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2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


25 / 30 bookish books. 83% done!

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


42 / 50 books. 84% done!

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona (2)
- Arkansas
- California (6)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho
- Illinois (1)
- Indiana (1)
- Iowa (3)
- Kansas
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana
- Maine (3)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan (2)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico
- New York (7)
- North Carolina (3)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (1)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
- Utah (1)
- Vermont (3)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (1)
- Washington, D.C.* (1)

International:
- Australia (3)
- Canada (3)
- England (14)
- France (2)
- Italy (1)
- Japan (1)
- Norway (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (1)

My Progress:


37 / 51 states. 73% done!

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


21 / 50 books. 42% done!

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

My Progress:


34 / 50 books. 68% done!

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


36 / 52 books. 69% done!

2025 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


35 / 52 books. 67% done!

2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


26 / 40 books. 65% done!

2025 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


30 / 51 cozies. 59% done!

2025 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2025 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


26 / 26.2 miles. 99% done!

2025 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


23 / 100 books. 23% done!

2025 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


61 / 109 books. 56% done!

2025 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


55 / 62 books. 89% done!

Phase Out Your Seriesathon - My Progress


19 / 55 books. 35% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


95 / 100 names. 95% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


70 / 80 skills. 88% done!
Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Not Really a Re-Reader Re-Reads


With so much tragedy in the news right now, I really look forward to things that are light and fun like Top Ten Tuesday. Before we get to that, though, I want to mention another enjoyable bookish event: Summer's One Must Read Book 2025. Hosted by the wonderful Carol at Reading Ladies Book Club, it's a yearly collab where experienced book bloggers from around the world recommend their pick for the ONE book you MUST read this summer. I love participating each year. It's always a joy to see what everyone is recommending, even though it adds more books to my already-overwhelming TBR pile mountain mountain chain. Be sure to check it out. Okay, back to TTT...today's prompt is: Top Ten Books I'd Like to Re-read (submitted by Becky @Becky's Book Blog). I'm not a huge re-reader, but I *think* I can come up with ten. We'll see.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl

Top Ten Books I'd Like to Re-read


1. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness—I recently learned that Ness is starting a spin-off series set in the world where his Chaos Walking trilogy takes place, the first installment to be released in Spring 2026. This ignited a desire in me to re-read the original books, which I adored when I read them back in 2011. I've already sped through The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer. Since the books are all so relentlessly intense, I'm taking a wee break before opening Monsters of Men, the final installment. Spoiler alert: I have loved the trilogy just as much this time around as I did the first time. The books are unique, immersive, and gripping.


2. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling—Although I was a 20-something wife and mother when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out in 1998, I devoured this children's book, eagerly grabbing up each subsequent installment as they were published. Other than the first book, which I've re-read a couple of times, I haven't re-read the series. I need to get on that since I loved all the books.


3. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins—I've been told that I don't need to re-read this series in order to understand what's happening in Sunrise on the Reaping, but—like the Harry Potter novels—I read the HG books as they came out and haven't re-read them. Yet.


4. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens—I re-read this classic novella every December to get me in the holiday spirit. I especially enjoy listening to it on audio with the incomparable Tim Curry narrating.


5. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak—I always list this YA novel as one of my all-time favorites, but I've only read it once and that was back when it first came out. I'm definitely due for a re-read.


6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett—Honestly, I'm not sure if I've ever read this children's classic. I've read voraciously ever since I learned how as a kindergartner, so I probably have, but I don't remember it very well. I'm hoping to get to it before the year ends.


7. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd—A number of years ago, I read and enjoyed the first couple books in Todd's Bess Crawford series. Bess is a WW1 nurse who finds herself embroiled in intrigue and mysteries of all sorts. That's about all I remember about the series. I'd love to re-read the initial installments and then pick up where I left off. I love a good historical mystery series!


8. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani—I was reminded the other day about this series, which I read back in the early 2000s. Other than the fact that I loved it, I don't remember much about it, hence the need for a re-reading.


9. Atomic Habits by James Clear—This is another book I re-read every year. It helps motivate me to work on the goals/resolutions I set each January. I've read other books about habits, but this one resounds most with me.


10. A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich—I feel like I read this 1928 YA classic when I was a kid, but I'm not sure. Either way, I'm planning to read it this year since I love pioneer stories and I need a book set in Nebraska for the Literary Escapes Reading Challenge.

Phew, I did it! Ten books/series I want to re-read. Have you read any of them? Are you a re-reader? What are you planning to re-read this year? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!

Friday, July 04, 2025

Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag


I'm not sure how, but we have managed to reach the middle of 2025. The year has whizzed by in some ways; in other ways, it feels like its been going on for forever. The Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag is a fun way to mark the occasion. Created by Ely @Earl Grey Books and Chami, it offers a chance to look at what we've accomplished in our reading in the first six months of the year. It is a tag, but I wasn't tagged by anyone and I'm not going to tag anyone. If you want to do it, consider yourself tagged! (I used the same version of the tag that Leslie @Books Are the New Black did. I've seen slight variations in the questions on other blogs.)


Every year, I try to read more than I did the year before. To this end, I set my Goodreads goal at 215 for 2025. I'm almost halfway there:



I've taken on a bunch of reading challenges this year. Some of them are short term, some of them last all year, and others are open-ended ones. I'm over 50% done with the majority of them. You can see where I'm at by checking out the left sidebar of my blog or by clicking the "Reading Challenges" tab at the top of my homepage.


Good question. The two books that stand out the most for being well-written, gripping, and memorable are both rereads:







The Secret Room by Jane Casey—Even though it's disturbing, this book—#12 in the Maeve Kerrigan mystery series—kept me totally engrossed with its many twists and turns. Casey jerked ALL my emotions around in this one, but the ending is perfection.



Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins



Evil Bones by Kathy Reichs (available November 18, 2025)



It Happened on the Lake by Lisa Jackson—This book is way too long, too melodramatic, too predictable, too far-fetched, too everything. I read all 592 pages, but man, it was a slog!




Murder Runs in the Family by Tamara Berry—I love a good cozy mystery and Tamara Berry is one of my favorite cozy authors. This book has a fun premise, too. All of these things should have equaled a real hit for me, but this one was a pretty meh read for me. The main characters were annoying and the plot dragged. I wanted to love the book, but I just...didn't.



A Dream of Death by Connie Berry—I read this book, the first installment in Berry's Kate Hamilton mystery series, in January and really enjoyed it. I've since read the next three books and will likely finished the next two—a holiday novella and a full-length book—by the end of the year. It's a light, clean, entertaining mystery series that has provided some great comfort reading.


I've discovered lots of great new characters this year, but I'm really not the "book boyfriend" type.



Vera Wong is the character who came immediately to mind for this question. She makes me laugh! Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto is the first book in the series. I still need to read the second.



The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness—I loved this book when I first read it back in 2011, but it had been so long that I had forgotten that my favorite character dies. It's such a pitiful scene, too, that it ripped my heart out all over again. 



My Salty Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows—The whole Lady Janies/Mary series makes me happy. All the books are lighthearted, funny, and totally entertaining. I've especially enjoyed listening to them all on audio.



Costco has this gorgeous 10th Anniversary Edition of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah right now and I couldn't resist. It's beautiful.


Last year, I read a total of 230 books. I'd love to beat that number in 2025. Even if I can't quite make that happen, I'd at least like to hit 200 and complete most of my reading challenges. I have a list of 150 possibilities that will help me achieve these goals. We'll see how I do.

How has YOUR reading year been going so far?
Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Top Ten Tuesday: A Bookish Books Combo Platter



Happy Tuesday, book people! Can you believe it's the first of July already? It's hotter than the dickens here in the Arizona desert. It's 110 degrees outside and, after running errands out in the heat (not my idea), my brain is officially fried. Today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is a freebie and since I do a post for the Bookish Books Reading Challenge on the first day of each month, I'm going to make things easy on myself and combine them. 

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Seven Bookish Books I Read in June and Three I Want to Read in July

I went crazy with bookish books in June. Here are the seven I read in the order I finished them (title links lead to my reviews on Goodreads or here at BBB):


1. The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (available November 18, 2025)—Macmillan is one of my go-to mystery/thriller authors because her novels are usually engrossing page turners. Her newest is different than her previous books, more cerebral and less edge-of-your-seat exciting. It concerns an ancient piece of fabric that is said to contain a clue to the whereabouts of a rare manuscript that two warring female secret societies would kill (and have killed) to possess. When a grad student receives international attention for her translation of an important folio, she unwittingly lands herself in the middle of the societies' deadly feud. What exactly is she dealing with and how can she protect herself and those she loves from some very dangerous women?


2. Same Page by Elly Swartz—This middle-grade novel centers around a timely topic: book banning. Bess Stein, who has just been elected 6th grade class president, is dismayed when the book vending machine she installs at her school comes under fire for containing "inappropriate" literature. How can she convince the powers that be that banning books is wrong?


3. Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library by Amanda Chapman (available August 26, 2025)—Tory Van Dyne is a book conservator who lives and works at her family's private library. When a knowing British woman appears after hours in the Christie Room claiming to be the Queen of Crime's ghost, Tory reluctantly humors the eccentric stranger. "Mrs. Christie" informs the conservator that she's come to help Tory solve a murder that is about to be committed. Tory dismisses the woman's loony talk—until a murder occurs and the "ghost" offers observations so spot on that Tory can't help believing that "Mrs. Christie" may just be telling the truth about her otherworldly identity. 


4. A Death At Seascape House by Emma Jameson—The first book in a cozy mystery series set on an idyllic British island, complete with white sand beaches (Yes, they really exist in England. Who knew?), this opener introduces us to Jemima Jago. The librarian is sent to St. Morwenna to catalog a private collection of historical documents about Cornish history. Before she can get started, she discovers the dead body of a crotchety old busybody. Thanks to the reputation Jemima earned as a teenager on St. Morwenna, she quickly becomes the prime suspect in the victim's murder. In order to clear her name, she'll have to find the real killer before she's next.


5. The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict—In order to prove their worth to their male colleagues, five female crime writers come together to solve the real-life mystery of a young English nurse who was murdered while on a quick holiday in France. As Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham put their heads together to track down a killer, they also find friendship, empathy, and support.


6. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery—Written almost 20 years after Anne of Green Gables, this children's novel is the first in a series starring a newly-orphaned girl who is sent to live with her estranged family in an unfamiliar town. As she tries to get used to her new life, the imaginative child experiences many ups and downs.


7. Murder Past Due by Miranda James—This book is the first installment in a cozy mystery series that revolves around Charlie Harris, a Mississippi librarian, and his Maine coon, Diesel. When an old classmate of Charlie's, now a famous author, is killed, the librarian finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. Although the detective on the case demands that he leave the sleuthing to the professionals, Charlie can't seem to stop himself from playing Hercules Poirot. Whodunit?

For July, I'm planning to read:


8. Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler and Sunshine Bacon—I just started this middle-grade book about two 12-year-old cousins who are communicating in secret in order to find out what happened between their mothers to tear their family apart. Bee is a voracious reader, while Alice is such a reluctant one that her parents pay her for each book she reads. Books are one of the things that the girls, who come from very different backgrounds, bond over.


9. The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso (available August 26, 2025)—The time space is a library of books filled with the memories of the dead, one that can be accessed only by special timepieces that were passed down from father-to-son, although they're now mostly possessed by the government. Lisavet Levy is an 11-year-old girl who was hidden in the time space in 1938 by her watchmaker father, who never returned to collect her. When she discovers that government agents are destroying books in the time space, she sets out to save the precious volumes. 


10. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2 by Beth Brower—It seems like everyone I know IRL loves this series. The first book was a quick, fun read, so I'm up for continuing on. In this second installment, Emma continues to get used to her new life living under the thumb of her insufferable uncle, who has squandered away her inheritance. Although she can't afford to buy even one beloved book to keep her company, Emma finds amusement in the eccentric people around her.

There you go, seven bookish books I read in June and three I hope to read in July. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What's your favorite bookish book? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!

If you are participating in the 2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge, please use the widget below to link-up your July reviews. If you're not signed up for the challenge yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to join the party.


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