Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Before I get into the meat of this post, let’s highlight the bookish goals I accomplished for 2024:

• Visit coffee shops more often.
• Submit a Top Ten Tuesday theme to Jana that she ends up using (which was a thrill!)
• Read more novellas and short stories
• Spend less time on social media
• Meet more bookish people

Accomplishing five out of my ten goals for 2024 is pretty good, especially considering the rough spots this past year had in store for me that I had no idea were coming when I wrote that post.

Here are my goals for 2025. Yes, I’m recycling some of the ones from last year. Might as well keep plugging away at them.

1. Finish more books

I had so many DNFs this past year. It was sometimes hard to concentrate due to the non-bookish aspects of my life that needed extra attention.  I also became much less likely to want to read stories that were unhappy or that reminded me of the various things going on in my life that were hard.

2. Read more history

I believe I only finished a handful of nonfiction books in this category last year. It was better than 2023, but so many of the ones I tried to read ended up being too heavy for me.

3. Patronize independent bookstores

This was a total failure in 2024. Maybe I’ll have the time and energy for it in 2025?

4. Try some new caffeine-free teas

I would have loved to do this one last year, but other stuff got in the way. I hope I will try some great new teas in 2025, though.

5. Make more bookish friends

We need a platonic version of OkCupid for bookish people!

6.  Attend bookish events (semi?) regularly

This could also help with #5. Maybe I’ll find a covid-safe poetry reading or a book club or something to join.

7. Read more books about people with invisible illnesses that don’t make the illness the main storyline. 

If they also have migraines or other pain or neurological disorders, that would be awesome. But other sorts of illnesses would be interesting, too. Basically, I would love to read more stories about characters who outwardly “look” healthy but who are still dealing with an illness or disability of some sort.

Suggestions are warmly welcomed if anyone has any!

8. Read or listen to more humorous titles.

There’s nothing like laughing until you cry over a ridiculously funny scene.

9. Improve my handwriting

Is that bookish enough for Top Ten Tuesday? I have never had pretty handwriting, but it has gotten worse over the years. Time to buy one of those handwriting books and try to make my writing more legible again. Ha!

10. Be pleasantly surprised by one book that’s finally being made into a film or TV show 

Okay, so this isn’t something I can personally make happen…but I would love to be surprised by it regardless.

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

As promised yesterday, here are the best books I read in 2024. I think these posts are more interesting when Top Ten Tuesday bloggers include reasons why they loved certain titles, so I will be adding that into my responses as well.

Seven of my ten answers are books I wrote reviews for, and links to my reviews are included for those ones.

 1. What Does It Feel Like? By Sophie Kinsella

Why I Loved It: This book was such an interesting and educational peek at what it’s like to live with a nearly 100% fatal type of brain cancer.  I’m hoping that Ms. Kinsella will be around for many years to come.

2.Bodega Botanica Tales by Maria Rodriguez Bross

Why I Loved It: Urban fantasy is such an under-appreciated genre in my opinion. I love reading about how fantasy worlds works in large, bustling cities.

3. Strange New World by A.R. Grosjean

Why I Loved It: It retells one of my favourite childhood stories in the zaniest way.

4. What Love Survives & Other Stories by DB MacInnes

Why I Loved It: The blend of genres and the willingness to try new things. I don’t think speculative fiction is something this author writes much of – or at least that’s the impression I got – so it’s awesome to see them branch out.

5. Cloudspotting for Beginners by William Grill

Why I Loved It: Clouds are endlessly fascinating. Who wants to go cloud watching with me and point out what shapes they make?

6. The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod by Bill Russo

Why I Loved It: The slight absurdity of it all, beginning with the title. It sounds like the sort of tall tale a local person would swear is true if you visited a small town bar.

7. Neuro Noir by Al Hess

Why I Loved It: Computers as protagonists. The way these ones saw the world was so wildly different from how the average person would interpret the same data.

8. Ghosted – A Short Story by H.L. Burke

Why I Loved It: What a cozy little fantasy. It felt like the literary equivalent of drinking a nice cup of tea and warming up after a damp, chilly walk outdoors.

9. Veterans of Love and War: A First World War Ghost Story by Steven Glick

Why I Loved It: While I normally shy away from war stories, I loved how this one showed how a young closeted gay man experienced World War I.

10. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson

Why I Loved It: This book shed light on the shady, and in my opinion sometimes downright immoral, tactics many adoption agencies in the United States use in order to convince people – and mostly mothers – to place their babies for adoption. Adoption can be a great option for kids who can’t safely remain with their birth families, but there are many families that could stay together and thrive if offered support through hard times.

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Thank you to Astilbe for submitting this theme!

I’m tweaking the theme a little so I can share some books that turn weather or nature into a character.

I don’t know about all of you, but sometimes when a particularly bad snowstorm or blizzard hits southern Ontario it almost feels like there’s an angry creature shrieking outside as it tosses snow everywhere.

Logically, I know it’s just the wind, of course, but it’s fun to imagine more paranormal explanations for why the weather is so dangerous that day.

Here are ten books where the weather – whether snowy, sunny, bone-dry or otherwise – feels like another character to contend with. I suspect that all of them would good reads during a storm.

1. Dry by Neal Shusterman

2. The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong

3. Trapped by Michael Northrop

4. To Build a Fire by Christophe Chabouté

5. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

6. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

7. Snow by John Banville

8. The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane

9. Summer at Mount Hope by Rosalie Ham

10. Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Thank you to Nicole@BookWyrm Knits for submitting this theme. You’re a lovely person who came up with a fun idea for this week.

Honestly, I do not think my answers are going to be very impressive this week. When I was a teenager, I read dozens of classic novels and enjoyed many of them. The classics I have still not yet read are, for the most part, books that do not appeal to me for a variety of reasons and that I will probably never read.

Almost everything I read these days has been published within the last five or so years unless someone who shares my taste in book recommends something older or I happen to find an older title some other way that sounds amazing.

Most of what I read these days are ebooks from my local library and they typically buy new or new-ish titles for our community instead of older ones.