This week’s Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten authors we discovered in 2023.

Here are 10 of the 31 new-to-me authors I read last year, all of whom I recommend:

1. GennaRose Nethercott (Thistlefoot)
2. Martha Wells (All Systems Red)
3. Sangu Mandanna (The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches)
4. Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes)
5. Hannah Nicole Maehrer (Assistant to the Villain)
6. Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club)
7. Colleen Oakley (The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise)
8. Dave Grohl (The Storyteller)
9. Suzanne Park (The Christmas Clash)
10. Sher Lee (Fake Dates and Mooncakes)

How about you? Who were some authors you read for the first time last year?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl could be interpreted through a lens of regret — books we meant to read last year and didn’t get around to. Instead, I’m going to consider them delayed gratification or prolonged anticipation reads — ten books that I put on my to-be-read list, were published, or came into my possession last year and that I still get to look forward to diving into:

1. Brian Selznick’s Big Tree
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
3. David Grann’s The Wager
4. Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev
5. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
6. Anna-Marie McLemore’s Blanca & Roja
7. Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros
8. In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
9. Bill Watterson’s The Mysteries
10. A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

How about you? What books do you still get to look forward to that you were sure would be read by now?

Edited to add: I went back and looked at the past four times topics of this sort have been covered, and I’ve read 8 of the ~35 books I shared at the time. Oops.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share our bookish goals for 2024. But first, let me do a final touch of 2023’s goals:

Last year I finished 52 books, 12 of which I own. The other 40 were from the library, including 14 audiobooks. (Thank god for libraries!) Nearly a third were from diverse authors and about a quarter by authors who were not Americans (including four in translation — three from Japanese and one from Swedish). Five books were nonfiction, one was poetry, and the rest were fiction (10 of which were graphic novels).

I failed completely at only two and generally hit the mark on most of the rest, so, yay!

Now, for this year:

1. Read 52 books.
2. Review said books here on the blog, even if it’s just a couple of sentences. And get any best of lists — definitely 2023, but did I post one for 2022? — published here, too.
3. Buy books in another country. (More info on this goal coming soon!)
4. Read at least two classics, including a Russian novel.
5. Finish the School Library Journal’s Top 100 Children’s Books. (Maybe I have 15 left to go, none of which were at my local library branch when I checked for them last month. (The system has them, so I just need to place some holds.))
6. Read 13 books from my own collection, including at least five I’ve had for more than two years.
7. Listen to 20 audiobooks.
8. Read at least three books of poetry.
9. Read at least five books in translation.
10. Get all my books onto shelves (which will necessitate donating some to make space).

How about you? Do you have bookish goals for this year?

I’m working on my top ten books of 2023, but in the meantime wanted to share that Bout of Books is currently going on. You should join me in reading — as much or as little as you want — this week.

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 1st, and runs through Sunday, January 7th, in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 39 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Technically, this was the Top Ten Tuesday topic for last week, but I missed it then. So, we’re getting it today instead!

Ten books I’m looking forward to reading this winter:

1. Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
2. Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde (Does it matter that I didn’t particularly like Shades of Grey? No, it does not.)
3. Virginia Kantrell’s The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale
4. Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
5. Jami Attenburg’s 1000 Words
6. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
7. Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
8. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
9. Above Ground by Clint Smith
10. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to check in with our 2023 bookish goals and see how we’re doing. I’m not optimistic:

1. Read 52 books. (I’m actually on track to hit this number for the first time in years.)
2. Read more of my own collection. (I’m at five, but have a whole pile of personal books up here in Connecticut with me.)
3. Listen to more audiobooks [12]. (I’m at nine, and have several in progress, so this seems doable.)
4. Read more diversely [1/3]. (I’m closer to a quarter, but it’s still possible.)
5. Read more nonfiction [5]. (I’m nearly done with my fourth, so if I get that Grann book when I return to D.C., it’s possible.)
6. Read more internationally. (Japanese manga has been my friend this year. I’ve read three so far.)
7. Read more poetry. (I’ve bought more poetry books, but haven’t actually finished one this year. Time to work on this!)
8. Read at least two classics. (Failing at this one utterly so far.)
9. Put a book in every bag I own and read them instead of playing on my phone while I’m out. (Often true.)
10. Actually review everything I finish. (Have I reviewed anything this year?)

Huh. Turns out I was doing better than I thought. Only three of these are utter failures so far, and while I probably won’t get all the book reviews for the year in, the other two are possibilities.

How are your bookish goals going this year?