Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite 2025 Reads

Welcome to my annual roundup of my favorite reads from the past year!  As usual, I am linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for her Top Ten Tuesday at the start of the new year.  Also, as usual, I'm doing two lists: my top ten favorite new-to-me reads and my top ten favorite rereads.

My Ten Favorite New Reads of 2025

1. Before the King by Heather Kaufman -- Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, marriage of convenience, personal transformation (PG-16)

2. Woman in Shadow by Carrie Stuart Parks -- Christian fiction, suspense, PTSD, murder, forensic linguistics, limb loss (PG-16)

3. The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery -- classic, coming of age, slice of life, humorous, friendship (G)

4. The Adventures of Elizabeth in Ruegen by Elizabeth von Arnim -- classic, humorous, travel stories, epistolary (G)

5. The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens -- classic, Christmas, family, friendship (PG)

6. The Silent Night by Sarah Beran -- YA, fairy tale retelling, fantasy, Christmas, romance (G)

7. Shadows of the Valley by Britt Howard -- Christian fiction, suspense, fugitive, found family, romance, limb loss, PTSD (PG-13)

8. Of Clockworks and Daggers by Sarah Everest -- Christian fiction, YA, steampunk, fantasy, redemption (PG)

9. A Run at Love by Toni Shiloh -- Christian fiction, contemporary romance, friends-to-more, horse racing (PG) 

10. Hear the Falling Snow by Storm Shultz -- Christian fiction, contemporary romance, Christmas, loss of parent, baking (G)

My Ten Favorite Rereads of 2025

1. The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- classic, personal growth, the outdoors, romantic love (PG)

2. Persuasion by Jane Austen -- classic, second-chance romance, friendship (G)

3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- classic, enemies-to-more, he falls first, friendship, class strife, loss of parent (PG)

4. The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett -- classic, culture clash, found family (G)

5. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit -- classic, middle-grade, family, slice of life (G)

6. The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert -- YA, family, Germany post-WWII, animals, farming, growing up, ingenuity (PG)

7. Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert -- YA, family, Germany post-WWII, coming of age, animals, farming, first romance (PG-10)

8. Eldest by Christopher Paolini -- YA, fantasy, dragons, coming of age, war, friendship, found family (PG-13)

9. Eragon by Christopher Paolini -- YA, fantasy, dragons, friendship, found family (PG-13)

10. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare -- YA, Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, coming of age, found family (PG-13)

How about you?  What books stood out to you in 2025?

"The Annotated Persuasion" by Jane Austen (annotated and edited by David M. Shapard)

Do you ever love a book so much that you draw the last few chapters out as long as you possibly can?

It took me almost a week to read the last three chapters of Persuasion this time.  They were such exquisite joy, and yet so cozy and comforting, that I simply had to revel in and savor them as long as possible.  Finally, finally, finally things went well for the patient and persevering Anne Elliot.  So satisfying!  So heartwarming!

And I love that Persuasion is the first book I finished reading in the new year.  This book is full of new beginnings and hope for the future.  It should go into rotation as a first-of-the-year book for me on a regular basis.

The annotations by David M. Shapard were once again a continual delight.  I will never remember even a tenth of what I learned while reading all six of these annotated Austen books over the past twelve months... but that's okay!  I will remember some of it, and I can always read them again one day.  There's enough information in these to make reading them equal to taking a whole college course on Austen, I think.  They aren't fast reads, but they are worthwhile.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G for the original text and PG-13 for the annotations, which sometimes delve into modern vs. 1800s notions about sexual purity and so on.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2024

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Best Books I Read in 2024."  It's been a while since I joined up with this weekly event, but I'm hoping to get back to participating a lot more in 2025.

I read a lot fewer books this year than I did in the past couple of years, for a variety of reasons.  I have two kids in high school now.  My middle-schooler participated in two different ballet productions.  I published four books.  My dad died, and my mom now lives with us part of the time.  But I still managed to read 68 books!  

So, here are my two annual lists: my top ten new reads and my top ten re-reads, with a bit of info about each one, and what I personally rated them, movie-style.  I've linked all the titles to my reviews (for re-reads, those reviews may have been written after a previous reading, not this year).

New Reads

1. Up from Dust by Heather Kaufman -- Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, historical fiction, clean romance (PG-10)

2. Break the Beast by Allison Tebo -- young adult, Beowulf retelling, historical-esque fantasy, adventure, platonic friendship, heroic characters, found family (PG-13)

3. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling -- middle-grade fiction, diverse reads, disability rep -- limb difference, humorous (PG)

4. The Sackett Brand by Louis L'Amour -- western, historical fiction, heroism, strong family ties, heroic characters (PG-16)

5. The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery -- cozy vibes, family fiction, slice-of-life, childhood friendship (G)

6. Kill the Dawn by Emily Hayse -- young adult, Hamlet retelling, historical-esque fantasy, Old Norse vibes, heroic characters (PG-13)

7. Snowhawk by Deborah Koren -- high fantasy, platonic friendship, save-the-kingdom quest, heroic characters, found family (PG-16)

8. Summon the Light by Tor Thibeaux -- young adult, Shakespeare's The Tempest retelling, fantasy, heroic characters, found family (PG)

9. The Midnight Show by Sarah Pennington -- young adult, "Twelve Dancing Princesses" retelling, historical-esque fantasy, Jazz Age/1920s vibes, mystery, detectives, entertainers (PG-10)

10. The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim -- epistolary, humorous, classic (PG-10)

Re-reads

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- classic, high fantasy, save-the-world quest, heroic characters, found family (PG-13)

2. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton -- young adult, hoodlums, coming-of-age, heroic characters, found family (PG)

3. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin -- middle-grade fiction, mystery, humorous (PG)

4. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen -- classic, parody of Gothic fiction, humorous, clean romance (PG)

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- classic, humorous, clean romance, coming-of-age (PG)

6. Balefire by Deborah Koren -- high fantasy, platonic friendship, save-the-kingdom quest, heroic characters, found family (PG-16)

7. Up from Dust by Heather Kaufman -- Christian fiction, Biblical fiction, historical fiction, clean romance (PG-10)

8. King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry -- middle-grade fiction, historical fiction, horses, diverse reads, speech impediment rep, based on a true story, found family (PG)

9. A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White -- Christian fiction, historical fiction, eve of WWI, spies, intrigue, mystery, book lovers, diverse reads, speech impediment rep (PG)

10. Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O'Dell -- young adult, historical fiction, diverse reads, American Indian culture, based on a true story, adventure (PG-10)

If you're wondering why Up from Dust is on both lists, it's because I read it for the first time this year, and then read it again a few months later.  It's just that good!

(From my Instagram)

"The Annotated Emma" by Jane Austen (annotated and edited by David M. Shapard)

This is the first time that I have truly enjoyed reading Emma.  I've read it twice before -- once in high school in the 1990s, and once in 2012.  Both times, I laughed my way through it, but I also cringed my way through it.  Emma Woodhouse's meddlesome ways just annoyed me so much!  And, truth be told, they still do.  

But the annotations by David M. Shapard are wonderful, and they added so much to my enjoyment.  He pointed out a lot of places where Emma is extremely kind or sensitive toward her father, and he also highlighted a lot of places where she starts to grow and change much earlier than I had realized.  So, I liked that.

This will never be a top favorite Jane Austen book for me.  My rankings of her books haven't changed over the course of this year's #JaneAustenDeepDive adventure with friends on Bookstagram.  But I did enjoy both Emma and Mansfield Park a lot more this time around, which I think is a big plus!

Particularly Good Bits:

And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman whom no one named without good-will.  It was her own universal good-will and contented temper which worked such wonders.  She loved every body, was interested in every body's happiness, quick-sighted to every body's merits; thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother and so many good neighbours and friends, and a home that wanted for nothing.  The simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a recommendation to every body and a mine of felicity to herself (p. 34).  (And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why Miss Bates is my favorite character in this book.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for the text (illegitimate children are mentioned) and PG-13 for the annotations (which discuss sexual mores and customs a bit more frankly than Austen herself does).

This is my 33rd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"The Annotated Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen (Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapar)

You know what?  I really liked Mansfield Park this time through :-o  The first time I read it, maybe 15 years ago or so, I found it terribly dull.  The second time I read it, about ten years ago, I found Fanny annoying.  But this time, I thought Fanny was a lovely character, and I wasn't bored a bit!

I think that was partly because of the annotations -- as always, I learned a LOT from those.  But it was also because I read this as part of the #JaneAustenDeepDive2024 group buddy read on Instagram.  Discussing the book with other readers really helped me settle my own opinions about the characters, and especially about the romance between Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram.  I've never had much patience with Edmund before, because he seems so ridiculously unable to see the truth about either Fanny or Mary Crawford (or many other people around him), but this time, I could see how that is not necessarily a character flaw -- he sees the good in people and disregards the rest, which doesn't make him dumb.  It just makes him kind of endearingly naïve.  While Fanny did sometimes displease me a little with how she tends to do the reverse and see bad things in people while ignoring their better points, I didn't find her completely annoying this time.  In fact, I enjoyed the book!  Yay!  Total win.

Particularly Good Bits:

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply (p. 428).

"Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how.  It is a part of an Englishman's constitution.  His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them every where, one is intimate with him by instinct" (p. 606).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for the text for some discussions of adultery, and PG-13 for the annotations for some franker (but still tasteful) discussions of sexual matters. 

This has been my 29th book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list.

"The Annotated Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen (Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard)

I'm halfway through my ongoing quest to read all these annotated Austen editions!  The #JaneAustenDeepDive reading group on Instagram has been a continual delight, and the two-months-per-book pace has been perfect for me to read these detailed and informative editions.  

I think I learned more from The Annotated Northanger Abbey than from the Pride and Prejudice or the Sense and Sensibility, largely because this one explained alllllll the allusions to popular novels that Austen makes throughout the book.  One day, I will read some of the books she talks about, just to more fully understand this one.

Northanger Abbey remains tied with Pride and Prejudice as my second-favorite Jane Austen.  Up next for our group read-along is Mansfield Park, which is my least-favorite Austen.  I'm hoping that reading the annotated edition will help me appreciate it better.

If you don't know, this book is about a young woman who loves to read Gothic romance books, that era's version of romantic suspense, basically.  She travels to a resort town with some friends of her family, where she makes new friends and forms an attachment with a charming man with a great sense of humor.  But she lets her imagination start to run away from her sometimes, and has to learn to differentiate between fact and fiction.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some mild bad language in the text, and PG-13 for the annotations, which talk about sexual mores and attitudes at the time.

"The Annotated Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen (Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard)

Reading an annotated book like this is almost like reading two books at once.  You have the actual novel, and you have the extensive notes, and you go back and forth from one to the other every paragraph or so.  As it happens, I love to learn about history and literature, so I absolutely am loving these annotated editions!!!  But they are a very different reading experience from simply reading Austen's books for fun.  

And yet, I still got sucked into the book.  Like always, from about the time Elizabeth visits Pemberley onward, I could not read fast enough to suit my own wishes.  It absolutely fascinates me how Austen can sweep me off my feet time and time again, even though I know exactly how the book will end, and how we get to that ending!  Powerful writing indeed.

If you don't know, Pride and Prejudice is a timeless look at how our frailties and failings can define us, but don't have to.  When two flawed people meet, they can either fall in love and accept each others' flaws, or they can fall in love and try to help each other grow and mature and improve.  Austen definitely falls in the "help each other improve" camp, and I love her for it. 

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for the text and PG-13 for the annotations, which talk about subjects such as Regency attitudes about unmarried sexual intimacy in a much more frank way than the text does. Nothing salacious, and no bad language, but not necessarily something I would hand to a young teen, either.

"The Annotated Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen (Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard)

This is the second time I've read The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, which pairs Jane Austen's classic novel with extensive notes and commentaries by David M. Shapard.  I used this edition back in 2021 when I led a read-along here for S&S, and I very much enjoyed learning from it.  So, when I decided to join the #JaneAustenDeepDive2024 reading group on Instagram, I decided I wanted to read all of these annotated editions.  We're taking two months to read each book, and really having a great time discussing things very thoroughly.  

That slower pace is ideal for these annotated editions because they really do take a lot longer to read -- there are thousands of notes in here explaining everything from naming conventions to social niceties to the differences between a carriage and a barouche, to what kinds of food would be common in that era for different classes.  Because history fascinates me, I absolutely loved reading this edition, even for the second time!

However, reading a thoroughly annotated book like this is a very different experience from reading the novel on its own.  I can't fully immerse myself in the story because, every paragraph or two, I have to stop reading the novel to read an explanatory note.  So, because I love history, I found it very enjoyable, but enjoyable in a different way from simply losing myself in the story.

That means that I would not recommend reading this annotated edition if it is your first time reading Sense and Sensibility.  But if you have read it before, and you want to understand the society and world and times that the story takes place in and was written in, then it can be very wonderful.

I know this review is mostly about the annotations, not the story itself.  Briefly, this is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, whose father dies at the beginning of the book, and they and their mother and younger sister must move away from their home and live in a much smaller and poorer way than they are used to.  Both Elinor and Marianne fall in love, but their different temperaments and personalities, and the very different nature of the men they fall in love with, means that they have very different experiences in love.  The whole book is a meditation on whether or not it's wiser to let your heart by ruled by your head, or let your head be ruled by your heart -- or whether it might be wisest to balance the two.  It's a good book, but not a high favorite of mine.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for the text and PG-13 for the annotations, which talk about subjects such as unwed pregnancy in a much more frank way than the text does.  Nothing salacious, and no bad language, but not necessarily something I would hand to a young teen, either.

This has been my 23rd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

Reading Goals Behind and Ahead

I had a few goals for my reading life in 2023.  The same sort I usually have, like clear off my TBR shelves some more, read some classics, read diversely, and so on.  Here's how I did with my 2023 reading goals:

Overall Goal

I aimed to read 55 books in 2023.  I read 96.  Yay!

Classics Club

I wanted to read at least twelve books from my fourth Classics Club list.  I read fourteen!  You'll find all their reviews on that page or right here.

Diverse Reading

I wanted to read at least twelve books by or about people who are different from me in some significant way.  I read fifteen!  You can find reviews for most of them right here.

#TheUnreadShelfProject2023

I had twin goals of reading at least 50 books from my TBR shelves AND whittling down the number of unread books on my shelves to 450.  I read 61 books from the to-be-read books I own, but I only got the number of unread books on my shelves down to 491.  Well, that's still better, anyway.

My Years with the Sacketts

I set myself the goal of reading all nineteen Sackett books by Louis L'Amour over the course of 2023 and 2024.  I have read the first nine, so I am confident I can finish them all by the end of 2024.

Now for my 2024 reading goals!

Overall Goal

I like the number 55.  I'm keeping that for my goal.

Classics Club

Twelve seems like a good number here.  But I'll give myself some wiggle room in my bullet journal, just in case.

Diverse Reading

I also like aiming for twelve for this goal.  But, as you can see, I'm also giving myself room for more than that in my bullet journal.  Just in case!

Mount TBR

Because the Unread Shelf Challenge has come to an end, I am once again joining the Mount TBR Challenge from My Reader's Block.  I am aiming for the Mount Ararat level, which means reading 48 books from my TBR shelves -- but only books I already own by January 1, 2024, will count.  This makes it much more challenging, so we'll see how that goes!  I'm going to continue keeping track of how many books I buy and how many I take off my shelves, too, even though those aren't part of the Mount TBR challenge.

Disney Origins Bookclub

This fun reading challenge has returned to Bookstagram!  I want to read the four fairy tales that are scheduled, plus at least three of the books.  To learn more, and/or join, click here.

Jane Austen Deep Dive 2024

This is another Bookstagram reading group challenge -- we're going to read all six of Jane Austen's major works together, but very slowly.  I aim to read all of them, specifically the annotated editions.  To learn more about that, and/or join, click here.

My Years with the Sacketts

I have ten Sackett books by Louis L'Amour left to read for this personal challenge!  My teen son has been reading them as I finish them, which has been such a great experience for us both, giving us lots of wonderful heroes and heroines to talk about.

That's all for this year!  How about you?  Do you set reading goals?  Participate in challenges, or make your own?  Do tell!

Top Ten Tuesday: Additionally

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf."  I received five books for Christmas, won one in a giveaway, and bought the others myself over the past couple of months.  Behold!

The Bookish Bandit by Erica Dansereau and Britt Howard (Christian contemporary romance involving book publishing)

A Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin (festive picture book I loved as a kid)

A Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin (festive picture book I also loved as a kid)

The Hart of Christmas by Latisha Sexton (Christian contemporary Christmas romance)

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, specifically the 50th Anniversary edition from Unwin Paperbacks (classic fantasy adventure)

Kling Klang Gloria by Jenni Sauer (sci-fi fairy tale retelling)

The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham (historical fiction mystery romance)

Persuasion by Jane Austen, specifically the Winchester Austen edition from Worth Press Ltd. (classic novel of second chances and self-discovery)

Through Thorny Ways by Jennifer Q. Hunt (Christian historical fiction set just after WWI)

The Weight of Air by Kimberly Duffy (Christian historical fiction involving a circus)

That's my list for this week.  Did you get books for Christmas?  Or give some?  I did give a handful as gifts, as well as receiving some.

"A Little Persuaded" by Kendra E. Ardnek

I was hesitant about this final volume of the Austen Fairy Tales by Kendra E. Ardnek.  Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but this book is blending it with "The Little Mermaid," and that is not a fairy tale I tend to love, at least not most retellings of it.  In fact, I actively dislike the Disney version.

Happily, Ardnek made the two stories and sets of characters work together really nicely.  Enna, her Anne Elliot/Little Mermaid character, was as retiring, thoughtful, and wise as Anne Elliot, but with some of the longings and disappointed hopes of Hans Christian Andersen's original Little Mermaid.

It was great getting to see lots of characters from earlier books in this series, especially since this is their last adventure.  I would have liked a little more resolution at the end, which is mostly a personal issue -- I love resolution, and books/stories with more open endings tend not to be my favorites.  Still, I feel like all the characters I have come to care about have a good chance at a happy and safe future, so I am pleased.

Particularly Good Bits:

Enna was used to people talking about her as though she wasn't there.  She wasn't used to being defended (p. 34).

"Austere alone knows the future, but we can prepare for it as best we can " (p. 104).

"Focus, Enna," she whispered to herself. "Thinking about how much there is to think about isn't going to help at all" (p. 189).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  No real violence to speak of, no cussing, no smut.

This has been my 56th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

Top Ten Tuesday: In a Word

This week's Top Ten Tuesday subject from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books with One-Word Titles."  I am not counting articles (a, an, the) in this, just FYI.  I've gathered up my favorites and linked their titles to my reviews of them, and given you a hint of what you can find in each one too!

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton -- found family, brothers, young hoods, Robert Frost

Persuasion by Jane Austen -- second chance at love, family strife, personal growth, female friendship

Shane by Jack Schaefer -- found family, western, lone gunman, hero worship

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson -- swashbuckler, historical fiction, buddy story, mismatched friends

Laura by Vera Caspary -- dark mystery, detective hero, mysterious woman, unconventional romance

Bloodlines by Jan Burke -- dual timeline, connected murder mysteries, mentors, news reporter

Emmazel by Kendra E. Ardnek -- Jane Austen retelling, Rapunzel retelling, snarky talking cat, female friendship

Beauty by Robin McKinley -- fairy tale retelling, medieval-esque setting, friends-to-lovers, unconventional heroine

Hondo by Louis L'Amour -- man of few words, unconventional romance, western, sacrificial love

Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards -- gardening, cottagecore, orphans, found family

Have you read any of these?  What books were on your TTT list this week?

"Thornrose Estate" by Kendra E. Ardnek

This book is a whirlwind!  An amnesiac heroine (who repeatedly forgets things in the past), a shape-shifting hero, a horrible curse to untangle, and a friends-to-lovers arc that I loved.  Not to mention some found family elements too!

Calla (who was a side character for much of the previous book in the series, Snowfield Palace) has grown up in a small cottage in the middle of nowhere.  She can't remember the last nine years of her life, but her guardians assure her that when she turns nineteen, she'll be able to remember who she is and what happened to her nine years ago.

Nine years ago, the Forest was sealed off, not allowing people in the northern and southern kingdoms to contact each other in any way.  Calla knows this is due to some disaster, and she feels like she should remember what happened, but how could she have been involved if she was a child of ten at the time?

Calla's guardians send her to stay with a friend in the big city, where she's befriended by the chatty and gossipy Belle and pursued romantically by Belle's brother Johnston.  Calla also makes friends with the sweet Elaeza and her brother Hansel, both of whom are much kinder than Belle and Johnston.  Which pair of siblings can Calla truly trust?  She really wonders about this when Elaeza and Hansel turn out to be royalty and ask her to stay with them at Thornrose Estate.  Why would they seek the company of a nobody with no memory of her childhood?

Of course, Calla's memories eventually return, and she joins one set of friends in fighting the other, trying to break the curse that binds the Forest and its Gardiner.  Plus, she falls in love with a man who can turn into a wolf, which echoes a couple of her favorite fairy tales.

I like that a lot of what happened in Snowfield Palace got resolved in this book -- I'm so glad Ardnek didn't drag that out until the final book of the series, which is expected to launch this fall.  Though I can see that some of this book's ending is setting things up for that final adventure, so everything is not fully resolved yet.

Once again, Ardnek cleverly twists a Jane Austen novel (Northanger Abbey) with a fairy tale ("Beauty and the Beast") and uses them to craft an entirely new story of her own.

Particularly Good Bits: 

Wasn't that why she read all of the books that she did?  So she could pretend that the lives of the heroines were hers.  Pretend that there were people who loved her and adventures that she could travel.  But it was only ever pretend (p. 136).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some violence, scenes of peril, and kissing.  As with the rest of the series, no smut or bad language.

This is my 3rd book read from my 10 Books of Summer list, and the 40th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Jane of Austin" by Hillary Manton Lodge (again)

This book is such a joy.  It's a retelling of Sense and Sensibility set in the modern world and... please don't throw things at me, but... I like it better than S&S.  I do.  There are multiple characters in this that I like better than their S&S counterparts.  There are plot points and relationship tangles that work better for me here.  And this one has the sweetest service dog.  

I mean, obviously I do like Sense and Sensibility.  I led a chapter-by-chapter read-along of it, after all.  I just like this better.  

Jane and her older sister Celia make their living selling tea in a trendy tea shop in San Francisco after their father leaves the country.  And then, their landlord dies, and they get turned out of both the apartment and the shopfront they rented from him.  Desperate to find somewhere that they can live and remain guardians of their younger sister Margo, plus find a new space for their shop, they accept an invitation from a cousin they barely know.  He offers they can live in his guest house while they find a new shopfront.  The only problem?  He lives in Austin, Texas.  But moving halfway across the country is not that big a deal, right?  It only means leaving behind their home state, Margo's school, and the man Celia has been dating for years and years.

They move.  Jane falls in love with a handsome country singer.  A friend of their cousin's, a wounded veteran, falls in love with Jane.  Jane falls out of love with the handsome country singer when he turns out to be despicable.  And so on.  I really love that this retelling is told from the Marianne character's point of view because I never feel like I get to know and understand Marianne very well in S&S.  This book also has a lot of chapters from the POV of the Colonel Brandon character, Callum.  He's an absolute sweetheart, gentleman, and hero.  

Also, there are lots of yummy recipes included.  I'm going to make the tea-infused Texas Sheet Cake today to take to a potluck :-9

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

Kissing Callum was like finding a favorite thing I hadn't known I was looking for (p. 295).

"I don't think it's ever wrong," I decided, "to love what you have more than what you had" (p. 299).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a plotline involving an unwed pregnancy, mention of marital infidelity in an off-screen character, quite a few non-steamy kisses, and mention of characters "making out."  Also, Callum deals with a lot of emotional trauma from the combat situation where he lost a leg.  Not a racy book, no bad language, no real violence.  Clean, but not something all younger teens would be ready for.

Top Ten Tuesday: And Then a Heroine Comes Along

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Favorite Heroines."  I've decided to list mine in alphabetical order by first name because I am late getting this post finished and I don't want to take the time and mental energy to figure out whom I like best.  I'm also going to list a few attributes I associate with each of them, though, so you can get an idea of what they are like!

Anne Elliot in Persuasion by Jane Austen -- shy, quiet, sensible, loyal, kind, tenacious, bookish

Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery -- quirky, imaginative, bookish, starry-eyed, stubborn

Constance Kopp from Girl Waits with Gun and the rest of the Kopp Sisters series by Amy Stewart -- sensible, down-to-earth, brave, stalwart, capable, determined

Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling -- intelligent, loyal, courageous, level-headed, resourceful, curious, bookish

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- strong-willed, strong-minded, indomitable, resilient, affectionate

Jo March from Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott -- independent, smart, imaginative, bookish, understanding, stubborn, resourceful, dependable

Mary Russell from The Beekeeper's Apprentice and the rest of the series featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King -- willful, intelligent, gutsy, bookish, indomitable, skillful

Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair and the rest of the series by Jasper Fforde -- trustworthy, diligent, determined, curious, strong-willed

Trixie Belden from the Trixie Belden series by Kathryn Kenny -- smart, loyal, curious, pugnacious, determined

Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery -- bright, vibrant, bookish, diligent, kind, forthright

Well, from my listing of random character traits and descriptions, I think we can see the sorts of traits I value in fictional characters!  There are a lot of similarities here, aren't there?

The In or Out Tag

Spotted this at both Deborah Koren's blog and Cindy's Book Corner and thought it looked like too much fun to pass up :-)

Unlike most tags, there are no rules about thanking people or tagging people.  If you want to fill it out, you can!  If you don't, then don't!  

Reading the Last Page First -- OUT.  I can only remember doing this once, and it was for And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field.  I did it that time because the first section of the book made it sound like the book was going to end differently than the 1944 movie, and I adore the 1944 movie, so I had to find out if it ended the same way or not.  Because, if it didn't, I wasn't going to bother reading the whole book.  But it does, so I did read it.  And loved it.

Ordinarily, though, I don't want to ruin the flow of a story by reading the ending first.

(Bwahaha!  I snuck an Alan Ladd picture in here!)

Enemies to Lovers -- IN.  It's not my favorite trope, but I love books like Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and the Anne of Green Gables books a lot, and they all use this, so I'm fine with it.

Dream Sequences -- IN.  Sometimes, I don't even mind "it was all a dream."

Love Triangles -- IN.  They're a classic.  I've even used them myself, like in My Rock and My Refuge.  

(This and all the following book photos
are mine from my Instagram account.)

Cracked Spines -- OUT.  OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT.  My mother gave me a boxed set of four Jane Austen novels for my birthday when I was in my upper teens.  Then she borrowed them each in turn to read herself and absolutely destroyed their spines.  Not only did they no longer fit in the slipcover, you couldn't even read the titles on the spines.  They made me sad every time I looked at them, and I eventually gave them away.  I still have my original Anne of Green Gables paperbacks that my mom also ruined that way, but my grandma gave me those, so I keep them anyway.

Now, a caveat to all that, though -- if I'm buying a used copy of a vintage paperback, like a Louis L'Amour or a Rex Stout or something like that, I am super fine with the book looking like it lived in someone's back pocket for weeks on end fifty years ago.  In fact, I prefer those to shiny, new copies for specific genres and authors.  But I WILL NOT contribute MORE crackage to their spines.  And I prefer them not to be so cracked that I can't read the title anymore.

Back to My Small Town -- IN.  Although "someone new comes to town, and everything changes" is my favorite trope, I also love "someone comes back home, and everything changes."  Probably my favorite versions of that are the book The Count of Monte Cristo and movie The Lone Ranger (2013).

 

No Paragraph Breaks -- OUT.  Also, ew.  Also, I don't think I've ever read a book like that, but I'm against it on principle.

Multi-generational Sagas -- IN.  I mean, I'm embarking on a quest to read all of the Sackett novels by Louis L'Amour this year, so I'm obviously a fan, right?  Also, I love historical fiction, and that sort of thing generally involves lots of history.

Monsters Are Regular People -- OUT if you mean horrific villains are portrayed as normal and acceptable.  IN if you mean stories where vampires just wanna make friends and hold down a job.  Angel (1999-2004) is my second-favorite TV show of all time, after all.

Re-Reading -- IN.  I reread a LOT.  I've estimated that 1 out of 4 books I read is a reread, usually.  This past year, it was closer to 1 in 3 -- I read 103 books, and 29 were rereads.

Artificial Intelligence -- OUT.  I don't read much sci-fi, and I just am not a fan of sentient robots in general.

Drop Caps -- IN.  They usually look amazing.

Happy Endings -- IN.  I LOVE happy endings!!!

Plot Points That Only Converge at the End -- IN, as long as the book isn't too long.  I must admit, I've never read a book by Tom Clancy because I've heard so many people talk about how he'll start like eight little plots going and you never find out how they're related until the very end, and that does sound kind of daunting to keep straight.  But J. K. Rowling did the same thing over the course of the Harry Potter series, really, and I loved that.  So... I'm not against it, anyway.

Detailed Magic Systems -- IN if I don't have to read all the details.  Out if the book is basically a travelogue about a fictional world.  This is part of why I don't read a ton of fantasy and sci-fi.  Descriptions of places and how things work bore me, and if that's the bulk of your first few chapters, I'm outta here.

Classic Fantasy Races -- IN.  The fantasy I do dig, such as The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and Harry Potter, all use classic things like unicorns and elves and dwarves and centaurs and dragons. 

Unreliable Narrators -- OUT.  I am not a fan.  I want to trust the narrator to tell me what's going on.  If I can't, I'm probably going to dislike the book.

Evil Protagonists -- OUT.  One of the things I demand from fiction is that it restore moral balance by the end of the book.  Also, if the protag is evil, I'm really not going to want to like them.  And if I don't like the protag, and they either have to face dire consequences or will get away with being evil... why would I want to read that?  Why???

The Chosen One -- IN.  Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, Eragon, the Pevensie kids... I'm totally a fan.

When the Protagonist Dies -- IN and OUT.  Ordinarily, I hate it.  I want my happy ending.  Buuuuuuut... Hamlet dies.  And I adore Hamlet.  I can be okay with protag death if that still results in a good ending.

Really Long Chapters -- IN, I guess?  I don't care, when I read.  I tend to write short chapters, though.

French Flaps -- OUT just because I don't really have any books with them and they seem annoying.  I had to look up what they are, though.

Deckled Edges -- IN.  I am a very sensory, tactile-oriented person, and how a book feels can matter a lot to me.  Like, I really can't stand cloth-bound books and avoid buying them.  I love the feel of deckled edges :-)

Signed Copies by the Author -- IN!  Why would anybody not want that?

Dog-Earing Pages -- IN!  Books are not sacred objects.  It's okay to bend the pages.  When I was just starting to read chapter books, I had a toddler brother who delighted in pulling bookmarks out of every book he found, so for several years, dog-earing was a necessity.  I usually use a bookmark, but if I don't have one, I don't feel guilty about dog-earing. 

Chapter Titles Instead of Numbers -- IN!  But be aware I will probably ignore them completely.

I was not tagged with this, so I'm not tagging anyone else, but if you think this looks fun, by all means fill it out yourself!