Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Hey Mersquad! So sorry that I’ve been MIA for a hot minute. It’s been a rough season and I just needed a break from as much technology as possible. However, I wanted to get back on the blog and share some things with you, as well as share my blog for Top Ten Tuesday! I have to say that as many weekly memes that I’ve come across, this one seems to be the one that I try to participate in as much as possible. I know there are probably so many more out there, so if you know any that are also fun, please share! I want to add more to my repertoire and I’m always on the lookout for some recommendations.

Also, I hope everyone has a gentle holiday season. There are so many things happening in our world right now that aren’t happy, or cause for celebration, so I completely understand if you aren’t happy right now. I know I’m not. It’s hard to celebrate holidays right now when things seem to be in turmoil all the time. Basically, I didn’t do much this weekend but sleep. Which was insane to me because I didn’t think I could sleep anymore, but I really did. Even today, I didn’t want to wake up and go to work, but I needed to.

However, I hope that you have been happy and healthy as much as you can be.

Okay, now on to the post.

I didn’t get any books for Christmas, which is okay since I may need to start downgrading anyway, and I did finish three of the books that I wanted to read for winter, so that’s awesome! I think for this one, I’ll also share more books that I want to read somewhat soon, that I didn’t mention in the last post:

[1] – Our Cursed Love – Julie Abe: I received this book from Wednesday Books, which sucks because of the Boycott on SMP and I won’t be able to share my thoughts on it. But I have been wanting to read an Abe book for a while now, and this would be an amazing one to start with.

[2] – Never a Hero – Vanessa Len: I’ve been meaning to read this book since it came out! I am the absolute worst at reading books as they come out into the world, and now that I’m seeing that there is supposed to be a THIRD book in this series, when I thought it was going to be a duology, now I’m even more intrigued.

[3] – Zhara – S. Jae-Jones: Apparently this is another Wednesday Books… book. Sheesh.

[4] – The Empress of Time – Kylie Lee Baker: This one is also a book that I’ve been wanting to read since earlier this year when it came out. I remember reading the first book and I was so in shock with the ending! Ahh, I need to know how it ends, so now I need to read this like ASAP.

[5] – The Name Drop – Susan Lee: I read her first novel Seoulmates and adored it so freaking much that I knew I had to see how her second novel would be. I am sure that it is going to be just as enjoyable. This one and The Empress of Time are from an imprint that ended up closing down for some reason, which also sucks because they had some amazing books! I don’t remember why they ended up closing that specific imprint, and I feel terrible for the authors that were working on their books to publish when the news came out. I hope they found new homes.

[6] – Strike the Zither – Joan He: I’ve been wanting to read a Joan He book for YEARS now and honestly I don’t know what’s stopping me. Maybe it’s because I need to just make sure that I’m in the right mindset to read them, so that I can appreciate the brilliance of them, so I need to get out of my head and just DO IT ALREADY.

[7] – The Forest of Stolen Girls – June Hur: I love June Hur so much! Again with Joan He, I’m worried about not being in the right mindset to appreciate these books, and I feel like that’s why I haven’t read any further books yet. But again, I need to get out of my head.

[8] – Talon – Julie Kagawa: I’ve read this one before, but I haven’t continued the series. And it’s been so long that I feel like I need to reread this before I try to finish the series. I really hope that Kagawa writes more books that are not part of the Iron Fey series. Nothing wrong with that series, but I love her other work a lot more.

[9] – Mika in Real Life – Emiko Jean: This is Jean’s first adult novel, and after I read and adored Tokyo Ever After, I knew that I would love this one. I have this on my shelf from the library and it’s my mission to read it before I have to eventually return it.

[10] – Love in the Big City – Sang Young Park: This would be one of the first translated novels I would read in 2024. And this one has been on my radar for a while because it just looks interesting. I’m excited for this.

I feel like I talked a lot about other things but I hope that this was still a decent post. Also, did you realize that Top Ten Tuesday has been running for 14 years? I had no idea it has been going on for THAT LONG! Well, 14 years as of 2024, but still, that is incredible. Thank you to everyone that has been apart of its longevity and thank you to both The Broke and the Bookish and That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting this weekly meme. It wouldn’t be as popular as it is without you.

Have a wonderful end to your year, or a gentle end to your year. I’ll be back tomorrow if I can help it.