This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl is a write-your-own topic related to love in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Romance has become a favorite genre during the pandemic, because I desperately need to cling to the certainty of a happy ending. Here are the top ten romances on my library holds lists:

1. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
2. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
3. A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
4. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. Serendipity, edited by Marissa Meyer
6. The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
7. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis J. Hall
8. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
9. Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach
10. Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg

How about you? Got any romance recommendations for by holds list?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with character names in the title. Here are the last ten I read:

1. Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy
2. Bruno and the Carol Singer by Martin Walker
3. Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom by Kelly Thompson
4. Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
5. Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Anonymous
6. Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
7. Jo and Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz
8. Serena Singh Flips the Script by Sonya Lalli
9. Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
10. Bandette, Vol. 3: The House of the Green Mask by Paul Tobin and Colleen Hoover

Have you read any books recently with a character’s name in the title? Would you recommend them?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share new author discoveries from the past year. Here are ten new-to-me authors I discovered in 2021 (in no particular order):

1. Evie Dunmore
2. Carlos Hernandez
3. Abby Jimenez
4. Sonya Lalli
5. Jackie Fraser
6. S.J. Bennett
7. Elizabeth Everett
8. Kelly Thompson
9. Farah Heron
10. Tirzah Price

Conveniently, many of these authors already had series in progress or in the works when I stumbled across them, which makes finding the next read from them super easy!

How about you? Did you discover any authors last year you’ll be reading again?

Thanks, everyone, for the kind messages about Rudi’s mom. We’re working on a tribute and I’ll be sure to share it here once it’s complete. Suffice it to say, 2022 has been challenging so far.

We’re still in Salt Lake and still dealing with things, so I’m not ready to start blogging every day yet, but I do want to step back in with a couple posts this week so I don’t get too accustomed to not writing.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks about the books that came out last year that we were really excited about, but that for one reason or another (see: life), we didn’t get to cross off our TBR lists before 2021 headed out of town. Here are ten of mine:

1. Sherry Thomas’ Miss Moriarty, I Presume?
2. Beth and Amy by Virginia Kantra
3. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
4. The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
5. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sãenz
6. Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
7. Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli
8. Mackenzi Lee’s The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks
9. Pumpkin by Julie Murphy
10. Mary H.K. Choi’s Yolk

How about you? Were there books that came out last year that you couldn’t wait for — but it turns out that you did?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the ten most recent books we’ve added to our collections:

1. Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas
2. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
3. Once Upon a Camel by Kathi Appelt
4. Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool by Clara Parkes
5. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
6. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
7. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
8. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
9. No. 91/92: A Diary of a Year on the Bus by Lauren Elkin
10. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten

How about you? What have been some recent additions to your bookshelves?

Greetings! It’s been a few weeks since you’ve seen any knitting in these here parts, since I went dark before the holidays as I was working on a Christmas present for my mom, who reads this blog. (Hi, Mum!)

As you can see here, I am still working on her Christmas present, despite this being the project (work or otherwise) that I most wanted to finish by year’s end. But the great thing about knitting is that it will be a great shawl when I do hand it over, hopefully the next time I see her — maybe next month? After all, it’s bigger than a babushka now!

I started a new book this evening, another Christmas romance. It’s overdue back at the Virginia library from which I borrowed it, but the 8 inches of snow we started the week with made it impossible to return it on Monday when I’d planned to, and then I had to get on a plane on Tuesday afternoon. So I figured if it was going to sit unread on my coffee table until I got back to town, it might as come with me and get read. Plus, I suppose I can always mail it back if need be.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and crafting this first week of the new year!