This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share the things that keep us from our books, whether good or bad:

1. Volleyball: Although I do keep a novella in my volleyball bag, it doesn’t get dipped into all that often.
2. Gardening: I know I could plug in my audiobook, but time in my plot is more a “listen to a baseball game or music” sort of activity.
3. Hanging out with friends: The very best reason not to read.
4. Streaming tv: Once upon a time, when nothing appealed, I’d turn off the tv. Now there always can be *some*thing on.
5. Sleeping: More napping than actually sleeping. Sleep is important, or, at least, that’s what they keep telling me.
6. Shopping: Again, another activity that could be done whilst listening to an audiobook, but I just usually don’t.
7. Riding a bike: One of the major drawbacks of this mode of transportation.
8. Thinking: My brain processes information audibly, which means it’s really hard to layer written words on top if I’m thinking about something too much.
9. Driving locally: I can listen to audiobooks on long, highway-based trips, but not if I’m driving somewhere that’s direction-intensive.
10. Playing games on my phone: This is probably my least excusable interference.

How about you? What gets in the way of your reading time?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share the first ten books we pull from our shelves.

Here are the first ten I grabbed from piles/bags near our couch (which admittedly include a good number of my library books):

1. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
2. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
3. The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
4. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten
5. Check, Please!: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Uzaku
6. Not Your Villain by C.B. Lee
7. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
8. I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg
9. Lark and Kasim Start a Revolution by Kacen Callender
10. She-Hulk: Jen, Again by Rainbow Rowell, with illustrations by Rogê Antônio & Luca Maresca

The Wind in the Willows, which I’m behind on a readalong for, is the only one of these I’ve finished. Have you read any of them and do you recommend them?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share our audiobook narrator recommendations. Here are ten I’ve enjoyed (in addition to the celebrities who’ve read their memoirs:

1. Kate Reading (The Lady Sherlock series)
2. Neil Gaiman (Norse Mythology)
3. Kirsten Potter (Fortune Favors the Dead)
4. Adjoah Andoh (Get a Life, Chloe Brown)
5. Lauren Fortgang (Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts)
6. Claire Corbett (The Lido)
7. Eunice Wong (The Verifiers)
8. Kevin R. Free (All Systems Red)
9. David Thorpe (A Marvellous Light)
10. Julia Whelan (The Vivian Apple series, Thank You for Listening)

How about you? Do you have any audiobook readers you particularly recommend?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with animals on the cover or in the title. Here are ten from my to-be-read list:

1. Reynard the Fox by Anne-Louise Avery
2. The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
3. Kelly Barnhill’s The Crane Husband
4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Natalie Lloyd’s Hummingbird
7. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
8. The Swallows by Lisa Lutz
9. Strange Birds: A Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez
10. Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves

Do you have any favorite books with animals in the title I should add to my list?

1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
2. Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
3. A Sinister Revenge by Deanna Raybourn
4. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
5. Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas
6. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
7. Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful
8. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
9. Hoops by Matt Taveres
10. Colleen Oakley’s The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

How about you? What are you looking forward to reading this spring?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl offers a topic of our choosing relating to genre of our choosing. Here are ten works of speculative fiction (the catch-all for fantasy, science fiction, dystopian, and other novels of “not the real world”) that are on my to-be-read list:

1. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
2. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
3. Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Dragons
4. The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
5. Dhonielle Clayton’s The Marvellers
6. Angie Thomas’ Nic Blake and the Remarkables
7. Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
8. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
9. A.J. Sherwood’s How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy
10. Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

How about you? Are there other works of speculative fiction you think I should add?