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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life
This topic was really tough for me but I managed to find enough book titles to describe me and my life, although I’ll probably come across better ones immediately after posting this and then I’ll be kicking myself for not thinking of those! 😂 I also reserve the right to add to/change this list or make a new list some time in the future because my life and I are definitely still changing too!
Top Ten Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong – I used to read tarot and numerology professionally.
The Piano Student by Lea Singer – I’m currently learning to play the piano!
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin – I mean, my husband has no idea how many hidden books I’m keeping secret from him. Shhh!!
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – So my written English is pretty good, but my speech and accent can be iffy, especially when I’m overly excited or nervous.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – I procrastinate a lot! But I’m trying not to as much!
Songs for Other People’s Weddings by David Levithan – I used to be a wedding singer and I also performed for corporate events and in pubs.
Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung – I’m an introvert and need my quiet time! I’m sure many of you relate.
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson – I identify as a happy person, even when I’m not happy, in which case I make myself happy by force of will!
Survival of the Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem – I have a family history of cancer and diabetes and have survived both myself. Probably a longer story here but for another time.
Rising Strong by Brené Brown – I’m stronger now after having survived my illnesses, and I continue to get up after every fall. I wanted to end the list strong too!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle.
But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.
Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them.
To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.
I’d read the first couple of books a few years ago but never finished the series. I remember enjoying it though and I’m rereading all of them to refresh my memory and finally finish it!
The Quotes
“They said I was one thing. But I have changed my mind.”
“Traditional,” she echoed. “What a curious word that is. So bland, and yet often so poisonous.”
“Gregor Dandolo did his utmost to follow the laws: both the laws of the city, and his own moral laws of the universe. But more and more these days, one seemed to disagree with the other.”
“Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.”
The Narrator(s)
Tara Sands. She was wonderful! I love all her voices and characterizations.
My Thoughts
Book 1 – Foundryside I don’t usually remember very many details of books I’ve read, especially ones I read years ago, but for some reason I remembered more than usual about this book. Sancia’s abilities, Clef’s personality, the way they connected with each other, and then how they joined forces with Gregor, Orso, Berenice, and everyone else. It was all very exciting for me, and I loved how the characters’ personalities worked and clashed with each other in such organic ways. My favorite thing about this book was how everyone had their own agendas and how messy they all were in each of their own ways, and how reluctant they were to work with each other but became allies out of necessity. I got very invested in all of the characters and I wanted to know what happened next for them.
Book 2 – Shorefall Although this is also a reread, I didn’t remember as much about it as the first book in the series. I did check my notes from my first read and apparently I was a little disappointed because it didn’t give me what I wanted out of it.
Spoiler
I wanted to see more about how the main characters build their Foundry together, worked together strengthening their relationships, using their skills and outwitting the other Foundries. I also felt like we didn’t see enough of Clef until much later.
Rereading it now, I feel the same way, but I went in trying to be more open-minded about what we actually got and I was able to get behind what actually went down. The story this time was still very exciting, and much bigger than previously. There are a lot more magical constructs and inventions that I thought was incredibly imaginative and a little complicated for me, but it works for the story.
I stopped here the first time I read this series, but at this point I’m still in it and I’m excited to finally read the last book!
Book 3 – Locklands I just finished the book and I am very sorry to say I am very disappointed with it. In fact, I was already disappointed with the second book but trying to give the series the benefit of the doubt. I hoped this book would bring the story home but I felt like it really lost focus and meaning and I didn’t even know what we’re reading anymore. I kept hoping it would finish strong, but at about 80% of the book it got so difficult for me to get through that I seriously considered a DNF. I didn’t because it’s hard to let go of the last 20% of the last book after I’ve read everything before it so I pushed through.
I’m glad I finished so that I can know for sure that I don’t like it, but I am really disappointed it turned out this way. Also, I promise I’m not doing this out of pettiness but I’d like to talk about the editing of the book. The overuse of “rather” and the manner of speaking; “It wasn’t like this, rather, it was like that” happens A LOT. Another one was the use of “wasn’t it?”, “aren’t I?”, “can’t you?” etc., as in; “I can do this, can’t I?”, “The worst is going to happen, isn’t it?”. Obviously these are normal ways of speaking, but it happened a lot and at weird places in the conversation/narration, and with different characters.
It’s possible that these happened in the first two books as well but I didn’t notice as much because it’s a gradual buildup and I only noticed after being exposed for three books and/or I was more immersed in the stories in the first two books and bored with the third so I notice its flaws more. Either way, it’s still a disappointment. I loved the concept, the world-building, and the magical system in this series, but the story now seems so trivial and meaningless to me.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars. An overall rating for the series.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books About/Set In Places on My Bucket List
I’m in so much trouble! My plan for this week’s list was to list a few books for places on my bucket list, as per instructions, and I had a few different places in mind like, I wanted to visit the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China, Niagara Falls, and so on… Well, I started with Rome and did my search for books featuring Rome, and ended up with SO MANY NEW BOOKS ON MY TBR!
What’s worse, some of them are series! What’s even worse, some of them are LONG RUNNING SERIES with seven or more books!
So obviously I stopped searching for any other books featuring my other bucket list places because I cannot afford this! You’ll have to make do with just books about Rome!
Top Ten Books Set in Rome
From the Ashes by Melissa Addey – The author has written another series, The Forbidden City, set in China that I’m also interested in and have on my TBR. There are four books in this series.
SPQR by Mary Beard – This is nonfiction and seems to be very highly recommended. I’ve already put in a request for it from my library.
Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr – This is a memoir that I’m interested in because I have another book by the author on my TBR as well, All The Light We Cannot See.
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough – The author of The Thorn Birds, with such high ratings for these books on Goodreads, and seven books in the series!
Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow – 25 freaking books in the series! To be fair, I already had this book on my TBR for a while, but I’d forgotten about it and I didn’t know there were 25 books in the series!
Pompeii by Robert Harris – Thank the gods this is a standalone! It might be the only standalone on this list, other than the nonfics!
The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis – 13 books in this series. Not as bad as 25 but still painful on my purse!
Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn – It’s Kate Quinn and I’d been wanting to read more of her books. I didn’t know she wrote historical fiction about Rome, but I am so here for it! Four books in this series.
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff – This is the first of eight books in a series. They were apparently not written as a series but they are categorized as one, so we’ll see.
The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie – So this is the only book on the list I’ve read and loved. It’s one of my all-time favorite books and I reread it all the time and recommend it to everyone I can because it’s criminally underrated. It’s also a duology but I haven’t read the second book. If you’re a fan of historical fiction set in Rome and haven’t read any of these books, I highly recommend you read this one!
Have you read any of these authors? What did you think of them? Would you read any of their books?
Jeff Winston was 43 and trapped in a tepid marriage and a dead-end job, waiting for that time when he could be truly happy, when he died.
And when he woke and he was 18 again, with all his memories of the next 25 years intact. He could live his life again, avoiding the mistakes, making money from his knowledge of the future, seeking happiness.
Until he dies at 43 and wakes up back in college again…
“Only the products of your work will disappear. The struggle, the devotion you put into your endeavors … That’s where the value truly lies, and will remain: within you.”
“Each lifetime had been different, as each choice is always different, unpredictable in its outcome or effect. Yet those choices had to be made, Jeff thought. He’d learned to accept the potential losses, in the hope that they would be outweighed by the gains. The only certain failure, he knew, and the most grievous, would be never to risk at all.”
“All life includes loss. It’s taken me many, many years to learn to deal with that, and I don’t expect I’ll ever be fully resigned to it. But that doesn’t mean we have to turn away from the world, or stop striving for the best that we can do and be. We owe that much to ourselves, at least, and we deserve whatever measure of good may come of it.”
The Narrator(s)
William Dufris. It was okay, no complaints.
My Thoughts
I tried reading this book some years ago and DNF’d at about 20% in, and I probably wouldn’t have picked it up again if it wasn’t because my bookclub chose this for our March BOTM. I decided to try again, and I’m so glad I did because it got more and more interesting the deeper I got into it. It got me thinking a lot, and asking a lot of questions about how I would live my own life/lives if I had to live it over and over again. I would definitely memorize all the lottery numbers, that’s a given! But once money is taken care of, what would I do of importance?
It’s so interesting to see how the author navigates this thought experiment with Jeff and Pamela and the choices they make each time they relive their lives. I don’t feel like we get any real answers in the end, but I think that’s sort of the point, we never really ever get a real answer to the meaning of life. This book made me think, but it also made me feel deeply. I imagine that even though they were able to relive their lives, there must be some grief for everything they lose each time they do. I’m glad I tried again because this was a great book and I think it will be one I’ll likely reread.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle, narrated by Stephen Fry
Ever since he made his first appearance in A Study In Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes has enthralled and delighted millions of fans throughout the world. Now Audible is proud to present Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, read by Stephen Fry. A lifelong fan of Doyle’s detective fiction, Fry has narrated the complete works of Sherlock Holmes – four novels and five collections of short stories. And, exclusively for Audible, Stephen has written and narrated nine insightful, intimate and deeply personal introductions to each title.
He writes: “Popular fiction offers different kinds of superheroes to save the world by restoring order to the chaos, confusion and criminality of our times. Heroes with remarkable gifts are as in vogue now as they have been since they first appeared, perhaps even more in vogue. But although the very first one was launched in serial published form just like his masked and body-suited successors, it was not in DC or Marvel comic books that he made his appearance; rather it was in the sedate and respectable pages of Mrs Beeton’s Christmas Annual in the mid-Victorian year 1887.”
Stephen Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, comedian, television presenter, film director and all round national treasure. He is the acclaimed narrator of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter audiobooks and most recently recorded The Tales of Max Carrados for Audible Studios. Stephen has contributed columns and articles to newspapers and magazines, appears frequently on radio and has written four novels and three volumes of autobiography.
For the Reading Challenge(s): I am assigning multiple prompts to this book because it’s technically nine books in one, and it’s my challenge to play with anyway! 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #12: A genre-defining read) (Prompt #21: Written in the 1800s) (Prompt #22: Spotted in a TV series or movie)
The Reason
Because I wanted to!
The Quotes
“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”
“I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.”
“I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”
“To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.”
The Narrator(s)
Stephen Fry. It was the most wonderful experience listening to this man narrate Sherlock Holmes!
My Thoughts
I love Sherlock Holmes and have consumed so much media featuring him over the years. There have been so many different film adaptations, retellings, both on screen and in books, and I have loved so many of them. Imagine my chagrin when I realized that I have never read any of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, until now that is.
This audiobook was on sale in Audible and I decided to get it on a whim. It’s a 72-hour commitment so it sat on my shelf for a while but I finally got started on it, and oh, what a journey! I took my time, but I listened a little every day, and how I loved coming back to it each time. Sherlock Holmes and Watson are such familiar characters, and it was so comforting to relax at the end of the day and come back to them.
Stephen Fry as the narrator was incredible as well, and I cannot recommend this audiobook enough. Reading all of the books can feel daunting if you want to do the complete collection at once, but listening to Stephen Fry narrate all of them is the best experience I could’ve asked for. I was honestly so sad when I got to the end and was seriously considering restarting from the beginning immediately after. I’m quite sure I would’ve done so, if I didn’t have other time-sensitive books I had to get to!
In any case, I loved everything about this experience. I loved Sherlock Holmes and Watson, I loved the stories and cases they got into, I loved Stephen Fry’s narration, I loved the immersion into the times and the mysteries, I loved that it was such a long audiobook that I could escape into… I loved it all!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with the latest discoveries on the human microbiome, a practical guide in the tradition of Wheat Belly and Grain Brain that conclusively demonstrates the inextricable, biological link between mind and body.
We have all experienced the connection between our mind and our gut—the decision we made because it “felt right;” the butterflies in our stomach before a big meeting; the anxious stomach rumbling when we’re stressed out. While the dialogue between the gut and the brain has been recognized by ancient healing traditions, including Aryuvedic and Chinese medicine, Western medicine has failed to appreciate the complexity of how the brain, gut, and more recently, the microbiome—the microorganisms that live inside us—communicate with one another. In The Mind-Gut Connection, Dr. Emeran Mayer, Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Neurobiology of Stress, offers a revolutionary look at this developing science, teaching us how to harness the power of the mind-gut connection to take charge of our health.
The Mind-Gut Connection shows how to keep the brain-gut communication clear and balanced to:
• Heal the gut by focusing on a plant-based diet • Balance the microbiome by consuming fermented foods and probiotics, fasting, and cutting out sugar and processed foods • Promote weight loss by detoxifying and creating a healthy digestion and maximum nutrient absorption • Boost immunity and prevent the onset of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s • Generate a happier mindset and reduce fatigue, moodiness, anxiety, and depression • Prevent and heal GI disorders such as leaky gut syndrome; food sensitivities and allergies; and IBS; as well as digestive discomfort such as heartburn and bloating • And much more.
I want to read more nonfiction and I got curious about the gut and gut-health.
The Quotes
“The immune cells residing in your gut make up the largest component of your body’s immune system; in other words, there are more immune cells living in the wall of your gut than circulating in the blood or residing in your bone marrow.”
“The gut is also the largest storage facility for serotonin in our body. Ninety-five percent of the body’s serotonin is stored in these warehouses.”
“Your gut microbes are in a prime position to influence your emotions, by generating and modulating signals the gut sends back to the brain.”
“Adults often think that self-confidence is something a child learns, but little kids are by their nature always invincible, it’s self-doubt that needs to be taught.”
My Thoughts
This book was incredibly informative and I learned a lot, but I did feel it was a little dry. Some of the most recent nonfiction books I’ve read have been written by very entertaining and accomplished writers, so I might be a little unfair in my judgement. This book is well-written and very interesting, jam-packed with a lot of details about the gut microbiome, its history, research, and effects on our health.
I was most fascinated with the chapter about gut feelings, and how our microbiome really does affect our intuition because it acts as our second brain and sends signals to our brain when it recognizes a feeling it has had before. I am obviously not explaining it very well, but I do recommend reading this book yourself for this chapter and to understand your body and how it works, especially since we’ve got more bacteria in our gut than we have cells in our body.
Personally, I’ll admit that while I enjoyed reading this book in the moment, I didn’t end up retaining much of the details, as is normal for me as a reader. However, it’s piqued my interest enough that I know I’d like to read more about the gut as well as do more to ensure my own gut health. I’m also intending to reread this book at some point, after I read some others that are more accessible and entertaining to the layperson. I’m hoping I’ll retain more by then and come back to this book with a better understanding.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
I loved A Man Called Ove and I’m planning to read more of the author’s works.
The Quotes
“The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else’s belief in them.”
“Art is what can’t fit inside a person. The things that bubble over.”
“It is an act of violence when an adult yells at a child, all adults know that deep down, because all adults were once little. Yet we still do it. Time after time, we fail at being human beings.”
“Adults often think that self-confidence is something a child learns, but little kids are by their nature always invincible, it’s self-doubt that needs to be taught.”
The Narrator(s)
Marin Ireland. No complaints, it was a good listening experience.
My Thoughts
I enjoyed this book but not as much as I hoped I would. I had some high expectations going in because I loved A Man Called Ove so much, and I had heard some people say that this one was better. It’s really good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t necessarily think it’s better and to be fair, I don’t think we can compare the two books. They’re completely different from each other, but they are both wonderfully written and showcase humans in some of their most vulnerable times struggling to trust other people and allow themselves to be loved.
Perhaps that’s what I love about this book and Backman as a writer; he writes about difficult things, but in a very relatable way. His stories are light-hearted yet deep, bittersweet yet funny, and sometimes that’s just exactly how life is. His characters can be annoying at times but also endearing. They make mistakes but they care about each other, and more importantly, they can count on each other. It was a good read and I look forward to reading more of his works.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.
March 2026 Wrap Up
March was a whirlwind! I was kept busy for most of the month with regular stuff and some spring cleaning. And we also had some friends come to visit during spring break with their family. We spent full days with them doing activities we don’t normally do anymore and we were exhausted but so happy to see them and spend time with them. These are people we love, so even though it was tiring, we would’ve love for them to stay even longer. It also made us realize that we’re too young to feel so old, and they’ve given us the inspiration to get more active. New fitness goals coming up for the new month and beyond!
My March 2026 TBR Intentions
As for books, I only ended up reading two out of four books in my March TBR and a total of five books for the whole month, but one of them is the Sherlock Holmes collection, and as I mentioned in last month’s wrap up post, it is massive at 72 hours or 1796 pages and is technically made up of an equivalent of nine books? So it’s not too bad I guess.
Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Glass Château by Stephen P. Kiernan
The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer, MD
This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas
Books Read in March 2026
We Met Like This by Kasie West
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer, MD
Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Notable Book(s) This Month
Well, obviously most of my time was spent on Sherlock Holmes! I listened to the definitive collection on audio narrated by Stephen Fry, and it was the most wonderful experience. I was always looking forward to getting back to it and was so sad when it was over. I had such a strong urge to restart the book from the beginning once I got to the end. It just feels like such a comforting book, and Stephen Fry is just the best narrator, I really felt completely lost in the Holmes’ world and I loved it!
The other books were good too, I didn’t have a bad read this month, but Sherlock Holmes was obviously the standout.
April 2026 TBR Intentions
I’ve already started rereading Foundryside, the first book in The Founders Trilogy, and my aim is to finally finish the series. I’m actually anticipating another busy month so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to read as much as I want to and I don’t want to disappoint myself but I’m hoping to get to as many of the books on my Spring TBR as possible.
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett
Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett
How was your month in March? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful April with lots of great books!
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Buzzwords or Phrases That Make Me Want to Read (or Avoid) a Book
I am a sucker for “found family” tropes. If a book has a found family element, I’m probably going to read it, and I’m probably going to cry. If you’re thinking it’s because I have some deep-seated family trauma, you’d be right, but it really doesn’t take a psychologist to tell me that’s why I crave stories about happy found families. Even so, if anyone is looking to adopt an adult woman in her 40s, I’m available. Just saying.😂😭😂
Top Ten Books with Found Family
Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers – All the books in the Wayfarer series are amazing! They’re all different stories featuring different characters, but the connections these characters make with each other are so heartwarming, especially considering how they are all different species and come from different cultures. The whole series is just such a gorgeous look into how well different people can get along if we come into our relationships with the intent to understand each other.
Fred, the Vampire Accountant series by Drew Hayes – This series gets better as we get deeper. We meet so many different characters, and we get more and more attached to each one of them as we go. Fred is our unlikely hero, and he’s the one who connects everyone and creates those bonds. It’s wonderful to see.
Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman – Carl and Donut are the best found family duo, but there are so many other characters we meet in this series that become a part of their family as well, and I love every single one of them. You start out not taking this series seriously, but it gets really deep and emotional the more you get into it, while still keeping a sense of humor. There are parts where I literally laugh at one paragraph, and cry at the very next. The next book in the series is coming out soon and I’m planning to reread it all over again.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman – I love that the MC was such a grouchy but relatable character. I love how the story progressed, and how all his neighbors loved and cared for him despite his best efforts to discourage them. I watched the movie adaptation with Tom Hanks and ugly cried, and then I read the book and ugly cried all over again even though I already knew the story.
Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery – This series probably ignited my love for found family stories. It’s one of my favorite childhood stories, and I still love it today. I love that Anne found love with Matthew and Marilla, and they found love with her. And Anne just kept creating found families all over the place with every next book. This series is pure magic.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King – Stephen King has a surprisingly strong theme of found family in a lot of his stories; The Body, It, The Institute, Joyland, Mr. Mercedes, Dolores Claiborne… just to name a few of the recent ones I remember. I chose to feature Fairy Tale today just because of the dog. I would die for Radar.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune – I was resistant to reading this book at first because of the hype at the time, but I’m so glad I did because I loved it. I loved how adorable all the kids were, how distinct each of their personalities, and I also loved the adults and the way they were not too old to learn new things. The magic, the whimsy, the love for each other, my heart melts all over again thinking about it.
Rook and Rose series by M.A. Carrick – This series has higher stakes compared to some of the other ones on this list, but the found family story is just as sweet and heartwarming. There’s so much richness to the world-building and magic system, and so much thought and nuance to the characters and their motivations. I love how the found family find each other here, the way they learn to love and trust each other, everything that they go through together… It’s one of my favorite stories.
The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown – I didn’t know this was a book when I first watched the animation, but I loved it already even then. Then I saw that it’s not just one book but a series. I read them all, and I love that even a robot could have a found family, that they would love so much and be loved so much. Oh no, I’m tearing up just thinking about it!
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells – Well, here’s another robot with found family. Murderbot is a little more stoic than the Wild Robot, but no less lovable, kind, and caring, even if it doesn’t realize that about itself. It warms my heart because if Murderbot has family who loves it, there must be hope for me, right?!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?
Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.
Today’s topic is Books on My Spring 2026 to-Read List
Some of these books have been on my TBR for years! I’ve featured a couple of them on several TBR lists over the last few years and it’s just embarrassing at this point, but I feel like I’m going to keep featuring them and purposely embarrass myself until I read them, as a motivation for me to finally read them! Hopefully it works? 😅
Top Ten Books on My Spring 2026 TBR
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich – I’ve become a fan of the author ever since I read The Sentence and I’ve been wanting to read more of her books. This one has been on my TBR since it came out in 2024 but I haven’t gotten around to it for some reason. I’ve borrowed it multiple times from the library but kept returning it unread. I ended up purchasing the audiobook so I could listen at my convenience but I haven’t started it yet. Hopefully sometime soon!
In The Woods by Tana French – I came across it while researching Irish authors for last week’s Top Ten Tuesday and I’m very excited about it because it really sounds like the kind of book I’d love, and if so, there are a whole bunch of other books by the author I’d probably read too!
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett – This would be a reread, but I didn’t finish the series the first time I read it, and my intention is to reread to finish the whole series.
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood – This would aso be a reread. I read this book years ago and loved it, but it’s been a while and I think I’ll get a lot more out of it this time around.
Educated by Tara Westover – This book was overhyped at one point which made me hesitant to read it, but it’s been a while and people are still consistently talking about how good it is. So I’ll give it a try.
Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell – This is relatively new on my TBR but it sounds so good and I love a good monster romance!
The Glass Château by Stephen P. Kiernan – I have loved all of the author’s books and I have featured him and his books many times on my blog. I’ve also featured this book on many of my TBR lists but just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. This is the one book I hope I will have read by the time the next TBR list feature comes around!
Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane – I don’t understand the holdup for me reading this book either. It’s been on my TBR a long time and I just need to get to it.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – This would be another reread. I loved this book when I read it so many years ago and I’ve just been craving the vibes. I’ve also been meaning to read other books from the author, but somehow just never did.
