Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Go grab a cup of tea if you’d like to and let’s chat. I know I sure enjoy tea when the weather grows so cold and snowy at the end of January where I live.

Every year I expand upon this new-to-me author topic by also mentioning which book I read from the new authors on this list and if I’d be interested in reading more from them.

In my opinion, these details make this prompt more interesting.

1. Author’s Name: Alan Bennett

What I Read From Them: The Lady in the Van

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. I like his descriptive writing style and dry sense of humour.

2. Author’s Name: Marion McKinnon Crook

What I Read From Them: Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin

Would I Read More From Them: Probably not. The author didn’t include enough details about her patients and coworkers for me to easily remember who was who or develop a reader’s bonds with any of the folks she knew. I know this was done to protect their privacy as she was talking about real people (or amalgamations of multiple real people into one character in a few cases).  With that being said, this sparse writing style did negatively affect my interest in her work.

3. Author’s Name: Antonia Hylton

What I Read From Them: Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

Would I Read More From Them: Absolutely. This found an excellent balance between protecting patient privacy and giving readers enough information to connect with the people I read about.

4.  Author’s Name: Ben Farthing 

What I Read From Them:I Found A Circus Tent In the Woods Behind My House and I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

Would I Read More From Them: Probably. His work is creative but doesn’t always follow through on the execution of certain plot twists that logically should have happened. With that being said, I think I’d be amused enough to overlook that if his next premise is as attention-grabbing as these two were.

5.  Author’s Name: John Connell

What I Read From Them: The Lambing Season: Stories of Life on an Irish Family Farm

Would I Read More From Them: Never. The blurb did not match what the author ended up writing about. I thought it would be a gentle tale of what it’s like to raise sheep when it was actually about the author’s religious beliefs. (People who avoid reading blurbs and who like it when the inspirational genre suddenly inserts itself into a farming memoir might enjoy this one, though!)

6.  Author’s Name: Gavin Pretor-Pinney and William Grill

What I Read From Them: Cloudspotting for Beginners

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. It was like a picture book for adults because it showed drawing of the dozens of different types of clouds which was cool and educational.

7.  Author’s Name: Chloe Dalton

What I Read From Them: Raising Hare

Would I Read More From Them: Yes, but I’d want the author to explain why she didn’t bother to google simple facts about lagomorphs like how much they love to chew on things and how much they hate being picked up in most cases. Her experiencing raising a hare would have been much easier if she had asked a few people who had pet rabbits for some tips. The two species are similar enough for that to be helpful, I think.

8.  Author’s Name: Liz Berry

What I Read From Them: The Home Child

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. This ended so abruptly that I’d love to hear more about the protagonist’s life as a young adult.

9.  Author’s Name: Natalie Naudus

What I Read From Them: Gay the Pray Away

Would I Read More From Them: Maybe? The writing was well done, but it’s rare for me to read much young adult fiction these days. If she wrote fiction for adults, I’d read more from her for sure.

10. Author’s Name: Jody Cooksley

What I Read From Them: The Small Museum

Would I Read More From Them: Unsure. This wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t very memorable for me either. I could see most of the plot twists coming from a mile away which is a problem for the mystery genre for this reader. If she writes something in another genre or if reviewers say this isn’t an issue for her next book, I may give it a shot, though.

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