The Columbus Book Festival

 

I spent half the day writing about the Columbus Book Festival on my other blog.

Top Ten Tuesday-Recap of Anticipated releases early in 2025

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is: Freebie/Throwback (Come up with a topic you’d like to do or go back and do an old topic you missed or just want to do again!) With us doing our most anticipated releases for the last half of the year last week, quite a few of you revisted your 1st half list and said how you did. So, this week, I am looking back at what I anticipated from the first half of the year and seeing how many of them I read. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

Top Ten Tuesday-Did I read all of my anticipated reads from the first half of the year? Spoiler alert-no. But, you can click on the cover to see my review of the ones I did read, if you are interested.

First Love, Second Draft by Becca Kinzer -Read it, it was a 5-star read

 

Top Ten Tuesday-Anticipated releases for second half of 2025

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025. Yay, thank you Jana, for an easy topic this week 😁. I keep a list on Goodreads for 2025 book releases, so this should be fairly easy. The hard part will be narrowing it down, (and I ended up adding more to my list, LOL). Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

Top Ten-ish Tuesday-my most anticipated releases for the second half of 2025

Top Ten Tuesday-More books to read this summer

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List. I pretty much already made this list when I listed the books I wanted to read for the summer challenges, you can see that here. But, here are 10 more I hope to read by the end of summer. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

Top Ten Tuesday- Ten Books I hope to read by the end of the summer

Top Ten Tuesday-Unique Animal Encounters

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is: Animal Companions (These animals can be real or fantasy!) (submitted by P.S. I Love Books). I am going to do with Unique Animals and Unique Animal Encounters. Let's see how many I can come up with. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

Top Ten Tuesday-Unique Animals/Animal Encounters

Stacking the Shelves #163, Sunday Post #160, Sunday Salon #154

Hey my bookish friends! How was your week? Mine was long. I started Monday at the ER (chest pains), I am fine (thankfully!), came out with some referrals I needed anyway, and read an entire book. It was a hard work week, and other stressors from extended family. This morning I went to a craft fair and bought several designs of fabric for a quilt I am hoping to start soon.

Top Ten Tuesday-Anticipated releases Jan-Jun

Happy Tuesday my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025. I had read it wrong and thought it said first quarter, so it was going to be a short list. But, I might actually get ten by doing the first half of the year. I am sure there are a ton of books coming out I am going to want to read, I just don't know about them yet 😂 Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

My most anticipated releases for the first half of the year:

First Love, Second Draft by Becca Kinzer, love her books!

Top Ten Tuesday- Favorites from 2024

Happy Tuesday and Happy New Year my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is : Best Books I Read in 2024. The hardest part about today's topic is going to be narrowing it down. I had 55 books that I marked as a favorite in 2024 (and that's assuming I didn't miss any)! Let's be honest, I am not going to try to get it to 10, but will *try* to keep it around 20. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.   

A few of my favorites from 2024:

September 2024 Reading Wrap Up

September was a blur. I don't really feel like I accomplished or did much. I read 18 books and DNF'd two, but I had more variety in reading this month!! Click on the cover of the book if you are interested in the review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Top Ten Tuesday-FALLing for reading

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I Read/Avoided Because of the Hype (and did you make the right choice?) I tend to avoid books that are super hyped, for whatever reason that is a turn off to me. Sometimes I will end up reading a hyped book years later, but probably wouldn't have enough to make a list from. So, I am going to go with books that are great to read in the fall. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.  

Ten-ish books that are great for reading in the fall: (click on the book cover if you want to see my review of the book)

The sweater weather series are loosely tied together by their cozy fall romcom vibe and take place in the same town, Harvest Hollow.

  

Specters in the Glass House

Title: Specters in the Glass House

Author: Jaime Jo Wright

Publisher: Bethany House

Genre: Suspense, Christian Fiction, Dual-time, Historical Fiction,

Source: Bethany House and Jaime Jo Wright

My Review:

Jaime Jo Wright is an auto-read author. She is one of the few authors I have read everything she has written. Specters in the Glass House is her newest release (10/1/24). I am in awe of her storytelling skills!

The Christy Award Finalist Tour

 

Welcome to the Takeover Blitz for The Christy Award Finalists 2024, organized by ECPA and hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! We extend our sincere and enthusiastic congratulations to the 2024 Finalists!

About the Gala

The Christy Award Gala will be held on Thursday, November 14 at 7 pm central in Downers Grove, Illinois, at the DoubleTree Conference Center, just outside Chicago. Winners from each category, plus the Christy Book of the Year and Amplify Award, will be announced during the celebration.

Top Ten Tuesday-Books that are easy to escape into

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books That Provide a Much-Needed Escape (bonus points if you tell us why!). I am of the mindset that ALL books (at least fiction) provide an escape, so I am tweaking the topic just a little bit to books I recently loved escaping into. In order to make the list, the books must have received 5-stars from me. And, since I have read a TON of romcoms recently...hopefully there is a little bit of variety in the list😂.  Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today.  

Top Ten Tuesday: books I recently loved escaping into (tweaked it even more so I am not using the same author or series):

 

Stacking the Shelves #133, Sunday Post #130, Sunday Salon #124

Hey bookish friends! How are you doing? Today my husband is going to join me for my Quilt Shop Hopping. I have visited 34/84, so 26 shops this week!! (all of my time in the car was listening to audiobooks!) We are headed into Amish country and plan to eat lunch there (hoping to hit all 9 shops). We will be gone around 8ish hours, then Church Sunday, and relaxing.

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! And audiobooks. The Stacking the Shelves meme is hosted at Reading Reality.

Top Ten Tuesday-Debut novels edition

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Debut Novels I Enjoyed (A debut novel is an author’s first published book. You could also choose to share genre or age group debuts if you’d prefer, such as an adult fiction author’s first YA book or a mystery writer’s first romance.) (submitted by Angela @ Reading Frenzy) Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

Ten-ish Fiction Debut Novels I Enjoyed (click on book cover for review):

Miss Match by Erynn Mangum

June 2024 Reading Wrap Up

June was a crazy, busy month that felt like about 600 years. I feel like I did a fair amount of reading, but I also felt like it was taking me forever to finish each book. So let's see what it actually looks like 😂. I read 15 books and DNF'd one. Click on the cover of the book if you are interested in the review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Night Falls on Predicament Avenue

Title: Night Falls on Predicament Avenue

Author: Jaime Jo Wright

Publisher: Bethany House

Genre: Christian Fiction, Mystery, Historical Fiction

Source: Bethany House & Own (won a copy around the same time!)

My Review:

I am a huge Jaime Jo Wright fan. I know if I want a story that will keep me guessing until the very end to read her books. I don't know another author who keeps me invested in both timelines like she does! Night Falls on Predicament Avenue checked every box. 

Top Ten Tuesday- Most Anticipated Releases Fall of 2024

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2024. There are ALWAYS books I am looking forward to so this will be an easy topic for this week. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

My top anticipated releases for the rest of the year:

 

Stacking the Shelves #122, Sunday Post #119, Sunday Salon #113

Hey bookish friends! How are you doing? It was a weird week with the holiday on Monday, a very full Tuesday, then traveling all day on Wednesday to North Carolina. Thursday and Friday were spent catching up with my in-laws, playing games of badminton, and kayaking on the lake.

Top Ten Tuesday-10 physical books on my shelves I want to read soonish

Happy Tuesday, my bookish friends!! I hope you all are doing well. Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon (Bonus points if you tell us how long it’s been sitting on your shelf waiting for you.) Well, I am going for extra, extra bonus points by telling you I currently have 215 physical fiction books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. Obviously, this is not counting my nonfiction books, books I might want to read of my family members, or the books on my Kindle 😬. I still want to read them all, but I will start with the 10 I want to read sooner rather than later. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and you can head over there to see what our other bookish friends are up to today. 

Top Ten Books I own that I want to read sooner rather than later (and how long they have been on my shelf):

The Trouble with Tulip by Mindy Starnes Clark 2/4/20