Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2024


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

A photo of the word “start” painted in large white letters on an otherwise empty country road. The road is brown and dusty. The grass beside it on both sides is dead. The sky above is blue and partially cloudy. Here are my goals for 2024.

1. Visit coffee shops more often. There’s something so delightfully bookish about them, don’t you think?

2. Submit a Top Ten Tuesday theme to Jana that she ends up using. Yes, I’m reusing this joke from last year, but I would also be thrilled if it happens someday. Ha!

3. Meet more bookish people and maybe become friends with a few of them if it works out?!

4. Spend less time on the Internet. I’ve been using it heavily these past few years as it was often one of the few covid-safe things to do, especially when the weather outdoors was smoky from wildfires or icy because it was the middle of winter and even here in southern Canada it is not a tropical place then by any means. While I’m grateful for all of the entertainment the Internet offers, I’d love to find more ways to socialize in real life that are mindful of Covid precautions, too.

5. Read more books about history. I read very little of it in 2023.

6. Patronize independent bookstores. I didn’t do this last year but would like to try again this year.

7. Try some new caffeine-free teas. I love drinking tea while I read, so any suggestions are would be appreciated if you know of a good one.

8. Read more novellas and short stories. I love how quickly I can finish them.

9. Avoid reading when I wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I have trouble falling back asleep, and I’m wondering it that would be easier if I tried something other than reading in those moments.

10. Spend less time on social media. My hope is that I’ll be able to meet some more folks in real life if I reduce Internet and social media scrolling.  (This one is going to be almost as hard as cutting back on my Internet usage in general, friends! Wish me luck).

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A black and white spotted cat sitting on top of a bookshelf and resting peacefully. My list of answers is short this week, but I did have more than two books this time which is a nice change from the winter TBR theme from a few weeks ago that was a struggle for me.

Here’s hoping some of you mention some other books that will help flesh it out. That has happened for me on multiple occasions in the past!

If not, there are always plenty of older library books to look forward to.

This isn’t my cat or my photo. (It is a public domain image, though).

I simply like the thought of a cat feeling comfortable enough to rest or maybe even snooze a little while humans hunt for new books to read. It’s so wholesome.

Aren’t animals the best?

 

 

Book cover for Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase. Image on cover shows a drawing of a black woman’s head. There is a fetus growing in a glass or clear plastic cage in the space where her brain should be. It’s very eerie.

 

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

Release Date: January 23

Why I’m Interested: The world-building sounds fantastic. My fingers are crossed it will be.

 

 

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.

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

Release Date: February 13

Why I’m Interested:  This memoir sounds super interesting.  I can’t imagine being responsible for raising a younger sibling as a teenager. Wow, that’s a lot to ask of someone that age! One of the benefits of reading is learning about the lives of people whose life experiences can be wildly different from your own in all sorts of ways.

 

Book cover for The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. Image on cover is a drawing of an incredibly pale person’s hands who are clasping a red rose. One of their hands has a bracelet on it.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Release Date: February 14

Why I’m Interested: I love ghost stories, and I haven’t read many of them set during World War I. This could be good.

 

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.

Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

Release Date: March 19

Why I’m Interested: I’m curious to learn more about the link between transphobia and authoritarianism as I am completely confused and dismayed by the hatred of and vitriol against transgender people that is being stirred up by some folks. Why not love and accept everyone for who they are instead?  That seems like such a better option to me.

 

I look forward to reading all of your responses.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books of 2023


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A white woman is looking up lovingly at a book that is hovering in the air above her. Nothing is holding the book up. It appears to be levitating through magic. 2023 was a wonderful reading year for me. Kudos to Berthold Gambrel for recommending two of them to me. You know my taste in books so well. Or maybe we simply have very similar tastes in books.

Here are my favourite stories of this past year.

Links to my reviews have also been included as all of my answers this time also happened to belong to the genres and even the specific titles I discuss on this blog.

Isn’t it funny how that works sometimes?

Most years I would include at least a few other sorts of books I haven’t previously discussed here, but none of them struck me as favourites this time around. They weren’t bad reads or anything, just not top of the shelf ones.

There’s always next year, though.

 

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz book cover. Image on cover shows a steaming cup of tea in a white mug that has fancy ridges and floral patterns on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz (My review)

Why I Loved It: The storyline had such a hopeful take on what the future could be like.

 

Book cover for Autumn Moon by J.T. McCallum. Image on cover shows a wolf howling outside in the middle of the night. A profile of the wolf’s head and neck can be seen against the dim light of a huge full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Autumn Moon by J.T. McCallum (My review)

Why I Loved It: The last sentence of it clinched everything together beautifully. Yes, I know this is vague, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers.

 

Book cover for Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek. The cover is a pretty light purple colour, and it has four large snowflakes, four medium sized snowflakes, and dozens of tiny little snowflakes falling down on what I presume is a night sky on it. It gives the feeling of standing outside and feeling the snow fall onto your face and hands during an early morning or sunset snowstorm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek (My review)

Why I Loved It: I mean, the protagonist was a sentient snowflake. That sort of creativity and risk-taking are both huge pluses in my opinion!

 

Book cover for Want to read Buy on Amazon CA Rate this book Hellf on the Shelf: A Christmas Short Story by Rumer Haven. Image on cover shows a ceramic toy elf looking up and over at a Christmas tree behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Hellf on the Shelf by Rumer Haven (My review)

Why I Loved It: It captures Elf on the Shelf culture perfectly!

 

Book cover for War Bunny by Christopher St. John. Image on cover shows a drawing of a rabbit looking over its left shoulder. The rabbit’s body is comprised of a pink and green floral pattern that looks like wallpaper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. War Bunny by Christopher St. John (My review)

Why I Loved It: I adore rabbits and books featuring them as characters even more.

 

Book cover for Only the Living Feel Remorse by Ash Deza. Image on cover is a grainy photograph of someone wearing a grey hoodie and walking down an incredibly foggy and dark path. You can see a few possibly leafy tree branches at the top of the cover, but everything else is well obscured by fog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Only the Living Feel Remorse – A Ghost Story by Ash Dena (My review)

Why I Loved It: Most ghost stories don’t scare me at all, but this one did. The protagonist was such a complex, deeply flawed, and memorable individual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A person who is all wrapped up in a a warm winter coat and a red and black headscarf is sitting on a snowy bench in a park reading a book. You can see evergreen trees covered in a thick layer of snow in front of them, too. I was originally thinking about discussing library books this week, but December is such a busy month for me that I needed to finish this post well in advance and therefore would probably have already read (or DNF) any library books I had on my radar when I wrote it by the time this goes live.

Therefore, I’m going to be discussing books I’ve bought or downloaded for free but have not read yet (with two exceptions) instead.

Every Thursday, I share a list of free speculative fiction books on Mastodon. Everything but the first book on this list came from those toots, but they may or may not still be free by the time this post goes live.

Here are my answers and why I’m excited about them.

 

Book cover for The Long Arms by Michael Kanaly. Image on cover shows a fire burning brightly. There is a rock in front of the fire that has a few deer or cows painted on it in a prehistoric style.

 

1. The Long Arms by Michael Kanaly

Why I’m Interested: As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m fascinated by Neanderthals and read everything I can find – both fiction and nonfiction – about them. This looks like it could be a great story.

 

Book cover for Magic, Mistletoe, & Murder by Ruby Blaylock. Image on cover shows a witch flying on her broom in front of a full moon. On the city street below two black cats sit together and peer up at her. The cats are surrounded by a red gift wrapped in a white bow, a witch’s hat, some Christmas lights, and a bat flying low to the ground.

2. Magic, Mistletoe, & Murder by Ruby Blaylock

Why I’m Interested: It’s a cozy mystery set at Christmas. I love reading gentle stories like this sometimes.

 

Book cover for Neuro Noir by Al Hess. Image on cover shows a drawing of about a dozen different eyes that all have black irises and sclera. the one in the centre is red instead!

3. Neuro Noir by Al Hess

Why I’m Interested: I actually have a review of this book scheduled for January 11, so stay tuned.  Artificial intelligence always makes for such interesting protagonists.

 

Book cover for Devil's Night - A Halloween Short Story by Richard Chizmar. Image on cover is a drawing of three jack-o-lanterns leering at the viewer as they sit in a field under the light of a full moon at night.

4. Devil’s Night – A Halloween Short Story by Richard Chizmar

Why I’m Interested: Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I read a lot books set then so long as they’re not gory.

 

(No cover photo)

5. Hologram Kebab by Phillip Kebar

Why I’m Interested: The title was what first grabbed my attention. Isn’t it creative? My review of this book is scheduled for January 4.

 

Book cover for Don’t Look Back - Short Halloween Stories by Jason Thomas. Image on cover shows small, black-and- white drawings of a scythe with blood dripping from it, a gravestone, a stake, and a mushroom that has a little dirt on it.

 

6. Don’t Look Back – Short Halloween Stories by Jason Thomas

Why I’m Interested: See #4. There are never enough non-gory Halloween stories for my tastes.

 

Book cover for The Ballad of Mary-Anne by Kody Boye. Image on cover shows a starry evening sky that is partially lit up with a beautiful pink and purple light shining up from the bottom of the page. It may be from a sunset?

7. The Ballad of Mary-Anne by Kody Boye

Why I’m Interested: One word – aliens. I think they’re such fascinating things to read about.

 

Book cover for Free Will by Lisa Shea. Image on cover shows a human skull that has some gears drawn onto it. I’m sorry, but I have no idea what that symbolizes either! I guess we’ll both have to read the book to find out. :)

8. Free Will by Lisa Shea

Why I’m Interested: Here’s a fun, quick little story for you. My spouse is adamant that free will doesn’t exist. This is not a topic I honestly think about very much, but sometimes I like to tease my spouse a little by picking rabbits or other random creatures and saying those animals have free will but no one else in the universe does. (Yes, we are a little geeky sometimes. Hehe).  So I want to read this book mostly because it reminds me of this silly memory.

 

Book cover for Life on the Other Side by Daniel Powell,. Image on cover shows a peaceful little cottage covered in several feet of snow. It’s surrounded by gigantic fir trees that are also covered in snow, and there is a friendly little light emanating from a window in the cottage. It is overall a peaceful and happy scene.

9. Life on the Other Side by Daniel Powell

Why I’m Interested: The cover looks rather peaceful, while the blurb promises a lot of conflict. I think it’s cool when there’s a little conflict between a blurb and a cover. Which one will win, I wonder?

 

Book cover for The Fall Of Denver - A Tribute Story to the Original War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells’ by Richard Paolinelli. Image on cover is a black and white drawing of an alien spaceship that looks like it’s beginning to crash onto a large pile of rubble on Earth. Everything is so messily drawn that it’s hard to tell where the rubble ends and the alien vessel begins. This feels like an intentional choice on the part of the illustrator and makes me wonder what other parallels might be drawn between the two.

10. The Fall Of Denver – A Tribute Story to the Original War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells’ by Richard Paolinelli

Why I’m Interested: I adored War of the Worlds and am so curious to see what a contemporary author does with those ideas.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Winter Solstice Bookish Wishes


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Painting of a young, blond, white woman who is standing outside in a snowstorm and looking at a fir tree whose branches are heavily coated in snow. She is wearing a red dress with white cuffs on it and a white cloak with a yellow, possibly fur trim. She is also holding a lantern that’s about the size of an infant. The lantern is glowing steadily in the dark winter scene, illuminating her, the tree, and the snow. Happy (almost) Winter Solstice to everyone who will be celebrating it in a few days! I’m eagerly anticipating the changing of the seasons and the few extra minutes of daylight we’ll soon have each day here in Canada.

Here are my Winter Solstice bookish wishes.

1. More Audiobooks at the Library 

A few years ago, some Top Ten Tuesday bloggers encouraged me to give audiobooks a try during an audiobook prompt. I listened to you and have since learned to love having this option while doing chores or getting cardiovascular exercise on a brisk walk!

My local library has a pretty decent selection of audiobooks, but I’d love to see them offer even more of them than they currently do. For example, I’d love to listen to audiobooks of Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series this winter or even just listen to more fiction in general. Nonfiction is better represented at my library than fiction is from what I’ve seen.

2. Quiet Reading Time 

My spouse prefers watching YouTube videos to reading books and we live in a small apartment, so sometimes I wish for more quiet time to read.

3. An Abundance of Novellas

I’ve really been on a novella kick lately and wish there were more books of this length being published, especially in the speculative fiction genres. It’s refreshing to have something longer than a short story to dive into that doesn’t require my attention for 200+ pages. Some storylines don’t need that much space to shine.

4. Dairy-Free Chocolate

I like to save it for emotional scenes, whether it’s a tense moment in a horror novel or a sentimental chapter in a piece of mainstream fiction. There’s something about chocolate that makes those passages even more memorable.

5. Living Happily Ever After

This is something I’ve mentioned here before, but since 2020 I have felt stronger and stronger urges to read stories that end happily. Occasionally, I will actually look up reviews of certain books or skip ahead to the last few pages to see if the good guys won and if everything is peaceful in the end. While I’m still willing to read some stories that don’t fit that pattern, I’m limiting them much more than I used to and am quicker to DNF them if they become too sad.

6. Endings in General

Maybe I should explain this one a little better. I’m a writer, and I’ve been having trouble coming up with endings for my stories. Beginnings are easy, middle sections aren’t too bad, but endings can be tricky. Here’s hoping I get a flash of inspiration in 2024.

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


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

Three white pillar candles are sitting on a stack of four antique hardback books. The candles are of varying lengths from short to tall. The books have grey, red, green, and blue covers respectively. As I mentioned last week, winter is a time of year when I often get a lot of reading done.

I love the outdoors in spring and autumn, but I don’t spend as much time there when I have snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to think about.

Thank goodness there are countless books out there for all of us to rely on for entertainment until it warms up again! (Or cools down again for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere).

Here are some of the upcoming titles I’m curious about and why I want to 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.

Escaping Mr. Rochester  by L.L. McKinney

Publication Date: January 16

Why I Want to Read It: Jane Eyre is one of my favourite classics novels, but I always thought Jane should have chosen not to marry either of the men who proposed to her. I am intrigued by a retelling that shows her teaming up with the first Mrs. Rochester to make better lives for themselves.

 

Book cover for The Warm Hands of Ghosts  by Katherine Arden. Image on cover shows a pair of painfully pale hands clasping a red rose. They have a bracelet with a small pendant on their left wrist, and both hands are partially covered by the leaves and branches that are concealing the rest of this person’s body.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts  by Katherine Arden

Publication Date: February 13

Why I Want to Read It: While I normally shy away from fiction set during either World War, I love ghost stories and enjoyed the Small Spaces quartet enough to see what Ms. Arden is planning to do with Flanders field and life during the First World War.

 

 

Publication Date:

Why I Want to Read It:

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Things I Like About Winter and the Holidays


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two years ago, I used the early December freebie post to talk about why winter and the winter holiday season is hard for me.

This year I thought I’d follow up to that post with a list of things I like about winter and the winter holiday season.  Some of these answers are bookish while others maybe not so much.

Photo of orange blister packs filled with pills. 1. Fewer Migraines

Last summer when wildfires were burning out of control across Canada and pollen counts were high, I had two to three times as many migraines as I normally would have because both pollen and air pollution are triggers for me. Combining those two things together was not good for my health at all.

I will still have migraines this winter as some of them are unavoidable for me, but they will hopefully be back to my baseline number of them instead of the rough few months I had over the summer.

 

An orange cat blissfully sleeping in a white cat bed. Its head and paw are resting on the side of the bed so that the viewer can see them. The rest of its body is hidden behind the side of the bed. 2. Better Sleep

With fewer migraines and no seasonal allergies to deal with, I’m going to be getting much more restful sleep this winter as long as I don’t catch any winter illnesses. There’s nothing like sleeping deeply and waking up refreshed!

 

 

 

Hardback books neatly lined up on a wooden desk that is sitting right in front of a large picture window. The window overlooks a snowy winter street where a pedestrian is walking down the centre of the road because the sidewalks are filled with snow. 3. More Time to Read

Yes, some people relish plenty of outdoor time on cold, snowy, slippery days…but I am not one of them.

When the weather outside is frightful, I stay home and catch up on my reading.

There are so many books I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t had the chance to dig into yet.

This winter could put a serious dent in my TBR list, especially if we get the heavy snowfall that some meteorologists say could happen for Ontario this year.

 

 

 

4. Warm, Hearty Meals

I love chili, stew, soup, spaghetti, cottage pie, and all sorts of other cold-weather dishes that aren’t very A close-up photo of a bowl of vegetable beef stew in a blue bowl. The bowl is sitting on a wooden surface. practical to cook or appetizing to eat when it’s 40 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) outside and the humidity levels are  90%.

This time of year, though, is perfect for eating a bowl or plate of food that you know will keep your belly warm and full as the snow falls thickly outside and the temperature drops below zero.

 

 

A peeled mandarin orange has been broken into five segments. It’s sitting on a white surface next to the mandarin orange peel that once held this fruit.

5. Mandarin Oranges 

In related food news, mandarin oranges are in season again. I try to choose my diet based on what’s in season as much as possible, so citrus is a nice break from the apples and bananas that make up so many of my fruit servings over the winter.

 

 

A white woman who has brown hair and is wearing a chunky white sweater is reading a hardback novel as she sits next to a fireplace. The fireplace is in a circular fire pit in the centre of the room. You can see a stack of chopped wood next to it ready to add to the flame as needed. 6. Enjoying Winter-y Reads 

These past several years, I’ve read and reread winter-themed books over the winter.

It’s kind of fun to read books about characters dealing with snowy, slippery, and stormy conditions when many of us in the Northern Hemisphere will be doing the same thing for the next three to four months (or longer for folks who live in the far north!)

C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are on my re-read list for this winter. I don’t yet know which other books fitting this theme I might also read or reread, but I’m sure I’ll find something.

(If you have suggestions for nonfiction, mysteries, or speculative fiction set during the winter, I’d love to hear them!)

 

 

A photo of a tree and car-lined street. There is a row of houses behind the cars. Everything in this scene is covered with a gorgeous layer of snow and possibly some ice that adorns everything in a flowery white covering. It looks almost magical because of how every little branch and bump of these things have been smoothed out.

 

7. The Beauty of Winter

This isn’t a photo of my neighbourhood, but it does capture just how pretty the world can be after a good snowstorm.

I love the way snow softens the harsh lines of everything and adds a gentle touch to what can otherwise be a relentless sea of black, brown, and grey colours over winter.

It’s also interesting to walk around outside during or after a snowstorm and notice how much quieter even the city can be when snow is muffling all of the noises that machines, people, and animals make.

 

 

A photo of a white cup filled with hot chocolate and six big marshmallows. the cup is sitting on a wreath of pine branches and brown autumn leaves that have been arranged around it in a circular pattern. There are three extra marshmallows on this wreath, and everything is sitting on a wooden table. 8. Seasonal Treats

I’m sure this is true just about everywhere right now, too, but November and December are when Toronto’s grocery stores fill up with all sorts of delicious seasonal treats. For example, there’s a specific brand of kosher chocolate I always keep an eye out for over late autumn or the winter because there are no milk products in it and it’s not available the rest of the year.

Now is also when I stock up on candy-cane flavoured stuff, dairy-free hot chocolate, and whatever else catches my eye when I’m buying groceries.

 

A photo of an incredibly content hamster sitting in a dark green mug and eating a seed. The mug is sitting on a dark red surface that has a string of white lights lying on it. 9. Winter Light Displays

You see them for all sorts of different winter holidays in Toronto.

I love the fact that I can walk around and enjoy them without being responsible for planning how to arrange them, putting them up, replacing their burnt-out bulbs, or taking them down again in January.

Thank you to everyone who has the time and creativity for these sorts of decorations! You make a lot of strangers who pass by and notice them very happy.

I’m sharing this photo mostly because it’s adorable, although it does fit the theme somewhat.

 

 

A photo taken of snow that has blown into straight, even lines. It looks like someone plowed the snow this way, but I think it happened naturally as a result of bumps and crevasses on the land the snow fell on. In the distance, you can see the blurry image of a hilll, some evergreen trees, and a few trees that have lost their leaves for the winter. 10. Quiet Days 

Years ago I used to work in jobs that were incredibly busy in November and December.

It was always a huge relief to make it to the end of December and know things were going to be much less hectic for the next few months. (Please be nice to everyone in the service industry this holiday season and always! They work really hard to help make your celebrations special).

I love the feeling of walking through quiet stores, neighbourhoods, or parks just after the holiday season ends and most people have returned to their regular daily routines. It’s such a peaceful moment in life.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set During Thanksgiving


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A cornucopia set on it’s side and filled with pumpkins, squash, cabbage, potatoes, garlic, onions, and other late autumn vegetables. They are so many books out there set during Christmas that I continue to be surprised by how much less common it is to find books set during Thanksgiving. Let’s see how many of them I can find!

1. Over the River and Through the Wood by Lydia Maria Francis Child

2. Southern Fried Murder: A Thanksgiving Novella (Holiday Shorts Book 5) by Necole Ryse

3. The Diva Runs Out of Thyme (A Domestic Diva Mystery, #1)  by Krista Davis

4. A Zombie Thanksgiving by Anthony Renfro

5. A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving by Godfrey Hodgson

6. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz

7. A Halloween Happening by Adrienne Adams

8. A Match Made for Thanksgiving (Holidays with the Wongs, #1) by Jackie Lau

9. Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner and Pies: All of your Thanksgiving dinner and dessert classics made vegan!
by Audrey Dunham

10. How to Bake the Perfect Pecan Pie by Gina Henning

Which holidays do you wish had more books written about them?

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


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photo of the hands of a brown-skinned person who is wearing pink nail police and holding up a sign that says “thank you.” Here are some of the many reasons why I am thankful for books.

1. They’re an easy form of entertainment when I’m sick or injured.

2. They introduce readers to people from all walks of life. I’ve learned so much about other cultures from them!

3. They don’t come in arbitrary sizes that are somehow different in every single library or bookstore out there or require you to use a fitting room before selecting which paperback to bring home. (Can you tell I really don’t like shopping for clothes? Ha!)

4. They teach us about the world around us and how things work. This is especially true if you read nonfiction, but fiction can be educational as well.

5. They work when the power goes out. Unless you’re using an e-reader or listening to an audiobook, you never have to worry about draining the battery too much or charging a book up again.

6. They’re (often) soothing when you’ve had a bad day.

7. They (often) encourage readers to assume the best of others and work to make life more fair and harmonious for everyone…or at least many of the books I read do this!

8. They encourage the development of your imagination.

9. They introduce you to all sorts of lovely new people…just like the friendly folks I’ve met as a result of Top Ten Tuesday.

10. They’re a great bonding activity when you read a book aloud with kids or other adults.

11. They’re a free form of entertainment if you’re like me and also use your library card regularly. This is such an important thing for people who are lower income or who have a very limited entertainment budget for other reasons. I am so grateful.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A close-up photo of a typwriter. Someone has typed the phrase “something worth reading” on the white sheet of paper that has been put into the typewriter. Thank you to Rissa for submitting this week’s topic.

I used this Wikipedia page to compile my list of mainstream popular authors that I still have not read.

These authors have not published anything that appeals to my taste in books so far, but obviously there are a lot of people out there who do love their work!

If they do ever happen to publish stories that fit my reading interests, I’d be happy to give them a try.

1. Tom Clancy

2. Dean Koontz

3. James Patterson

4. Barbara Cartland

5. Harold Robbins

6. Georges Simenon

7. Eiichiro Oda

8. Akira Toriyama

9. Corín Tellado

10. Masashi Kishimoto

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