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2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


30 / 30 books. 100% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (7)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (1)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (2)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois (3)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (3)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (1)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (8)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (2)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (2)
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.* (2)

International:
- Australia (2)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (3)
- China (1)
- England (20)
- France (1)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (1)
- Russia (1)
- Scotland (3)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


44 / 50 books. 88% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


50 / 52 books. 96% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


36 / 40 books. 90% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


17 / 40 books. 43% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


21 / 25 books. 84% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


17 / 26.2 miles (3rd lap). 65% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


38 / 100 books. 38% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


92 / 104 books. 88% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


125 / 165 books. 76% done!

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

My Progress:


76 / 100 names. 76% done!
Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Hot Summer, Cool Library Holds


Happy Tuesday, everyone. How's your summer shaping up so far? Not surprisingly, given that I live in the Phoenix area, mine is scorching hot! The high today was 111. Ugh. I've mostly spent the day inside with the air conditioner on high. Our backyard swimming pool has become a very popular place for family, neighbors, and friends. I'll definitely be taking a dip before the day's over. I hope you are staying cool while enjoying your summer activities. 

This week's TTT prompt is a popular, bi-annual one that I always skip: Top Ten Bookish Wishes. Basically, you're supposed to post a list of books on your Amazon wishlist and then, as people hop around to different blogs, they can grant your bookish wishes by purchasing them for you.  I already own more books than I can read in two lifetimes and, even if I didn't, I can't imagine asking my readers/blog friends to buy me books, so...time to go rogue. My creative juices aren't flowing very well today (dried up by the heat, no doubt), but I have some evergreen topics that I pull out for weeks like this. In anticipation of Cybils judging to come (fingers crossed that I get to be a middle grade fiction judge again) and the need to fulfill certain prompts for reading challenges, these are the ten books I have on hold at the library right now. Except for #1 and #11, I'm planning to pick them up this afternoon.

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

Top Ten Eleven Books I Have On Hold at the Library Right Now


1. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager (available June 18, 2024)—I'm #31 on the waitlist for Sager's newest, so hopefully, it won't be too long before I have it in my hot little hands. 

The story concerns a man named Ethan Marsh who reluctantly returns to his quaint hometown to find the truth about the long-ago disappearance of his best friend. The boy vanished while he and Ethan were sleeping in a tent pitched in one of their backyards and has never been found. What happened to Billy? What sinister secrets lie beneath their idyllic neighborhood's pristine lawns and gentle facade?


2. Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell—When Halle and her mother both contract tuberculosis in 1935, they are sent to a remote hospital in upstate New York to be quarantined with others like them. Although she is cut off from the rest of the world, Halle is surprised to find friendship, healing, and strength in her isolated existence. When her mother takes a turn for the worse, however, the young TB patient worries if either one of them have a future at all, let alone one outside the walls of the hospital. 


3. Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris—In Jim Crow Mississippi, three men are savagely murdered after trying to help Black people register to vote. In the wake of the incident, a young Black woman is attacked. She fights back, killing the man who tried to hurt her. Knowing there's no way she'll be dealt a fair hand in Mississippi, she flees to Georgia to hide. Back in their hometown, the woman's older sister is also in dire straits. She takes to the road as well. As both sisters struggle to find safety, a man is secretly tracking them. What will happen when he catches up?


4. Deep Water by Jamie Sumer—This middle-grade verse novel centers on a young girl who is grieving the recent death of her mother. In an attempt to soothe her troubled soul, she decides to enter a 12-mile swimming race in Lake Tahoe. If she comes in first, she'll be the youngest person ever to win the competition. When she starts to struggle in the water, she'll have to call on every ounce of strength and fortitude she has in order to finish the race, let alone win it. 


5. Billie Starr's Book of Sorries by Deborah E. Kennedy—One of my IRL friends recommended this novel to me. It's about a single mother whose poor decision making has led to a chaotic life for her and her daughter. Now facing foreclosure on her house, the woman accepts a lucrative proposal. It doesn't take long for things to go awry. As she deals with her newest sticky situation, she finally begins to realize how life could be, if only she would learn to trust herself and take firm control of her own trajectory.


6. Trouble at the Tangerine by Gillian McDunn—Simon is tired of constantly being on the move. Unlike his adventure-seeking family, he wants to put down roots in a forever home. When a troubling theft occurs in his new apartment building, Simon worries the incident will be enough to get his family moving again. Determined to solve the mystery and keep his family in their new home, he sets out to do some sleuthing. Whodunit? 


7. With Prejudice by Robin Peguero—I need to read a legal thriller for a reading challenge and this one sounds intriguing. Twelve jurors from varying walks of life come together to decide the fate of Gabriel Soto, a young man accused of killing kind, free-spirited Melina Mora. The evidence is complicated, the jurors are flummoxed, and everyone has their own agenda. What will these everyday people decide as they face one of the most important decisions of their lives?


8. The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly—With the Y2K crisis causing widespread panic, 12-year-old Michael Rosario is obsessing over two things: stockpiling supplies and wooing his crush, Gibby. When awkward Michael meets cool, confident Ridge—the first-ever time traveler—he gets a glimpse of what his future could look like. Ridge has a book that explains how to make it happen and Michael has to get it. No matter the consequences. How far will he go to get what he wants?


9. I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever by Barbara Rae-Venter—Everyone seems to be obsessed with true crime these days. I value my sleep and my sanity, so I tend to avoid the genre altogether. I am, however, fascinated with the implications of DNA testing for genealogical purposes and beyond, so I'm all in for this book. Fingers crossed it isn't too disturbing!


10. The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry by Anna Rose Johnson—The titular heroine of this middle-grade historical novel is a French-Ojibwe girl who has just been orphaned by her sailor father's death at sea. With no one to care for her, she becomes the foster child of a mysterious Anishinaabe family of lighthouse keepers who care for a lighthouse in the middle of Lake Michigan. Although Lucy struggles with grief and fitting in, she's excited that she now lives very near the shipwreck (and treasure!) her dad spent his life looking for. If she can find what he always dreamed of unearthing, it will be sort of like having him back. When Lucy's future at the lighthouse becomes endangered, she grows even more determined to find the sunken treasure.


11. Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth—This thriller has been getting all kinds of buzz and it fits one of my reading challenge prompts for a book with "darling" in the title. Win-win. It's about three women who grew up together in a foster home with Miss Fairchild at the helm. Although it looked idyllic from the outside, their foster mother had strict rules and an unpredictable, no-nonsense approach to parenting. The trio escaped as soon as they could and have never looked back. When a dead body is found under the home where the girls lived, they reluctantly return to their hometown. Are they witnesses or suspects? I'm #11 on the waitlist for this one, so we'll see how long it takes to get it.

There you go, eleven books I have on hold at the library right now. Have you read any of them? What did you think? Are you a library user? What are the last books you put on hold? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!

35 comments:

  1. I love libraries so much!! I tend to request ebooks mostly these days. I don't have to take them back when they need returned. haha. I'm so bad about doing that with the busy schedule!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm still mostly about physical books, although I do ebooks and audiobooks as well. My library is close by and I still have trouble sometimes getting my books back on time! Thank goodness they did away with fines awhile ago.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Leslie!

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  2. Those are the exact same reasons that I went rogue on the topic this week too!

    I keep waiting for a heatwave to appear here in the UK, but so far we have been lucky. It has been fairly cool with bits of sun and rain. I love an overcast day so I'm very happy 😂

    I hope you get the judging position that you want 🤞🏻

    Those books all sound interesting, so I hope that you enjoy them when you get to them and they come in!

    Have a great week!

    Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog

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    Replies
    1. I'll send a heatwave your way. We have plenty of heat to spare :) Enjoy the cool, overcast days for me. Those are my favorite too.

      As for the books...I enjoyed DEEP WATER. It's a verse novel, so it was a fast read. My sister told me DARLING GIRLS was on Kindle Unlimited, which I hadn't realize. I started it yesterday and I'm just about done. It's gripping! So far, so good on these books.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Emily!

      Delete
  3. I agree, it rubs me the wrong way too!! Hope you enjoy these reads, thanks for dropping by my post! (@onereadingnurse)

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    Replies
    1. I mean, I don't have a problem with other people gifting books to each other if that's what they want to do. I'm just uncomfortable asking for that. I don't even ask people in my real life to buy me books!

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Athena!

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  4. I love your list this week! You've got so many books that are new to me that sound incredibly interesting. I've only read one of these, but Darling Girls was fantastic, so I hope you really enjoy all of these hot summer reads and stay cool.

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    Replies
    1. My sister mentioned that she'd just read DARLING GIRLS on Kindle Unlimited and I hadn't even thought about checking there before joining the library waitlist. I'm almost done with the book - it's definitely engrossing!

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Leah!

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  5. I used to feel the same way about bookish wishes, too. Then one year, I saw it as a way to bless someone I may never meet in person. I don't care if someone grants my wishes, but I enjoy granting a wish or two.

    Love your list this week! I've seen some of these around and some are new to me. I Know Who You Are sounds so fascinating. Thanks for sharing and for visiting my blog. Hope it cools down where you are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good way to look at it! I did grant one wish last year and it was fun, I admit. But, then, it made me feel guilty that I only granted one and, yeah, I don't need that kind of stress in my life. Ha ha.

      I'm fascinated by how DNA is used in family history and crime solving, so I'm excited for I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. I'm just hoping it's not too grisly for me.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Cheryl!

      Delete
  6. I hope some of these holds come in for you soon (but hopefully not all at once because that can be overwhelming). Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I picked up most of these last week because they were ones I didn't have to wait for. I cancelled my hold on DARLING GIRLS because I found it on Kindle Unlimited (woo hoo!). I'm still in line for the Sager book. It comes out tomorrow, so we'll see how fast the line moves after that.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Alicia!

      Delete
  7. Ooh nice ones! These are all new to me ones! I hope they trickle in one-by-one for when your turn comes along! I've always heard the horror stories of when they all come at once and it's impossible to get to them all! So I hope that doesn't happen to you! ;)

    Thanks for visiting my TTT!

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    Replies
    1. I've definitely had that happen to me! These are a little different because most of them were already available - I just put them on hold so that no one would check them out before I could get to them. The only one that will take a bit to come in is the Riley Sager since it hasn't come out yet and there are lots of people ahead of me in line.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Jessica!

      Delete
  8. I love my library and I've been trying to really make a point of using it more lately.

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    Replies
    1. Same! I'm lucky to have access to two large library systems—city and county—so I can find almost any book I'm looking for. For free! Libraries are the best.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Louise!

      Delete
  9. I don't often go for mystery/thrillers, but I do want to try something by Riley Sager. Next time I'm in the mood for a mystery, I'll have to choose one of his.

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    1. I really enjoy Sager's books. They can be dark and disturbing, but they suck me in and then I can't stop reading them. I've read all of them but his first and enjoyed them all, although some are better than others, naturally.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Tanya!

      Delete
  10. I really don't like 100+ temps! We're supposed to hit 100 tomorrow here in Salt Lake. Ugh. That's when I stay inside and read. And I just finished reading and posting about that Barbara Rae-Venter book! I thought it was really good, and so interesting. And I'm really hoping the new Riley Sager is a good one. Happy reading! :D

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    1. Ugh. Same. I hibernate during the summer. When I have to run errands, I try to do them as early in the morning as possible or after dark. Anything to avoid the sun/heat. I'm like a vampire!

      How did I miss your review of the Rae-Venter book? I'm going to look for it right now.

      Thanks, as always, for coming by and commenting, Lark!

      Delete
  11. I'm excited about the new Riley Sager book as well. I've enjoyed many of his. I'm kind of on the fence about reading Darling Girls. Maybe I'll wait and see what you think, Susan. As to temps, we're in the 90's for sure. Don't think we have hit 100 yet, but it's coming. We've had a lot more rain than in the last two or three years and that's helping keep the temps down a bit, but the humidity is brutal. It's definitely summer - ha!

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  12. Yay for supporting local libraries! I also own a lot of books and use my library more than I purchase :)

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  13. I just put some books on hold at the library this morning! Not sure when they will come in but I am supposed to be taking a break from the library to read my own books, LOL!

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  14. Great mix of books! The only one I"ve read is Darling Girls -- Sally Hepworth's books always hook me right from the start. This one wasn't my favorite, but it was a still a totally immersive read -- hope you enjoy!

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  15. The middle grade books, seems emotional and lovely. I hope you enjoy all these books

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  16. I've never heard of these but hopefully they go well when you get to them.

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  17. I'm definitely a library user! I've just put Light and Air on hold at my library. Thank you!

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  18. Does one every grow accustomed to temperatures that high? Stay cool, and I hope all your library holds don't come in at the same time (mine always do)

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  19. I hope you get to read and enjoy all these books soon! And best of luck with the Cybils judging picks!

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  20. Oh that is a GREAT topic idea. And still thematic, for library holds are certainly a type of bookish wishlist!

    I have Middle of the Night on hold too. odds are like 50/50 I'll get it by end of summer, but definitely a lot faster than I got his last book. I hadn't heard of the GSK book -- it sounds like it will make a nice complement to the 2nd half of the story following Michelle McNamara's book.

    And since you asked... :D my other current holds include Birding With Benefits, The Nature of Disappearing, The Wishing Game, The Spellshop, and The Heiress (by Rachel Hawkins). Now I just have to sort through the 15-20 items already checked out (standard amount tbh) to determine what I've read & still want to keep vs. return, what is yet to read, and what I need to stop lying to myself about already and admit I'm not going to read before the final due date at this time.

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  21. This is such a great topic! I have so many library holds that would be fun to talk about. Although, all of mine are digital holds with many of them being audiobooks. I hope you enjoy all of these once they become available for you!

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  22. I feel the same way about this topic which is why I always pivot to something else for it as well.

    May all of your library books arrive exactly when you need the next one (and not all at once like they have for me a few times. LOL).

    Thank you for stopping by earlier.

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  23. I think I've seen one of Anna Rose's books on another list at one time! That author name sounds so familiar. Hope you enjoy ALL of these, AND you're staying cool too. :) Thanks a bunch for visiting my list last week. Appreciate this.

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  24. Sally Hepworth is very popular at the library where I work. Seems like someone always has one of her books on hold. I know what you mean about last week's prompt. I felt weird about it so I just skipped it. LOL. I hope you're having a great Tuesday, Susan!

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  25. Great take on the topic! I have a Riley Sager on hold as well though a different one and I'm looking forward to reading the Sally Hepworth!

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