Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a freebie. My mind is blanking on anything fresh and creative, so I'm going to continue with the author theme from last week. If you missed my post on my Top Ten 2022 New-to-Me Author Discoveries, you can find it here. Today, I'm going to dish about some authors I want to try out for the first time this year. In order to keep the list to just ten, I opted to leave out debut authors and focus on those who've already published at least 2-3 books.

Before we get to that, though, be sure to click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl and give Jana, our lovely host, some love. While you're there, read up on TTT and join in the fun. You won't regret it!

Where I plan to start: Mare's War, a road trip and dual-timeline novel about two kids who learn just how fascinating their eccentric grandma really is, sounds fabulous. I love stories about family history, unsung heroes, and generations learning about each other. 

3. Kimberly Duffy—Several of Duffy's historical fiction titles have caught my eye. They all have gorgeous covers and plot summaries that sound right up my alley. 

Where I plan to start: Duffy's newest, The Weight of Air, is about two female circus performers whose lives intersect in New York in the early 1900s. It sounds excellent.

4. Susan Furlong—Furlong writes cozy mysteries as well as crime fiction and psychological thrillers.

Where I plan to start: What They Don't Know, Furlong's newest, sounds like the perfect way to start. It's about a mother who's frustrated with her son, who has run off to live a party-filled life away from home. When he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a young woman, she sets out on a desperate quest to find her son, bring him home, and prove his innocence.

5. Kimberly Willis Holt—Holt writes contemporary and historical fiction for young readers. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 1999.

Where I plan to start: Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel is a middle-grade novel about a young girl who goes to live with her estranged grandfather at his dilapidated motel after her parents are killed. As she befriends the place's colorful residents, she finds healing and connection. 

6. Lydia Kang—Kang is a doctor who writes science and historical fiction as well as non-fiction with an emphasis on medicine, forensics, chemistry, etc.  

Where I plan to start: Kang has written two non-fiction books with Nate Pederson. Both sound interesting, but I think I'm going to start with Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases.

7. Caroline Lea—A poet and novelist, Lea writes historical fiction set around the world.

Where I plan to start: The Glass Woman, Lea's 2019 debut, is "a gothic thriller set during the Icelandic witch trials." Say no more. I'm in.

8. Kate Quinn—Quinn probably needs no introduction. Her recent war novels have gotten tons of buzz over the last few years, but she actually has a fairly long backlist of historical fiction.

Where I plan to start: Set in 1937 Ukraine, The Diamond Eye is about a studious young mother who becomes a deadly sniper in order to fight the Nazis invading her country. Based on a real person, the story sounds fascinating.

9. Nikola Scott—Although Scott had a career as a crime fiction editor, she writes historical fiction about families and their secrets. 

Where I plan to start: Scott's 2017 debut novel, My Mother's Shadow, is about Addie, a woman whose mind is blown when a woman shows up claiming to be her sister. Addie thought she knew everything about her mother's life, but clearly, her mother was keeping secrets. 

10. Art Spiegelman—Spiegelman is an American cartoonist, comic advocate, and Pultizer Prize winner. He's best known for his Maus books, a graphic novel series about his parents' experience as prisoners in Auschwitz. 

Where I plan to start: I'm not sure there's anywhere else to begin but with Maus, the first installment in Spiegelman's well-known series. 

There you have it, ten authors I want to read this year. Have you read any of them? What do you think? Which authors are you planning to try in 2023? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Hill, dale, mountain, valley, ocean, swamp, gorge, narrow...there are hundreds of words to describe the geographical wonders of our world. Not surprisingly, many of them show up in the titles of books. Using this list as my guide, it didn't take me long to gather a bunch of them for today's TTT prompt: Top Ten Books With Geographical Terms in the Title (suggested by Lisa at Hopewell's Public Library of Life). I tweaked it just a tad by focusing on books on my TBR list. 

If you want to join in the TTT fun (and you do!), click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details.

1. These Silent Woods by Kami Cunningham Grant—It just so happens that my current read fits this week's topic. I'm enjoying this quietly compelling novel about a man and his 8-year-old daughter whose peaceful life in an isolated cabin is threatened by a string of events that could expose a dangerous secret from the past and destroy their idyllic existence forever. 

2. The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart—In the middle of the Depression, a desperate widow disguises herself as a man in order to get a job at a turpentine camp in Georgia. Despite the grimness of her situation, she begins to envision a new life for herself, if only she can come to terms with the sins of her past.

3. The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey—Thrillers about small towns with big secrets always appeal to me. This one concerns a Minnesota town where teenage girls are disappearing. Heather and Brenda are keeping a secret about something disturbing they saw one night. Are the incidents connected? Too scared to go to the authorities, Heather decides to investigate on her own...

4. Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette—The first installment in a cozy mystery series, this one stars Callie, a woman who returns to her hometown in the Outer Banks after being laid off from her job as a reporter. Still haunted by the death of her mother, who fell from the top of the local lighthouse, Callie is shocked when another woman dies in the same manner. She doesn't believe either woman committed suicide, as the rumors suggest, so what did happen? Callie is determined to find out.

5. The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding by Lydia Kang—It's 1942 and the Fielding siblings are doing what they can for the war effort on the home front. When they discover a mysterious stranger hiding under their back stairs, they're drawn into her web, but who is she? And what does she want from them? Can they trust the enigmatic stranger or should they turn her in to the authorities?

6. On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See—In this non-fiction book, See tells her family's story, starting with the emigration of her great-great grandfather from China to California.

7. Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine—I've mentioned this dark comedy/murder mystery set in Scotland before. It sounds clever and funny.

8. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman—Based on a true story, this historical novel is about Sage Winters, a girl who discovers her dead sister is actually alive. Sage knew her sister was different than other people, but does she really deserve to be institutionalized at the Willowbrook State School? Sage vows to find out the truth about her sister and the infamous school for herself, no matter what it takes.

9. The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville—This dual-timeline novel tells the story of two women in different eras and the mysterious, secret-filled house that ties them together.

10. Race to the Bottom of the Sea by Lindsay Eager—This rollicking middle-grade adventure tells the tale of Fidelia Quail, an 11-year-old who's wracked by guilt after her parents are killed in an accident involving a submarine Fidelia invented. When she's kidnapped by a treasure-obssessed pirate, she must use her vast knowledge of the sea to help him find what he seeks in order to avoid walking the plank. The discovery that her pirate captor is more than he seems throws her for a loop and plunges her head-first into a puzzling mystery.

There you are, ten books with geographical terms in the titles that I want to read. Have you read any of these? What did you think? Which titles and terms are on your list today? 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!