Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

March 28, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books for People Who Liked Shel Silverstein


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A gigantic evergreen bush that has been trimmed into the shape of a question mark. It’s sitting on a grassy field under a clear blue sky. This image looks computer generated, not real. I struggled with this week’s prompt because I haven’t had a lot of luck finding new favourites through online articles or bookstore displays that use this method of grouping similar authors together.

What I ended up doing is looking up books for people who enjoyed the lighthearted poetry of Shel Silverstein. While I haven’t read any of them yet, they do sound fun and I’d love to hear your thoughts on them if you are familiar with them.

Book cover for Beautiful Things and How to Ignore Them by Sam Kuban. The image on the cover shows the title arranged to look like a plant growing in the soil of the author’s name. There are little green leaves at the bottom of the title and roots growing all around it. The colours of the cover are red, green, and beige.

1. Beautiful Things and How to Ignore Them by Sam Kuban

 

An Elephant Is On My House: And Other Poems by Othen Donald Dale Cummings book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of an elephant wearing a pink shirt who is standing on a house with a red roof.

2. An Elephant Is On My House: And Other Poems by Othen Donald Dale Cummings

 

Book cover for There's Only One Ewe. by Pete Longname. Image on cover shows a drawing a white sheep against a pale blue background.

3. There’s Only One Ewe. by Pete Longname

 

Book cover for Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex. Image on cover shows a drawing of Frankenstein sitting at a table with a red and white checkered tablecloth on it. He’s looking contentedly at a gigantic sandwich that has about 20 different ingredients in it ranging from lettuce to cheese to various types of meat.

 

4. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex

 

Book cover for Slice of Moon by Kim Dower. Image on cover shows a drawing of a brown-skinned woman wearing a beige dress jumping up gracefully next to a dark blue sky and a big, fluffy white cloud. Someone else’s brown arm is reaching down to her. Or maybe she’s falling and the other person is trying to catch her? It’s hard to tell, but she looks happy either way.

5. Slice of Moon by Kim Dower

 

Book cover for If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos. Image on cover shows a drawing of a black-haired kid with pale skin siting at a desk in a classroom. They are wearing a blue sweater and raising their hand with a thought bubble above their head. There is a green tree growing in the back of the classroom.

6. If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos

 

 

Book cover for Barking Spiders and Other Such Stuff by C.J. Heck. Image on cover shows a drawing of a red and purple spider sitting on top of the title.

7. Barking Spiders and Other Such Stuff by C.J. Heck

 

Book cover for Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles by Douglas Florian. Image on cover shows a drawing of a brown-skinned kid wearing jeans and a striped orange and black sweater carrying a comically large cardboard box filled with smiles that are comprised of nothing but teeth and lips.

8. Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles by Douglas Florian

 

Book cover for Silas and Opal Meet by Grannie Snow. Image on cover shows a drawing of a white-haired senior white woman sitting and knitting something purple in an overstuffed green chair. On the wood floor in front of her are two cats, one black and brown striped and one white, who are sniffing each other. The black and brown striped cat is holding on to the same ball of purple yarn the woman is using and refusing to share it.

9. Silas and Opal Meet by Grannie Snow

 

Book cover for The Alliday Poem Book of Silly Celebrations by S.M. Westerlie. Image on cover shows eight lit rainbow striped candles on a birthday cake that has white frosting that is covered in rainbow sprinkles. The background of this image is orange, possibly meant to be bright wallpaper?

10. The Alliday Poem Book of Silly Celebrations by S.M. Westerlie

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March 21, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Things I’ve Quit Doing


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This prompt was shared on October 6, 2015. I wasn’t aware of Top Ten Tuesday back then, so today I will reach back into time so I can borrow this idea and talk about bookish things I have quit doing.

Edit: Blogger/blogspot is once again being really finicky about letting me comment. A few of my comments are randomly going through, but most are being denied. I will keep trying but wanted to let everyone know what’s going on.

The word goodbye is written in white chalk on a black chalkboard. The chalkboard is sitting in a black mesh container on a wooden shelf. There is a plant growing out of a green drinking glass next to the chalkboard.

 

1. Setting Lofty Reading Goals 

I purposefully pick reading goals involving pages or books finished that I can easily accomplish so that this hobby continues to feel fun for me. I never want to feel stressed out by how much I have (or haven’t) been reading.

 

2. Giving Unsolicited Book Recommendations 

That is to say, I only give out recommendations to people who have either directly asked for one or who are close enough to me that I feel like I know their tastes in books quite well and who have told me it’s okay to share books I think they might like.

I never gave out a lot of unsolicited book recommendations in the past, but now even those occasional recommendations feel a little too close to unsolicited advice to me.

I’d rather gush about the books I love and let others decide for themselves if they want to read them in the vast majority of cases.

 

3. Accepting Unsolicited Book Recommendations 

Likewise, I’ve also become more cautious about accepting unsolicited book recommendations unless the person giving them is in my inner circle and knows my tastes well.

There are so many books in this world and such limited time to find the best ones. I will listen politely, of course, but I will only actually read a recommendation if the blurb sounds right up my alley.

 

4. Reading (Most) Bestsellers 

My reading tastes so rarely coincide with the bestseller list that I generally pay it no mind at all when deciding what to read next. (This is no way a commentary on people who do like really popular stuff or the books themselves. It’s simply an acknowledgement that I usually prefer other sorts of stories).

 

5. Entertaining Nonsense 

For example, I will stop reading a book if it promotes racist, sexist, homophobic, or other hateful beliefs.

(There’s a difference between writing about a character who says those things and promoting the ideas themselves to the audience as something admirable. I will read about the former but not the latter).

I also shake my head and ignore advertising that assumes that your membership in a specific group should mean you like X but not Y instead of encouraging everyone read whatever appeals most to them. <glares at Instagram and the sometimes weirdly narrow little boxes their ads try to put people in>.

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March 14, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

There is an opened hardback book. Four white tulips with pink streaks in their petals are lying on top of the book. The flowers have just begun to open and have not yet reached their full bloom. You can see their green stems and leaves on the bottom left hand side of the image. I know that not every Top Ten Tuesday participant lives in the Northern Hemisphere or in a part of the world that has similar seasons to Ontario, but some of us are inching closer to spring with every passing day.

I cannot wait for spring so I can go outside and enjoy some warmer and non-soggy nature time. (It can get pretty muddy here in March and April after the ice and snow begins to melt but the soil hasn’t absorbed all of that water yet).

Who else is counting down the days until the change of the seasons?

My answers to this week’s prompt are going to be the usual random assortment of topics. I love jumping around between nonfiction and fiction as well as zooming between all sorts of genres within the fiction label as well.

Let’s see what will hopefully be capturing my attention this spring.

 

Book cover for In the Lives of Puppets  by T.J. Klune. Image on the cover is a drawing of a little red cottage in a forest filled with wooden tree-like items that have no leaves and oddly smooth trunks. Maybe they’re made out of metal and only look like wood? The three “tree” structures closest to the red cabin have little houses of their own installed high up on their branches hundreds of feet up in the air. One little house is yellow and round. The second is comprised of metal and has a roof that slopes over the sides of the house so that the walls can’t even hardly be seen. It has a solar panel on top of it. The third house is clear and seems to be made of glass. There are thin wires connecting all three houses, possibly to share electricity.

In the Lives of Puppets  by T.J. Klune

Publication Date: April 25

Why I’m Interested: T.J. Klune is one of those authors I keep meaning to read but never quite get around to it. I love robot stories, though, so this one might convince me to take the plunge.

 

 

Book cover for The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise  by Colleen Oakley. Image on cover is a drawing of a senior citizen and a young dark-haired person driving off into the sunset in a green car that doesn’t have a top on it.

The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise  by Colleen Oakley

Publication Date: March 28

Why I’m Interested: I love stories about cross-generational friendships. It’s also nice to see more protagonists who are senior citizens.

 

Book cover for A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. Image on cover shows a photograph of a small town street that has stores on the ground level and apartments on the second level. The sky is dark and ominously cloudy in places with blue skies at the very top of the cover. There are a few scattered cars on the street.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

Publication Date: April 4

Why I’m Interested: I’d never heard of Madge Oberholtzer before, but she sounds like she was a courageous and incredible human being.

 

 

Book cover for Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson. The title and author are written in a 1970s font that is various shades of pink and red. On top of the title there is a tube of lipstick that has been digitally superimposed on top o an eye that is in the centre of three triangles of various sizes with the smallest one being inside of a bigger one, and the bigger one being inside of the biggest one. The triangles and lipstick are also superimposed on a red circle that has three little stars around it in roughly even spacing from one another.

Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing  by Emily Lynn Paulson

Publication Date: May 30

Why I’m Interested: It’s really sad to see people being taken advantage of by pyramid schemes and other “job” offers that promise wealth but often put one deeply into debt instead.

 

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March 7, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I’d Like To Meet


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Ten people standing on top of a hill just as the sun has slipped below the horizon and darkness covers three quarters of the land. You can see the silhouettes of their bodies as they all leap for joy with their knees bent and their arms outstretched above them. While I currently have no plans to meet any of these bookish people,  it would be cool if that changed someday.

My prediction is that a lot of answers will probably be of famous authors and such. While there will be a few of those authors on my list, most of my answers will be of non-famous people I know whose online personas are kind and intelligent.

Honestly, who wouldn’t want to spend time with someone like that? (I’m sure they’re just as wonderful in person, too!)

1. Top Ten Tuesday Bloggers

It would be fun to meet some of the friendly Top Ten Tuesday bloggers I chat with throughout the week.  I don’t want to put anyone on the spot or make anyone feel overlooked by mentioning specific names, but let me know in advance if you’re open to this and have plans to visit Toronto in the future. We could snack on Beaver Tails* or check out the free bookish museum at the Toronto Reference Library or something.

*This is a Canadian pastry that is large and flat like a beaver’s tale. They have several delicious vegan options, too, for plant-based friends.

 

2. Berthold Gambrel 

He’s a fellow author and book reviewer I met on Twitter (before it imploded, of course). This will be a pattern for my next several answers because I am a creature of habit, so assume someone is a writer friend and kindred spirit from social media until I say otherwise.

Berthold and I have remarkably similar tastes in science fiction and he has a great sense of humour.

 

3. Hebah Amin-Headley 

I’d love to talk about books and knitting with her among many other topics.

 

4. Richard Pastore

He’s the sort of person you can talk about anything with. I can be a little shy sometimes, but I never feel shy around him. He’s so warm and welcoming to everyone.

 

5. Shykia Bell 

She’s only online in spurts, but I love her creativity and calm personality. Those are both excellent character traits.

 

6. Patrick Prescott 

Here is where I break the Writer Friends of Twitter (TM)  streak. Yes, he’s a writer friend, but I met him through Berthold Gambrel.

Patrick has a deep and methodical love for books. I’ve enjoyed his recommendations  over the years and hearing stories about how he’s filling his time with all sorts of cool volunteer and writing projects now that he’s retired.

 

7. Rivers Solomon

I still think about her characters in “The Deep” and would love to ask her all about them.

 

8. Neil Gaiman 

He seems like a cool guy.

 

9. Andy Weir

I want to hear about what science fiction adventure he’ll be writing next!

 

10. <Insert People I’ve Missed Here>

Every time I make one of these lists, I worry about accidentally leaving folks out whom I would have happily otherwise included. Therefore, I will leave a space for them at the end of this post. You are included.

 

 

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February 28, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Xenofiction I’ve Enjoyed


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The first layer on this picture is a computer screen where dozens of lines of code has been written. This code is overlaid on the face of a robot that looks like a caucasian woman with very short light brown hair. She is staring blankly ahead as if to wait for instructions from the viewer…or perhaps she is reading the code. Xenofiction is written from the perspective of a non-human protagonist.

The protagonist could be all sorts of different things: an animal, a mythological creature, an intelligent robot, an alien, a microbe, or some other living (or robotic but sentient) being.

The possibilities are endless.

I enjoyed all of these stories and would recommend any them to someone who wants to read something from a non-human perspective.

 

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.

1.  Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek  (My Review)

The protagonist is a: snowflake.

 

 

Book cover for Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams. Image on cover is a sketch of a little brown bunny sitting in a field of wheat (or some similar ripe yellow grass) with his ears turned back as he solemnly surveys the landscape. You can see a forest in the distance.

 

2. Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams

The protagonist is a: rabbit.

 

Book cover for A Dog's Purpose (A Dog's Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron. Image on cover shows a black Labrador retriever looking up from the bottom of the cover as he stands against a light blue background. A thought bubble above his head includes the title of the book.

3. A Dog’s Purpose (A Dog’s Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron

The protagonist is a: dog.

 

Book cover for Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Image on cover shows a drawing of Pinocchio after he’s lied. His nose is about two feet long and two little leaves have sprouted from the tip of it, one yellow and one orange.

 

4. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

 

The protagonist is a: a wooden puppet who is magically brought to life.

 

Book cover for Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. Image on cover shows a repeating pattern of yellow and black lines that fold in on each other at the centre of the cover as if they all originated from that point.

 

5. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

 

The protagonist is a: a two-dimensional being who travels to three-dimensional, one-dimensional, and no-dimensional worlds and must try to make sense of them.

 

Book cover for Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. Image on cover shows a raptor and her baby standing on top of a large flat stone where one spindly plant is growing. The setting sun behind the raptors and plant is casting deep shadows on everything, but the raptors appear to be watching the sunset together.

6. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker

The protagonist is a: raptor.

 

If you’ve read xenofiction before, what are some of your favourite books from this genre?

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February 21, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Character Traits for Heroines


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m tweaking this week’s prompt a little bit so I can take a meta approach to the topic. Heroines come in all shapes and sizes, of course, but the reader’s expectations of how she should behave probably wouldn’t be the same in the historical romance genre as in a contemporary horror novel or a cozy mystery set on a lunar space station 500 years in the future.

With that being said, here are some character traits I love to see in heroines across many different genres and settings.

 

Black and white photo of a white woman wearing a black one-piece bathing suit. She’s crouching on a barren rock that’s surrounded by water and placing a black flag on the rock. The waves around her are gentle, and it appears to be a nice day outside although the sky is not visible. 1. Healthy Boundaries

Here in North America, girls and women tend to be socialized to be peacemakers and endlessly accommodating to other people’s needs and wishes.  This can encourage some of us to have trouble setting and recognizing appropriate boundaries, so I love seeing examples of characters who can both set boundaries and respect other people’s limits, too.

2. Meaningful Flaws 

No one is perfect. I like it when heroines have flaws that make a meaningful difference to the plot and to their daily lives. That is to say, I prefer realistic protagonists who procrastinate too much, or who have a bad temper, or who give too much unsolicited advice (or what have you) over ones whose biggest problem is that they’re a clumsy dancer but are otherwise pretty perfect.

3. Common Sense and Street Smarts

I  prefer heroines who remain aware of their surroundings and take reasonable precautions before rushing into an unknown situation. It’s one thing to be caught off guard after doing everything right but quite another for a heroine (or a hero) to ignore multiple red flags for the sake of plot development.

 

4. Frugal 

As much fun as it can be to read about characters with limitless budgets, I find it easier to relate to the ones who know that they only have so much money to last until the end of the month. There’s something comforting about seeing characters juggle bills and figure out how to afford what they need when the plot requires it.

 

5. Calm and Quiet

This is not to say I expect characters to behave this way all of the time, only that I think we need more characters who have easygoing personalities and aren’t the life of the party. Think of all of the interesting things that happen in the corners of a room and out of the attention range of the loudest and flashiest partygoers. There are so many folks hanging out quietly on the perimeter who are worth getting to know, and I’d love to have more stories about their lives.

 

 

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February 14, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Liked About Asexual Characters


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photograph of 18 heart-shaped sugar cookies. They are frosted with various combinations of green, yellow, orange, purple, white, and blue frostings as well as thinner frostings that have written X’s and O’s on them or left romantic messages like “hugs and kisses” or “forever” on them. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone celebrating it!

For today’s Valentine’s Day freebie, I’ll be sharing a list of books I’ve read and enjoyed about asexual characters.

I’m actually on the asexual spectrum myself, so it’s been wonderful to see such an explosion of stories about people who are like me or similar to me.

This is a complex topic that could easily take up its own blog post, but go to this link if you’re curious about the wide variety of identities that exist within the asexual spectrum.

In the meantime, here’s my list.

Book cover for “Loveless” by Alice Oseman. It is a warm purple colour and has a black and white drawing of a slim person who has straight shoulder-length hair and is wearing jeans, a sweater, and a pair of sneakers. They are standing up but their neck and head are bent over as they look at a large heart they are holding in their hands. The heart is steadily releasing dozens of tiny little hearts into the air, and the little hearts are floating up and away from the person.

1. Loveless by Alice Oseman

 

Book cover for Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann. The image on the cover shows a radiant dark-skinned black woman with an Afro. She’s wearing a sleeveless white blouse with ruffles near her neck and his holding both arms up in a triumphant pose as she grins and closes her eyes.

2. Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

 

Book cover for Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox. Image on the cover shows a background drawing of the famous outline of Toronto that includes the CN tower. In the foreground, you can see a drawing of two people’s legs as they dance together. One has light skin and appears to be Caucasian while the other has dark skin and appears to be African.

3. Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox

 

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.

 

4. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz (My Review)

 

If you’ve read any other good books about asexual characters, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

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February 7, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Debut Books I’m Excited About


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

There is a blanket with alternating white and dark orange stripes on it spread out but still wrinkled. On the blanket is a cup of hot cocoa in a red mug and an opened book that has yellow tinged edges of its pages and looks like it’s getting old. Many of the books I read are from authors who are new to me or new in general, but I don’t normally spend a lot of time digging around in debut book lists.

I pay attention to the blurb and first page when deciding what to read next. (Okay, covers matter, too! But they’re the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. I’ve read amazing books with not-so-great covers and quickly tossed aside other books whose gorgeous covers did not match what was inside of them).

Sometimes this means I’ll read six books in a row from the same author and still yearn for more from them.

In other cases, I really loved one or two books from a particular author but haven’t connected with the rest of their work.

I have no other what other people’s habits are, but I hope to find out from you all today.

Here are four debut authors I’m curious to try.

 

Book cover for The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman. The image on the cover is a painting of a white woman whose right shoulder is hunched over slightly. She’s touching the bottom of her face as if she’s contemplating something. She does not appear to be wearing a shirt, although we can only see the skin of her arm, shoulder, hand, and neck. Her head is covered from the bridge of her nose up by a pink, yellow, orange, and blue cloud that grows lighter the further up it you look.

 

1. The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman

Why I’m Interested: The thought of someone surviving an awful accident only to stop aging is intriguing. It makes me think of the similarities between that and how after someone dies they are forever frozen at their age of death in the memories of those who loved them.

 

Book cover for “Period: The Real Story of Menstruation” by Kate Clancy. The cover is blue and there is a gigantic drop of red blood that symbolizes the O in Period and has the phrase “The real Story of Menstruation” written in it in a black font.

 

2. Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy

 

Why I’m Interested: I’m fascinated (and a little disturbed) by how much scientists are still learning about menstruation, the uterus, and other related topics. It’s about time that these things were studied in depth not only for people who have typical menstrual cycles and reproductive organs but also for those deal with diseases or abnormalities related to menstruation and the uterus that some doctors sadly can be pretty dismissive of.

 

Book cover for “On Earth As It Is On Television” by Emily Jane. Image on cover shows a drawing of a red spaceship shining a white beacon of light on the author’s name. The author’s name and title are written in a repeating pattern of white, blue, orange, and pink letters.

 

3. On Earth As It Is On Television by Emily Jane

 

Why I’m Interested: I love first contact stories!

 

Book cover for “She Is a Haunting” by Trang Thanh Tran. Image on cover shows a young Vietnamese woman with thick black hair. She looks frightening and is staring straight ahead at the audience crying as six small flowers grow out of her mouth.

 

4. She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

 

Why I’m Interested: Haunted houses are one of those tropes that immediately grab my attention. I hope this will be an excellent example of how to scare characters silly with a haunted house.

 

What are your reading habits like?

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January 31, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Confessions


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Person holding a finger in front of the mouth of a small dog as if to keep him or her from speaking. For today’s freebie post I’m going to be sharing some bookish confessions.

(The dog in the photo isn’t mine. I simply thought it was an amusing illustration for this prompt).

1. Reading graphic novels definitely counts as reading in general, but I personally don’t enjoy that form of storytelling. I’d rather have more words and fewer pictures.

2. I am quick to give up on books I’m not enjoying. Life is too short to read something that doesn’t resonate with me.

3. Vlogging is scary and I never want to do it. Ha!

4. I do not understand people who judge others based on the genres they do (or don’t) read. It’s one thing to say that genre X isn’t your cup of tea and quite another to say that one type of storytelling is inherently better or worse than all others. Honestly, there are gems and duds in every genre.

5. Audiobooks work best as rereads for me. When I get distracted by my workout or cleaning, I like being able to immediately figure out what I missed in the last scene or two.

6. Some classic novels have passed their expiration dates (at least for me). I’ve loved some of them but been completely bored and confused by others.

7. As much as I love reading, I relish my reading breaks when the weather is nice enough for me to spend tons of time outside every day.

8. I don’t follow as many book bloggers as I used to. I felt slightly guilty for unfollowing them, but I simply don’t have time to keep up with as many of them as in the past.

9. Horror novels are best read in the middle of the day, not right before bed. Feel free to guess how many nightmares I had before I figured this one out.

10. I’m quietly suspicious of people who think fiction is a waste of time. While I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule, the folks I’ve met who think that way tend to be less empathetic than average and really struggle to see the world from other points of view. Fiction can teach us to appreciate the many shades of grey in a conflict (or  character, or real human being, or an issue), and it confuses me to meet folks who have such black and white thinking they can’t even enjoy a simple story.

What are your bookish confessions?

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January 24, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2022


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A typewriter with a white sheet of paper stuck in it. The phrase “something worth reading” has been typed on to the sheet of paper. Many of the books I read in 2022 were written by authors I hadn’t tried before. Here are ten of them.

Just like last year, I’ll also be including what books I read from them and whether I want to read more from them in the future.

1. Author: Marlene Campbell

What I Read from Them: Vintage Christmas: Holiday Stories from Rural PEI

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I liked some parts of this collection but found other sections a bit too repetitive. Then again, I am not a particularly sentimental person, so other readers might have a completely difference experience with it.

 

2. Author: Sonia Hartl

What I Read from Them: The Lost Girls

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I loved the author’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the pitfalls of romances between vampires and teenage girls.

 

3. Author: Kate Nunn

What I Read from Them: The Only Child

Would I Read More from Them? No, and it pains me to say that. I loved the premise of this book but found the character and plot development thin and predictable.

 

4. Author: Riley Black

What I Read from Them: “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. Not only was Ms. Black an excellent writer, she knew exactly how to translate often complex scientific information into something the average person can easily understand. That’s difficult to do but so meaningful when it does occur.

 

A quiet wooden cabin in a snowy winter woods. The cabin has a stone chimney. 5. Author: Yah Yah Scholfield

What I Read from Them: “On Sundays She Picked Flowers”

Would I Read More from Them? Assuming her next work isn’t quite so violent, absolutely. I enjoyed her poetic writing style but can’t handle reading many of the types of scary stuff I loved before this pandemic began.

 

6. Author: Nice Leng’ete

What I Read from Them: “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. She’s lived an interesting and useful life so far. I’m curious to see what she does with her talents next as she continues fighting to end female circumcision in Kenya.

 

7. Author: Julia Scheeres

What I Read from Them: “Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman”

Would I Read More from Them? Probably not. This was a neat peek at a portion of history I wasn’t aware of, but the writing style wasn’t my cup of tea.

 

8. Author: Carl Matlock, MD

What I Read from Them: “The Annals of a Country Doctor”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. He was a great storyteller.

 

An empty church that has white wooden pews and white painted statues of saints on their walls. 9. Author: Daphne du Maurier

What I Read from Them: “Rebecca”

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I understood why this novel is a classic and did enjoy the storyline itself, but I was exasperated with all of the characters for reasons ranging from how passive aggressive they were to how little regard they had for basic interpersonal boundaries to how much they relied on what other people thought of them when making every single decision in life. Let met take a break from Ms. Du Maurier before seeing if this is a pattern in her work or if her next book will be filled with characters I’d actually want to hang out with in real life. Ha!

 

10. Author: by Deesha Philyaw

What I Read from Them: “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I connected beautifully with her characters and would love to see what she writes next. She was delightful.

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