I've been participating in Top Ten Tuesday on a fairly regularly basis for the last ten years. I don't know how many prompts I've engaged since then, but it's been a lot, which makes it tough to find new ones for freebie topics like today's: Top Ten Tuesday Rewind. The idea is to go back and choose a past TTT prompt that you haven't done yet, want to revisit, etc. I scanned through the lists of old prompts and none really jumped out to me, so I'm going to do something different today instead. 

I was curious about my first ever TTT post, so I searched it out. It was on February 26, 2013, and the topic was My Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors. It's interesting to see who I loved to read back then and how my tastes have/have not changed. 

If you want to join in for TTT Rewind, click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl to get all the details. While you're at it, give our wonderful hostess, Jana, some love.

A few weeks ago, Cindy over at Cindy's Book Corner tagged me for The Bookworm Tag. It looked like a fun one and I've been meaning to post my answers ever since. Since there are ten questions, it's perfect for a TTT "list." I'm not sure where the tag orginated, but Cindy was tagged by Sarita at More to Discover. I'm not going to tag anyone. If you want to join in, though, please consider yourself tagged! Leave me a link to your post so I can see your answers.

Has Spring sprung where you live? Here in the Phoenix, Arizona, area it's been in the upper 70s and flowers are blooming all over the place. I'm not ready for high temps, so hopefully, we can stay out of the triple digits for a little bit longer. A friend mentioned today that his grandkids came to visit from Colorado and couldn't wait to jump in his pool! Brrr...I only swim when it's over 100 degrees outside and I can wait for that, thank you very much.

Even if Spring hasn't sprung where you are, it's definitely happening on Top Ten Tuesday. Today's prompt is, not surprisingly, Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List. I love these seasonal lists, even though they're rough on my already never-ending TBR pile mountain mountain chain. 

If you want to join in the TTT fun (and you SO do), click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl, get all the details on this weekly meme, and give our hostess, Jana, some love while you're at it.

Several authors that I adore have new books coming out in March and April, so I'll start with those, even though I think I've talked about all of them before. Sorry!

1. The Close by Jane Casey—I'm a big fan of Casey's Irish detective Maeve Kerrigan, who lives and works in England. This newest installment (#10) has Maeve and her colleague, DI Josh Derwent, posing as a couple in order to get an insider's view of a tidy neighborhood that's hiding some messy secrets. With their relationship already dancing on the line between professional and personal, it's a tense situation all around. 

2. Homecoming by Kate Morton (available April 4, 2023)—A new book from Morton always gets me excited! The story concerns Jess, an out-of-work London journalist who is called home to Australia after her beloved grandmother suffers a debilitating fall. Jess is surprised to learn that her grandma took a tumble after being in her attic, a place that has always been forbidden. As the journalist starts digging into the secrets the attic holds, she makes some shocking discoveries about her family's involvement in a 60-year-old crime.

3. Iceberg by Jennifer A. Nielsen—I'm always up for a book about the Titanic. I've actually had an e-ARC of this one on my Kindle for some time now and haven't gotten around to it. Yet.

4. The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda (available April 11, 2023)—Miranda is a thriller writer whose books are must-reads for me. Her newest concerns a group of adults who survived a deadly school bus crash as high schoolers. When one of the survivors commits suicide, the rest of the group commits to getting together every year to commemorate the tragedy that changed all of their lives. As they gather on the Outer Banks for the tenth anniversary, something immediately feels off. When one member of the group disappears, amid an incoming storm no less, everyone is alarmed. After all they've been through, they can't experience another tragedy. Where has their friend gone? Why has she vanished?

5. Home Away From Home by Cynthia Lord (available April 18, 2023)—I love Lord's heartfelt middle-grade novels. This one concerns Mia, a girl who's staying with her grandmother in Maine for the summer, just like she always does. Except, this year is different. Her parents are divorcing, their home is up for sale, and nothing is the same. Not even grandma's house. Grandma's got an annoying new neighbor, a boy Mia's age who seems to feel a little too at home at her grandma's house. When the two of them spot a rare bird, the competition between them gets fierce. Who will find the exotic animal first?

I haven't read anything by the next five authors, but I'm excited to give these a go:

6. The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson—This historical novel is based on a real librarian who risked her own safety to run a library inside London's Bethnal Green tube station during World War II. 

7. Courts and Alleys: A history of Liverpool courtyard housing by Elizabeth J. Stewart—Speaking of cities in England...I've been doing a deep dive into the life of my 4th great-grandmother, who lived in Liverpool during the mid 1800s before emigrating to the United States in 1853. She lived in tenement housing, the so-called back-to-back court houses, and I'm interested to know more about what that was like. Couldn't have been easy.

8. We Love to Entertain by Sarah Strohmeyer (available April 25, 2023)—This thriller revolves around a married couple, real estate investors who are involved in a tense competition sponsored by a popular real estate app. Winning could mean big bucks in endorsements as well as a league of new followers. The couple is in the middle of remodeling a home in Vermont when they both disappear, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. What happened to the dynamic duo?

9. Blizzard's Wake by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor—Even though this YA historical isn't very Spring-y, it still sounds compelling. Someone recommended it to me when I complained that it was hard to find books set in North Dakota for the Literary Escapes Reading Challenge I participate in every year. The novel is about a grieving girl and the boy who has just been released from jail for causing the accident that killed her mother. When the two get stuck in a blizzard, they are forced to work together in order to survive.

10. Mousse and Murder by Elizabeth Logan—I'm always up for a fun cozy mystery and this one looks entertaining. It's the first installment in a series that stars Charlotte "Charlie" Cook, a chef who returns to her Alaska hometown to take over her mother's diner. When the diner's head chef is killed after a heated argument with Charlie, she finds herself the prime suspect in his murder. Who really offed the chef?

There you go, ten books I'm hoping to get to this Spring. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What's on your Spring TBR? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will happily return the favor on your blog. I also reply to your TTT comments here (although I'm still a little behind from the past couple weeks...).

Selfies are not my favorite (I always look like an idiot), but this one isn't terrible if you ignore my crazy eyes. I was really tired...

We actually left RootsTech early so my husband could attend a one-day conference at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The hubs and I met at the Y when we were freshmen, so it's a nostalgic place for us. While he conferenced, I visited one of my favorite venues in Provo:

Pioneer Book is a great little used bookstore. Every year, it hosts a fun reading challenge. You read one book for each of 40 prompts, 8 of which need to be purchased from Pioneer Book. When you finish, you get a $50 gift certificate to be used in the store. Since my husband and/or I generally visit Provo several times a year, I always take on the challenge (although I've yet to actually ever finish it). I'm off to an excellent start this time around and I'm hoping to complete all the prompts by July when I'll be back in town for the 4th. 

This might sound like a long-winded travel report (which it kind of is), but it's actually an introduction to my TTT list for this week. The actual topic is Top Ten Bookish People I'd Like to Meet (authors, illustrators, fictional characters, etc.). I'm not much for fangirling, so I decided to spin the topic so I can talk about some of the titles I picked up at Pioneer Book last week instead. 

If you want to participate in TTT (and you totally do), click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the deets.

Top Ten Books I Need to Read for the Pioneer Book Reading Challenge 

2. Daughters of War by Dinah Jefferies*—At 544 pages, this is the epic tale of three French women and their travails during World War II. It's the first volume in an ongoing series.

Prompt: Wildcard Upstairs (500+ pages)

3. The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden*—Set in 1852 Alabama, this hist-fic title is about a Southern belle who receives a valuable wedding gift: a slave, who also happens to be her half-sister. Both women are more than they appear to be, which will make their new life together surprising, tumultous, and transformative.

Prompt: New Arrivals Display Upstairs

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding—Despite having a degree in English, I'm not big on classics. Thus, I've never actually read this book. I was going to go easy on myself for this prompt and just re-read To Kill a Mockingbird (my favorite novel ever), but I decided to challenge myself a little. The book's short, at least, and I'll be able to finally cross it off my "Books I Should Have Read Already" list. I'm definitely going to look for the pictured edition, too. Stephen King is sure to have some interesting insights into what this book is all about!

Prompt: Time Magazine 100 Best Novels List

5. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China* by Jung Chang—It's no secret that I love family history. Family sagas are my favorite, fictional or otherwise. This book is the latter. It's Chang's exploration of three generations of her family living in 20th Century China. 

Prompt: Wildcard Downstairs (500+ Pages)

6. Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez—I haven't loved any of the books I've read by this Argentine-American author, but this YA novel is supposed to be her best. It's about an Argentine teenager who is living a double life. At home, she is meek and mild, always careful not to ignite her father's hot temper. On the soccer field, however, she's an unstoppable force. The problem? Her parents—who would be horrified at the idea of their daughter playing fútbol—don't know about her athletic skill. In order to go any further with the sport, she needs their support. Is playing soccer really worth angering her family?

Prompt: Employee Pick Shelf

7. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict*—This novel has been on my TBR list ever since it came out. It concerns Mitza Maric, a talented German physicist whose brilliance was outshone by that of her famous husband, Albert Einstein. Is there room for two geniuses in one marriage? 

Prompt: Best Seller Fiction Display

8. Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life by Amber Scorah*—As a lifelong member of a religion that many see as extreme and even cultish, I know to take religious memoirs/tell-alls with a very large grain of salt. Still, I find them utterly fascinating. Scorah is a third-generation Jehovah's Witness who experienced a life-altering faith crisis while serving as a clandestine missionary for the faith in China. Being away from home and in a foreign country opened her eyes and widened her worldview, leading her to apostasize from her religion and start life anew.

Prompt: New Arrivals Display Downstairs

9. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles—I've heard nothing but good things about this historical novel. The titular gentleman is Count Alexander Rostov who is sentenced by a Russian tribunal to house arrest at an elegant hotel across the street from the Kremlin. As his physical world shrinks, Rostov's emotional life grows, changing him in surprising ways. 

Prompt: Kirkus Prize Winner/Nominee

10. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill—I love me a spine-tingling Gothic ghost story, so I'm all in for this one. It's about a man who travels to the English moors in order to settle the affairs of the recently departed Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. He finds much more than he bargains for, including spooky sounds, a haunted rocking chair, and, of course, the dreaded Woman in Black.

Prompt: Popular book Published in 1983

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Who are the bookish people you'd like to meet? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

I'm a little late with this month's Bookish Books Reading Challenge post. I spent last week freezing in Utah where my husband and I were attending a big genealogy conference. Even with the snow that made the first hour of our drive home a little scary, we had a great time. We learned a lot, visited with friends and family, were entertained by Bono's memoir (We listened to Surrender all the way to Utah and all the way back and we're still not done with it!), and just enjoyed spending time together. 

Bookish books were apparently not my priority in February. I did read the first two books in J. Scott Savage's The Lost Wonderland Diaries series. It's a middle-grade fantasy series about two kids who jump into Wonderland via Lewis Carroll's lost diaries. I've never been a big Alice in Wonderland fan, but I still enjoyed these books. They're playful, clever, and fun.