Before we get to That Artsy Reader Girl’s weekly Top Ten Tuesday topic, our 2026 goals, let’s check in on how I did with last year’s:

1. Read 52 books. 62 titles finished.
2. Read 25 books I own. I managed a piddly four.
3. Read more diversely (15). 18 titles were written by authors who identified as BIPOC or queer.
4. Write at least 6 non-Top Ten Tuesday posts about books this year. I managed six review posts.
5. Read more backlist titles (15 books published outside this half-decade, and at least 7 from before the year 2000). I finished 10 books from before 2020 and only two from the 1900s.
6. Read 3+ books of poetry or novels in verse. Fail, although I did finish two works of prose by poets.
7. Read more nonfiction — at least 5. 10 books.
8. Read a book by an author who lives in Africa and one who lives in Central or South America. Fail.
9. Send the books I’ve bought as gifts to the people they’re meant for. Fail.
10. Give every book I own a permanent home on a shelf. Fail

Okay, so that’s not a great track record. I read more, read more diversely, and read more nonfiction, but still leant toward recent works of fiction from the library.

Let’s see what we can do about it with some goals for this year:

1. Read 52 books. This number works for me as a target.
2. Finish at least 20 books I own.
3. Read 3 works from pre-1900, 5 books from the 20th century, and 10 books (total) published before 2021.
4. Publish reviews for all 12 months DURING 2026 (with a few days’ grace period for December).
5. Finish 1 play, 1 short story collection, and 2 books of poetry.
6. Read works by authors from at least 7 countries, at least 5 of which should be in translation.
7. Read at least 5 books by queer and/or trans writers.
8. Read 5 works of nonfiction, in at least 4 different Dewey Decimal areas.
9. Send the gift books out into the world. (I bought them so friends would get to read them. Silly to hold on to them forever.)
10. Give every book I own its own shelf space. (This should be my ultimate goal for my personal library and if I can’t figure it out, more books should move on to other bibliophiles.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Volunteering started back up this week after our holiday break. We’ve switched up groups of kids, so it’s exciting to think about sharing volleyball with a new class.

2. I got to play pickup at the elementary school by my apartment, which offered a fun time and a short commute home afterwards.

3. I was trying to make crackers out of sourdough starter discard this week, and while the outcome isn’t really a cracker, it is crisp-like and still quite tasty.

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

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?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As of the start of the week, the sun is now setting after 5 p.m. here (and the sun is up before 7:30 for those of you who care about that part).

2. Rudi makes borscht and we exchange the last of our gifts on Russian Christmas.

3. We got 60s and sunny one afternoon this week, so I took chai and a couple books to the park.

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

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!