My Top Ten Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025

I am plenty busy with my 20 Books of Summer, my book group, and piles of library books everywhere but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking about the books being published in the second half of 2025 for That Artsy Reader Girl’s weekly Top Ten Tuesday:

Favorite Reads of 2024

Wishing you a Happy New Year and many good books in 2025! I read nearly 200 books in 2024 and quite a few were so compelling I kept recommending them to others or thinking about them myself. These are my top ten:

My October 2024 Reading

My favorite books this month were Northern Spy, a thriller about an innocent young woman, dragged into an IRA conspiracy, and Abigail, an unusual boarding school story with a distant background of WWII intrigue. Abigail was one of several books I enjoyed for the 1970 Club.

Suspense

The Unwedding by Ally Condie (2024) (audio). Ellery Wainwright is despondent after her husband demands a divorce so her best friend persuades her to go on what was supposed to be an anniversary trip to Big Sur - and was already paid for (otherwise the ex and his new girlfriend would go and that would be even worse!).

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

Amy Wheeler is a bodyguard protecting bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio on a remote island in South Carolina. It doesn’t seem like a strenuous assignment for one of Maximum Impact Solutions’ best employees but that’s until her boss, Jeff Nolan, tells her three of their clients have been murdered – when Amy was conveniently nearby.  He's acting as if she's responsible! 

What to Read - Fall 2024

I started thinking about Fall 2024 books today and there are quite a few that sound appealing:

Mystery/Suspense

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (September). I am a big fan of Yorkshire-based PI Brodie. In this sixth book, Jackson is pursuing some mysterious art thefts when he gets stranded in a snowstorm with a vicar, a soldier, and a dowager at a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.  You know such weekends are an invitation to commit actual murder!

My February 2024 Reading

February was a great month of reading for me with two five-star books, First Lie Wins, which was extremely suspenseful and entertaining, and The Women, which was harrowing (set in the Vietnam era) yet impossible to put down. I also really enjoyed The Cheat Sheet, a contemporary romance with a friends to lovers theme. There were quite a few books that made a very good impression on me, as you will see below:

WWW Wednesday – February 7, 2024

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Favorite Reads of 2023

Although I have not yet summarized my December reading, it is the time of year when it is fun to contemplate the entire year and my top ten. Unusually for me, many were recent pubs and four were audiobooks. I think the latter is just a coincidence – sometimes I put both the hardcover and audiobook on reserve at the same time so read whichever is available first and sometimes I will opt for an available audiobook that I expect to enjoy. Seven of these ten were historical fiction, which is definitely one of my preferred genres but my favorites are generally more evenly distributed. I read a lot of books in 2023 but a number of these were rereads or children’s books, which obviously take less time to read.

My May 2023 Reads

The biggest treat this month was the new Jane Casey book about Maeve Kerrigan, The Close, straight from London as my sisters and I could not wait for its US publication. I also really enjoyed The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, the third Thursday Murder Club book, and Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham. June will be a slower reading month due to three short trips and Middlemarch. Hmm, I guess it is no coincidence that all four books have British settings; I am nothing if not consistent.

The Bullet That Missed: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman

Title: The Bullet That Missed
Author: Richard Osman
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2022
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Britain

Description: In the third installment of the Thursday Murder Club, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim take on the unexplained death ten years earlier of a talented television reporter, Bethany Waites, while she was investigating a hot story.

My January 2023 Reads

Not as much variety in my reading last month as usual.  My favorite book was The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, second in a mystery series set in an upscale retirement community in Britain.

YA Historical Fiction

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016). Three young people, thrown together by fate in East Prussia at the end of WWII, are among the thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek to reach the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that is evacuating civilians from the Russian army.

WWW Wednesday – January 25, 2023

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Title: The Thursday Murder Club
Author: Richard Osman
Publication: Viking, hardcover, 2020
Genre: Mystery
Setting: Present-day England

Description: Four senior citizens at Coopers Chase, an upscale retirement community in England, meet on Thursdays to discuss unsolved police cases, and then they encounter a real murder . . .