It's been a hot minute since I've participated in Top Ten Tuesday. After neglecting my favorite weekly blogging event for too long, I'm back for today's fun prompt: Top Ten Authors Who Live in My State or Country. Although I was born and raised in the lush, rainy Pacific Northwest, I have lived in hot, dry Arizona since 2000. The Grand Canyon State has produced some legendary authors like Zane Grey, Erma Bombeck, Edward Abbey, Barbara Park, and more. Today, I'm going to focus on ten Arizona authors who are still living and producing books, whether I've read anything from them or not. 

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

1. Nicole Adair—Nicole's family lived near me for many years in Mesa and attended the same church congregation, so I know them fairly well. I know Nicole herself only slightly, but I'm excited that she's having success with her YA novels. I haven't read any of them yet. Soon, I hope!

2. Dusti Bowling—Bowling is my favorite Arizona author, hands down. She lives in Gilbert and writes wonderful middle-grade novels set in our state. She's best known for Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, but she's penned a number of others as well. I've read most of her books and have her latest, The Beat I Drum out from the library right now.

3. Diana Gabaldon—This hugely popular author of the Outlander series is one of Arizona's most famous writers. She was born in Williams and has lived in Scottsdale for years. I read and enjoyed Outlander awhile ago, but I have never picked up any of her others. Oops. 

4. J.A. Jance—Jance, who grew up in Bisbee and now lives part-time in Tucson, has been publishing mystery novels since the 1980s. Although she has written dozens of books, I've never read any of them. She's on my list of authors to try.

5. Barbara Kingsolver—Kingsolver, who writes in a variety of genres, lives in southern Arizona part-time. I haven't read any of her books. Yet.

6. Isabella Maldonado—A few years ago while my husband and I were at our bank dealing with some issues, a teller and I started talking about our shared love of reading. She mentioned that a relative of hers, a retired police captain, had moved to Phoenix and started writing crime novels. At the time, I hadn't heard of Maldonado, but I see her name frequently these days. I haven't read anything by her yet, but I will!

7. Lisa McMann—McMann, who lives in Tempe, writes sci fi/fantasy books for middle-grade and teen readers. I've read and enjoyed her YA books. My kids liked her Unwanted series.

8. Stephenie Meyer—It's been a few years since Meyer published anything so I don't know if she's technically still writing or not, but I couldn't exclude her from this list since she's one of Arizona's most famous living authors. The creator of the Twilight saga, she lives in Cave Creek. Fun fact: New Moon is one of the first books I reviewed on this blog. I loved Twilight when I read it, but the series got hokey for me so I never finished it. I did enjoy The Host.

9. T.J. Newman—A former flight attendant, Newman lives in Phoenix and writes thrillers set on airplanes. I haven't read any of them yet, but I plan to at some point.

10. Jewell Parker Rhodes—Dr. Rhodes is the Virginia D. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. She's also the Founding Director of the Virginia D. Piper Center for Creative Writing and a bestselling author of historical fiction for both kids and adults. I've read and enjoyed several of her children's books.

Well, I clearly haven't done very well at reading local authors! I definitely need to do better. How about you? Have you read any of these Arizona authors? Which are your favorites? 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. 

I blinked and, somehow, it's April. Oof! How did March race by so quickly? I didn't have any specific plans to read bookish books in March, but I did manage to get to four of them:

The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan—This book is a murder mystery that revolves around a mythical lost treasure. It's not super bookish, but one of the main characters is a novelist with writer's block who takes on a beachside house sitting gig in the hopes that the beautiful, peaceful surroundings will be the inspiration she needs to get her next book written. Instead, she gets caught up in trying to solve a murder. 

Murder on the Page by Daryl Wood Gerber—In this series debut, a pair of twin sisters are desperately trying to save their family's dying bookshop. Allie Catt, also a caterer, comes up with the idea of hosting mystery-themed dinners to raise needed funds. Things are going swimmingly until Allie's aunt is murdered and Allie's best friend is accused of the killing. The well-read caterer must summon all the knowledge she's gleaned from her favorite literary detectives to solve the puzzling crime and clear her BFF's name.

The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—Gaynor's newest historical is about a ship carrying British children to safety in Canada during World War II that is sunk by a German U-boat. One lifeboat, carrying several children, their female attendant, and a handful of men is left floating in the ocean, forgotten. The passengers must survive, somehow, until they're rescued, but when—if ever—will that be? Books come into play because the female attendant is a big reader. She entertains the kids in the boat by telling them the story of Moby Dick from memory. 

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister—The star of this thriller, McAllister's latest, is a literary agent and her husband works as a ghostwriter. On the day she is supposed to return to work after nine months of maternity leave, she awakes to find her husband has left the house without saying goodbye, highly unusual for him. She soon learns that he is involved in a hostage situation taking place in another part of London. To her shock, her laidback, affable husband is not a victim, but the perpetrator. How can the man she loves be holding people hostage at gunpoint? Does she even know him at all?

I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading in April, honestly, but these two look promising:

The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White (available July 15, 2025)—When the Nazis begin banning books in Germany, exiled German writers start gathering in Paris, where they open a library to safeguard their books and ideas. Corinne Bastien has made the library her second home, but when Paris is overtaken by Nazis, she loses her precious escape. With the help of a reluctant German soldier, it's up to her to protect the precious library and all the secrets it hold from falling into the hands of the enemy.

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens—A librarian in the Midwest, Hana Babic goes out of her way to live a quiet, unassuming life. Her dark past is something she is desperate to keep hidden. When her best friend is murdered, Hana's afraid the secrets she's keeping about her previous life as a Bosnian militia fighter will make her a killer's next target. With her best friend's young granddaughter now in her care, Hana must protect herself and her charge at all costs. 

I love me a seasonal TBR list, even if I never actually read any of the titles I so ambitiously place on them. Since I was feeling uninspired for last week's freebie-ish prompt, I actually started this week's topic—Top Ten Books On My Spring 2025 TBR List—early. If you want to see Part One of my list, click here or just scroll down on my blog (since TTT posts seem to be the only thing I publish lately). 

As always, this fun weekly meme is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

- Part Two - 

1. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor—I've been listening to this World War II novel on audio, but it's been slow going and I finally had to turn it back in to the library since another patron had requested it. Luckily, I have an e-ARC of the book on my Kindle. I'm about 60% through the book and it's still plodding along. You'd think a story about the last survivors of a torpedoed ship struggling to stay alive would be more exciting and emotionally resonant, but it just...isn't. I'm determined to finish The Last

 Lifeboat since I'm so close. It's just a *bit* of a slog...

2. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth—Since I can't do housework without an audiobook to listen to, I checked out a new one. I read three of this Australian author's domestic thrillers last year and loved them. The Mother-in-Law is about the suspicious death of a wealthy matriarch who had complicated relationships with her two children and their spouses. Although Diana Goodwin left behind a suicide note claiming she can't bear to live with the cancer inside her, the coroner finds no signs of the disease in her body, although he does find evidence of poison and suffocation. Diana was not the warmest of women, but who hated her enough to kill her?

3. You Belong Here by Megan Miranda (available July 29, 2025)—Miranda is one of my go-to mystery/thriller writers, so I'm always stoked when she publishes a new book. I started an e-ARC of this one, her newest, yesterday before setting it aside temporarily while I finish The Last Lifeboat. It has to do with a mother returning to her hometown to drop her daughter off for her freshman year of college. Twenty years ago, Beckett left the same school following a deadly fire allegedly set by her roommate, who then vanished, never to be seen again. Already uneasy about leaving her only child in a place she never intended to return to, Beckett finds her past overlapping with her present as she contemplates what really happened the night of the fire. 

4. A Town With Half the Lights On by Page Getz (available April 22, 2025)—I like the look and sound of this heartwarming novel. It's about a family from Brooklyn who move to tiny Goodnight, Kansas, to check out the crumbling Victorian home they've inherited. Even while they search for a way to go back to New York, Sid Solvang decides on a whim to buy Goodnight's fledgling diner. As the hopeful transplants try to make a go of their new life, they find themselves wrapped up in the small-town spirit of a place that is suddenly starting to feel an awful lot like home.

5. Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister—After about a month of hanging out on a library waiting list, I've finally got my hands on the newest mystery/thriller from another one of my go-to authors. This one is about a woman who is eager to go back to her job as a literary agent after being on maternity leave. She's all set to drop her baby off at daycare and go to work, but when she wakes up, her husband is mysteriously missing from their bed. Then, she hears breaking news about a hostage situation brewing in London. She's shocked to learn that her mild-mannered husband is involved—as the gunman. What has driven him to this extreme and how can she stop him from taking things any further?

6. Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King—The generous folks at Candlewick Press just sent me the first two books in this delightful-sounding middle-grade mystery series. It stars Bonnie Montgomery, aka Montgomery BonBon, a 10-year-old who just happens to be a world-famous detective (or will be someday). When a death occurs at a local museum, the intrepid investigator takes the case!

7. An Appetite for Murder by Lucy Burdette—I'm always on the lookout for fun cozy mysteries. This is the first installment in an older series about a woman who takes a job as a food critic for a Key West, Florida, magazine. Her new boss is the last person she wants to deal with. When the boss ends up dead, the food critic must find her killer before she ends up taking the blame for the foul deed.

8. The Midnight Estate by Kelly Rimmer (available July 22, 2025)—I've got an e-ARC of this forthcoming Gothic family secrets novel. It's about a woman who returns to her Australian hometown to restore her ancestral estate. As she works, she discovers dark secrets long buried by the family she thought she knew.

9. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin—I made some fairly ambitious resolutions for 2025 which lasted for about, oh, 24 whole hours, if that. I've still got goals I want to work on and fulfill, but I'm in desperate need of motivation. I'm hoping this book will help.

10. Off the Map by Meika Hashimoto—Survival stories are my jam and this one sounds exciting. It's about two friends who are feeling distanced from each other, which makes going on the canoe trip their families planned together a little awkward. When the two get lost, they find themselves all alone in the Alaskan wilderness with no idea how to find their way back to civilization. Can they mend their differences and work together to save themselves?

There you go, ten more books I want to read this Spring. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What's on your Spring TBR list? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.