This week, That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to contribute a Halloween list of our own choosing for Top Ten Tuesday. I’m going to give you ten books that would be a fun, seasonal read during the next week or so that might not appear on more conventional lists:

1. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia (ghosts, Halloween setting)
2. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (witches)
3. Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (“haunted” house)
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Death narrates)
5. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (African witches)
6. Greenglass House by Kate Milford (Christmassy ghosts)
7. The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling (Southern and Scottish witch romances)
8. The Afterlife of Mal Caldera by Nadi Reed Perez (a whole dead community)
9. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune (ghosts, sorta)
10. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (vampires and witches)

I’m currently reading a seasonal romance and a literary thriller and hope to fit in one more witchy book before next week.

How about you? Do you have anything seasonal in your TBR pile, or do you eschew books of that ilk?

As today was the first day of fall, it’s time to share ten of the books I’m hoping to read this autumn as part of That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

1. Sherry Thomas’ The Librarians
2. Falling Like Leaves by Misty Wilson
3. Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Accomplice to the Villain
4. The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennett, Witch by Melina Taub
5. The People’s Project, curated by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
6. The Nightmare before Kissmas by Sara Raasch
7. Haikyu!, Vol. 1 by Haruichi Furudate
8. Jolloff Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
9. Sonali Dev’s There’s Something about Mira
10. The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant by Liza Tully

I’m averaging about three finished titles out of the ten for this year’s earlier lists, so I’ll be interested to see if I do better this fall or not.

How about you? What do you hope to read this autumn?

I slacked on sharing my summer reads, but it’s time to get back on track. Back in June, I finished four books — three on paper and one in audio:

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrell

This is a double epistolary work of speculative fiction, which I started in audiobook format last year before remembering I hate listening to letter and email headers. (more…)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl focuses on doorstoppers, the type of book that you can use to weigh down a beach blanket on a breezy day. I decided to share the ten longest books on my Goodreads want-to-read list:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1276 pages)
2. Collected Poems: 1950-2012 by Adrienne Rich (1164 pages)
3. Divine Days by Leon Forrest (1135 pages)
4. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin (916 pages)
5. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (848 pages)
6. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Henry Watson Fowler (825 pages)
7. The Saga of Icelanders edited by Jane Smiley (782 pages)
8. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (776 pages)
9. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (752 pages)
10. Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford by Jessica Mitford (744 pages)

How about you? Do you have any lengthy tomes you’d recommend I pick up?

I’m still a little behind in reviewing books, but let’s be honest: none of us thought I was going to be this up-to-date, given I usually make it a month or so before giving up on posting reviews.

Anyway.

I finished five books in May:

Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn

In this follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age, the quartet of retired women assassins return. In this story, there is a mole in the secret agency they worked for, which leads to a former colleague being murdered and a clue being left that points to one of their old assignments. Their contact, not knowing which current agents she can trust, turns to them, asking them to go undercover on a cruise and take out the person responsible, while she works the internal angles. Only it turns out that even after his death, there may still be ripple effects that continue to be in play, bringing danger once again to their loved ones.

Solid fun. Honestly, if this book series hasn’t been optioned to a studio yet, it’s a shame.

Paper. Library. (more…)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share books we’d like to re-read.

Here are ten of mine:

1. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (It was so long between the first and second books that my memory of the story has grown hazy. It is sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to get moving.)
2. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (A charming memoir to reread every few Decembers)
3. Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I keep thinking I’ll start it in January (or maybe it really begins in March?) and carry on with a year-long readalong.)
4. Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence (See above.)
5. Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next (One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors.)
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (I haven’t re-read it in more than 20 years.)
7. As You Wish by Cary Elwes (I read it in print the first time and think it would be fun to listen to it at some point.)
8. The Delicacy and Strength of Lace by Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright (I loved this slim volume of correspondence.)
9. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (I have the sequel sitting on my coffee table and should revisit this one. I hope I love rereading it as much as I did Under the Whispering Door last year.)
10. Sorcery & Cecelia by Patrica Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (I’d like to read the rest of this series, but, again, it’s been a long time since I started it.)

How about you? What books do you want to revisit?