"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========
Showing posts with label Top Ten Tuesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Ten Tuesday. Show all posts

Monday, September 14, 2026

TTT: Authors I Would Like to Meet



Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Would Like to Meet and Visit Over a Cup of Coffee or a Glass of Wine

Lately I've been including my husband and his opinions more in the topics I am pondering for upcoming blog posts. Today when I asked him what authors he'd like to meet, he made a big deal about this being more than a handshake and getting a signature in a book. He'd want to sit and visit over a beer and really have a good chat with the authors. I mulled this over. I am much more of an introvert than he is and the idea of actually sitting down and visiting with these authors sort of terrified me. But putting my fears aside, these are the authors I really would like to chat with if the occasion were ever to arise.

In 2017 I created a list of Authors I've Met.

David Attenborough
He is one of my heroes and I know I don't have much more time to make this dream a reality since he is over 100 years old. I recommend this book: A Life On Our Planet: My Witness Statement. On my TBR, Ocean: Earth's Last Wilderness.

Ann Patchett
Of all the authors on this list it sort of seems like Ann Patchett is just a regular gal who happens to write my kind of books. After she published her most recent book, Whistler, I read an interview where she said, and I'm paraphrasing, she has decided to write about normal people who don't have some huge trauma they are dealing with and who decide to be humane and kind. I like that.

Louise Erdrich
Both Erdrich and Patchett own bookstores and are leading literary features in their communities. Don and I agreed on Erdrich for our lists today. I rely on authors to help me understand other points of view so I lean quite heavily on Erdrich for insights into Indigenous cultures. My recent favorite book of hers is The Sentence, but I also am a huge fan of her Justice Trilogy with The Round House being my favorite of the three books.

Michelle Obama
I was going to say Barack Obama but when my husband said I had to sit and drink a cup of coffee with my choices, I imagined myself too tongue-tied to hold up my end of the conversation with him. But Michelle Obama is another thing. I loved her book Becoming. I even attended a book event at the Tacoma Dome where Jimmy Kimmel interviewed her. So inspiring.

Barbara Kingsolver
For years now, when asked, I will identify Kingsolver as my favorite author. Her new books are always on my TBR long before they are available. Her newest, Partita, is set for publication in early October. I hope to get my hands on it before years' end since I'm pretty far back in the line. Her book Demon Copperhead blew me away. I understand that Kingsolver used the royalties from the book to build a recovery house for drug addiction. Bravo!

Rachel Maddow
Better known as a primetime political commentator, Maddow has also written several excellent and thought-provoking books. I imagine a conversation with her could go for hours. I can't stop thinking about her book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism since it related to what is happening right now worldwide.

That's it.
A short list today.
How about you? 
What authors would you like meet over a cup of coffee?
-Anne

Monday, September 7, 2026

TTT: My favorite books from Goodreads 120 Best Books of the Past Decade List



I'm off-topic today:

Top Ten Tuesday:
My favorites from the Goodreads 120 Best books of the Past Decade List

           Contemporary/General Fiction



Historical Fiction



Mystery & Thriller


Science Fiction


Fantasy


Horror


Romance

I haven't read any of the best romance on Goodreads books. 😒

Memoir



History & Biography


General Nonfiction



-Anne

Monday, August 31, 2026

TTT: Books With Nationalities in the Title



Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Nationalities in the Title

I had a dickens of a time finding books I've read with nationalities in their titles. I had to look way back to my pre-blogging days to find enough titles to fill out my list. I dearly wanted to find a book I'd read with "Canadian" in the title since our president is being so awful to our dear friends to the north these days. But that was not to be, sadly, so I made this sentence instead: I love the Canadian people. 

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Muzoon: A Syrian Refugee Speaks Out by Muzoon Almellehan

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontorvant

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Love Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine by Hector Tobar

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson

The Little book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking


-Anne

Monday, August 24, 2026

TTT: Bookish Places I've Visited


Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Places I've Visited (or Plan to Visit)

Have visited:

The Strahov Monastery Library in Prague, Czech Republic.

Make Way for Duckings sculpture by Nancy Schön in Boston Common Garden celebrating the children's book: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.

Winnie-the-Pooh original stuffed animals on display in the Stephen A. Schwarzman building of the New York City Public Library.

'The Art of Eric Carle' exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. Home to over 420,000 rare books and seven million documents.

Juliet sculpture in Verona, Italy.

"Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."
-Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare

221b Baker Street, London, home of Sherlock Holmes.
Actually it is a fictitious address.


Franz Kafka sculpture in Prague, Czech Republic, the author of The Metamorphosis and Other Stories.

Chincoteague, Virginia
We visited the island to see the horses because our daughters were crazy for the Marguerite Henry book, Misty of Chincoteague.

The Mark Twain Cabin.
Located on Jackass Hill, near Angels Camp, California. Supposedly this is where Twain wrote his short story, during the winter of 1864-5, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." We bumped into this historic landmark on our way back from Yosemite National Park. The gate was locked and the fence you see above was covered with little stuffed frogs of all shapes and sizes and they were also hung from the tree branches. It was very tacky!



Plan to Visit:
(We are heading to the UK in a few weeks)

Jane Austen Festival , Bath, England.
Austen book set in Bath: Persuasion.

Hill Top House, home of Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit, Sawrey (Lake District), England.

Culloden Battlefield in Scotland, featured in the book by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander.


Stratford-Upon-Avon, home of Shakespeare.
We have tickets to see "As You Like It" while we are there.

I look forward to reading other TTT posts for new ideas for bookish places to visit in the future.

-Anne