We’re in the midst of annual Top Ten Tuesday topics at That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s is the top ten books we’re most anticipating that are being published before the end of June. Here are mine:

1. Jasper Fforde’s Dark Reading Matter
2. Rainbow Rowell’s Cherry Baby
3. Deana Raybourn’s A Ghastly Catastrophe
4. T.J. Klune’s We Burned So Bright
5. Anne of a Different Island by Virginia Kantra
6. E.B. Asher’s This Will Be Interesting
7. The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
8. Kory Stamper’s True Color
9. By The Book by Jessica George
10. Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

How about you? What’s coming out in the next six months that you’re excited to read?

About halfway through the summer, I stopped tracking my reading in all the places I’d been recording them, save on Goodreads. But I didn’t stop reading. I’d like to get caught up with reviews here in the next week or so and then share my favorite 2025 reads. And, so, here are my thoughts on what I finished back in July and August:

Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson

This was a fun read for those who like Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Jungle Cruise, or The Librarian movies/tv series. Ellie — a suffragette arrested during a protest, recently fired museum archivist (see aforementioned activism), and aspiring archaeologist — finds herself in possession of an illicit map that hints that a legendary South American city may exist. The biggest of her problems? A villain knows she has it. So what’s a newly unemployed middle class young woman to do? Get on a boat and go find out, of course! Once she lands in Belize (then British Honduras), she finds it necessary to join forces with an American surveyor and tour guide and hot foot it on her way. They’ll face danger from natural forces, local villagers, and their own mutual distrust, in addition to the unethical people pursuing Ellie in hopes of reaching the mythical city first.

Paper. Library copy. (more…)

This year’s #TBTBSanta was a wonderful success. I sent cards and a box of gifts out into the world and received some in return.

Holiday cards arrived from places as far flung as New Mexico and Alaska:

Thank you Rochelle, Heather, Lark, Denise, and Melissa!

And here is the wonderful package I got, which I took up to Connecticut to open on Christmas itself:

As you can see, Kai spoiled me:

There was a new tshirt, two books I’d really been coveting, bookmarks, stationery, stickers, lip balm, a pin, a bracelet, socks, pens, tea, and tasty treats.

And Kai made sure Ember and Coal were included, too. Ember didn’t even make it down to the floor with her treat. She stopped on the sofa to munch it.

And Coal, in perhaps one of his boldest moments yet, grabbed that feathery toy and bolted with it! This is the best shot I could get. All the rest were blurs!

Thank you so much, Kai! This was such a lovely gift!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is the perennial favorite top ten planned reads for the upcoming season. As is my wont, I went back to see how I did for the fall, and imagine my surprise to find that I’ve read six and might finish a seventh before autumn officially ends on Sunday!

Now, on to my top ten for this winter:

1. Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree
2. T.J. Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea
3. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
4. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
5. Jasper Fforde’s Red Side Story
6. Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams
7. Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent
8. The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
9. Candace, the Universe, and Everything by Sherri L. Smith
10. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Half of these are by beloved writers, and the other half come out early this winter. What do you like to read during the winter months? Re-reads of familiar favorites? Chunksters? Specific genres?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is a holiday-themed freebie. My apartment is currently littered with books of a winter holiday bent, so I’m going to share ten of them I hope to get to before my Christmas tree comes down:

1. Good Spirits by B.K. Borison (currently listening)
2. The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer (on my phone)
3. The Wood at Midwinter by Suzanne Clarke, with illustrations by Victoria Sawdon (own)
4. Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake (checked out)
5. Death Comes at Christmas edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane (own)
6. Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand (own)
7. You Make It Feel like Christmas by Toni Shiloh (checked out)
8. Holly and Nick Hate Christmas by Betsy St. Amant (checked out)
9. I’ll Be Home for Christmas by Jenny Bayliss (checked out)
10. Mint to Be by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc (checked out)

How about you? Any holiday-themed books on your radar this month?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday option from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten random books from our shelves. I am feeling sleepy and lazy (and eventually put the computer down and went to sleep), so instead opted to share ten of the books I have out from the three libraries I have cards at. (Many libraries have reciprocity with nearby communities, and I highly recommend this as a tactic if you spend a lot of time on holds lists.)

1. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (I started this from one library and had to return it unfinished. It’s now overdue to a second library system, and I’m hoping to check it out from the first library again before the end of the year.)
2. The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner (currently reading)
3. Mrs. Claus and the Trouble with Turkeys by Liz Ireland (There are surprisingly few Thanksgiving reads. I’m hoping this one isn’t terrible — or, at least, that it’s good terrible. TBR)
4. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (audiobook; currently listening, but parts are highly stressful)
5. How to Have a Killer Time in D.C. by Sam Lunley (audiobook; started but haven’t gotten back to it)
6. The Nightmare before Kissmas by Sara Raasch (finished last week — solid read for Halloween or Christmas, and the sequel has to do with Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day)
7. No Less Strange or Wonderful by A. Kendra Greene (halfway through, but haven’t picked it up in weeks)
8. Falling like Leaves by Misty Wilson (started)
9. Cinder House by Freya Marske (TBR)
10. When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley (TBR)

How about you? What do you have out from the library right now? Are you reading those books or ones from your personal collection instead?