Top 5 Saturday: Books for Foodies

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a desert setting (which I changed to books for foodies!).

I really couldn’t think of many books with a desert setting, but I figured the word “desert” is similar to “dessert.” This then got me thinking about books that feature food in some way, so I ended up choosing five books that feature food or dessert! In no particular order, here are my top five books for foodies!

Top 10 Tuesday: (Audio)books on my Spring 2021 TBR

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about books on my spring 2021 TBR!

As dorky as it sounds, one of my favorite things to do when I’m bored is stare dreamily at my bookshelves and think about when I can read all of the books on my shelves. You’d think this time would be better spent actually reading said books (and you’d be right), but oh well! I just can’t help myself. That being said, I don’t set a specific TBR list for myself. Within each genre on my shelves, I have certain books that are a higher priority than others. But still, I keep that in mind when picking my next book to read, but in the end decide to read whatever I’m in the mood for. At first, I wasn’t sure how to approach this prompt because of this. I was thinking about just listing my “top priority” book for each genre, even though I definitely won’t get to all of those in spring (maybe not even in 2021).

However, then I remembered that I do follow a more structured TBR for my audiobooks! For the most part, I just go in the order in which I purchased them (with exceptions here and there). This year, I’ve been doing this, but while also following a set pattern to help me reach my reading goals for 2021. Basically, I go to the “bottom” of my library (I scroll down to the oldest, not-yet-downloaded book), start there and then work my way up in this order: fiction, nonfiction, classic, repeat. Therefore, I have a pretty predictable line-up for my spring 2021 audiobooks. I certainly won’t follow this exactly, especially with Spring Break coming up. I typically listen to audiobooks while I get ready for work and sometimes when I do chores, so over Spring Break I might choose some other, shorter audiobooks to focus on instead simply because I’ll have less time to listen to them. We shall see! But for now, here are my top 10 audiobooks on my spring 2021 TBR!

Book Review: “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” by Tembi Locke

Hello everyone! Can you believe it’s already been a year since we’ve been in lockdown? I’ve definitely been feeling the weight of it lately, and I’m really looking forward to being together with friends and family again. On the bright side, I have been able to make more time for reading since I’ve been home more! So that’s been a small sliver of light in all this darkness.

Today I’m reviewing “From Scratch” by Tembi Locke, and WOW! It’s easily one of my favorites that I’ve so far read this year, and it’s likely to make my “Top Books of 2021” list! It was so emotional and powerful, and one that I’m still thinking about several weeks after finishing it.

Spoiler-Free Review: “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” is a memoir that follows…

February Wrap-Up

Happy March everyone!

February was a short month, but one in which I managed to do more reading than usual. I was in kind of a reading slump in January, but luckily I managed to break out of that in February!

I think part of the reason my motivation to read improved last month was because I was reading with purpose. Due to it being Black History Month, I decided that I wanted every book I read to be written by black authors. Of course, I’d like to note that I strive to read from a diverse selection of authors year-round, but I really wanted to focus some extra energy and attention on this during February.

And WOW! I really discovered some great books this month. I even read some genres that I don’t normally explore!

Without further ado, here is my wrap-up of all the books I read in February…

Top 5 Saturday: Books with a Unique Format

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a unique format.

I had a lot of fun with this one! I enjoy finding books to read that are out of my comfort zone, and one way I do that is by finding books to read with a format that is “atypical” for me. For this post, I decided to sort it by format rather than by specific book, as there were several categories for which I was able to think of multiple examples. So here we go! Here are my top five categories of unique formats for books (in no particular order)!

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Weapons on the Cover

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with weapons on the cover.

Honestly, I really struggled with the prompt for this week. The kinds of books I read don’t typically feature weapons, and if I were to be shopping for books and I saw a weapon on the cover, that would actually be a turn-off for me and I would be less likely to add it to my cart. However, I managed to come up with a list that includes some books I’ve read and some on my TBR that feature weapons in some way on their covers. Here is my top five (in no particular order)!

Top 10 Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about authors I read that were new to me in 2020.

I was really excited to put together a list for this challenge! I appreciate how the focus is on authors that are new to me, but not necessarily new in 2020. For instance, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time last year, but Bram Stoker certainly isn’t a new author! I tend to prioritize older books that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, rather than new releases each year. It’s not that I don’t read more current releases, it just isn’t usually what I prioritize. On this list, you’ll find a mix of authors that were new to me in 2020 as well as authors that were new to everyone last year! These were all authors that were not only unfamiliar to me, but whose work I truly loved. Here is my top ten…

Top 10 Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2020 But Didn’t Get To

Welcome to Top 10 Tuesday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s challenge is about books that I meant to read in 2020, but didn’t get to…

Top 5 Audiobooks of 2020

As rough as 2020 was, being stuck in quarantine sure did make more time for reading! Without my commute to work, I listened to fewer audiobooks but was also able to get to more books in my physical TBR pile! Even with the reading slump I hit this summer (amidst pandemic wedding planning), I still managed to read an astounding (for me, anyway) 100 books, with many of my favorites being from the very beginning and very end of the year.

I have my top books divided up among physical books and audiobooks (since this greatly impacts the reading experience). I considered dividing the lists by genre or by target audience (adult, young adult, children’s), but decided to go by format instead since a great book can be written for any audience and from any genre. I also didn’t commit to a specific number of books to acknowledge for each category, I just identified my standout reads from the year and ranked them within that range.

Without further ado, here are my top audiobooks of 2020!

Top 8 Physical Books of 2020

As rough as 2020 was, being stuck in quarantine sure did make more time for reading! Without my commute to work, I listened to fewer audiobooks but was also able to get to more books in my physical TBR pile! Even with the reading slump I hit this summer (amidst pandemic wedding planning), I still managed to read an astounding (for me, anyway) 100 books, with many of my favorites being from the very beginning and very end of the year.

I have my top books divided up among physical books and audiobooks (since this greatly impacts the reading experience). I considered dividing the lists by genre or by target audience (adult, young adult, children’s), but decided to go by format instead since a great book can be written for any audience and from any genre. I also didn’t commit to a specific number of books to acknowledge for each category, I just identified my standout reads from the year and ranked them within that range.

Without further ado, here are my top physical books of 2020!