Top Ten Tuesday Archives - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Books With Nature on the Cover

By Brookelorren on May 11, 2021May 10, 20219 Comments

Hello! I hope everything is going well with you. Today I went for a walk… in the snow. Sigh. At least the heating/air conditioning people are coming Wednesday.

But today is Tuesday, and this week, Top Ten Tuesday is talking about Books with Nature on the Cover! Looking through my Goodreads list, I’m surprised at how few covers do have a lot of nature on the cover. But there are at least 10, and it gives me the opportunity to highlight some new books, or books I haven’t talked about for a while.

Golden Poppies – Laila Ibrahim. This book has some beautiful flowers on the cover. It’s the third book in a series, but you can read it without reading the other two books (I haven’t).

Starfish – Akemi Dawn Bowman. Starfish doesn’t have actual starfish on the cover, but it does have marine life. It’s very pretty, IMO.

Song of the Crimson Flower – Julie C. Dao. This is another cover with flowers on it, but it’s also got a dragonfly on the cover. A dragonfly that looks oddly like a flute (an important part of the story).

The Unhoneymooners – Christina Lauren. This is a book that’s been patiently waiting for me even though I bought it on sale more than a year ago. Good thing books don’t have an expiration date. I love the flowers and the bird on the cover.

Switchback – Danika Stone. I don’t know about you, but I love going camping. But I wouldn’t want to go camping without being at least a little prepared. Once I did go camping at the ocean and had to cook with a stick, but that was nothing compared to these teens. Love the mountainside on the cover.

Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips. More mountains. I’m guessing this is supposed to be the Kamchatka Peninsula (located in Eastern Russia right across from Alaska). Brrr.

Twisted Roots – Shelly Goodman Wright. This book was written by a friend of mine. The book takes place in the Okefenokee Swamp, and I’m assuming that’s what’s on the cover.

Into the Hollow – Lynn Vroman. I loved this book. I’d love to reread this again someday. It takes place in the Appalachian Mountains, and it’s got trees on the cover.

A Thousand Perfect Notes – C.G. Drews. This has such a beautiful butterfly on the cover. The paperback is even more awesome, although I have it on Kindle.

Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand. This is the story of Louis Zamperini, who graduated from the same college that I did. Zamperini was a runner who had the opportunity to be in the Olympics, but sadly, World War II cancelled his Olympic dreams. His Olympic dreams were partially realized when he got to carry the Olympic torch during the Olympic torch relay leading up to the 1998 Nagano games. This cover has the ocean and clouds on the cover.

So those are ten books with nature on the covers, going all the way back to books I added to Goodreads in 2015! What books did you highlight today? Next week we’re going to talk about book titles that are complete sentences. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that? We’ll see. If not, I’ll try to do something similar.

My Ten Most Recent Reads

By Brookelorren on May 4, 2021May 3, 202116 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today we’re talking about the most recent books we’ve read.

:: Looks at most recent books I’ve read. Six of them are from the same author/series::

So… rather than bore you with six books from the same author, I’ll be condensing that particular entry into one. Let’s go!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find – Joan He. I just finished this one on Monday and it was so good! There’s quite a few twists to this book, so I can’t really describe it too in-depth. It’s set in a dystopian world where everybody either lived in an eco-city or takes their chances on land where there’s disasters and pollution all over the place.

Malice – Pintip Dunn. If you could save millions of lives by killing one person, would you do it? This twisty story explores that question. It has time travel, people who aren’t who they appear to be, and great characters.

Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages – Gaston Dorren. As an aspiring polyglot, I think languages are fascinating. Babel explores the world’s 20 most commonly spoken languages to give us a peek into what makes other languages different–and the same–to ours.

Red Tigress – Amelie Wen Zhao. Ana is trying to save her kingdom. In the meantime, she discovers that not all is well for the affinites. While I liked this book, I did get a little lost with all the names and peoples referred to in the book. Before I read the finale, I think I’ll need to read the first two books again.

Shadowhunters Books – Cassandra Clare (most recently read first)

City of Heavenly Fire
City of Lost Souls
City of Fallen Angels
City of Glass
City of Ashes
City of Bones
“Jocelyn’s Story”
“After the Bridge”
Chain of Iron
Chain of Gold

With the exception of Chain of Iron, the books on this list were rereads for me (third time reading them) and the two short stories were new to me.

The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah. This is a story about the dust bowl in the 1930s. I loved the main character and how it brought to life the struggles of farmers living in that time. This book doesn’t exactly have a happy ever after though.

Three Dark Crowns – Kendare Blake. This book had been on my TBR for a very long time and I finally got around to reading it. Now I just have to read the rest of the books.

Cinder – Marissa Meyer. The Lunar Chronicles have been on my TBR for about as long as Three Dark Crowns has. It’s a good thing that there have been fewer must read books coming out lately, because my TBR is a mile long and I need to catch up. I liked this one and am looking forward to drawing the next book out of my ever-growing TBR lottery.

The Promised Neverland Volume 3. Emma looks quite fierce on the cover of this manga. This is a good series where the characters look really cute… but the story’s pretty dark.

Midnight Sun – Stephanie Meyer. I read the original Twilight series for the first time last year, because I was planning on reading Midnight Sun when it came out. It was interesting to hear (because I listened to it on audiobook) Edward’s take on the whole situation.

So there’s the books I’ve read since mid-February. What have you been reading? It’s always interesting to see the books we’ve most recently read, because they’re not always the books we always talk about.

Next week we’re going to talk about books with nature on the cover. Looking through Goodreads, this might be difficult. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something though.

Animals From Books

By Brookelorren on April 27, 2021April 26, 202112 Comments

Hello! Last week it was snowy, today it’s hot in my broken-air-conditioner house, and tomorrow it’s supposed to snow again! But it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another list! Today we’re talking about Animals from Books. I thought this one would be a challenge, but I managed to come up with 10! These involve animals of all types: magical animals, regular animals, shapeshifters, and mythical animals.

Church – Cat from the Shadowhunter’s Universe. Church was the first animal that came to my mind when I thought about animals in books. Jem rescued him in Clockwork Angel, and he’s appeared in all the major Shadowhunter series ever since (Church is immortal). After Jem became a Silent Brother, he went to live with Magnus for a while, and then went to live in the New York Institute, and now he lives in California, often with Jem, but he tends to do his own thing.

When Elephants Fly – Nancy Richardson Fischer. I bet you can guess that the animal featured in When Elephants Fly is–an elephant. T. Lily Decker is an intern at the local newspaper and watches an elephant almost kill her calf. She goes on a road trip to try to save the elephant–all while she harbors fears of becoming schizophrenic like her mother.

Jack – Little House on the Prairie. Jack (you can see him on the cover following the wagon) was Laura’s faithful bulldog, who followed Laura all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to “Indian Territory” on the prairies to the south. Since this series of books follows Laura from a little girl (age 5, I think) to a young lady, we see Jack age. Losing Jack in the books is almost as sad as losing my own pets.

Wicked Fox – Kat Cho. Gu Miyoung is a Kitsune–they have the ability to shapeshift into humans. I don’t like calling her an animal, because she has such human characteristics, but we’re embracing animals, animal-like creatures, and human-like beings who can turn into animals this week.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The Dragonlance books are the classic fantasy with dragons books. We don’t see the dragons until well into the first book, but there will be plenty throughout the series.

My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George. I thought this week would be difficult, but I’m finding a lot of stories I haven’t talked about for a while! This is a story of a boy who runs off into the mountains and lives in the woods by himself. His only companion becomes a falcon.

The Crow Rider – Kalyn Josephson. In The Crow Rider, people once rode crows through the sky like one might ride a horse. Unfortunately, something happens to many of the crows.

The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater. From riding crows to riding murderous horses. If your TBR isn’t booked for November 1st, might I suggest The Scorpio Races? That is, if murderous horses are your thing. I loved this book.

The Black Stallion – Walter Farley. This world needs more horse books. The Black Stallion turns 80 this year. I haven’t read this since I was a kid, but Stiefvater’s murderous horses reminded me of this wonderful book and how much I loved horses in elementary school.

Dragonslayer – Duncan M. Hamilton. This is the story about an older guy who thinks his fighting days are behind him, who is suddenly thrust into the position of having to go fight a dragon. It was different than many other dragon books I’ve read.

Thats 10! I thought it would be difficult to find ten books with animals in them, but surprisingly, there were more books than I thought there’d be. Even better, I got to talk about books I haven’t mentioned in a while.

What did you come up with this week? Next week we’re going to talk about the 10 most recent books we’ve read. Easy peasy! Although I’m going to cheat a bit, because out of the last 10 books I’ve read, 7 of them were by the same author in the same universe. So I’m going to lump all of those together.

Books in My TBR with Colors in the Titles

By Brookelorren on April 13, 2021April 12, 202114 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re talking about colors. The official topic is “Book Titles That Sound Like They Could Be Crayola Crayon Colors,” but that’s a topic better suited to my daughter, who’s an artist. So I decided to switch it up a bit and talk about those books in my TBR with colors already in the title. I did a Top Ten Tuesday before about Books with Colors in the Title, but those were books I had already read. These are books on my TBR. I’m looking to see the colors you’ve chosen though.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I found it very interesting to go through my TBR. There are some books I’ve forgotten about. I figure as long as my TBR is shorter than the “Books Read” list, I’m good. Anyway, here are my colorful choices this week.

Lost Book of the White – Cassandra Clare. While I’ve been dying to read Chain of Thorns since I finished Chain of Iron, this series of Shadowhunter books is not one I’m rushing out to read. I’m sure I’ll get to this at some point, but for now, this one remains on my TBR.

Scarlet – Marissa Meyer. I bought the entire Lunar Chronicles set on sale several years ago for Black Friday, but It wasn’t until recently that I finally got around to reading Cinder, the first book in the series. Next up: Scarlet, which is another colorful title.

A Court of Silver Flames – Sarah J. Maas. I still haven’t read A Court of Frost and Starlight yet, but the last book in the series, A Court of Silver Flames, fits today’s colorful theme. Seeing all these books makes me wish I could read faster! Alas, I seem to be reading slower at the moment. I’m trying not to sweat it. Especially because summer is just around the corner and I’ll have more time to read. But seeing all these books on my TBR makes me want to read them!

Crimson Reign – Amelie Wen Zhao. I recently finished reading Red Tigress (another colorful title). This will be the final book in the series. I think I’ll have to read the other two books before I read this one though. The series is a little complex.

Black Tudors: The Untold Story – Miranda Kaufmann. Hundreds of years ago, people didn’t look at race the same as they do now. Black Tudors tells the story of black people during the Tudor era. I’ve forgotten about this book, which has been lingering on my TBR for a while, but it sounds really interesting.

Onyx – Jennifer L. Armentrout. This is the second book in the Lux series. I read the first book and really liked it, but I haven’t had the chance to continue the series.

African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan – Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard. This sounds like an interesting story about a black guy who ended up in Japan and became a samurai. And it has the color black in the title.

Elissa Blue – T.K. Perry. I’m not sure how this ended up on my TBR, but I found it as I was going through my TBR and it looked interesting. And it has a colorful title.

Black Death at the Golden Gate – David K. Randall. In 1900, the Bubonic Plague entered the United States. This could have ended badly, but fortunately, it didn’t. This looks like an interesting book though.

Splinters of Scarlet – Emily Bain Murphy. This is another book that I didn’t remember putting on my TBR, but it would fit with my Read Around the World Challenge for Denmark. Historical Denmark, at least. Plus it has the color scarlet in the title.

So there’s Ten Books from my TBR with colors in the title. It was nice getting the opportunity to showcase some books that I don’t talk about repeatedly.

Were you able to come up with books that sound like Crayola crayon colors? I’d like to see what you came up with. Next week is another colorful week, as we look at books with colorful covers. That one I should be able to do without tweaking.

Places In Books I’d Love to Visit

By Brookelorren on March 30, 2021March 29, 202117 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! It’s spring break! And my husband started a new job! Today’s topic is supposed to be “Places in Books I’d Love to Live,” but… I hate moving. I’ve lived overseas before. Do I really want to live anywhere else? Not really. So today I’m doing “Places in Books I’d Love to Visit” instead. Because there are a ton of places I’d love to visit, but not live.

Tokyo – Warcross. Tokyo would be a wonderful city to visit, and the Tokyo of Warcross’s time would be even more amazing. It seems like such a modern city.

London, 1903 – Chain of Gold. London in 1903 would be a completely different experience than it is today. There’d be horses and gas lamps and everybody would be dressed so differently. However, I wouldn’t want to stay there. There was so much poverty at the time. And pollution.

Kamchatka Peninsula – Disappearing Earth. The Kamchatka Peninsula is that little thumb of land in Russia that’s fairly close to Alaska. When a lot of westerners think of Russia, I imagine they think of Saint Petersburg or Moscow. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to visit those places too, I just don’t have a book about it. The Kamchatka Peninsula would be a completely different experience. It’s located in Asian Russia, which is a lot different than European Russia. It’s way less populated, for one.

Yosemite – Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour. Amy & Roger visit a lot of places on their epic detour, including Colorado Springs, where I live. The first place they visit is Yosemite. I’ve never been, but I think it would be pretty cool to go someday.

China – The Heavenly Man. China has such a long and amazing history. I’d love to get the chance to see the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, or just experience what it’s like there. I wouldn’t want to stay, but I’d definitely love to go here at some point in my life.

Paris – Spectacle. In Spectacle, the characters are in Paris during the time when the Eiffel Tower was being built, but Paris would be a lovely place to visit in many time periods (I think I’d pass on visiting Paris during The Terror though).

California Beach – Alex, Approximately. It’s supposed to snow later today (again) and I’m looking forward to the summer weather. Alex, Approximately takes place on a warm California beach and the surrounding town. I’d love to visit this warm place, especially when it’s cold outside where I live.

Alicante – City of Glass. Alicante is described as a beautiful city. It seems like it would have the charm of an old city. As a bonus, it’s surrounded by forest and countryside.

1963 – 11/22/63. It’s said that visiting the past is like visiting a foreign country, and I can imagine that, even from the viewpoint of my own life. The way Stephen King describes 1963 makes me want to visit there for a while. I wouldn’t want to stay, because there were some obvious problems, but getting to experience it for a few days or a week would be kinda cool.

Atlantic Ocean – Start Here. There’s something calming about being out at sea in the middle of the night, with nothing around you but water. Willa and Taylor, the protagonists of this story, stuck close to the coast in this story, but even a few miles off the coast, the world can seem very remote. I’ve been thinking lately that after this pandemic is over, I’d love to go on another cruise. I think a lot of us would like to go somewhere when this is all over. Anyway, this story makes me want to be out at sea again (although not working).

What about you? I found this week a little difficult, because so many places in books are places I wouldn’t want to go. Are there a lot of places in books you’d like to visit, or even live?

Next week, we’re going to talk about books we’d gladly throw into the ocean. Wow, that’s a little harsh. Maybe throw parts of books into the ocean? ‘Cause I can think of one. I’m not sure if I know of 10 books I dislike that much, so I might tweak it a little.

Books I May Spring Clean

By Brookelorren on March 9, 2021March 8, 2021Leave a Comment

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday! Time to talk about books again! Today is a Spring Cleaning Freebie. I decided to talk about books that I may end up spring cleaning, or giving away. It’s amazing how many books a book blogger tends to pile up. I have so many books in my garage, and while I’ll probably want to get rid of some of them eventually too, books seem to multiply in my house as well. I literally only have a shelf in a closet as a formal “bookshelf;” the others are scattered throughout my house. The books on this list are typically books that I’ve read but have no intention of reading again.

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents – David Pietrusza. I learned a lot from this book. It was well written and humorous at times. However, do I think I’ll read it again? Probably not. There are some books, even in the nonfiction genre, that leave me with a feeling of awe and that I must read it again. This one–probably not.

Hanger Management – Susan Albers. This was a book I got for free from Bookish First (thank you). While it was interesting, a lot of the information in here is fairly basic. While there are some health books I don’t plan on getting rid of, like Deep Nutrition, because there’s so much I might want to refer to later, this one is a little too basic for me to hang onto forever.

A History of Wales – John Davies. While I’m glad I read this book, the topic is fairly narrow and I’m unlikely to read it again. I got it at a library book sale. I have so many unread books from library book sales that I have to stop going to those things. Anyway, while I learned a lot, this book isn’t engaging enough for me to keep.

Listen to Your Heart – Kasie West. For today’s list, I’ve been going through my Goodreads profile and have been picking books that I own in physical form. A lot of books I own on Kindle and I’m keeping those, whether I ever plan on reading them again or now. Listen to Your Heart was a good book, but I don’t think it’s one I’m going to read again. It’d be nice to pass this along to someone who would like to read it.

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life – Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. This was another book I got at a library book sale. It’s highly unlikely I’m going to want to read this book again. While some of its findings, like our society can sometimes be a little too complex for some people to navigate through, are interesting, others–like there might be a correlation between race and intelligence–seem a little off to me. Especially as someone who’s married to a black person who’s probably in the top decile of the intelligence scale.

Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine – Anne Applebaum. This one I’m a little unsure of. I know I should free up space and donate it, but do I want this as a reference? Maybe? It’s one of those books, like The Great Influenza, that I may want to refer to later. I’ll hold off on this one for now, but I may want to donate this one.

Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times – John Whitney Hall. This is not the edition I have; the one I have has a yellow cover and came out in the 1960s. I found it to be difficult to read and very narrow in scope. Maybe if I knew a lot about Japanese history it would have been easier for me to read, but it wasn’t.

There’s been a lot of talk about “cancelling” older works of media recently, and while I’m not in favor of destroying art, there are some things that just aren’t relevant to today, and need to be viewed through a different lens. As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything sexist or racist about this work, but it is 50 years old, and perhaps that is why I had such difficulty reading it. It’s more interesting, IMO, from a historical perspective than as something useful for today. And perhaps the same is true of these older works that seem to be horribly outdated today.

Stop Missing Your Life – Cory Muscara. While this book was interesting enough, do I really think I’m going to read this again? Probably not. I know there are a ton of nonfiction books on this week’s list–believe it or not, I actually have tons of nonfiction books that I love and will probably never get rid of–but this book isn’t something I’m likely to want to refer to, or read again. Some books you can read, absorb all you’re going to want to get out of it in one reading, and then you’re ready to move on. I think this is one of those books.

Light from Distant Stars – Shawn Smucker. I liked the book, but out of the thousands of books that I could read, do I want to read this again? Probably not. I’d rather pass this on.

My Mother, Barack Obama… – Keven Powell. While I found this book to be interesting and a glimpse into a life that is completely foreign to mine, I’m probably not going to read this one again. I’d rather pass this on to someone that hasn’t read it yet and would like to.

So there’s 10 books I’m thinking of donating. As my books pile up, I’m trying to make use of the library and my Kindle more, which reduces the amount of books I have to donate. There are some books that I’ll hang onto for years, of course, but these tend to be ones that are either signed or that I plan on rereading.

What did you write about today? Are your shelves overflowing like mine? Do you end up bringing home a bag of library books from those sales and find a lot that need to find new homes?

Next week we’re going to talk about our Spring TBRs. I think these are some of my favorite posts.

Books That Came Out Before I Was Born

By Brookelorren on February 23, 2021February 22, 202113 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday Time! Today is the day we get together with all our book friends and talk about books. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books that Made Me Laugh Out Loud” but I’m not sure if I can come up with 10. I know there are more than that, but there aren’t a lot of books I can come up with that I think “Oh my that was funny!” Today’s post would be full of Sandhya Menon and Cassandra Clare books. Since I missed a couple weeks, I’m going to go back a couple weeks and do “Books That Came Out Before I was Born” instead, which was the topic for a few weeks ago. I’m going to start with books on my TBR, then move on to books that I’ve read.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays are classics. I saw this play when I was in middle school (I think). Maybe I read it then too? Either way, I’d like to read this play.

Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington. I’m sure many of you have heard of Booker T. Washington. He started life as a slave and later went on to found what is now Tuskeegee University. I’d love to read his autobiography someday.

Война и мир (War and Peace) – Leo Tolstoy. While this is often thought of as the quintessential long book, it’s only between 1150 and 1400 pages, depending on what edition you get. And I’m sure the translation matters too. While I’d love to read it in the original Russian and French someday, I kinda should finish reading Дивергент (Divergent) first. It’d be much easier to read, and it’s less than 1/2 the length.

And that’s all the books on my TBR that were made before I was born! That being said, there are plenty of other books that were made before I was born, that I either have read or would be interested in reading.

Decline and fall of the roman Empire Gibbon cover

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon. I’ve actually been reading the unabridged version of this book for several years now. I’m 29% of the way through the book. It’s 3,672 pages. I don’t read it every day, and it’s a difficult book. But it is interesting to read about all of these emperors. It also gives me ideas for fictional books I might want to read. Another thing that I like about it is that it reminds me that–politically, things can get a lot worse. I can feel fortunate that they’re not.

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy. I read Anna Karenina a long time ago. I don’t remember much about it, so I’d like to read it again. I had aspartame poisoning when I was in my 20s, and it affected my memory from that time. I would watch a movie and couldn’t keep track of the characters in the movie while I was watching it. I forgot a lot about the books I read too.

Little House on the Prairie (series) – Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’d love to read the entire Little House on the Prairie series again someday. There are a couple more books written after The First Four Years, which I’ve never read, and I’d like to read someday. Ms. Wilder was an inspiration to me; someday I’d like to write my autobiography as well. She fictionalized a few details, and I probably would too.

Anne of Green Gables (series) – L. M. Montgomery. I’d love to read the Anne of Green Gables books again (although my favorite is Rilla of Ingleside). When my grandma died, I really wanted to inherit her Anne books. She loaned them to me when I was in middle or high school. I haven’t read them since, but they definitely need another read someday.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo. I read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in 2019, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is “only” 553 pages in comparison. This is a book I’d love to get around to reading someday.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas. I have a copy of this book somewhere in my garage, but it looks a little thin, considering that the book is 1138 pages and the copy I have doesn’t look like a brick. I’ve seen the movie, but I’d love to read the book someday. Books contain so much more information–especially if they’re over 1000 pages, you know there’s a lot in the book that never made it to the movie! One of the things I love about old books is that it takes you back into that time period in a way that books written about older time periods cannot.

The History of the Franks – Gregory of Tours. I’ve actually read this book twice already, but I’d read it again someday. It has fantastical stories about the early Frankish kings (that would be, kings that ruled what is now France). It wasn’t meant to be a fantastical story either. I love to read it and wonder what actually happened and was miraculous, and what was just made up. Reading these stories after being more familiar with the characters in the stories I think would change the way I saw the book.

So there are ten stories that were written before I was born, that I’ve either read before and would like to read again, or I’ve never read but would like to. Did you write about funny books this week? Maybe I need to read some of the books on people’s lists this week! Especially as the pandemic is getting close to a year now.

Next week Chain of Iron comes out! Here, we’ll be talking about “Characters Whose Job I Wish I Had.” I think I can do a better job with those than funny books. I mean, there have to be at least 10 books about princesses or authors or something, right? But I’m sure I can find a few others too.

Books with Green, Yellow, and Purple Covers

By Brookelorren on February 16, 2021February 16, 202118 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Sorry I haven’t been around for a couple weeks. Two major things have been draining my time: QuizUp is discontinuing, and it’s been my goal for years to become the best in the world in the Divergent Trilogy category there. Only problem is, there was one lady that was way ahead of me. So I had less than 2 months to make up that difference (and I did, so now I’m the best in the world, but I have to retain my lead for another month). Second, I sold a bunch of DOGE (a cryptocurrency) that I mined several years ago for about $4000. So I bought a new laptop and had some money to trade.

Anyway, today we’re talking about books with yellow, purple, and green colors. It’s Mardi Gras, I guess. When I worked at Walmart I’d kinda know because they’d sell stuff in those colors right around this time. Are people doing anything for Mardi Gras this year? Covid is kinda taking everybody’s parties away. I’m listing my most recently read books using “My Books” on Goodreads. Which color did I read the most covers of in the last nine months? Let’s find out:

Oooh, a purple cover in one of my most recent reads! Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman is a great book. I wrote a story over the weekend, “My Embarrassing Secret,” about Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown creator of Bitcoin; I created a wife for him and named her Akemi.

Are all my covers going to be purple this week? We’ll see. A Sky Beyond the Storm is the final book in Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes tetralogy. It is such a wonderful end to the series, if you haven’t had the chance to read it yet.

I read Keeper by Kim Chance last November, and it has a green cover (so I guess I’m not going with just purple). This book is a lovely blend of contemporary reality with some magic thrown in.

I thought about not using two Sabaa Tahir books for this list, but I’m going in order of when I read them. Too bad An Ember in the Ashes series doesn’t have a yellow cover too, or they’d have the whole Mardi Gras thing going on! A Reaper at the Gates has a green cover. I read the first three books last year in preparation for the release of A Sky Beyond the Storm, so that’s why there are two here among my most recent reads.

Our first yellow cover! Opposite of Always is a story about a boy who meets the love of his life, but she’s sick and dies. Only–then he goes back in time and meets her again and she dies again. The love interest, Kate, has sickle cell anemia, which is something my husband has.

I’m not intentionally grouping these colors by cover, but it seems like they’re grouping themselves. Last summer I reread Summer Days and Summer Nights on audiobook. Considering it was -15º last night, I’m kinda looking forward to the return of those summer days and summer nights.

The Bride Test is yet another yellow cover. I wonder which color will have the most covers? I’m pretty sure I’m going to borrow the third book in this series, The Heart Principle, from the library. The hardcover is still selling for $26! That’s way more than I can spend on most books. The Kindle book is a more reasonable $9.99, but I can wait and save myself the money.

Our fourth yellow cover in a row means that in the recent past, I have read more yellow covers than any other. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour is a story about two late-teens driving across the country and getting to experience life. It’s a trip I’d like to take. Actually, I have kind of taken trips like this, although not so spontaneous (I knew I wanted to stop at Yellowstone and The Great Salt Lake, etc.). I wish everyone the opportunity to drive across the country, stopping at places that interest them. Not now though, because covid. But soon. According to Worldometers, the Daily New Cases and Daily Deaths have started to decrease! Yes! But we have a long way to go.

Last year, I read the Divergent trilogy again, including Insurgent, the second book. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read these books. I’ve forced myself to only read these every other year so I don’t burn out. I absolutely adore these books.

When I started looking through these covers, I wouldn’t have guessed that the color with the most covers read since last June (out of the colors yellow, purple, and green) would be yellow. But out of these colors, half of them were yellow! I wonder if I’d get different results next year, or if I just read more covers with yellow covers. King of Scars makes the fifth yellow book I’ve read since last June.

That’s it! I hope you’re all staying warm. And that you have power! I’m sure our Australian friends are very happy they’re not in the US right about now. Next week we’re going to talk about “Books that Made Me Laugh Out Loud.” Wow, that’s going to be a toughie. But I did miss two weeks so maybe I’ll do one of those if I can’t think of enough books. Assuming I’m not in a battle to the death over Divergent trilogy on QuizUp.

Books On My TBR Lottery The Longest

By Brookelorren on January 26, 2021January 26, 20219 Comments

Hello! I hope you’ve been having a great week. It’s Tuesday, and time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). I did today’s topic (New To Me Authors) last week, so this week I’m going to do last week’s topic (Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To). I actually didn’t have a lot of books that I had to read last year. There were a few new releases, but I pretty much pre-order those and start reading them release day. Most of the other books I’m interested in, but you know what? There’s about 50 other books I’m interested in reading just as much.

That’s why I started the TBR lottery. It’s a numbered list of books I’m interested in reading. When I want to read a book but don’t have one I have to read (like Chain of Iron on March 2nd) then I use a random number generator to pick my next book. As long as I have access to that book (some I have to get from the library, as an example) I’ll start reading it. I’ve been doing this for about a year now, and some books just don’t get picked. So today, I’m going to go over the books that have been patiently waiting the longest.

I found The Boy and His Ribbon through book blogging. I’ve read most of Pepper Winters’ Dollar series, and they were always so addictive. This book is a forbidden romance that sounded interesting from the first time I heard about it. Although this book has the lowest number on the TBR lottery (the higher numbers are newer), it did get picked for my winter TBR so I’ll be reading it soon.

I read the first book in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Lux series, Obsidian, back in 2019. I haven’t had the chance to read the second book, Onyx, yet. And it hasn’t been picked by the TBR lottery yet.

One of the Amazon Prime benefits I take advantage of every month is picking up their free book every month. Sometimes I just end up collecting these books though. I’ve been adding them to the TBR lottery though. The Boy Between Worlds is about a biracial boy in the Netherlands who lives through World War II. It sounds really interesting, but it’s number hasn’t been drawn yet.

I got The Night Circus for $1.99 on Amazon when it was on sale. I figure for that price I couldn’t pass it up. Anyway, it went onto the TBR lottery and hasn’t been heard from again. I’m sure it will get picked someday.

Once & Future is another book I got on sale. I was interested in reading it when it came out, but it wasn’t one of my top priority books. So it went onto the TBR lottery, and has been sitting there ever since.

Meet Cute was another book I got on sale. That’s a common theme for a lot of these older books, I think, because I’m interested in them enough to take advantage of the low price, but not quite so much that I want to read it right away. Anyway, this book (about a girl who has a meet cute with an actor she had a teenage crush on) is still waiting for its big break.

So Hope Nation was on sale, and I had to pick it up, because it had an essay by Marie Lu in it (and a lot of other amazing authors). I have read the Marie Lu essay in this book, but the book is on my TBR lottery and I’ll read the rest of the authors when this book gets picked.

All the Little Lights is another book I got on sale. Actually, the majority of these books I either got on sale or I don’t own. Anyway, this book is about two friends who are forced apart, reunite, and then trouble happens that keeps them apart.

Millions is the last book in the Dollar series by Pepper Winters. I said earlier that this series is addictive. If I owned this book, I probably would have read it earlier. It’s not that expensive ($3.99) but I guess I’m waiting for it to win the TBR lottery to buy it. Then I can finally find out what happened to these people!

I really liked Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer, so when I saw that Daughter of Smoke and Bone (you probably guessed it) was on sale, I had to pick it up. So now it’s been on my TBR lottery for a while.

So that’s today’s list! Are there any of these you think should jump to the front of the line?

Next week I won’t be a rebel and I’ll post about Books that Were Published Before I was Born like everyone else. Maybe I’ll narrow it down to books that I’ve read. They’ll probably end up being mostly classics. See you then!

New to Me Authors from 2020

By Brookelorren on January 19, 2021January 19, 202119 Comments

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! I hope your week has been going well! Mine has been–eventful. We discovered that my kids have a lot of money in Bitcoin, my dh interviewed for a job that would pay a lot more than where he’s working now, and then one of our family members had to go to the hospital (this person will be fine).

So perhaps this is why I got my weeks mixed up and did “New To Me Authors from 2020” instead of the actual topic, “Books I Didn’t Get to in 2020”. I love this yearly topic. Even though I’ve read lots of new authors in the first couple of years of this blog, there are still new authors. I wrote this topic right after coming back from dropping off my family member at the hospital, so forgive me for getting the topics mixed up.

Rachel Lynn Solomon – Although she’s had a few books out before Today Tonight Tomorrow, I never read any of them. So good. It was my “hot tub book” prior to the pandemic, and I would sit in the hot tub at the gym longer just so I could keep reading. I was sad when the gym closed. I think when I got to reading it at home, I finished it in one day.

James Crawford – Fallen Glory was an excellent book. This may be the only nonfiction author on this year’s list. However, since the book made my top 10 books of the year, I figured I’d include him on this list of new-to-me authors.

Cameron Lund – The Best Laid Plans was another book I really liked from last year. I’d definitely read another book from her.

Brigid Kemmerer – This book surprised me. I love how this book blended both modern times and a Renaissance fantasy setting. I hope to read the rest of the books in the series at some point.

These books all made my top books I read in 2020. So 40% of the books were by new-to-me authors. But I read other new authors too.

Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl – I’m only counting this as one author even though there were two people co-authoring. I met Melissa da la Cruz right before the pandemic shut everything down.

B.R. Meyers – Rogue Princess is a story about a princess who doesn’t exactly want to conform to the role expected of her–a lot like my Lila in the book I’m writing.

Emma Lord – Tweet Cute was an adorable story. I’m not much of a cook, but I’m sure the food featured in this story was delicious.

Celeste Harte – It’s not often that you get to hold a book from one of your friends in your hands. Celeste Harte was one of the hosts of Character Chaos on Twitter, and this is her debut.

Kasie West – Kasie West is probably the most prolific new-to-me author from last year. It’s hard to believe I read this book last August–it seems so much longer ago than that. I guess in pandemic-land, time has slowed a bit.

Stephanie Meyer – The most popular new-to-me author from 2020 was probably Stephanie Meyer. Hadn’t read any of the Twilight books or seen any of the movies. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to read these books–except Midnight Sun came out and I decided I might as well. Midnight Sun is the audiobook I’m currently reading.

So there are some of the new-to-me authors from last year. What new authors did you read this year? Next week, I’ll do the topic I was supposed to do this week!