Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR (2023)
Ahhhhhh! We're at a TBR week for Top Ten Tuesday, and I once again do not actually have any idea what I want to read coming up past the next couple of books. In fact, I was in such a tizzy that at the beginning of March I dumped a bunch of unread books back at the library that I REALLY HAD been excited about in January, and combed my Goodreads TBR to see about starting fresh. I pulled quite a number of titles, but now I've been spinning my wheels on that, struggling to actually finish books.
So...here's what I got so far / currently? One book I'm specifically excited about reading in spring, my current checkouts, and a couple of other possibilities.
click for full size
1. Postcards From Summer - Cynthia Platt (2022)
This book is so freaking beautiful and it just screams April. But it takes place in summer, so as long as I get to it by June it'll still feel right. I refuse to read it any other time of year. Maybe I should start it in March just to make sure.
...dang, neither local library has a physical copy of this, so I guess it's gonna be a birthday present because I will not be constrained to the limits of a 3-week ILL checkout for a nearly 600-page book. (not that I can't finish in that time, but what if I'm not in the perfect MOOD to start when it comes in)
2. The Siren of Sussex - Mimi Matthews (2022)
Honestly, I imagine nothing can compete with my love for The Belle of Belgrave Square. But this looks like it will even have more horses than that one and also be better than the "I hate his stupid face / she vexes me like the very devil (secretly I love her)" trope in the third book, so I'm still pretty excited.
Also, if I like this love interest enough, apparently he started as a supporting character in A Modest Independence? which is about a love story I want to read for its own sake, but especially after meeting them in Belgrave. That would have to be an Interlibrary Loan, though. And a lot of her stories look similar so I think I need to space them out.
3. The Bookshop of Secrets - Mollie Rushmeyer (2022)
Only after I got it home did I see the "LoveInspired" tag on the side, and now I'm Bracing myself for an onslaught of Scripture quoting and "she prayed God would guide her heart to the right decision" asides, but I also hope very much that I can't be steered too wrong with a lovely old bookshop, a treasure hunt among the books, and Minnesota.
4. My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - ed. Ronald Rice (2012)
look at that subtitle; could there be a more perfect theme for an anthology of essays?
5. A Perfect Place to Die - Bryce Moore (2021)
Ohhh, not a Goodreads blog post including a 2-year-old book I not only haven't heard of, but am actually interested in?? YES give me this YA novel set in the infamous Murder Mansion of 1890s Chicago.
6. Just Gus - McCall Hoyle (2023)
Now to bounce back to innocence... I read Stella on a friend's recommendation and it hit me lke a truck / laid me flat out with bawling (it has a happy ending, just a real sad beginning and various lines to choke you up along the way), so I am very excited to get to this (hopefully less sad!) upcoming release of a companion book starring one of the other dogs we met in that book. A Great Pyrenees, specifically!
7. The Hungry Place - Jessie Haas (2020)
Adding Stella to Goodreads also led to an immediate recommendation for this one, and of COURSE I am going to read a Jessie Haas pony book, especially a new one. She's been writing pony books for literally my entire life and while I haven't read as many as I thought, I respect that kind of trajectory.
8. Sweet Home Alaska - Carole Etsby Daggs (2016)
I loved this author's debut, but it was 5 years before a second novel (and then in middle grade rather than YA), and consequently took me another 6 years to notice! Anyway, I look forward to this historical novel about a family moving from Wisconsin to Alaska in the 1930s under a New Deal program, something I'd never heard about.
9. The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery (1926)
I already had this in the back of my mind after how much I loved The Pink House, but then apparently Belle of Belgrave Square drew heavy inspiration from it so now there are TWO reasons to read this. I read the Anne series as a kid but nothing else, so looking forward to it. If the stars and my mood align this time. There's only one library copy and in February it was checked out, so it's tricky.
10. Banner Year - Betty Cavanna (1987)
Although this is her last and seemingly one of her less popular books, I was just so tickled to FINALLY stumble upon a Betty Cavanna in the wild again that I bought it immediately, and hopefully will finish it in a timely manner.
Now cross-posting to Wordpress later in the day; see you there if you'd like to comment. Unless you're a registered LJ user. Then you can definitely comment here.
So...here's what I got so far / currently? One book I'm specifically excited about reading in spring, my current checkouts, and a couple of other possibilities.
click for full size
1. Postcards From Summer - Cynthia Platt (2022)
This book is so freaking beautiful and it just screams April. But it takes place in summer, so as long as I get to it by June it'll still feel right. I refuse to read it any other time of year. Maybe I should start it in March just to make sure.
...dang, neither local library has a physical copy of this, so I guess it's gonna be a birthday present because I will not be constrained to the limits of a 3-week ILL checkout for a nearly 600-page book. (not that I can't finish in that time, but what if I'm not in the perfect MOOD to start when it comes in)
2. The Siren of Sussex - Mimi Matthews (2022)
Honestly, I imagine nothing can compete with my love for The Belle of Belgrave Square. But this looks like it will even have more horses than that one and also be better than the "I hate his stupid face / she vexes me like the very devil (secretly I love her)" trope in the third book, so I'm still pretty excited.
Also, if I like this love interest enough, apparently he started as a supporting character in A Modest Independence? which is about a love story I want to read for its own sake, but especially after meeting them in Belgrave. That would have to be an Interlibrary Loan, though. And a lot of her stories look similar so I think I need to space them out.
3. The Bookshop of Secrets - Mollie Rushmeyer (2022)
Only after I got it home did I see the "LoveInspired" tag on the side, and now I'm Bracing myself for an onslaught of Scripture quoting and "she prayed God would guide her heart to the right decision" asides, but I also hope very much that I can't be steered too wrong with a lovely old bookshop, a treasure hunt among the books, and Minnesota.
4. My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop - ed. Ronald Rice (2012)
look at that subtitle; could there be a more perfect theme for an anthology of essays?
5. A Perfect Place to Die - Bryce Moore (2021)
Ohhh, not a Goodreads blog post including a 2-year-old book I not only haven't heard of, but am actually interested in?? YES give me this YA novel set in the infamous Murder Mansion of 1890s Chicago.
6. Just Gus - McCall Hoyle (2023)
Now to bounce back to innocence... I read Stella on a friend's recommendation and it hit me lke a truck / laid me flat out with bawling (it has a happy ending, just a real sad beginning and various lines to choke you up along the way), so I am very excited to get to this (hopefully less sad!) upcoming release of a companion book starring one of the other dogs we met in that book. A Great Pyrenees, specifically!
7. The Hungry Place - Jessie Haas (2020)
Adding Stella to Goodreads also led to an immediate recommendation for this one, and of COURSE I am going to read a Jessie Haas pony book, especially a new one. She's been writing pony books for literally my entire life and while I haven't read as many as I thought, I respect that kind of trajectory.
8. Sweet Home Alaska - Carole Etsby Daggs (2016)
I loved this author's debut, but it was 5 years before a second novel (and then in middle grade rather than YA), and consequently took me another 6 years to notice! Anyway, I look forward to this historical novel about a family moving from Wisconsin to Alaska in the 1930s under a New Deal program, something I'd never heard about.
9. The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery (1926)
I already had this in the back of my mind after how much I loved The Pink House, but then apparently Belle of Belgrave Square drew heavy inspiration from it so now there are TWO reasons to read this. I read the Anne series as a kid but nothing else, so looking forward to it. If the stars and my mood align this time. There's only one library copy and in February it was checked out, so it's tricky.
10. Banner Year - Betty Cavanna (1987)
Although this is her last and seemingly one of her less popular books, I was just so tickled to FINALLY stumble upon a Betty Cavanna in the wild again that I bought it immediately, and hopefully will finish it in a timely manner.
Now cross-posting to Wordpress later in the day; see you there if you'd like to comment. Unless you're a registered LJ user. Then you can definitely comment here.