Today's TTT prompt—Top Ten Books With a High Page Count—is all about lengthy books. Are you a fan of thick, detailed door stoppers or do you avoid them like the plague? For me, it just depends. If a book is keeping me engaged and entertained, then I'll continue reading it no matter how many pages it has. If a book isn't holding my attention, then it doesn't matter if it's 50 pages or 5000, I'm going to DNF that sucker! I always read a mix of adult and children's books, most of which are mysteries/thrillers, historical fiction novels, or historical mysteries. Depending on which authors you read, these genres don't tend to produce the kind of epic tomes you see in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. I'd guess the page count of the books I read in any given year is around 200-250. Most years, I do take on a few thicker tomes, which for me usually means around 500 pages. This year, I've picked up more of them than I usually do, so for my list today, I'm going to share the ten longest books I've read in 2025 so far. 

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

1. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7683524304

Genre: nonfiction/U.S. history/Black history

What it's about: the massive migration of Black people out of the American South to northern, western, and midwestern states, from about 1910 to the 1970s

Page count: 622

Read for: book club

Affect of page count on reading experience: This book is interesting, but it definitely feels overly long and tedious. Other than the woman who recommended it, I'm the only one in my book club who finished it. Everyone else got too bored with it to read to the end.

2. Shift by Hugh Howey (SILO trilogy #2)

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7362810129

Genre: Dystopian/sci-fi

What it's about: With the world on the brink of certain destruction, select groups of people are invited underground to live in protected silos. Generations later, it's forbidden to even talk of the outside world, but there are always those whose curiosity and desperation get the better of them. What do they find beyond the silos? No one knows because those who leave never come back...

Page count: 579

Read for: I've been wanting to finish this series, which I started in 2018.

Affect of page count on reading experience: Although I really like the SILO books, there's no doubt that they get REALLY long. Longer than necessary. They don't have much plot to them, really, so the stories do get tedious and dull in places.

3. It Happened On the Lake by Lisa Jackson

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7528355859

Genre: mystery/thriller

What it's about: Harper Reed Prescott owns a large Victorian home on a beautiful private island which is also hers. She has no interest in either. After the mysterious deaths and other happenings that have occured there, she just wants to sell the whole property and be done with it. Unfortunately, there is much in her past and that of her family that still needs to be reckoned with... 

Page count: 586

Read for: NetGalley review 

Affect of page count on reading experience: This book is overwritten in every possible way. It was a huge slog for me and I'm still not sure why I plowed through the whole thing!

4. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking series #2)

My original blog review (2011): http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/2011/01/i-mean-seriously-could-patrick-ness-get.html

My Goodreads review (2025): https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7717949658

Genre: YA dystopian/sci-fi

What it's about: Todd Hewitt has grown up on a planet other than Earth. Viola has come to his planet because Earth is no longer habitable. Todd's world is at war. Can he and Viola stop the violence, save their civilization, and protect the refugees from Viola's spaceship who are hurtling toward them hoping for peace and safety?

Page count: 553

Read for: re-reading the series because I LOVE it

Affect of page count on reading experience: The tension and action in this book are so unrelenting that the pages fly by. You barely notice how long it is.

5. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Chaos Walking series #1)

My original blog review (2011): http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/2011/01/knife-of-never-letting-go-leaves-me.html

My Goodreads review (2025): https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/874857816

Genre: YA dystopian/sci-fi

What it's about: Todd Hewitt's parents came to a new planet to find refuge away from a dying Earth. Now an orphan, Todd has become disillusioned with the rules of his town. He is running away when he encounters Viola, whose scouting ship has just crashed nearby. Together, the parentless teens flee toward a city where they've heard they can find safety. The mayor of Todd's town, who isn't about to let them go, is in hot pursuit, determined to catch them no matter the cost.

Page count: 528

Read for: re-reading the series because I LOVE it

Affect of page count on reading experience: Ditto what I said above about The Ask and the Answer.

6. Wool by Hugh Howey (SILO trilogy #1)

My original blog review: http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/2018/01/subterranean-dystopian-trilogy-starts.html

Genre: Dystopian/sci-fi

What it's about: See summary for Shift above.

Page count: 509

Read for: I want to finish the SILO trilogy, which I started in 2018.

Affect of page count on reading experience: Wool moves at a faster pace than Shift, so it doesn't feel as long, but it does get slow in places.

7. The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (available November 25, 2025)

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7573787746

Genre: Mystery/thriller

What it's about: When Dr. Anya Brown publishes a translation of an ancient folio, she receives the attention of a secret women's organization that has been hunting for a certain book of power for over a century. A rival group also wants the tome. Caught in the middle of a deadly fight she doesn't understand, Anya has to figure out how to get herself out of it—before she's the next person to be mysteriously murdered.

Page count: 496

Read for: pleasure - Macmillan is one of my go-to mystery/thriller authors

Affect of page count on reading experience: Macmillan usually writes contemporary mysteries and thrillers that are quick-paced and engrossing. This book is a big departure from her norm. Unfortunately, I found The Burning Library overly long, tedious, confusing, and boring. 

8. The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7843112501

Genre: historical fiction

What it's about: When her father cuts her off, insisting she become financially independent, Layla Beck is forced to take a job with the Federal Writers' Project. Tasked with writing a history of backwards Macedonia, West Virginia, she is unenthusiastic to say the least. As Layla gets to know the Romeyns, the quirky family with which she's boarding, her attitude slowly changes. She changes their lives as well, bringing unwanted tension, unwelcome questions, and unasked for observations that force the Romeyns to acknowledge some painful truths.

Page count: 486

Read for: pleasure and for the Literary Escapes Reading Challenge

Affect of page count on reading experience: Overall, this novel is quite charming and engaging. It is excessively long, though, and definitely would have benefitted from some serious trimming.

9. The Women by Kristin Hannah

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5736912487

Genre: historical fiction

What it's about: The life of a privileged young nurse is changed irrevocably when she volunteers to serve in the Vietnam War. When she returns home to California after two tours expecting a hero's welcome, she's dismayed to find her family dismissive of her experiences and her countrymen critical. Dealing with PTSD and these issues takes her to the very edge of her sanity. Can anything bring her back?

Page count: 471

Read for: pleasure

Affect of page count on reading experience: This is another book that is way longer than it needs to be. There's no real plot, so it feels episodic, repetitious, and dull, especially in the latter half when the main character is back in the U.S.

10. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes

My Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7136265693

Genre: historical fiction

What it's about: After being involved in a political scandal, a young writer is shipped off to Montana to work with a Works Progress Administration team to write a guide for the state. There, she encounters the intriguing mystery of a long-missing boxcar librarian. She's determined to find out what really happened.

Page count: 446

Read for: Goodreads review

Affect of page count on reading experience: This book kept my attention through all of its many pages. I enjoyed it.

I'd like to complete the Chaos Walking and SILO trilogies before the end of the year as well as a few more chunksters, so I've still got some hefty reading in front of me. What about you? What lengthy tomes have you read this year? Which door stoppers are your favorite? What's the longest book you've ever read? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. 

I just realized it's been a whole month since I published a post here at BBB. Such a slacker! I've been reading (that never stops), but I haven't been reviewing books except on Goodreads. (Are you following me there? You should be.) I've even been skipping out on my favorite meme, Top Ten Tuesday. Yikes! Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things soon.

At any rate, how are you doing with the Bookish Books Reading Challenge? (I would know if I had been visiting your review posts, which I haven't been doing either.) I'm doing fairly well with it, actually. So far this year, I've read ten bookish books. That's not so bad, right? 

In April, I read and enjoyed both of these: 

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes—This new historical novel is all about the power of stories to uplift and inspire. It features two women who brave all the challenges of the Montana wilderness to bring books to people in isolated mining camps. A third comes to Big Sky country in order to help with a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program aimed at employing jobless writers and editors to write travel guides for the American states. In doing so, she uncovers a mystery involving the two boxcar librarians.

The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian—The second installment in a cozy mystery series starring an out-of-work magician who reluctantly returns home to work for her family's unique construction business, The Raven Thief is a murder mystery centered around an Edgar Allen Poe-themed party that goes horribly awry.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading in May since I really don't plan out my reading, but these two look good:

Writers and Liars by Carol Goodman (available July 15, 2025)—Goodman's one of my go-to mystery/thriller authors, so I'm excited for her newest. Hopefully, I can get an e-ARC sometime soon. The story is about a group of authors who were invited to an exclusive writing retreat on a Greek Island fifteen years ago. Something sinister happened then. Now, that same group of writers is being invited back for a cutthroat writing competition that, once again, turns bloody. Whodunit?

Just Another Dead Author by Katarina Bivald (available August 12, 2025)—This mystery has a very similar plot to the above book. It's about Berit Gardner, a mystery author who travels to the French countryside to attend a writer's conference. When the keynote speaker, a despised literary critic, dies suddenly after delivering his lecture, it throws the gathering into chaos. While the police launch an investigation, Berit decides to do her own digging. Plenty of people wanted revenge on the harsh critic, but who actually did the deed?

The Lady and Her Quill by Ruth A. Casie—I'm not much of a romance reader, but this one sounds fun. It's about two rival authors who design a competition to see who is the better writer. Both of them are to craft a story based on a newspaper headline about a stolen treasure. As they delve into the task, the contest gets more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. When Lady Alicia Hartley is captured by the thieves, it's up to her rival to rescue her. Can he save the woman he loves to hate? What if her adventure gives her the better story? Can he win at both writing and love?

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

Welcome to the 2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge! I'm so glad that you've decided to join me for this fun, totally laidback challenge. All you have to do is enjoy bookish books. Easy peasy. You do not have to post reviews, but it's great if you do. I always like seeing what others are reading and getting recommendations on bookish books that shouldn't be missed. Every month, I will make a post like this one with a Mr. Linky widget for reviews. I also like to yap a bit about the bookish books I think I may read during the current month. 

With a fresh new month and a brand new year ahead of me, I have no real idea of what I want to read next. I'm thinking these three are the next bookish books I'll read, whether it's in January or later. 

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss—I've mentioned this one before because it sounds super fascinating to me. I've even got it checked out from the library right now, so I have no excuses. It's about, well, exactly what the title says it's about. Imagine that!

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict—This historical novel is about a group of famous female crime writers banding together to solve a real mystery. Inspired by true events, it stars Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Baroness Emma Orczy, and more.

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes—Another historical novel, this one is about a disgraced editor who is sent off to Montana to work with a Works Progress Administration (WPA) campaign designed to help unemployed writers get back to work. There, she discovers a mystery revolving around a small town librarian and her colleauge, who hasn't been seen since she ventured into the countryside to deliver books to men working at the area's mining camps. 

Today's TTT prompt is pretty straightforward: Top Ten Books With Destination Names in the Title. I decided to take the topic literally, choosing titles off my TBR list that included the names of real cities around the world. Since I love historical fiction, a genre which lends itself to these types of titles, it was a cinch to create. I've featured some (most?) of these books before, but since they remain unread by me, here they are again! 

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Join the TTT fun by checking out the rules on her blog then creating and sharing your own list. The more the merrier.

1. The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer—It's 1942 and Poland is overrun by Nazi invaders. Their presence is irritating and inconvenient, but Elzbieta Rabinek has been unharmed by them so far. Unlike her neighbors in her city's Jewish ghetto. When Elzbieta befriends a nurse in her apartment building, she is propelled into helping those very neighbors. Her actions put her at great risk, especially since she's hiding secrets that could be deadly for her and her family. Does she dare put her neck out for her Jewish neighbors when it could so easily find its way into a Nazi noose?

2. Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung—Cursed with only daughters, the Ang family lives with the shame of having no male heir to inherit their land and wealth. As civil war rages in China in 1948, the male members of the clan abandon their home, leaving the worthless females behind to fend for themselves. As the eldest, Hai stands trial for her family's crimes. Only barely surviving her beating by the Communist army, she knows she, her sisters, and her mother must make a daring escape. Braving every kind of danger, they set out on a perilous thousand-mile journey to find the family who abandoned them so cruelly.

Based on the author's family history, this novel sounds riveting!

3. The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra—Set in India in the 1920s, this is the first installment in a cozy mystery series starring a husband and wife detecting team. When they attend a party at the Century Club, Kaveri spies a suspicious-looking person lurking in the shadows. Shortly thereafter, a murder occurs. She is concerned when a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime and determines to find the killer.

4. Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin—When the Netherlands is invaded in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to England, but loses her 3-year-old son in the process. Desperate to find her child, she takes a job helping children evacuate to the countryside. Hugh Collingwood is a BBC radio correspondent reporting on the war as well as a series of murders that is plaguing London at the same time. When Aleida begs Hugh for help, the two grow increasingly closer as the world around them becomes more and more deadly.

5. A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd—In this reinvention of a classic play, Romeo and Juliet live happily ever after in lovely Italy and become the parents of seven children. Rosie Montague is the eldest of the brood. Content to remain a spinster, she plays matchmaker with every suitor her parents present, finding the groom-to-be a more willing bride. When Rosie finally meets the man who could very well be her match, their betrothal ball goes awry when a duke is killed at the party. Just about everyone had a reason to want the man dead, but who actually murdered him? Rosie is determined to find out.

6. The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes—American librarian Emmy Clarke is sent by her government to Germany to help the Monuments Men recover literature that was stolen by the Nazis. When she comes across an intriguing note written inside one of the books, it leads her on an intriguing quest to uncover a fascinating story of wartime resistance, betrayal, and courage. 

7. The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore—After a patient dies because of a mistake she made while operating, Dr. Tucia Hatherly no longer practices medicine. Not really. In order to support her disabled son, she is forced to take a position with a traveling medicine show peddling phony miracle cures. Desperate to be free of her obligation to the show's overbearing leader, she prepares to run when the show reaches Texas. It's 1900 and just as she's about to flee Galveston, a devastating hurricane—one so mighty that it will go down in the history books—hits. Tucia must decide whether to save herself and her son or to stay and use her doctoring skills to help the storm's victims.

8. The Haunting of Moscow House by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore—In post-revolutionary Russia, the Goliteva's ancestral mansion in Moscow has been taken over by Bolsheviks. Forced to live in the attic, the family members look for ways to bring light into their grim lives. Sisters Irina and Lili work for the American Relief Administration to help relieve suffering while back in their bleak home, the house whispers to them of long-buried secrets they must uncover. When one of the Bolshevik officials is found dead in their home, another mystery unfolds...

9. A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan—This dual-timeline historical novel features two women from the same family living in Paris during times of war and upheaval. Having thrown her fate in with a handsome revolutionary, Lisette Vigneau casts off her wealthy upbringing to fight for the people. She opens a small bakery to help sustain her fellow Parisians, but her determination falters as the city descends into chaos from famine, violence, and despair. In 1946, 76 years later, 19-year-old Micheline Chartier is mourning the loss of her parents in the war. As the sole guardian of her two younger sisters, she feels trapped and overwhelmed. When a neighbor enrolls her in a baking school, Micheline finds hope and an unexpected connection with her family's past.

10. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton—Another dual-time line story, this one concerns a Cuban American freelance writer who travels to Havana to scatter her grandmother's ashes in the deceased's homeland. While there, she investigates her own family history, where she discovers her grandmother's story of romance, revolution, and resilience in the midst of political chaos in the land of her birth.

There you go, ten historical novels on my TBR list with names of real cities in their titles. What do you think? Have you read any of them? Which hist-fic stories with city names in the titles have you enjoyed? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. I also respond to comments left here (although I'm a week behind at the moment).

I'm a couple days late with this post, but better late than never, right? February whizzed by for me, full as it was with a family vacation, preparation for a genealogy class I'm teaching at a conference next weekend, grandbaby sitting, and more. Phew! I did manage to read three bookish books in February, though:

My Imaginary Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows—I've had so much fun listening to the Lady Janies/Marys series on audio. These YA books mix alternate history with fantasy, humor, romance, and adventure. I've enjoyed all the novels.

My Imaginary Mary stars three teenagers: Mary Wollstonecraft (of Frankenstein fame), Ada Byron (Lord Byron's daughter, who became a well-known scientist, better known by her married name, Ada Lovelace), and the automaton the two bring to life through a combination of science and magic. As the three have adventures together, they interact with several literary giants, including Percy Bysse Shelley and Lord Byron. 

My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows—Even though this is the second to last book I've read in the series, My Lady Jane is actually the debut installment. It features another trio of teens: Lady Jane Grey; her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley; and her cousin, Edward Tudor, king of England. The novel is mostly about the three of them working together to keep their thrones secure from usurpers. It's bookish for one reason: the authors' Lady Jane Grey is a bibliophile of the highest order. Although she's breathtakingly beautiful, no one knows it because her face is always hidden in a book! It's another fun entry in an always entertaining series.

Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead—Books aren't the main theme of this dark Southern thriller, but they are the thing that brings the two main characters together. Ruth Cornier, now a librarian, has always used reading as an escape from her strict, smothering life as the daughter of a fanatical preacher. The town bad boy, with whom she falls in love, devours poetry as a way to infuse beauty into his ugly life. They bond over their shared affinity for literature, quoting lines of verse to each other and spending long hours reading together. 

Out of these three books, I enjoyed My Lady Jane the most. My Imaginary Mary was also enjoyable. While I liked aspects of Midnight is the Darkest Hour, others rubbed me the wrong way. The ending made me want to throw the book against the wall in frustration! Gah. It made the whole novel feel dissatisfying.

I've actually already read my first bookish book for this month. Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson was my book club's pick for February. It's a cute, clean rom com set in a Nashville publishing house. I read the majority of the novel in February, but I didn't finish it until March 1, so I'm counting it for this month. I'll talk about it more in April.

End of Story by A.J. Finn—Finn's newest thriller has a premise that seems to be popular lately (think The Last One Left by Riley Sager, The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor, and The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James): a dying person who became famous for being accused (but not convicted) of a crime invites a writer to their home in order to finally reveal what really happened. In this case, it's a reclusive mystery novelist whose first wife and youngest child mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago, never to be heard from again. Nicky Hunter, a creative writing teacher, is summoned to the home of Sebastian Trapp to write down his memories for posterity. She doesn't believe he killed his wife and son, but the more he unburdens himself, the more unsure she becomes...

The novel is off to a bit of a slow start, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. 

This one, which comes out on March 19, looks promising:

The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes—Emmy Clarke is an American librarian who is sent by the Library of Congress to Germany in 1946. Her job is to help the Monuments Men find and catalog books that were stolen by the Nazis. An intriguing message scrawled inside one volume sends Emmy on a quest to return the precious tome to its rightful owner. As she researches the book's provenance, she discovers a remarkable story about a brave group of Jewish women in Berlin who risked their lives to stand up to the Nazis. 

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.