Top Ten Tuesday Archives - Page 6 of 12 - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Thanksgiving 2019

By Brookelorren on November 26, 2019November 26, 201924 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we post a list of bookish things every week. This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the US, so we’re talking about things we’re thankful for. I did a post like this last year, but there are always more things to be thankful for. A lot of things are the same, but some are different. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

I’m thankful for my favorite authors. Specifically, I’m thankful for:

Veronica Roth
Marie Lu
Cassandra Clare

For these authors, it goes beyond writing a good story. You may have seen the end of the decade posts. Where you were at the beginning of the decade vs. where you are now. I found an article from 2009 to illustrate why I’m thankful for these three authors:

In 2009 I was writing content for Associated Content, Squidoo, and a couple of other places. I wasn’t writing fiction. I always wanted to write another novel (I wrote two novella-length stories in high school) but I couldn’t find the story. But then Allegiant came along. I’ve said before, chapter 50 and after are dead to me. At the same time, it changed my life. I got into Divergent fanfiction. Then I wrote Legend fanfiction. I still write fanfiction, but I wrote another original novel. I’m almost at 50k words on another original novel. I wouldn’t know I could do it without the first two authors. And Cassandra Clare has amazing worldbuilding. She’s very inspirational.

I doubt any of these have to write beyond their current contracts, considering they have all had either movie deals or multimillion dollar contracts, but I’m thankful they keep writing.

I’m thankful for my author friends. I love them at all stages of their writing life. I can learn from those who are farther along on the journey than I am. When someone is down, I can encourage them. I can find inspiration from them when things are hard. It’s great having friends that write.

I’m thankful for Bookish First. It’s my favorite place to get physical ARCs. Not only are their odds pretty good in winning a physical ARC when you post a first impression, if you earn enough points, you can use those points to “purchase” the ARC of your choice. Next week they’re having Kingdom of Back as the choice. I’d commit crimes for that ARC. Now I don’t have to, because I have enough points to get it.

Sorry, there may be some overlap from last year. I can’t stop being thankful for my library though. I’m here multiple times per week. It’s where the Russian Meetup Group meets, where they host NaNoWriMo write-ins, where there’s workspace to write while my boy is at D&D… there’s free wifi. How could I not extol the virtues of this place?

I’m also thankful for National Novel Writing Month. When this posts, I won’t have finished my 50k for NaNoWriMo 2019, and even when I do get to 50k, the first draft won’t even be finished, but I’ve completed two novels during NaNoWriMo (one is a fanfic I posted on AO3 and the other is in the editing stage) and should finish this one too. I love the encouragement that NaNoWriMo brings.

I’m thankful for Sandhya Menon. I get to be on her street team! She writes such beautiful stories, and I’m so glad that I’m able to work with her. She’s so nice too! I got to meet her at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference this year, and we get to have street team chats with her about once a month.

I’m thankful for bloggers. Where else am I going to find what books to read? There’s Twitter, I suppose, but blogs are the way to get reminded of those books that you know you want to read anyway. This year I finally got to read I think all of those authors I’ve said “I want to read X author someday” week after week about. I probably can thank bloggers for reminding me about them. And I’m forever in their debt.

I’m thankful for Twitter. I adore this web site. It’s the place where you can meet other writers, meet other readers, join in on chats with other writers and readers, join readalongs with other readers. I’m here all the time.

For last year’s Top Ten Tuesday thankfulness post I didn’t thank Archive of Our Own. They deserve a place here because, like my favorite authors above, they changed my life. A lot of other writers have written fanfiction too, and some have posted it here. This is my favorite place for fanfiction.

Finally, I choose you! I’m thankful for everybody that has stopped by to read my little blog this year. I know I put readers on this list last year too, but you can never be thanked enough. Without you, maybe I’d stop posting? Who else would I share my favorite books with? So I’m glad you’re here.

So that’s ten things. What are you thankful for this year? Next week we’re going to talk about holiday books! I’ll see you then!

Books… Now and Then

By Brookelorren on November 19, 2019November 12, 201934 Comments

::Waves:: Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about books! It’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today’s topic is “Changes in My Reading Life.” I’m not sure what to do with that, so I’m just going to take a time machine through history and come up with books that I really liked, and go through the present time. I don’t know where this journey will end up… you might be less clueless than me! Here we go!

If we go far back enough, we’ll see this beautiful Little House boxed set sitting in the bookshelf in my bedroom closet! Well, not this one specifically, because mine was blue. I still have… most of these books? Somewhere. My daughter kind of tore some of these.

Inching forward in time to high school, you’ll find the Anne of Green Gables books. My grandma had the whole set and I borrowed them from her. My personal favorite from the series was Rilla of Ingleside. These books were the one thing I really wanted to inherit from my grandmother.

Here’s some escapism from college. Sweet Valley University books can easily be read in a few hours. Of course, back then you didn’t to go Amazon, you’d head on down to your local mall to the Brentano’s or Waldenbooks.

I got The Discoverers from the USC University bookstore. I’ve read it twice and will probably read it again someday. Boorstin has read several books and I checked a lot of them out of the library. I still haven’t read his book The Seekers yet. Adding it to my Winter 2019/20 TBR lottery to give it a chance.

There’s a lot of books I could put in this slot… I’ve probably been posting my favorite books of the year now online for… ten years? Maybe longer? But because I used to post them on places like Squidoo, which are no longer up, they’re no longer available. In The Garden of Beasts was a book that I read sometime between college and the time I have records of my favorite books of the year. There are any number of books that could go here. The book I’m writing is partly inspired by this book, so I think it belongs.

Divergent is one of those life-changing books for me. I hated chapter 50 and beyond in Allegiant. So that’s not really a ringing endorsement, but I adored everything that came before that. This book prompted me to get into fanfiction. I won NaNoWriMo for the first time with an alternate version of this story where Tris chose Abnegation. For years I wanted to write books but couldn’t come up with a story. So I have to thank this series for that.

My first post on this blog was January 1st, 2017, where I posted about my favorite books I read for the first time in 2016. The Fourth Turning won that year. I love this book.

Warcross was my favorite book from 2017. I read it on December 31st that year. I knew it had a good chance of taking the #1 spot for the year, which was why I made sure to read it before the year was over. It was a Christmas present. 2017 was the last year before I started pre-ordering books and getting ARCs.

Enchantée was my favorite book from 2018. And I just discovered that I haven’t pre-ordered its sequel, Liberté, which comes out on July 14, 2020. I think I’m waiting until after Cyber Monday. Last year I spent about $75 over Black Friday weekend on books. Maybe I’ll use that “Buy $20 in books, get $5 off” deal that they had last year.

2019 is not over yet, so I can’t tell you what my favorite book of the year is/was, but Legend is another one of the books that changed my life. I have written a lot of fanfiction in this series, including one book where Day and June grew up in the Divergent universe. So it’s only fitting that for the last stop on our trip through reading time, we stop at the 2019 release of Rebel. I loved this book and want to read it again.

What about you? If we were to take a trip on a time machine and take a journey through your reading history, what would we see? Next week, we’re going to talk about bookish things I’m thankful for. See you then!

Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes

By Brookelorren on November 5, 2019November 4, 201922 Comments

Once again it’s Tuesday! Since it’s NaNoWriMo time, it’s a pretty busy Tuesday too. My post is due ASAP, and I’ve written like 10 words today! That’s okay because I am a couple days ahead. Anyway, today’s topic is Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes, and we’ll see if I can get this one out at a decent hour.

I know I’ve mentioned Pumpkinheads a few times in the last couple of weeks, but this is a lovely fall book. It takes place in a pumpkin patch! What could be more fall-like than that?

Books that take place during the school year often remind me about fall. Dive Smack is about a guy on the school diving team. It took me a year to get around to reading it because the premise gave me such fall vibes that I wanted to wait until the fall to read this one.

Fangirl is another book that makes me think about fall, even though it takes place over the course of an entire school year. Maybe it’s because it happens at college, or the book makes me think of Cath, starting her first semester at college, eating energy bars because she’s too anxious to ask about how to get to the cafeteria.

The Grisha Verse books seem to make me think about fall too. Fall in Colorado Springs is kind of a strange thing though: one day it can be 80° outside and the next day there’s a blizzard.

Even though I first read City of Bones in the middle of the summer, the whole Mortal Instruments series seems to have a fall vibe to it. Not only does most of the series take place in the fall, it also has werewolves and vampires. Those creatures seem to scream “fall” to me.

For today’s post, I’ve been going through some of the books I’ve read, especially over the past year. Sky Without Stars seems to jump out at me as having an autumn vibe. It’s dark and cloudy, raining all the time… I don’t know if you can say fall any better (especially if you live in Washington State or places where it’s pretty gloomy this time of year).

The Thousandth Floor is another book that takes place at the beginning of the school year and makes me think of fall thoughts. Plus it takes place in New York City, which kind of makes me think of fall anyway.

Legend is one of those books that takes place mostly in the fall, even though it’s hot. I also read it for the first time in the fall, which maybe is why it makes me think of that season.

I’m not sure what time of year Echoes takes place in, but the two main characters go to school together. The time they’re chased through Berlin kind of makes me think of fall too.

Once I got to this last slot on today’s Top Ten Tuesday, I came up with lots of books that could fit here. Ever the Hunted seems to have an autumn feel to it with me. As with a lot of the books on today’s list, I’m not sure why? Maybe it’s the whole hunting thing.

So that’s today’s Top Ten Tuesday. Next week is favorite bookmarks? I suppose I have some ideas for that. It’ll still be NaNoWriMo though, so I’ll be busy as anything. Until next week (or perhaps before), I’ll see ya!

Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts, Oh My!

By Brookelorren on October 28, 2019October 28, 201928 Comments

Hello! Once again, it’s Top Ten Tuesday, where we talk about our favorite books! Today’s topic is “Halloween Freebie” but I don’t really celebrate Halloween. However, I noticed that this month, there have been a lot of creepy/Halloween type books that have come out, so I’m going to highlight some of the creepy/spooky/Halloween-ish type books that have been in my life.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted (as usual) by That Artsy Reader Girl!

So of course I start today’s list with a book that isn’t scary or creepy at all. Pumpkinheads is actually adorable. I was happy to read this in October, and I turned it in long before it was due because there’s a waiting list at my library for this book. This book does happen on Halloween, which is why I’m including it here.

Then there are creepy vampires. Renée Ahdieh’s The Beautiful isn’t overly vampiric, but there is death, paranormal creatures, and yes… a little bit of the whole vampire thing.

If you’re looking for creepy, then all the secret societies at Yale kinda fit the description. Ninth House is a book set at Yale and deals with a lot of these creepy Yale fraternities. If that wasn’t spooky enough, the main character sees ghosts. This book could potentially be triggering to some people, so if you’re wondering, you could check out some of the reviews, such as my Ninth House review.

The one “scary” book I read last year was Slasher Girls and Monster Boys. Like a lot of anthologies, some of the stories were better than others. There are a few of these stories that I will probably consider reading again.

Jodie Lynn Zdrock’s Spectacle features murder, a public morgue, and even a bad guy chasing down his would-be prey in the Catacombs of Paris. What can be more creepy than a murderer on the loose in the middle of an underground city full of the bones of millions?

Count Dracula can be a pretty scary guy, and in The Lady Rogue, the main characters go looking for his ring. There’s some evil magic in this book too.

All of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter books have werewolves, vampires, and sometimes even a ghost or two. They’re not exactly scary, but if you’re looking for paranormal, you might like them. Ghosts of the Shadow Market deals with characters from The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices, so I’d probably read this one after you read the other three series.

I’m not sure if And I Darken is really that creepy, but it is a gender-swapped retelling of Count Dracula’s story, and there is some impaling going on here.

Give the Dark My Love was just okay to me; however, this book does have necromancy, so if you’re looking for something creepy, then this book fits.

If you’re looking for a book that’s a little creepy, you might like The Devouring Gray. This book has a spooky forest, a creepy town where everybody seems to know each other and nobody seems to escape, and magical families.

So that’s all I have for this Top Ten Tuesday! Next week we’re going to talk about books that give off those fall vibes (even though the snow caused school to be cancelled today, so I’m not sure how “fall” like it is right now.

Books Whose Titles Don’t Entice Me

By Brookelorren on October 21, 2019October 21, 201920 Comments

Hello and welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Every week, we talk about books! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today we’re supposed to talk about books we’d give other titles to. I have a hard enough time coming up with titles to my own books, so I’ll just come up with lists of books whose titles don’t entice me. That doesn’t mean they’re not good books! Authors don’t always get to pick the titles to their own books. Anyway, here’s my list.

I don’t really care for the title Pumpkinheads. Nevertheless, I loved the book. I’m glad I read the synopsis to this book, because otherwise I might not have picked it up. I guess you can’t always judge a book by its title!

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Last week, several people mentioned that they thought The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was an extraordinary book title. It just shows you how people’s tastes are different. Don’t throw tomatoes at me, but the title seems like a snore to me. I’m sure it’s a delightful book, and I might read it someday. The title doesn’t grab me though.

Salt to the Sea is another one of those titles that makes me say… “I don’t know.” The description sounds really interesting though, and I liked Ruta Sepetys’s Fountains of Silence. At least when a book has a title I’m not so crazy about, other bloggers can tell whether a book is worth checking out.

The Divergent titles in German are pretty darn boring. It means something like “The Determination.” Yawn. On the other hand, Veronica Roth’s book Carve the Mark has a really awesome title in Spanish–Las Marcas de la Muerte— The Marks of Death. I like that one.

You can’t judge a book by its title. I wasn’t a really big fan of the title Strange the Dreamer when I first heard of it. That being said, I loved the book. In fact, all the books I was ‘meh’ on the title on this week’s list ended up being great books. That being said, this title has grown on me since it makes sense.

Echo North is another one of those books whose title sounds “meh.” The book sounds really interesting though.

An Affair of Poisons seems like it might be an old-fashioned kind of book. Again, the plot sounds interesting, but just going by the superficial aspects of this book, I might skip over it.

The title Blood Water Paint doesn’t sound that interesting either. I’ve seen the book before, but the uninteresting title has made my mind skip over it. Nevertheless, now that I’m looking at the synopsis, it looks interesting.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about A List of Cages. It sounds really good too. The title doesn’t really grab me though.

The tile Stain makes me not want to read it? This is another book that sounds interesting though.

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. You can’t judge a book by its title either. Or its movie. I haven’t read all of these, but the ones I have read were good.

What books would you give different titles to? Are there some books that you adore but don’t care for the title? Next week is a Halloween freebie. I don’t really celebrate Halloween, but I have read a few paranormal, fall, or scary-ish stories lately, so I’ll probably do something along those lines.

Extraordinary Book Quotes

By Brookelorren on October 14, 2019October 14, 201924 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s topic was supposed to be Extraordinary Book Titles, but… I couldn’t really think of any. I can think of titles that I find boring as snot, but not really that many that jump out at me. So… since I started a book journal earlier this year and write down book quotes I love, I’ll feature some of my favorite book quotes! In April I did a Top Ten Tuesday topic called Book Quotes that Move Me, but I’ll include different quotes this week.

Top Ten Tuesday, as always, is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

It’s like you have this paintbrush, dipped in brilliant mauves and teals and golds, and you just totally redid my monochromatic life.
When Dimple Met Rishi, p. 377

I thought this was a beautiful quote.

Could death ever truly be honorable? It was always a loss, a period instead of a comma.
The Tiger at Midnight, p. 283

The thought of the end of someone’s life being a period at the end of one’s story struck me.

dreams can’t come true if you don’t have them.
Rebel, loc. 2163 (taken from the ARC)

I always love quotes about dreaming big and going for the big goals.

Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.
The Poppy War, p.320

I’m finding so many great quotes in my book journal that I could probably do several of these Top Ten Tuesday posts!

Evil never came dressed as a devil; evil came disguised as a dream, as tempting as the shiny red apples they’d once consumed.
The Evil Queen, loc. 59 (taken from the ARC).

The Evil Queen had quite a few great quotes in it.

I knew than that we were like two pieces of cloth, sewn together for life. Our stitches couldn’t be undone.
Spin the Dawn, loc. 4391 (taken from the ARC).

Reading this quote makes me get excited for Unravel the Dusk, which comes out next year!

The more I got to know people, the more I realized we were all just a bunch of frightened idiots walking around in the dark, bumping into each other and panicking for no reason at all.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea, p. 309

This book takes place after 9/11. A lot of people were antagonistic towards the protagonist, but at the same time, the main character did seem to keep people at a distance. She eventually learned to give people a chance.

I couldn’t very well free myself from my own nightmares by bringing Akos’s to life.
Carve the Mark, p. 455

They place the face of their enemy onto the face of their neighbor, and thus are generations of misery assured.
City of Ashes, p. 401

Some of the reasons why people choose to hate others are pretty silly.

How many boards would the Mongols board if the Mongol horde got bored?
This is How You Lose the Time War – p. 34 (taken from the ARC)

One of the characters traveled back to the time of the Mongols and taught them how to make lumber mills.

So that’s today’s Top Ten Tuesday. What book titles do you really like? Do you have a favorite book quote? Next week we’re going to talk about books I’d give different titles to. Maybe I’ll be able to think of book titles for that one. See you next week!

Character Traits I Love

By Brookelorren on October 8, 2019October 8, 201916 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another Tuesday. You know what that means: it’s Top Ten Tuesday! Every week we make a list, and it’s hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! Today we’re going to talk about character traits that I love.

Intelligence. I have a hard time dealing with characters that are dumb as a box of rocks. Hey, let’s go take time during my work day to snoop around the office of the guy that has already assaulted me! Um, no. If you do poke around the guy’s office, be smart about it, K? If there’s a chance he might come back, then be really quick about it. That isn’t a problem with The Kiss Quotient. The main character in the book is smart, and I’ve said before, this book “had me at math.”

Nice Boys and Their First Loves. I just love reading about boys and their first loves. Four is one of those kinds of characters. Before leaving for Dauntless, Tobias was abused and had such poor self-esteem, but after transferring to Dauntless the girls weren’t really his type. Enter Tris. I just love Divergent, and I think it’s going to need a reread in 2020.

Cinnamon Roll Boys. I just love all those boys who have been through so much and yet — still manage to have a heart in the end. They’re not necessarily in the previous category, but I love all of them. I just want to give them hugs and tell them that things will get better. They will, right? Maybe not if you’re Four. I don’t care what the short story “We Can Be Mended” says… but I digress. I just love Day (and his brother Eden) and want to hug them.

Nice Boys Who Push People Away. I seem to have a type: nice boys. The Infernal Devices was such a lovely series. I just absolutely adored Will, and ugly cried so hard when I read the end of Clockwork Princess.

Sympathetic Characters. Adelina Amouteru might have been evil, but I love her anyway. Why? Because she was sympathetic. She had such a sad story and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, even though she hurt a lot of people. I rooted for her to change and become a good person (because I believe anybody can be redeemed).

People Who are Into Computers. If a story involves characters that are into computers, I’ll probably be into that story. Since I majored in computer science in college, I always feel some sort of camaraderie with them.

Funny Characters. Dimple has a couple things going for her: not only does she like computers, but her story with Rishi is so funny. Plus she’s smart. What’s more to love? No wonder I adored this story.

Writers. If a girl writes, then I already have something in common with them. This is probably one of the reasons why I loved Fangirl so much.

People Who are Into Music. Again, since I was completely into music when I was in high school and college, I find myself having things in common with book characters that are too. Especially if it’s a big part of the story.

Strong Girls. Girls in the books I love don’t have to lead an army into battle (that’s kind of unrealistic?). But I like girls that overcome things and know what they want. Cyra from Carve the Mark might have been a good fighter, but one of her biggest strengths is that she was constantly in pain yet kept on living anyway. She kept on being a hero and fighting for her country even though things were against her.

So there are ten character traits that I love. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come up with ten; it was a challenge for me. What are character traits that you love? I can’t wait to see your answers.

Next week we’re going to talk about Extraordinary Book Titles. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for that. We’ll see. If I can’t find ten book titles I love, maybe I’ll go in a similar but different direction. See you then!

Book Titles with Numbers in Them

By Brookelorren on October 1, 2019September 17, 201913 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and it’s also the biggest book release day of the year! I had three ARCs and two pre-orders for this day, and one of them is Rebel (which I’m probably reading right now or sleeping after staying up all night to read it, depending on when you’re visiting this page). Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Book Title with Numbers in them. This sounds like such a fun topic! As usual, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

Veronica Roth’s Four was the first book I thought of when I heard of this topic. I read Allegiant after it was released, but Four was the one book in this series I had to wait for. It’s the only book from this series I haven’t read in Spanish, but I did plan to at one point. Lately I’ve really wanted to reread Divergent (but probably in English). Probably in 2020.

I absolutely love the cover to Four Dead Queens. The book was good too.

Sticking to the number four for just one more book, I loved The Fourth Turning. It’s a nonfiction book, but I think about this book a lot when I see things happening in the news or I think about Millennials and Zs and things like that. It’s one of those books that seems so fundamentally true in many ways.

I’m sure I won’t be the only person to list A Thousand Perfect Notes this week. It’s such a beautiful book! Both inside and out.

This week I have a lot more nonfiction books than normal, because so many nonfiction books start with years. 1421: The Year China Discovered America was such an interesting book to me. I still haven’t gotten around to reading 1434, but I want to.

The 5th Wave was so good! I’ll probably read it again someday. Unfortunately, the rest of the series didn’t live up to the first book.

It seems like some numbers pop up more than others in books. A Thousand Perfect Notes. The Thousandth Floor. Then there are all those Four books. There are a few more books I can think of that have a thousand in it too.

From Dawn to Decadence, 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present is a really long book title. It has two numbers in it though. This was one of those monster books that took forever to read.

The weather is starting to cool down, so it’s almost time to start thinking about My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories. I live in Colorado, so at this time of year, you never know which is more appropriate from day to day: this one, or its companion book, Summer Days and Summer Nights.

Leigh Bardugo’s publishers must like numbers in the titles. I thought of listing her book Ninth House (which is out next week) for my last book (or more appropriately, the ninth), but I figure everybody will list that one. Then I thought of listing Red Famine: Stalin’s War on the Ukraine, 1921-1933, but then I realized that I haven’t read that one yet. I figured I’d limit this week’s list to books I’ve read and liked. Six of Crows, also by Leigh Bardugo, will probably be on a lot of lists today too. Oh well.

So that’s this week’s list. Next week we’re going to talk about Character Traits I Love. I’ll have to think about that one for a bit. See you then!

Fall 2019 TBR

By Brookelorren on September 23, 2019September 23, 201939 Comments

It’s another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), and we’re once again talking about our seasonal TBRs. I love dreaming of all the books I’m gonna read!

First, let’s see how I did on my Summer 2019 TBR:

Allegedly – Tiffany D. Jackson: Read
Ash Princess – Laura Sebastian: Read
Rora – James Byron Huggins: Read
Obsidian – Jennifer L. Armentrout: Read
Truthwitch – Susan Dennard: Read
The Thousandth Floor – Katharine McGee: Read
Isle of Blood and Stone – Makiia Lucier: Read
And I Darken – Kiersten White: Read
Naughts & Crosses – Malorie Blackman: Read
Dive Smack – Demetra Brodsky: Read

10/10! I picked all of these books with the help of a random number generator.

So for the fall 2019 TBR, I had six pre-orders (eight if you include the Audible pre-order of The Guinevere Deception and the Batman Graphic Novel) which left four remaining spaces for other books on my TBR. There were 45 books I would have been interested in reading, but I had to narrow it down to four. So I used a random number generator again.

This is the list I came up with (in the order I’ll probably read them in).

At 10 PM on September 30th, I plan on starting Rebel by Marie Lu. I’ll be live-tweeting my (spoiler-free) reactions and will stay awake until I finish. Luckily for me, it’s the homeschool coop’s fall break, and I declared October 1st to be a school holiday. Uh, that’s less than 7 days and 12 hours from now. Can I start freaking out now? I’m thinking of rereading Warcross and Wildcard first, if I have time this week after finishing Fountains of Silence, another October 1st release I have to read (although that one I got as an ARC).

The other book that will be arriving on October 1st is The End and Other Beginnings by Veronica Roth (actually, the Batman graphic novel, another Marie Lu book, is also arriving). Ms. Roth is my other auto-buy author, and I already read one of her short stories, “Inertia” from Summer Days and Summer Nights. I can’t wait to read it again, along with two more short stories about Akos and Cyra, and some other stories.

When Leigh Bardugo’s newest book, Ninth House, was originally announced, it was supposed to come out on October 1st (along with the two books listed above). I’m already planning on having a mini-readathon with the two books above. I wasn’t really sad that its release date was pushed back a week. Chain of Gold and Kingdom of Back are going to do the same thing to me on March 3rd of next year. Anyway, I’ll probably start reading this one on its release date.

The problem with Ninth House being pushed back a week is that now it’s coming out on the same day as The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh. Decisions decisions. They’re both coming, but I’ll probably read this vampire book after I read Ninth House.

After Ninth House and The Beautiful arrive and I have the chance to read them, there’ll be about two weeks before the next book I pre-ordered arrives, which will give me the chance to read another TBR lottery winner. I got a copy of Always Forever Maybe at the Colorado Teen Literature conference this year and haven’t read it yet.

And finally, after nearly a year of saying nearly every week “I have to read something by Victoria Schwab” I actually will. This Savage Song was another TBR lottery winner. So yay! I’ll get to read this one.

Maggie Stiefvater is another author that I found myself wanting to read week after week after week. I finally joined in with a Raven Cycle readathon, and now I’m pre-ordering Call Down the Hawk.

After Call Down the Hawk arrives, it’ll be two weeks before my next pre-order arrives, so I have a week to read another TBR lottery winner, Thousands. I read the first three books of this series this spring and never had the chance to continue.

On November 19th, The Queen of Nothing will arrive. There’s a good chance that this, along with The Wicked King will make my favorite books of the year list, but I normally group books from the same series together.

When I originally created this list, I drew That Night from the random number generator. Since I finished that book the day before this list was going to go up, I realized I needed to pick another book. Sea Witch ended up being the pick. It was another one of those books I got on sale for $1.99. It’ll probably be the last book from the Fall 2019 TBR that I read.

This fall is going to be great for books! Not very good for the backlist books, but definitely for new releases. I can’t wait to read these!

So what do you plan on reading this fall? Do you stick to your TBRs, or do you tend to wing it? Next week, while I’m reading Rebel, we’re going to talk about Book Titles with Numbers in Them. See ya then!

Books that Lost the Fall 2019 TBR Lottery

By Brookelorren on September 16, 2019September 9, 201929 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another week of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re supposed to write about “Favorite Things to Eat/Drink While Reading” but water doesn’t sound all that exciting. Instead, I’m doing a post to bridge the gap between last week (Books I Really Want to Read But Haven’t Had Time For Yet) and next week (Books on my Fall 2019 TBR).

I have so many books that I want to read that I’ve resorted to drawing my seasonal TBR choices out of a figurative hat (I actually use a random number generator). There were six books I absolutely had to read as soon as possible (pre-orders), and that left four slots for the fall 2019 TBR lottery. There were 45 books on my list. Here are ten of the books that didn’t make the TBR lottery for this fall.

I got a copy of Listen to Your Heart from the Colorado Teen Literature Conference that I attended earlier this year. I had been hoping to find some time to read it this summer, but I didn’t. And it lost the TBR lottery this time around. Since it’s a summery looking book, unless I find time to slip in another book before the weather starts to chill, I’ll probably wait until next summer to read it.

I read Obsidian earlier this year, but I still haven’t moved forward in the Lux series. I’ll put this one on the list for the winter TBR and see if it wins.

The Kiss Quotient was good, so I’d like to read The Bride Test also. Well, not right now. Maybe it’ll have better luck in the winter. I think this is a book that would have year-round appeal, at least.

Once & Future, a futuristic King Arthur retelling, was on the list of books I was interested in reading this fall. The odds were not in its favor. Maybe I’ll read it this winter.

Mirror Gate is the sequel to Storm Glass, a book I read last winter (I remember listening to it while driving through harrowingly snowy roads). Maybe this is one of those series I’m destined to read in the cold.

I found Three Dark Crowns on sale for $1.99 and had to pick it up. Unfortunately, I haven’t found time to read it yet. It looks like fate doesn’t want me to read it yet either.

Despite the creepy eye on the cover, I did pick up a copy of Shatter Me when it was on sale for $1.99. I read A Very Large Expanse of Sea earlier this year, so Tahereh Mafi is no longer a new-to-me author, however, this series is.

Will I ever stop buying books on sale? Probably not. Black Wings Beating was another sale book. And it’s another book I won’t read any time soon. Perhaps this book will win the winter lottery.

Wintersong has winter right on the cover; so maybe it’s good that I won’t be reading it just yet. I get cold just looking at the cover. Brrr! I’m sure this one will have another chance next quarter.

Meet Cute seems to have a summery vibe to it, although that’s only from looking at the cover. I’ll probably wait until spring to see if this book wins then. It looks like a cute book, but so do a lot of books that I’d like to read someday.

So those are ten books that I thought about reading this fall, but I probably won’t. I usually schedule one ARC and one book from my seasonal TBR per week, so if I read more than that, I might be able to fit one of these in, but we’ll see. There are other books that didn’t win the TBR lottery that didn’t go here (or were listed last week). Those extra books will be whatever I feel like at the time.

Next week, I’ll post my actual Fall 2019 TBR and we’ll see how I did with my summer 2019 TBR.