Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Read the Most Books By

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Lit white candles on top of a stack of books. I’m the sort of reader who regularly jumps around between authors and among genres.

When I discover an author I really love, I might read everything from their back catalogue I can find only to go years before picking up anything else from them depending on if they’re still alive and how often they publish new novels.

That is to say, I’ve read many books from the following authors, but I can also go long stretches of time before returning to them again.

Almost everyone on my list is a science fiction or fantasy author because those are my favourite genres. I’m particular about which types of SFF I like to read, so when I find an author who has the same tastes I dive into everything I can find from them.

Do any of you follow similar patterns?

My list:

Stephen King

L.M. Montgomery

Margaret Atwood

Ursula K. Le Guin

Douglas Adams

Neil Gaiman

Octavia E. Butler

Robert J. Sawyer

Sheri S. Tepper

Jean M. Auel

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

a stack of books with a pair of spectacles and some dried flowers on top of them. There is a cup of tea sitting next to this stack)If only you all knew how hard it was to narrow this down to only ten books!

Did anyone else have that same trouble?

There are so many amazing titles coming in the second half of 2020.

 

 

 

 

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini book cover. Image on cover is of someone diving into what could be an ocean or outer space.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Release Date: September 15

Why I’m Excited for It: One word – xenobiologist. I dream of the day humans discover life on other planets.

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova book cover. Image on cover is of a vampire skull complete with fangs.

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, and more. (september 22)

Release Date: September 22

Why I’m Excited for It: Vampires are wonderfully frightening.

Vampires of Portlandia by Jason Tanamor book cover. Image on cover is of vampire fangs superimposed over man listening to music on headphones.

Vampires of Portlandia by Jason Tanamor  

Release Date: September 29

Why I’m Excited for It: The only thing scarier than living with vampires is doing so in an area that often doesn’t have much sunlight with which to chase them away!

Gathering Blossoms Under Fire- The Journals of Alice Walker by Alice Walker book cover. Image on cover is of the author looking straight ahead with neutral expression on her face.

Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker by Alice Walker

Release Date: October 1

Why I’m Excited for It: I’ve been a fan of Ms. Walker’s writing for years and am quite curious to learn more about her personal life.

Cinders and Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann book cover. Image on cover is of a castle on a hill superimposed on image of girl walking away from viewer.

Cinders and Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann

Release Date: October 13

Why I’m Excited for It: What’s not to love about inheriting a castle and all of the magical things inside of it?

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer book cover. Image on cover is of two Indian teens riding the same bicycle in opposite directions.

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

Release Date: November 3

Why I’m Excited for It: I, too, have daydreamed of what it would be like to have the ability to give people their karma right away. (Lest I frighten anyone, it’s mostly in the sense of rewarding strangers for their acts of kindness both big and small).

Dearly- New Poems by Margaret Atwood  book cover. Image on cover is of a bouquet of wild flowers.

Dearly: New Poems by Margaret Atwood  

Release Date: November 10

Why I’m Excited for It: It’s always cool to see what Ms. Atwood comes up with next.

Nimiety by A.A. Spears book cover. Image on cover is of a town and ferris wheel in ruins.

Nimiety by A.A. Spears

Release Date: November 20 (tentatively)

Why I’m Excited for It: I don’t know if I’m excited for it yet since the blurb hasn’t even been released, but I am quite intrigued by the broken ferris wheel on the cover as well as the dictionary definition of nimiety (“the state of being too much,” if you’re curious).

Link by Link- A Spirited Holiday Anthology by M. Dalto and others book cover. Image on cover is of abstract designs that look like they're from the nineteenth century.

Link by Link: A Spirited Holiday Anthology by M. Dalto, Pam Dunn, Myra Fiacco, Marlena Frank, Kristin Jacques, C. Vonzale Lewis, Jess Moore, and Candace Robinson.

Release Date: December 1

Why I’m Excited for It: Three words – Christmas ghost stories.

True Names- Four Generations of My Afro Appalachian Family by Malaika Adero book cover. image on cover is of a black family riding in canoes on a lake.

True Names: Four Generations of My Afro Appalachian Family by Malaika Adero

Release Date: December 1

Why I’m Excited for It: I had no idea there were African-American families who lived in Appalachia. I look forward to learning more about what that experience was like for this family.

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Linked to Specific Memories in My Life

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Happy 10th anniversary to Top Ten Tuesday! I decided to do the July 23, 2018 topic entitled Books That Are Linked to Specific Memories/Moments In Your Life.

I haven’t reread any of these books in years, so my memories of all of their plot twists is fuzzy. If any of you read them, I hope you like them!

Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry, Wesley Dennis book cover. Image on cover is of a burrow standing next to the grand canyon

1. Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry and Wesley Dennis

The Memory Attached to It: Sitting in the backseat of my parents’ car late one night while we were driving home from a long road trip. Mom read this book to me while my younger siblings slept next to me. I couldn’t wait to find out if Brighty would survive all of his dangerous adventures and kept begging her to read just one more chapter.

Book cover for The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Image on cover is of african-american girl sitting by a window in the 1940s era.

2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The Memory Attached to It: Sitting on the hammock on my parents’ back porch on a muggy summer day. (I think my dad might have been travelling that week and hadn’t been able to install our window air conditioner yet?) It was too hot for even mild physical activity like a walk, so I slowly drank unsweetened mint tea while reading this book.

Book cover for C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces. Image on cover is of an angel touching a child.

3. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

The Memory Attached to It: Sitting in my grandparent’s basement while eating crisp saltine crackers, drinking a deliciously cold can of cola, and trying to stay as cool as possible on that hot summer day. My grandparents use something called a swamp cooler, so while there is some relief from the heat you still don’t want to run around too much in their house when the temperatures and humidity soar. Quiet activities are best. I really don’t enjoy heat waves, so maybe that’s why they’re playing such a prominent role in today’s post.

Book cover for Julia Watts' The Kind of Girl I Am. Image on cover is of a painting of a vanity and chair.

4. The Kind of Girl I Am by Julia Watts

The Memory Attached to It: Sitting down to a hot, filling lunch after running around for five straight hours at work. I was famished and exhausted. It was such a relief to eat again, feel the aching in my feet temporarily reduce, lose myself in a book, and enjoy some peace and quiet before jumping back into the fray for the rest of my shift.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

5. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

The Memory Attached to It: A coworker asked what I was reading and was a little surprised by the fact it was a romance novel. I had the reputation of being the resident science fiction and horror expert, but everyone needs to expand their horizons sometimes!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2020 TBR

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

White woman reading a book while sitting in a lawn chairSummer weather in Toronto begins in June and runs through the end of September (or longer some years).

We’ll have warm but still nice days at the beginning and end of summer season, but we also have many hot, humid ones when the best thing to do is to settle down with a book and save any exercising for cooler parts of the day.

This is doubly true this year thanks to the pandemic and the fact that all of our swimming pools and beaches are shut down for public health reasons. Here are a few of the many books I’m hoping to check out this summer as I stay cool.

 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia book cover. Image on cover is of a young girl wearing a red dress, clasping flowers, and sitting down.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Release Date: June 30

Why I Want to Read It: As soon as the saw the words “horror” and “Jane Eyre” in the blurb, I knew I had to read this. Not sure if this is a homage to that book or simply has similar themes. Either way, I’m thrilled to check it out soon.

Goddess in the Machine (Goddess in the Machine, #1) by Lora Beth Johnson book cover. Image on cover is of a young black girl turning around.

Goddess in the Machine (Goddess in the Machine, #1) by Lora Beth Johnson

Release Date: June 30

Why I Want to Read It: The thought of being in stasis so long that everyone you know and love has died long before you wake up again makes me shudder. It also makes me eager to see how this character reacts to this fact.

 

Book cover for Ghost Wood Song  by Erica Waters. Image on cover is of book title in the shape of curved pieces of wood.

Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

Release Date: July 21

Why I Want to Read It: There’s nothing like reading a spooky ghost story on a humid summer day.

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Paola Santiago #1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears (Paola Santiago #1) by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Release Date: August 4

Why I Want to Read It: Middle grade novels are the perfect brain candy for hot, humid days. The fact that this one references La Llorona only makes me more curious about it!

Book cover for Sara Seager's The Smallest Lights in the Universe. Image on cover is of an adult and two children walking outdoors at dusk.

The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir by Sara Seager 

Release Date: August 18

Why I Want to Read It: The existence of exoplanets are one of the most interesting aspects of astronomy in my opinion. I could read about them all day.

Drawing of three Japanese teenagesr on the side of a building next to a large pile of luggage.

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

Release Date: September 1

Why I Want to Read It: The shameful Japanese internment camps of the 1940s are more relevant than ever given what’s currently happening in the U.S.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas book cover. Image on cover is of two teen latinos and what appears to be a zombie.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Release Date: September 1

Why I Want to Read It: I love visiting cemeteries in real life. They’re incredibly peaceful places to walk, and you can learn so much about the lives of strangers and the eras they lived in by reading their headstones. This love of cemeteries encompasses fictional stories about them as well. They’re not scary to me. They’re wonderful.

The Irish Princess by Elizabeth Chadwick book cover. Image on cover is of a painting of a 12th century princess.

The Irish Princess by Elizabeth Chadwick

Release Date: September 12

Why I Want to Read It: I must confess to having no idea that Ireland ever had their own princess. Now I want to know more!

The Ninth Life by Taylor B. Barton book cover. Image on cover shows three teens embracing while standing on a roof.

The Ninth Life by Taylor B. Barton

Release Date: September 15

Why I Want to Read It: Honestly, who hasn’t grieved the loss of a beloved pet and wished you could have more time with them? The fact that this cat came back as a young queer man makes the storyline even more appealing to me. I can’t wait to see how he adjusts to being human!

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Release Date: September 15

Why I Want to Read It: This mansion that goes on endlessly sounds deliciously weird, and I love stories like that. It also reminds me of dreams I’ve had about similar houses that are filled with more rooms than anyone could ever explore.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’ve Added to my TBR and Forgotten Why

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Opened book next to cup of tea and stuffed toy bear. All three items are sitting on a white bedspread. This week’s list might seem a little out of character for my reading habits. I jump around a lot in various genres, but the vast majority of the books I read were written in the last thirty to forty years.

(Do book published in 1980-1990 count as contemporary or historical? I have no idea!)

With that being said, there have been some classic novels like Jane Eyre that I loved reading.

So I’m always theoretically open to reading more classics….it’s just rare for me to actually be in the mood to adapt to the sometimes wordy writing styles from past decades and centuries.

Now I don’t even remember why I was interested in these specific titles, but they’re still on my TBR list.

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickins

2. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

4. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

6. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Top Ten Tuesday: Unique Opening Lines

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl I could have easily made this list twice as long. What a great topic!  Please note that the final opening line references the death of a child. 1.“I am sixteen when my mother steps out of her skin one frozen January afternoon- pure self, atoms twinkling like microscopic diamond… Read More

Top Ten Tuesday: The Last Ten Books I Abandoned

In: Blog Hops

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl I’ve been abandoning books more regularly these past few months. Have any of you noticed the same thing about your reading habits Here are ten books that I recently started reading but couldn’t finish for reasons I’ll explain below. 1. Nests, Eggs, Birds: An Illustrated Aviary by  Kelsey Oseid… Read More