Date: January 14

I gushed about the first book in this series, Don’t Cry for Me, last year. It was written from the perspective of a (black) man who grew up in the south during the segregation era. He had a harsh childhood and passed on those impossible and sometimes abusive expectations to his son, Isaac, who cut contact with the protagonist as a young adult.

That was not an easy read by any means due to the themes of racism, homophobia, and generational abuse, but it was beautifully written. I can’t wait to view this world through Isaac’s eyes and hopefully see some sort of reconciliation or other form of healing by the end of it.

 

 

My #2 answer is speculative in nature and I don’t know if it will happen this year. I want a new book from Becky Chambers who is one of my favourite modern science fiction and fantasy writers. She has written some wonderfully gentle, cozy stories, and I need another one of them from her if possible.  (Especially after I read #1 on this list, I think!)

 

 

Book cover for Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Image on cover is a drawing of a flame that has a blue centre, a white middle, and then various shades of red and orange as one moves closer to the edges of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My #3 answer is Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publication Date: March 4

Why I’m Interested: A little literary fiction in the spring sounds nice. I’ve really enjoyed the previous work from her that I’ve read, too.

 

 

My #4 answer is another wish for a book that may or may not exist yet. Sarah Waters hasn’t released anything new in years, and I’d love for that to change this year.

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December 17, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Winter 2024-2025 to-Read List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I didn’t come up with a full ten answers, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to do that for these seasonal TBR posts and this list is much longer than usual.

I was able to find some great books that I can’t wait to read this winter or whenever the Toronto Public Library makes them available to borrow, though.

 

Book cover for Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr. Image on the cover is a black and white photograph of a young Malcolm X staring thoughtfully ahead at the viewer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr

Why I’m Interested: I read Malcolm X’s autobiography years ago and found it thought provoking. It will be intriguing to revisit his life from another perspective.

 

Book cover for The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder. Image on cover shows an 1800s-style painting of a white female doctor using a stethoscope to listen to the lungs of another white woman who has partially undressed and whose back is bare while she is being examined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder 

Why I’m Interested: History is a fascinating topic to me in general, especially when viewed through the perspectives of people who were discriminated against or mistreated. I believe humanity can learn from our mistakes and do better.

 

Book cover for After Life  by Gayle Forman. Image on cover is a drawing of a young blonde white woman whose back is turned to the viewer. An avalanche of pink flowers are falling all around her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.After Life  by Gayle Forman

Publication Date: January 7

Why I’m Interested: Imagine how shocking it would be if a dead loved one reappeared in your life several years later in perfect health and with no memory of what caused their death!

Book cover for Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows a stylized drawing of a black woman whose face is mostly in silhouette. Only her cheeks, nose, and a tiny bit of her forehead have been drawn in more detail. She is standing or sitting in front of a background that includes orange splotches against a teal surface. I don’t know if this is something related to the plot or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Date: January 14

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Okorafor is one of those authors I always keep an eye out for when they release new stories!

 

 

Book cover for Isaac's Song by Daniel Black. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man whose facial features are just barely included. You can see his eyebrows and the ridge of his nose. He’s standing in front a city filled with skyscrapers as an orange bird flies in the air behind him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black

Publication Date: January 28

Why I’m Interested: I loved the first book in this series, Don’t Cry for Me, and can’t wait to see how the tense relationship between the (unintentionally) abusive father and his gay, estranged son evolves from here.

 

Book cover for The Lamb  by Lucy Rose. Image on cover shows a painting of a white woman sitting on a bed with her back facing the audience. She’s topless and has wrapped her lower half in a blue comforter as she waits for who knows what. There is a slight slump in her shoulders that makes me afraid for what might happen next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.  The Lamb  by Lucy Rose

Publication Date: February 4

Why I’m Interested: This sounds deliciously scary. We will see if it’s too frightening for me!

Book cover for Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey. Image on cover shows two figures walking in the forest just after sunset when there is precious little light left. The one on the right and closer to the audience is wearing a black cape that obscures all of their features. The one on the left and further into the forest is bathed in light and wearing a peach dress or garment. I wonder where the light is coming from since everything else in this scene is so dark?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Publication Date: February 11

Why I’m Interested: Beauty and the Beast is one of those fairy tales I have mixed feelings about due to the messages it gives about what love should feel like. I think I will either adore this story or grow exasperated and stop reading it within a few chapters. Only time will tell which one of those outcomes happens!

 

Book cover for Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill. Image on the cover is a drawing of bright green monster crossing and bending her legs so they cover her private parts and lower stomach area. Her long, green hair looks like thick plant tendrils that curl out of her head and smother the rest of the image. She could almost weave a bed of her hair because of how long and thick it is. Interspersed in the hair are about eight pink flowers. I think they’re meant to part of her body, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill

(Thank you to Veronica at Dark Shelf of Wonders for blogging about this book a few weeks ago in a previous Top Ten Tuesday post!)

Publication Date: February 25

Why I’m Interested: I need more cozy fantasy in my life, especially if it’s written from a monster’s perspective!

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October 2, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Genre I Want to Read More Of

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

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

Last winter I reread the first few books in Jean M. Auel‘s Earth’s Children series. They reminded me of how much I enjoy historical fiction novels that have been well-researched and include the latest data about what life was like for average people in that era.

For example, the Earth’s Children books described what the characters ate, how they hunted and gathered, what their clothes and tools looked like, and so much more. Specific plants and animals from 30,000 years ago are explained in great detail, including species that have since gone extinct. The author extrapolated when necessary as not everything can be fossilized, of course, but she did an incredible amount of research for these books that really made ice age Europe come alive for me.

A photo of an abandoned stone cathedral on a grassy hill. It still has walls but no longer has a roof or glass in its windows. There is a stormy grey and slightly pink sky behind it. I love becoming immersed in a world so unlike modern life.

Years ago I adored how the Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett took a similar approach to English life in the 12th century. It was written from the perspective of one of the many working class men who was hired to build a cathedral.

They worked long, hard hours for low pay at a time when workers’ rights were much less protected than they are today. I was fascinated by how they managed to survive under such conditions.

If you know of other historical fiction novels that are similar to these ones as far as accuracy and research goes, I’d love to hear about them.

Generally, I do not enjoy reading about war or royalty, but I’m open to just about any other setting and era anywhere in the world.

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September 24, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of a light brown mug and an opened book lying in a bed of red and yellow autumn leaves on the forest floor. When I first began working on this post, I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me.

There is a lot of gory horror as well as Christmas stories that are generally released in the autumn.

No offense to anyone who loves either of those genres, but I needed to look elsewhere to build my list this week.

Sometimes it pays off to dig deeper and keeps going. Here are some of the upcoming autumn books that have caught my eye.

I’m too much of a mood reader to commit to a specific reading schedule in most cases, but all of these do look interesting.

Thank you to Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits for doing this topic a week early and giving me two more titles to add to my list!

 

Book cover for The City in Glass by Nghi Vo. Image on cover is a drawing of a city on fire just after dusk. We are looking at the flames from far away while standing under two carved stone pillars that are still connected by a piece of stone placed on top of them. There are female figures carved into the pillars. They look a little like Greek goddesses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

Publication Date: October 1

Why I Want to Read It: This novella looks like a nice mixture of several different themes: adventure, romance, and fantasy.

 

Book cover for The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen. Image on cover shows a tabled filled with autumn fruits like apples, some of which are rotten, and a human skull placed on the side of the table. This is an unsettling scene that made me shiver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen

Publication Date: October 8

Why I Want to Read It: The story looks scary but hopefully won’t be gory. Maybe it would be a good Halloween read?

 

Book cover for What Does It Feel Like by Sophie Kinsella. Image on cover is a drwaing of a white woman with long, straight light brown hair who is wearing a fluffy turquoise gown that has a low-cut back and walking away from the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella

Publication Date: October 8

Why I Want to Read It: I’ve never read her work before. After hearing about her life-threatening cancer diagnosis earlier this year, I’m wondering if I should give her work a try.

 

Book cover for Masquerade by Mike Fu. Image on cover is a drawing of a chrysanthemum-like flower blooming under a full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Masquerade by Mike Fu

Publication Date: October 29

Why I Want to Read It: My reading pile has been low on mysteries this year, and this one sounds interesting.

 

 

Book cover for The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong. Image on cover is a possibly computer-generated painting of a woman sitting on the back ledge of a covered n wagon and looking out at some homes in the distance. It’s just past dusk and quickly growing dark outside. You can see a fe stars in the sky as well as a lamp hanging over the backside of the wagon and illuminating her and a small black cat who is sitting next to her. It’s a peaceful scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Publication Date: November 5

Why I Want to Read It: I’m very into cozy reads at the moment.

 

Book cover for We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson. Image on cover is a drawing of two people, one adult and one child, walking together in a forest that has a thick layer of fog in it that obscures most other details about the scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Lorraine Wilson

 

Publication Date: November 7

Why I Want to Read It: 2020 sharply reduced my interest in post-apocalyptic stories, but I am slowly coming around to enjoying them again so long as there is no disease component to the plot. A world without the Internet would be so different.

 

Book cover for The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso. Image on cover is a drwaing of three different clocks. One is a normal analogue clock like you’d see anywhere on Earth. The second one has far too many hours noted on it. Instead of 12, there are more like 24. The third clock has interesting symbols by each hour marked on it. They look like they might be Chinese symbols.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso

Publication Date: November 19

Why I Want to Read It: The time travel and reality bending aspects of it sound cool. I also like the fact that the protagonist has a young child but is still able to go on adventures. Good for her!

 

 

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