Happy October! I hope you're able to enjoy some nice, cool Fall weather where you are. Temperatures here in the Phoenix area have dropped from three digits to only two, so that's something, even if we're still in the upper 90s. Ugh. 

Enough unpleasantness, let's talk about bookish books. I read three of them in September:

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas—As indicated by the title, this murder mystery revolves around several employees of a quiet library in Austin, Texas. Although the co-workers know each other, it's not until they're faced with solving two murders related to their workplace, that they really begin to trust and rely on each other. As they reveal their secrets to each other, they create a bond that helps them find out what really happened to the murder victims.

As much as I liked the premise of this novel, it didn't end up working very well for me. The story is mostly about the characters and their interpersonal relationships, not about the plot, which made the book a bit of a slog. It took me awhile to read it because it was just so putdownable. Bummer.

Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson—This middle-grade verse novel is set in 1963 in a mostly white neighborhood in Philadelphia. It stars Cooper Dale, a Black bookworm who's just starting fifth grade. Over the course of the school year, she experiences anxiety, fear, racism, sadness, and worry as well as triumph, joy, acceptance, and love. Through it all, she relies on wise words from her father, the Bible, Martin Luther King, Jr., and her favorite poet, Langston Hughes. Although the book deals with some tough subjects, it's ultimately a hopeful, uplifting read.

Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite—I'm not sure if this novella really counts as bookish, but since it has books on the cover and it references "the library" a lot, I'm going with it. The story is set on a spaceship where people can live forever by changing up their physical bodies whenever they feel like it. If you need a break between lifetimes, you can store your mind in the ship's vast library, where it will be kept safe until you need it again. When ship detective Dorothy Gentleman is yanked out of her rest involuntarily, she's confused. Especially when she spies a dead body nearby. As she investigates the murder, she's shocked to discover that someone is purposely erasing minds from the library. Who would do such a dastardly thing? And why? It's up to her to find out.

I'm not a big fan of short fiction because I like to sink into stories, especially when they involve complicated world-building. Murder By Memory has an interesting premise and world, but I didn't feel like 100 pages was enough to really do any of it justice. Because of that, this was just an okay read for me. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it were a full-length novel.

For the last three months of the year, I'm going to try to read all the books on my "Read Before the End of the Year" list. None of them are overtly bookish, so we'll see what happens. I did start this one yesterday:

The Garden Just Beyond by Lindsey Leavitt—It's a middle-grade book about a family who's known for the life-changing dinners they serve to paying guests. Diners think the magic is in the garden-fresh produce the family uses, but what they don't know is that the garden actually is magic, and the food it produces is able to manipulate people's emotions. When a suspicious person buys up all the property neighboring their secluded farm, the family worries that someone is trying to steal their secrets and run their thriving business into the ground. 

Our narrator is Maggie Gartner, a 14-year-old girl who's socially awkward and counts her books as her only real friends. Her attic bedroom is filled with a library of family history records, journals, account books, and so on. It's her happy place, the one spot where she feels truly at home.

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 is off to a good start for everyone. My first week of the year has mostly been spent in packing away Christmas decorations, cleaning my house, and trying to get myself organized for the year to come. The beginning of a new year always feels like a fresh start full of possibilities. We'll see what the year brings.

The first TTT prompt of the year is all about new releases we're excited about: Top Ten Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025. There are a lot of great-looking books coming out and, honestly, I could have done a whole list of just those coming out in January. Or just sequels. I decided to leave out the sequels and choose a variety of titles I haven't talked about before that have been or will be released between January and May.

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

1. Radiant by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (published January 7)—Set in 1963, this middle-grade verse novel is about a young Black girl who's navigating life in a predominantly white Pennsylvania community. Amid Beatlemania, race riots, and the assassination of JFK, she struggles to find herself and her place in a confusing, chaotic world.

2. Freeze by Chris Priestley (available January 14)—Another middle-grade title, this one is a spooky tale about a girl whose class is given the assignment to write shivery stories with a winter theme. At first, it's fun to hear everyone's creepy ideas read aloud, but when Maya realizes that she features in all of them, she starts to feel a little...uneasy. As snow piles up outside the school, it becomes increasingly obvious that she and her classmates are going to be trapped inside for the forseeable future. Why does it suddenly seem like she's the star of a terrifying horror flick?

3. Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove (available January 21)—Carrie Starr, formerly a Chicago detective, fell apart after her daughter was murdered. In search of purpose, she accepts a job as the tribal marshal on the reservation where her father was raised. An unnerving amount of young women have disappeared from the rez and Carrie is tasked with finding the latest one. The investigation is taking its toll on the still-fragile detective, especially when she sees a mythological creature she recognizes from her father's fantastical tales. Either she's going crazy or something truly unimaginable is happening in her new home.

4. The Crash by Freida McFadden (available January 28)—All the mystery/thriller lovers I know seem to be raving about McFadden's books. I haven't tried her out yet, but her upcoming novel definitely sounds intriguing. The story revolves around a woman who is eight months pregnant and desperate to start a new life. She's driving to Maine to stay with her brother while she figures things out when she's trapped by a surprise blizzard. When a couple offers her a place to stay while she rides out the storm, she thinks she's saved. Then, things take a dangerous turn that will put both her life and that of her unborn child at grave risk.

5. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (available February 13)—The first in a new series, this novel stars police officer Ali Dawson, who works on cases so cold, they're practically frozen. Unbeknownst to most, Ali's team is able to travel back in time to investigate old mysteries. When Ali is tasked with clearing the name of an eccentric old man in Victorian England, she finds herself investigating a woman's murder. Things get complicated when Ali gets stuck in the 1850s with no way to get home.

6. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (available February 25)—McAllister's newest mystery/thriller has a simple, but very intriguing premise. A literary agent wakes up on the morning she's supposed to return to work after months of maternity leave only to find her husband gone, with only a cryptic note left in his place. Breaking news informs her that her missing spouse is involved in an escalating hostage situation—as the gunman.

7. The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn (available February 27)—This historical novel is about a wealthy English woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who is pushed into letting her young son be raised mostly by a nanny. When she is gifted tickets to sail to America onboard the Titanic, she jumps at the chance to get away with her son. The ship's sinking gives her a chance to shed her identity, fleeing a life she doesn't want. With nothing to her name but another woman's identity papers, can she survive on the streets of New York City? What will she do when someone threatens to expose her secret to her husband in England?

8. The Filling Station by Vanessa Miller (available March 11)—In the 1920s, there are few places Black Americans can safely stop to gas up while traveling. The Threatt Filling Station is one of them. It's not just a place to fill up on fuel, but a place to gather for support, community, and strength. After the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, it's where two sisters find refuge. What they really need is the courage to return to their hometown and rebuild their lives. Can they find what they need at the filling station?

9. Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson (available April 1)—Anderson's newest is a middle-grade historical novel centering around Elspeth Culpepper, a 13-year-old who's desperate to avoid being sent to an orphanage after her father disappears. Alone and scared, the young woman must deal with not just the Siege of Boston but also a smallpox outbreak that has the city in a panic. Can Elspeth safely navigate the chaos to find her missing father?

10. The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian (available April 1)—I loved Mustian's debut novel, The Girls in the Stilt House, so I'm eager to read her second book. It concerns 42-year-old Nell, who was raised, along with her younger sister, by a reclusive mother who never spoke about her past. Nell promised her sister she wouldn't confront their mother about the birth certificate they found—the one that identifies a different woman as Evie's mother—but Nell can't shake the disturbing memories that still linger in her memory that hint at long-buried secrets and dangerous lies. 

11. Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala (available May 13)—Manansala's YA debut, this mystery stars Danika Dizon, a mystery lover who runs a tarot card reading business between classes. When one of her clients disappears after receiving a death card, Danika takes on the case, eager to prove to her parents that she deserves to be part of her family's detective agency. The more she digs into the missing girl's background, though, the darker—and more dangerous—the case becomes.

There you go, eleven upcoming releases I'm excited to read. How about you? Which 2025 books are you looking forward to? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I'll gladly return the favor on your blog.