Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Reasons Why I Love Reading. And we’re supposed to limit ourselves to just ten reasons?

1. It supports a creative industry
2. It’s a way of helping small businesses, like my nearest independent bookshop Fourbears Books, or maintaining valuable public institutions, like libraries
3. Because books can be now consumed in a variety of formats – phyical, digital, audio – depending on preference or circumstances. For example, I’m currently listening to the audiobook version of A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, have just finished a paperback copy of Business As Usual by Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford, and am reading an eARC of For Lord & Land by Matthew Harffy.
4. Because reading is a great way to pass the time on long journeys
5. Because books can transport you to different parts of the world, such as to India in my recent read The Secret Keeper of Jaipur
6. Because books can give you an insight into events you’d otherwise not – or perhaps rather not – experience, such as the evacuation of Dunkirk in Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes
7. You can learn things you didn’t know, and not only from non-fiction.  For instance, as I learned from the introduction to The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories, Spain has four recognised languages
8. Reading opens up the possibility of being part of a wider community of fellow readers
9. Picking up a book can help to lift your spirits just when you need it most
10. If you don’t believe me about the value of reading, then listen to the wise words of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as imagined by Alan Bennett in The Uncommon Reader – “A book is a device to ignite the imagination.”

What are some of the reasons you love reading?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2021. Here’s my list – and this is just the ones in my TBR pile, physical or digital! Links from the titles will take you to the full book description on Goodreads.

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July

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri – From the bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a powerful story about love, loss, hope and courage, set in the lush forests of Cyprus.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite – Told through the eyes of its greatest unseen protagonist, this astonishing debut plunges you into the blood and exhilaration of the first days of the Wars of the Roses, a war as women fight it.

August

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – 1822, Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event which only occurs once in several decades.
A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz – the third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry – the third in the historical crime series set in 19th century Edinburgh 

September

The Hidden Child by Louise Fein – Inspired by the author’s personal experience, The Hidden Child illuminates the moral and ethical issues of an era shaped by xenophobia, prejudice, fear, and well-intentioned yet flawed science
The Late Train to Gipsy Hill by Alan Johnson – Each day, Gary watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her, holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words ‘HELP ME’ scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks – Sweeping across Europe as it recovers from one war and hides its face from the coming of another, Snow Country is a landmark novel of exquisite yearnings, dreams of youth and the sanctity of hope. 

October

A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford – A gorgeous, haunting and captivating novel of a century-long family mystery in the wilds of Scotland, and one woman’s hunt for the truth.
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout – The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life

What forthcoming books are you eagerly anticipating?