This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl is a freebie, and while I ought to deal with the top ten list from 2022, it’s been a long day and that will take more energy than I have. There’s another freebie week in mid-February, so maybe I’ll aim for then.

Anyway, I figured I could give you ten of the books I currently have checked out from the library that I’m likely to read in the next little while:

1. Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
2. Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
3. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
4. Gene Luen Yang’s The Search
5. Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
6. Emily Brightwell’s Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders
7. The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev
8. Rachel Hartman’s Tess of the Road
9. My Life as a Villainess by Laura Lippman
10. Amor Towles’ Lincoln Highway

What do you currently have checked out from your library?

During this final weekend of January, I’m hoping my time includes:

• Hanging out with a pup (I’m dogsitting this coming week)
• Talking on the phone with my BFF
• Playing pickup volleyball with friends
• Shopping at the farmers market
• Getting some writing done
• Putting the Christmas ornaments away
• Reading
• Hanging fairy lights
• Knitting
• Baking something (unless Neal has left me the rest of the cookies I left with him last week)

What are you hoping to get up to before we turn the calendar page next week?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Two friends and I have decided to establish a weekly game night.

2. Sarah and I have lunch and then meander through the sunshine to eat ice cream outside.

3. I add more cayenne to my chocolate chip cookies than I really mean to, and am surprised that it is still noticeable after baking. I fear the slight warming that comes from eating one makes them even more addictive.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share our list of authors we discovered last year. Here are ten of mine that I’d gladly read more from (I’ve included the genre of their book I read to make it easier for you):

1. Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light: Historical fantasy
2. Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These: Historical fiction
3. Amber McBride, Me: Moth: Contemporary fiction/verse
4. Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars: Science fiction
5. Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club: Historical fiction
6. Jane Pek, The Verifiers: Mystery/Light suspense
7. Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus: Mythology/graphic novel
8. Claudia Gray, The Murder of Mr. Wickham: Historical fiction/mystery
9. Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead: Mystery
10. Laura Taylor Namey, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow: Romance

How about you? Did you encounter any new-to-you authors in 2022 you’d recommend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I run into a friend as we’re on our way to volleyball. We walk the rest of the way together and he proposes planning to do that in the future, rather than allowing happenstance to run its course.

2. A Christmas card from my cousin doggy paddled its way across the ocean to arrive in our mailbox. (She mailed it before the holidays, but the U.K.’s postal strike has been slowing things down.)

3. An overseas friend replies to my November email asking for her mailing address without giving me her address but with an update about how life is going.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Yes, I know this would be better with photos, but it’s late, I want to go to bed, and I haven’t charged the iPhone that doubles as my camera these days.

I’ve been reading up a storm and finished books both yesterday and today. Which means I need to start something new and I’m feeling ambivalent about what that should be. What would make the most sense is to read some more of Sloane Crosby’s Cult Classic and decide whether I should keep it past its due date (tomorrow) and finish it this weekend or give it back as it continues to annoy me. Also, to download whichever audiobook is due back first (I may have five currently checked out) and get listening. But none of that appeals. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pick up one of the books I own that I started last year and give that a whirl. Or read the first ten pages of every book within reach of where I’m sitting and see if that solves the problem.

On the knitting front, I’m working on a Rilke hat, which is knit in garter stitch, and I’m not sure if I’m liking it with this yarn. I’ll probably keep going until after the brim, at which point it will switch over to a larger circular needle and I’ll be able to try it on. I have one sock of a pair done and just stumbled across a gorgeous pair of socks that’s several years old and just needs me to knit a toe. That would make the most sense to pick up, particularly because I also stumbled across a hat I’d knit a friend twelve years ago that I hadn’t ever given her, and I appropriated it, so it’s not like I need another one right this second.

I hope you’re having a more certain week than I am.