Today's TTT prompt—Top Ten Villains (favorite, best, worst, lovable, creepiest, most evil, etc.)—is a head scratcher for me. I got nothin'. Next week's—Top Ten Bookish Candles I'd Make—is beyond the limits of my creativity, so for the next two weeks, I'm going rogue. In three weeks, we'll all be talking about our Fall TBR lists, but I'm going to get started early. Over the next three weeks, I'll be yapping about the top 30 books I want to read before 2025 ends. I still need to complete 55 books to hit my Goodreads goal of 200 and, although I do have a printed-out list of 90 possibilities, I won't bore you with all that. We'll stick to the 30 I'm most likely to read spaced out over the next three weeks. You're welcome.

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

1. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn—Although I love historical fiction, I've yet to read a book by this popular author. The Alice Network is my book club's pick for this month, so I'll be starting it soon. It's a dual-timeline novel that focuses on the real-life, all-female spy ring called the Alice Network, which conducted espionage efforts against the Germans in France during World War I. 

2. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins—I've heard nothing but praise for this Hunger Games prequel that focuses on the backstory of Haymitch Abernathy and his experience as a competitor in the 50th annual games.

3. Famous Last Words by Katie Alender—I need to read two books with the same title for a reading challenge and I've already completed Famous Last Words by Gilly Macmillan. Alender's book by the same name has a completely different storyline. Alender's is a YA mystery with a supernatural twist. A teenage girl is experiencing strange, haunting visions that seem to be sending her a message about a series of murders that are currently happening in Los Angeles. In order to regain her sanity, the girl must figure out what the messages mean in order to bring a killer to justice.

4. Clover Blue by Eldonna Edwards—In 1970s California, 12-year-old Clover Blue is growing up on a peaceful commune full of colorful people. He's happy there. Until his best friend urges him to start asking questions of the community's founder and the answers he's given just aren't enough. As Clover searches for answers, he makes some startling discoveries that create disturbing cracks in his sanguine existence.

5. The Five: The Untold Story of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold—For a reading challenge, I need to read a book that debunks a historical myth. Emily at ARRRGH! Schooling suggested this book, which delves into the lives of Jack the Ripper's victims, showing that they weren't just throwaway women, but complex human beings with rich lives that were extinguished far too soon. Sounds fascinating! 

6. Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce—I've been meaning to read this historical novel since it came out. I've heard great things about it and, bonus, I need a book about "creepy crawlies" for a reading challenge. Beetles fit that description for me! The novel is about a spinster schoolteacher living a bleak existence in post-World War II London. Tired of the drudgery, she impulsively decides to take off on an adventure to find a mythical beetle. When she advertises for an assistant, she's surprised by who applies. Together, the two very different women find friendship, excitement, trouble, and maybe, a great discovery. 

7. Shadows in the Mind's Eye by Janyre Tromp—When Anne's husband returns from serving in World War II, he's a changed man. Haunted by the horrors he witnessed, he's become sullen and scary. When he claims to see strange men hiding in the mountains near their home, Anne's not sure whether to believe him or not. If he's telling the truth, then who are the men? And what do they want? If her husband is having paranoid delusions, what does that mean for them and their already struggling marriage?

8. Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness—I feel like I've been talking incessantly lately about Ness' Chaos Walking trilogy. It's one of my all-time favorite YA series and 've been rereading it this year in anticipation of a new spin-off trilogy that will be published starting in Spring 2026. Monsters of Men is the third book in the original series, which is about a young man and his girlfriend and their quest to save their world. 

9. Such a Good Mom by Julia Spiro—I'm on a library waiting list for this novel about a woman whose perfect-looking life is slowly falling apart. Her already unraveling marriage becomes even more strained when the body of a family friend washes ashore and her husband is arrested for the murder. In spite of her own struggles, she must find out the truth about her friend's death in order to clear her husband's name.

10. Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto—I enjoyed the first book in this fun series. Even though I've heard this second installment isn't as good, I'm still excited to reconnect with Vera and her friends. This time around, Vera & Co. are searching for a missing man who no one appears to actually know. Who is Xander Lin? What happend to him? Vera is determined to find out.

What are you planning to read before the end of the year? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

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.