Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

May 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Companions


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A green frog sitting peacefully in the water of a pond. The water includes algae and a few small green leaves that have fallen from nearby plants. Thank you to P.S. I Love Books for submitting this theme.

Here are ten books about animal companions that are based on true stories. They make me wish I could have a pet!

1. Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan

2. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

3. Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien

4. A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond Between Two Friends and a Lion
by Anthony Bourke

5. Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer

6. Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry

7. A Seal Called Andre by Harry Goodridge

8. In Search of Lost Frogs: The Quest to Find the World’s Rarest Amphibians by Robin Moore

9. Mexican Mutts Tequila Pups & Chili Dogs: True Stories of the Dogs of Mexico by David Gordon Burke

10. The Big Squeal: A True Story About a Homeless Pig’s Search for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by Carol Alexander

Do you all have pets? What types of pets do you wish you could have?

 

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May 20, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Feature Travel


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Travelling isn’t something I’m generally that into due to a few health problems I have that can make things  like keeping myself fed, well-rested, and pain-free more complicated than they probably are for most people.

Aerial shot of a plane wing as the plane flies over rock terrrain. You can see mountains below that look small and some fluffy, white clouds in the sky. I do like reading about travelling, though, so here are ten books about that.

1. Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through the Inside Passage by Jennifer Hahn

2. Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa

3. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell by Kristiana Gregory

4. Llamas & Empanadas: 5000 Kilometres by Bicycle Through South America by Eleanor Meecham

5. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown

6. The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica by David G. Campbell

7. The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space by Eugene Cernan

8. Kalashnikovs and Zombie Cucumbers: Travels in Mozambique by Nick Middleton

9. Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing by Alan Paul

10. Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia by Jeffrey Alford

 

How do you all feel about traveling?

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May 13, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Ways in Which My Blogging and Review Style Has Changed Over Time


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Thank you to Susan @ Bloggin’ ‘bout Books for submitting this topic!

The words “stories matter” have been typed out on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. Here are five ways my blogging style has changed and five ways my reviewing styles has changed over the years.

For blogging:

1) I write shorter posts now, generally 100-500 words a piece instead of 800+ words.

2) I rarely if ever write advice posts anymore. (I used to publish longer posts about stuff like meditation, fitness, or writing and share what I’d learned about them).

3) I’ve reduced the number of posts per week I publish from 4 to 3…and 2 of those posts are Blog Hops so I don’t have to come up with a topic for them unless it’s a freebie post.

4) Bloghopping isn’t something I do as much these days…although I am trying to get back into the habit of it!

5) It’s less common for me to share stories about my personal life now. Mostly, I talk about books and other media.

 

For reviewing:

1) Almost everything I review these days are books from indie authors or small publishers.  Big name authors don’t count on every single new review to reach new readers the way the little guys (and gals and nonbinary pals) do, so most of the time I’d rather focus on the folks who really need that exposure.

2) I’m more selective about what I review. 3-star reviews are generally the lowest ones I have ever published (with only a handful of exceptions to that rule over the years), and even then I only review the books I thought had good bones but maybe didn’t quite stick the ending, or should have worked more on character development, or something similar. A 3-star review from me means I liked that story!

3) I avoid social media book recommendations unless they come from a friend who knows my tastes well because it’s so uncommon for the hottest books on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. to be my cup of tea. If one of them did appeal to me, I would, of course, still read it, and no offence intended to people whose tastes do match up with what often goes viral on those sites.

4) I’m much less nervous about sharing relevant plot details in my reviews these days. Years ago someone told me that they found one of my reviews hard to understand because they couldn’t tell why I was dissatisfied with a conflict between two characters. While I still avoid any major spoilers, I think it’s okay to say something like “I wish Megan’s anger with her mother had been explored more deeply to help explain why the flashbacks of things I thought were fairly trivial disagreements between them were such a sticking point with this character.” (This example is made up and not a reference to any specific book).

5) I now include content warnings in my reviews, although I’m still not always sure what topics I should and shouldn’t warn readers are in a book other than the usual things like violence, blood, death, and abuse. For example, I know someone who has a phobia of flowers, but that’s not something I’d typically think to include in a content warning.

Now let’s see how you all responded to this prompt!

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May 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors Who Live In My Country


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A Canadian flag flying on a flagpole in front of the Banff National Park mountains which are large and spectacular. There’s a large hill or maybe a small mountain between the flagpole and Banff that’s covered in fir trees. Thank you to Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction for submitting this week’s theme.

Here are ten books written by Canadian authors other than L.M. Montgomery or Margaret Atwood due to how well-known their books are across the globe.

There is another Canadian author I’m leaving off this list due to some terrible allegations that were made about them a few years ago. No need to give them any more attention if you ask me. 

I’d rather focus on authors with good reputations – at least so far as I know –  that you may not have heard of yet!  If you see this little asterisk symbol * it means I have read something they’ve written.  (I hope that’s the right word for that symbol. I believe it is). 

1. Cheryl Kaye Tardif

2. Margaret Laurence *

3. Jane Urquhart

5. Kelley Armstrong *

6. Michael Ondaatje

7. W.O. Mitchell *

8. Carol Shields

9. Farley Mowat

10. Richard Wagamese *

11. Robert J. Sawyer *

I’m purposefully not saying what I’ve read from the authors I have tried from this list because I don’t want to influence your opinions if you decide to give anyone’s books a shot.

(And also because in at least one case I believe I’ve read one of their books but don’t remember enough about it to have a strong opinion in any direction anymore. Don’t you hate it when that happens? 😂)

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April 29, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with the Word Rose in the Title


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two red roses against a black background. The roses are still attached to their stems. Here are ten books with the word rose in the title. They’re such a pretty type of flower!

1. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

2. The Tea Rose (The Tea Rose, #1) by Jennifer Donnelly

3. Rose Red and Snow White: A Grimms Fairy Tale by Ruth Sanderson

4. Rose Madder by Stephen King

5. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

6. A Rose for Emily and Other Stories by William Faulkner

7. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Hannah Green

8. The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde

9. A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1) by Sarah J. Maas

10. The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain

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April 22, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Surprised Me


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of two light brown gift boxes with red ribbon tied around their lids. They are sitting on a red surface in front of a red wall.As usual, I’m focusing on the positive for this week’s prompt. Here are ten books from various genres that have fantastic plot twists.

No, I won’t give any hints about what they are, and I’m requesting that everyone reading this to do the same if you’re already familiar with any of these stories.

Some things are best left for new readers to discover on their own.

If anyone knows of some great contemporary diverse authors who write fantastic plot twists, please share! A lot of these are older books and therefore not as representative as what I’d normally pick.

1. I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

2. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

3. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

6. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

7. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

8. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

9. Beloved by Toni Morrison

10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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April 15, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated Books


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Five hardback books of various sizes are stacked neatly on top of each other with the largest book on the bottom and then each book on top of the stack a bit smaller than the ones below it. The colours of their covers from largest to smallest are light grey, dark blue, black, cream, and dark grey. The original theme for this week was “My Unpopular Bookish Opinions,” but I’ve decided to veer in a different direction instead.

Here are some books that have four or five star ratings on Goodreads but who are not well known. As I haven’t read any of them yet, I can’t give an official recommendation.  They simply look interesting to me. 

If you’ve read any of them or if you have another title to share that’s highly regarded but not well known, I’d love to hear your thoughts. There’s nothing like finding a gem of a book that most people haven’t heard about yet.

2. Luna & the Magical Piano by Kaia Verheyen
9. Please Don’t Tell Cooper He’s a Dog by Michelle Lander Feinberg

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April 8, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Springy Covers


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A double rainbow over a young wheat field in British Columbia, Canada. March and April are a muddy, rainy time here in Southern Ontario. The dry, sunny scenes filled with colourful flowers that you see in the media or in stock photos do happen here, but not until May and June after the ground has firmed up and the plants have actually had a chance to, you know, grow.

If you arrive any earlier in the year than that, pack rain boots and do not plan any outdoor picnics. What I like about this time of year, other than the slowly warming days and longer hours of sunshine, are the rainbows.

When you get a lot of thunderstorms and rainstorms, this generally also means you’ll see your fair share of rainbows as well.

So rainbows are my interpretation of the springy cover theme this week. Here are ten picture books that feature rainbows on their covers. As I tend to prefer real rainbows to drawings of them, I’m including a real rainbow in this post and links to the rainbow book covers below.

1. A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

2. The Rainbow Goblins by Ul De Rico

3. Sky Fire by Frank Asch

4. Ava and the Rainbow by Ged Adamson

5. The End of the Rainbow by Liza Donnelly

6. Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

7. Storytime: The Greedy Rainbow by Susan Chandler

8. The Rainbow Weaver by Lyndsay Russell

9. The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow by Sean Callahan

10. Rainbow Rider by Jane Yolen

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April 1, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books about April Fool’s Day


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A page in a journal that has clouds and stars drawn on it. The word April is written in cursive on top of a blue cloud and a purple one. The original theme for this week was Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read. It was creative, but struggled with it because taste in books in so subjective.

Even if a story is well edited and has excellent character and plot development, you and I might still have wildly different reactions to it depending on everything from genre to tropes to writing style to who wrote it. I mean, there are certain authors who are must-reads for me no matter what they write! 

Therefore, today I’m going to be sharing a list of books about April Fool’s Day instead.

1. Addison the April Fool’s Day Fairy by Daisy Meadows

2. Fools Rush In: An April Fools Day Anthology by Celia Kennedy

3. April Fool’s Day (Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #19) by Carolyn Keene

4. Tsunami: The True Story of an April Fools’ Day Disaster by Gail Langer Karwoski

5. Look Out, It’s April Fools’ Day by Frank Modell

6. April Fool’s Day by Kathleen Hanna

7. The April Fool’s Day Mystery by Marion M. Markham

Have you read any of them? Are you aware of other books set on April 1?

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March 25, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Did Not Finish


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A bored-looking white woman is balancing two hardcover books on her head as she looks to the side. Here are some of the books I started reading in the last month or two but did not finish. I’m including my reasons for not finishing them in today’s post because of how subjective these things can be.

What I consider to be reasons to stop reading might be the sorts of writing styles, themes, genres, or topics that other readers love, of course! So if something on this list looks good to you, consider it a book recommendation if you wish.

1. Northern Nights by Michael Kelly

Why It was a DNF for Me: Too scary! Since the events of 2020 I have kept thinking I could handle the horror genre again only for it to be too much for me in 95% of cases.

 

2. When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth’s Tumultuous History and Perilous Future by Paul Bierman

Why It was a DNF for Me: It took way too long to even begin to say anything about what these ice cores say about our possible futures. Maybe someday I will have the patience to try again.

 

3. Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands by David Strayer

Why It was a DNF for Me: I tried to read this one right after #2 and once again found the pacing too slow to keep my interest.

 

4. Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between by L.M. Elliott

Why It was a DNF for Me: A relative of mine raved about this book and I expected to love it.  I liked the characters but found the rampant sexism and focus on Watergate and other politics a little too much. To clarify, both of these things felt pretty realistic for the time from what I know about this era….I just need happier things to read at the moment. Someday I will revisit it.

 

5. Black Woods, Blue Sky: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey

Why It was a DNF for Me: The many forms of abuse written about in this book, including the neglect and endangerment of a young child. In no way do I expect protagonists to be squeaky clean, but I’m not really interested in reading about a character who repeatedly harms others without showing any remorse for their actions or intentions to change (at least in the portion of it I read). I don’t have any desire to be a parent, but I would have made sure that kid had all of her basic human needs and at least some of her wants met every single day.

 

6. The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder

Why It was a DNF for Me: I already knew most of what the author had to share. If you don’t know the history of women doctors in this era, though, this is a good place to start.

 

7. It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished: A Memoir of My Body by Kate Gies

Why It was a DNF for Me: This was an excellent read, but I was dismayed by how poorly her parents and medical providers prepared her for the many surgeries she endured as well as how many painful complications she had as various ear replacements became infected or were rejected by her body. It was heartbreaking.  Yes, she was too young to consent to the reconstructive surgeries as a small child and of course her parents needed to decide for her then, but it surprised me that no one ever wondered if all of those surgeries were really in her best interest after the first few failed and she’d endured weeks to months of misery after each one. Eventually, it became too much for me to continue reading.

 

8. The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories by André M. Carrington

Why It was a DNF for Me: I struggle with anthologies in general, but I do keep trying them. This one combined so many different writing styles that I just couldn’t get into the flow of it even though I wanted to.

 

9. All the Water in the World: A Novel by Eiren Caffall

Why It was a DNF for Me: I was irritated by the choppy writing style and, from what little I read, total lack of an explanation for why everything suddenly flooded in New York. I mean, wouldn’t people leave the city and go somewhere dry and safe if your hometown became part of the ocean? I sure would.

 

10. The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Why It was a DNF for Me: Weak character development. I desperately wanted to like this tale more, but I needed stronger descriptions of who the characters were as human beings.

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