Happy Tuesday everyone! Since Valentine's Day will soon be upon us, today's TTT prompt is no surprise: a love/Valentine's freebie. I'm not a romance reader and freebies always throw me for a loop, so I'm going to go with a lazy twist on the topic and talk about library LOVE. Even though I have hundreds of unread books on my shelves, you can still find me at my local library quite often. I will never not enjoy browsing their shelves to find new treasures to read at home. I'm also addicted to Libby, where I can borrow the library's audiobooks and e-books. In addition to all the goodies inside, the library closest to my home is surrounded by a nature preserve where you can stroll along the paths, watch ducks glide in the lake, and enjoy the quiet peace of being out in nature (although you're actually in the middle of a busy suburb). There's so much to LOVE about libraries generally and my local one specifically. What do you LOVE about yours? 

Like everyone else, I've been playing with Chat GPT's caricature-making feature. I thought this one, which the website titled "Relaxed Reader in the Library," was especially funny. If only my library had comfy recliners and fuzzy blankets to curl up with, I would probably never leave! Ha ha. I also love that it shows me listening to an audiobook and reading a paper book at the same time. I'm good, but I'm not that good. And what's with my crazy eyes? I guess I'm just really excited about visiting the library! If nothing else, AI is always good for a laugh...

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

1. Coach by Jason Reynolds—I thought Reynolds' excellent Track series was over seven years ago when the last book was published, but then Coach came out in 2025. Yay! Like its predecessors, it's an encouraging read full of humor and heart. Narrated by the author's best friend, singer/actor Guy Lockard, the audiobooks are especially well done. 

You can see my review of Coach here. Blogger flagged the review as containing "sensitive content." It's really just a content warning for my content warning, which is silly, but whatever.

2. The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey—I've heard nothing but good things about this historical mystery. I started it yesterday and I'm already thoroughly engrossed. It's set in Yorkshire, England, in 1979 when the area was the target of a serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Strangler. Using the real murders as a backdrop, the novel features a curious 12-year-old girl who is determined to find the identity of the killer. As she uses her keen observation skills to observe "suspicious" doings in her neighborhood, she discovers surprising truths about the people around her, including her family and herself.

3. Of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith—This is the first installment in a historical mystery series about a London barrister who becomes a reluctant amateur sleuth when he discovers the dead body of a powerful, well-known judge on his doorstep. 

4. The Chow Maniac by Vivien Chien—As you will soon see, I'm trying to make progress in series I'm in the middle of, so I grabbed this mystery, the 11th installment in a fun cozy mystery series set in a family-owned Chinese restaurant in Ohio. In this adventure, Lana Lee is called on to help P.I. Lydia Shepard solve a series of thefts and murders in the Asian community.

5. Murder in the East End by Jennifer Ashley—I enjoy the Below Stairs Mystery series, which is set in Victorian London. In this 4th installment, cook Kat Holloway, who moonlights as an amateur sleuth, can't look away when she learns that children are mysteriously disappearing from a local orphanage. Can she figure out what is going on before more kids vanish?

6. The Island by Adrian McKinty—I'm always in for a vacation-gone-horribly-wrong adventure, so I grabbed this thriller about a family who makes a rash decision while on holiday that leaves them stranded on a remote Australian island with a group of sinister hosts. Despite the promising premise, I ended up DNFing this baby because the characters are depthless caricatures, the plot gets ridiculous, and the dialogue is just laughably bad. No thanks.

7. Severe and Unusual Weather by Jessie Ann Foley—Foley's Sorry For Your Loss was one of my favorite reads of 2019. I've been meaning to read more by her and her newest, a middle-grade magical realism novel about an unlikely friendship, sounds like a good one.

8. Stabbed in the Baklava by Tina Kashian—The Kebab Kitchen mystery books make up another fun cozy series, also set in a family-owned restaurant. This time it's a Mediterranean eatery on the New Jersey shore. In this second installment, Lucy Berberian is in charge of catering a high-profile wedding that goes terribly wrong when the groom is murdered. Worse, Lucy's ex-boyfriend is accused of the crime. He may be infuriating, but she knows he's no killer. Once again, she finds herself playing Nancy Drew in order to solve a crime.

9. The Girl in the Painting by Tea Cooper—I've read a couple of books by this Australian author and enjoyed them, so I grabbed her 2020 novel on audio when I saw that it was available on Libby. The story revolves around a young orphan who is taking in by a brother and sister intent on nurturing her impressive match skills. As the child ages, she realizes there's more to her guardians than meets the eye. When one of her guardians has a strange reaction upon seeing a certain painting in a gallery, her charge vows to find out just what her hosts are hiding.

So, since I started writing this post this morning, I have been listening to The Girl in the Painting. The narrator does a nice job, except that she takes a big breath after every paragraph, it seems. Now that I've noticed it, I can't unnotice it, and it's driving me crazy. So, I'm going to return the audiobook and pick up a paper copy of the novel because I'm enjoying the story so far.

10. Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton—My focus really should be on finishing series I've already started instead of beginning new ones, but...This is the first book in a crime series by an author whose books I've enjoyed in the past. It's about an English detective out on medical leave who is drawn into investigating the disappearance of a man who vanished at a local music festival. With tensions between the town's permanent residents and its weekender population reaching a boiling point, she fears the conflict may have gotten deadly.

There you have it, the last(ish) ten books I checked out of the library. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What topic did you choose for today's freebie prompt? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Today's TTT topic—Top Ten Books With My Favorite Trope/Theme—is a fun one, which should have prompted all kinds of ideas to bloom in my brain. Problem is, I've been blogging and TTT-ing for so long that I feel like I've talked about every single one of my favorite story subjects a bajillion times over! So, forgive me if this is a repeat, but I decided to go with one of my all-time favorite tropes—the surprise inheritance. Tons of books feature this tantalizing premise, where some down-on-their-luck MC gets the shock of their lives when they discover a random relative they never knew existed left them something incredible in their wills. Generally, it's a rotting pile mouldering away somewhere on a broody British seashore, but I've also read about estates in exotic lands, forgotten shops and theaters, mysterious momentoes, even—as you will see—a famous jewel. All of these unexpected gifts lead our intrepid MCs to make surprising discoveries about their pasts, their families, and themselves. Along the way, they also usually find friendship, healing, and love. It's an appealing, imagination-fueling trope that never fails to captures me with its many intriguing possibilities.

Before we get to that, though, be sure to jump on over to That Artsy Reader Girl and give our hostess, Jana, some love. If you're feeling listy today, join in the TTT fun!

Top Ten Surprise Inheritance Novels I've Read and Want to Read  

1.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling—Even though this book/series is more about a surprise heritage ("You're a wizard, Harry!"), it also comes with a bank vault full of gold, which is a pretty great inheritance, I'd say. 

2.  The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson—This engrossing novel concerns a group of estranged siblings who come together for the reading of their grandmother's will. They're shocked and angry to discover the old woman has given her home to their absent, neglectful mother. Beck, always the most devoted grandchild, is completely puzzled by her inheritance: a gaudy old brooch. When a jeweler friend sees it, he is delighted to tell her that it's worth more than it seems. Like ten million dollars more. This discovery throws the family into a frantic tailspin that will reveal long-forgotten secrets, present fissures, and much more. 

3.  The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware—My favorite of Ware's thrillers, this one concerns a young woman who receives notice that she's named in the will of a wealthy woman who has just died. Obviously, they've got the wrong person, but Hal really needs the money. She's honed some pretty good BS skills from her career as a tarot reader. Can she pull off the biggest scam of her life in exchange for the largest payoff she's ever likely to get? 

4.  The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes—The first in a trilogy, this YA novel introduces Avery Grambs, a high schooler who's living in her car when she gets incredible news: she stands to inherit the entire fortune of one of the world's wealthiest men. Since she's never even heard of the guy, there's no way it can possibly be true. Except it is. All Avery has to do to get the money she desperately needs is live in the man's mansion for a year—with his very ticked off family members, each of whom is determined to make sure she doesn't receive a dime. 

5.  The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper—After a whirlwind World War II courtship with a handsome Australian soldier she hardly knows, Fleur Richards becomes a bride and a widow in short succession. His death reveals a shocking secret: Hugh was a very wealthy man and she has inherited his entire fortune. Knowing she can't possibly accept, she sets out to find his kin. In the process, she discovers that part of her inheritance is an old curiosity shop with a dark, mysterious past.

6.  The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton—Australian Cassandra Andrews is shocked when she inherits an old mansion on the Cornish coast upon her grandmother's death. How did the old woman happen to own such a grand property so far from home? And why did she never mention it? As Cassandra investigates, she learns some startling truths about her enigmatic grandparent.

7.  Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry (available May 24, 2022)—When mystery writer Tess Harrow decides to stay in the rustic log cabin she received upon her grandfather's death, she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for. Including a real-life murder to solve.

8.  The Inheritance by JoAnn Ross—When Jackson Swann dies, he leaves his Oregon vineyard to his three daughters, each of whom has a different mother. The trio reluctantly gather to deal with their father's last wishes and each other. Can they come together to save their dubious inheritance? Or will their already fractured family be torn even further apart?

9.  The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni—New Yorker Alberta "Bert" Monte receives a laughable letter claiming that she has inherited not just obscene amounts of money, but also a castle in Italy and a noble title. Clearly, it's a case of mistaken identity. Still, Bert is too intrigued to pass up the opportunity to take a luxurious vacation to Italy. What she learns there about her family and its dark past will change her life forever...

10.  The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson—I loved The Imperfects so much that I definitely want to read another novel by this author (unfortunately, she's only written two). This one also features an unexpected inheritance. This time, it's a bankrupt bookstore that hides a bevy of secrets and puzzles left by a woman's mysterious uncle.

There you are, ten books about surprise inheritances that I've either already enjoyed or expect I will enjoy. What do you think of this trope? Is it one of your favorites as well? Which books about surprise inheritances have caught your fancy? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Although World War I gave Penelope Jane "P.J." Martindale a unique chance to travel and have an exciting adventure, it also stole two very important people from her. While grieving the deaths of her twin brothers, she visits London's Natural History Museum where she makes an intriguing discovery. A fossil found in a gorge near the Australian town of her birth, a place where her brothers loved to search for ancient treasures, gives P.J. a new purpose—to honor her dead siblings through the fossils they loved to collect. When P.J. returns to Australia, she's shocked to receive a frosty reception from her father, who blames her for his sons' deaths. Hoping to make peace with him and commemorate her brothers' sacrifice at the same time, she heads for Bow Wow Gorge despite warnings from the locals about its sinister reputation. Seventy years ago, an eccentric female paleontologist is said to have disappeared in its bowels under suspicious circumstances along with several of her young pupils. While wandering in the gorge, P.J. stumbles across a skeleton in a hidden cave. Thinking she's just accidentally solved an old mystery, she's stunned when the coroner announces that the unidentified corpse was the victim of a murder. Who was the deceased? What happened to them? And how did they come to lie in a cave full of priceless fossils? 

To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of The Fossil Hunter from the generous folks at HarperCollins via those at Edelweiss Plus in exchange for a honest review. Thank you!

As much as I love reading books by my favorite authors, I also enjoy discovering new writers, so I always try to mix it up.  Case in point:  in 2020, just over half of the 191 books I read were by authors whose work I had never tried before.  Although not all of them turned out to be winners for me, I did find a number of new authors that I liked and definitely want to read more from.  Since today's Top Ten Tuesday is all about those discoveries, I'll share ten of mine in just a sec.

Edit:  After crafting this whole post, I realized I made a similar TTT list back in July that included several of these authors.  Oops.  I'm too lazy to change out the duplicates.  Sorry!

First, though, I want to encourage you to join in the TTT fun.  All you have to do is buzz on over to That Artsy Reader Girl, read some quick instruction, make your own list, then spend some happy hours clicking around the book blogosphere.  It's a great way to spread the love around our fabulous community while getting great reading recommendations at the same time.   

1.  Riley Sager—creepy adult mysteries/thrillers

Book(s) read in 2020:  The Last Time I Lied; Lock Every Door 

2.  Nic Stone—YA and middle-grade contemporary, featuring Black characters

Book(s) read in 2020:  Clean Getaway

3.  Julie Lee—middle-grade historical, featuring Korean characters

Book(s) read in 2020:  Brother's Keeper (debut)

4.  Alyssa Maxwell—adult historical mysteries

Book(s) read in 2020:  Murder at the Breakers

Book(s) read since:  Murder at Marble House

5.  Janae Marks—middle-grade contemporary, featuring Black characters

Book(s) read in 2020:  From the Desk of Zoe Washington (debut)

6.  Aida Salazar—middle-grade contemporary and historical, featuring Latinx characters

Book(s) read in 2020:  Land of the Cranes 

7.  Dusti Bowling—middle-grade contemporary and mystery

Book(s) read in 2020:  The Canyon's Edge

Book(s) read since:  Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

8.  Diane Chamberlain—adult historical and contemporary 

Book(s) read in 2020:  Big Lies in a Small Town; Necessary Lies; and The Stolen Marriage

9.  Tea Cooper—adult historical and historical romance, set in Australia

Book(s) read in 2020:  The Woman in the Green Dress

10.  Ben Oliver—YA sci-fi and dystopian

Book(s) read in 2020:  The Loop (debut)

There you have it, ten new authors I found in 2020.  Have you read any of them?  Which new authors did you discover in 2020?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Photo cred: Brenna Lee Photo

It's the last Top Ten Tuesday of the year!  Can you believe it?  I'm having trouble grasping the fact that 2020 is over as well as the idea that my oldest will be getting married on Saturday.  So surreal!  It makes sense that the final TTT of 2020 is a list of our top reads of the year.  Although I'm still hoping to sneak in another finish before January 1, as of now I've read 191 books this year.  Of those, I marked 25 with asterisks, indicating they were favorites.  Not including re-reads of past faves like A Christmas Carol, I narrowed my list down to the best of the best—my ten most loved reads of the year.  Although you can't tell from this list (which features mostly fiction by women, the majority of whom are white), I actually read a fair amount of non-fiction as well as lots of books written by men and women of various ethnicities, nationalities, and backgrounds.  These are just the books I happened to like most.  

I'd love to know what your favorite reads of 2020 are.  You should definitely make your own list and join in the TTT fun.  Hop on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details.

My Top Ten Reads of 2020 (in no particular order):

1.  Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley—This is a devastating, but important and impactful MG novel about domestic violence.  My review.

2.  Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar—Vivid and searing, this MG novel-in-verse about a family torn apart by controversial U.S. immigration policies is heart-breaking and eye-opening.  Another gutting but essential read.  My review.

3.  The Imperfects by Amy Meyerson—Part mystery, part family drama, this is an engrossing read about a (real) famous jewel and how its (fictional) discovery impacts an ordinary family.  My review.

4.  The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper—This is an atmospheric historical novel set in Australia that also features a mysterious jewel.  My review.

5.  Beyond the Horizon by Lois Lowry—A moving memoir-in-verse, this slim book recounts the author's experiences as a young girl in Hawaii during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and in post World War II Japan.  My review. 

6.  Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain—Set in North Carolina in 1960, this heart-wrenching novel focuses on poverty and the routine, forced sterilization of the poor and mentally challenged that took place at that time.  My review.

7.  The Last Blue by Isla Morley—If you loved The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, give this historical novel a try.  It also features the Blue people of Kentucky and is an immersive, intriguing, and tender novel.  My review.

8.  The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson—Speaking of ... I'm not alone in loving this popular book.  It deserves all the accolades it has received.  My review.

9.  The Split by Sharon Bolton—Bolton's newest is a bit of a departure from her usual crime fiction and I loved it.  It's part mystery/suspense, part survival story.  My review.

10.  Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon—I love a good pioneer novel and this is exactly that.  It concerns a group of people traveling along the Overland Trail.  My review.

There you go, my ten favorite books of the year.  What were your most-loved reads of 2020?  Have you read any of mine?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I'll gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!