I really need to start doing more Top Ten Tuesdays! I love the meme, but lately I’ve either been (1) too busy to write the posts or (2) not particularly inspired by the topics. This week should be easy, though; it’s ten words or topics that instantly make me want to buy (or at least read) a book. So here are ten of mine, in no particular order:

1. Jane Austen — Because there’s so much Austen-related stuff out there, from sequels to spinoffs to naughty retellings, I’ve gotten pretty selective about what I’ll actually read. (For example, I’ll pass on anything that involves Mr. Darcy as a supernatural creature of any kind.) But I still try to keep track of what’s out there and make a note of what looks interesting…because it is Jane Austen. And she is awesome.

2. Political intrigue — I’m a sucker for books with a lot of political maneuvering and rebellions and secret conspiracies. I think it’s because I have no gift for strategic thinking whatsoever (as evidenced by my wretchedness at chess and Risk). But even though I’m not particularly good at it, I really like trying to anticipate everybody’s next move!

3. Spies — I think characters who are spies raise a lot of interesting dramatic conflicts. First of all, there’s the obvious suspense: what if the person slips up and compromises his/her cover? One false move could mean exposure and almost certain death. And then there’s the issue of divided loyalties. After the person has been undercover for so long, how do we know whose side (s)he is really on?

4. World War II — This is a more recent interest of mine, but for the last year or two I have become very fascinated by books set in this time period. London during the Blitz captures my imagination the most. I am filled with admiration for the brave people who “kept calm and carried on,” even when their entire world was crumbling around them.

5. Epistolary novels — I know some people can’t stand these, but I love them! It’s a unique way of telling a story that places a lot of focus on characters and relationship-building. It also places a constraint on authors — they can’t write about anything that their characters wouldn’t know about — which forces them to be creative.

6. The Napoleonic Wars and Regency era — This is obviously tied into my love for Austen (see above). But it’s an amazingly interesting period of history, both politically and socially. I particularly enjoy reading biographies of famous figures from the era, because they reveal so much about what life was like back then. A great example is Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style by Ian Kelly, if anyone’s interested!

7. Books about music or musicians — Along with books, music is one of my greatest passions and main hobbies. I have played music for most of my life, starting with piano lessons in 2nd grade and trombone lessons in 7th. I still perform in a community band and sing in my church choir, and if “rock star” were a feasible career option for me, I would be on the road in my tour bus tomorrow. 🙂 Plus, musicians are hot; you can’t deny it!

8. Retold fairy tales — I love that authors are constantly taking these ancient stories and putting a new spin on them. Of course, it depends on what kind of spin…for instance, I’m not personally a fan of very dark retellings. I prefer a sincere happily-ever-after! But I like that these seemingly simple stories can be interpreted in so many different ways.

9. English country house murders — I’m a huge sucker for this story: the unpleasant owner of an estate dies, and everyone around him has a motive for murder. There’s no possibility of an outsider or servant (there are always servants) having committed the crime, so it has to be one of about six or seven suspects. The amateur detective (or occasionally the Scotland Yard inspector — never the local police) solves the crime through a series of brilliant deductions without having to wade through all that tiresome police procedure. Is this story completely formulaic? Yes; but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

10. Slow-burning romance — I am a big fan of novels in which the hero and heroine get together at the end. Yes, I am a huge sap and a sucker for romance. But for me, the best love stories are the ones that take a long time to unfold. When two characters don’t get together right away, each glance and each touch becomes incredibly significant. Delayed gratification also gives the characters time to truly know each other, and it gives their love a chance to be tested. In other words, I like the slow burn. 🙂

So what buzzwords or topics make a book catch your eye? Or, conversely, what makes you steer clear of a book?

Some weeks I’m not at all inspired by the Top Ten Tuesday topic…and then other times, like this week, I wonder how I’ll ever be able to limit myself to 10 choices! This week’s topic is those books you just HAD to buy right away, but now they’re lingering on your shelves unread. This happens to me all the time, so I’ll just pick 10 of the many options at random. Here we go:

1. Jasper Fforde, The Woman Who Died a Lot — I’m a huge fan of Jasper Fforde’s, and I buy all his books right away in hardcover. So I’ve owned this latest installment in the Thursday Next series for several months now, yet I still haven’t gotten around to it!

2. Robin McKinley, Pegasus — OK, this one isn’t entirely my fault. Robin McKinley is one of my relatively few autobuy authors, so I immediately snatched this book up when it first came out a few years ago.  What I didn’t realize at the time, but learned subsequently from reviews, was that this book is just the first half of the story…and the second half doesn’t come out until 2014! Since I didn’t want to be left hanging halfway through, I opted to wait until I could read both books together.

3. Rose Melikan, The Counterfeit Guest — I read Melikan’s first book a while ago, The Blackstone Key, which is a mystery novel set in the 1800s. I remember liking it, so then I bought this book, which is the second installment of the series. Sadly, I still haven’t read book #2, even though it’s been a few years by this time.

4. Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls — I bought this one when Borders was having all its crazy going-out-of-business sales. The cover blurb makes it sound like “Firefly,” which is what piqued my interest.

5. Kristin Cashore, Graceling — This book has been on my shelves for an unconscionable length of time at this point. I really do think it sounds good, so I have no idea why I haven’t started it yet!

6. Seanan McGuire, Discount Armageddon — I absolutely love McGuire’s Toby Daye series, so I bought this book (first in a new series) immediately when it came out. Now book #2 is in stores, but I still haven’t read #1!

7. Kevin Hearne, Hexed and Hammered — Since they’re in the same series, I’ll count them as one list item. I also bought and read Hounded, the first book in this urban fantasy series featuring a druid, and I thought it was good but not great. So I have no burning desire to continue with the series, but I already own books #2 and #3. Hopefully I’ll get to them sometime soon so that I can make room for new books on my shelves.

8. P.G. Wodehouse, The World of Jeeves — I snatched this up a couple years ago at a library sale, because everyone needs to own some Jeeves & Wooster! For some reason I haven’t dipped into it yet, but it’s comforting just to have it on the shelves. 🙂

9. Karin Lowachee, The Gaslight Dogs — This book just sounded really cool, and I think I read a few good reviews of it, so I bought it. Haven’t been in the mood for it yet, but someday!

10. Georgette Heyer, The Spanish Bride — If you’re thinking, “An unread Heyer? Blasphemy!” I’d be inclined to agree with you. But if An Infamous Army is anything to go by, this book will be extremely focused on historical details — which is not a bad thing, but it does require more motivation for me to pick up the book!

I often don’t do the Top Ten Tuesday posts because it’s too hard for me to come up with, say, my 10 favorite female characters of all time. (All time! I just know I’m going to leave out someone really important!) But this week’s topic is extremely angst-free: the top 10 books on my spring TBR list. I’ve got tons of books I’m dying to read this spring, so here’s a random sample of them:

1. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo — I feel it’s important for me to start the list with this impressive classic novel, since most of the rest of my picks will be fluffy romances. I have never read an unabridged version of this book, and now is the time! I’m four chapters in right now, and it’s actually quite a page turner.

2. Sarra Manning, Adorkable — Last year I read Manning’s You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me and thought it was really good, so now I’m trying to track down the rest of Manning’s work. Adorkable is a YA romance about opposites who can’t seem to stop snogging. (See? It’s already interesting, even though the plot isn’t exactly original — because of the snogging!)

3. Kristan Higgins, The Best Man — Kristan Higgins has a new book! OK, it actually came out last month, but it’s still exciting! There is a jilting at the altar, and also a winery. Sounds like fun to me!

4. Jennifer Echols, Star Crossed — I’ve been gobbling up Echols’ YA books, so why not give her first adult romance a try? I’m not normally super enthused about the romantic travails of Las Vegas publicists, but this is Jennifer Echols!

5. Jude Morgan, A Little Folly — Jude Morgan is one of those authors who deserves to be a lot better known, particularly among the Janeite crowd. Where do you go when you’ve already read all of Austen and Heyer? This guy! I really enjoyed both Indiscretion and An Accomplished Woman, so I have high hopes for this one too. I even splurged on the hardcover!

6. Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers — I’m reading this one for a challenge I’m doing, not because I have any particular affinity for Westerns. But I’ve heard this one is really good, so why not? I snagged it from the library a little while ago, so I’ll need to get to it soon.

7. Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave — Stewart’s Merlin trilogy has been on my shelves for far too long. Time to dust book #1 off and read it! I’m hoping that Carl V. will once again host his Once Upon a Time Challenge, which he’s been doing every spring; assuming he does, these books will be perfect!

8. Julie James, Love Irresistibly — This latest book in James’ FBI/U.S. Attorney series is coming out in April. Apparently the hero is Cade Morgan, Rylann’s handsome co-worker from About That Night — I totally called it!

9. Sharon Kay Penman, Time and Chance — I’m participating in a group read of this book over at LibraryThing, which is good because I read When Christ and His Saints Slept quite a while ago! Time to move on to book #2 in Penman’s series about the Plantagenets.

10. Candice Hern, A Proper Companion — I was lucky enough to win this book through a giveaway at Austenprose. That site compared Hern to Georgette Heyer and Lauren Willig, so I’m hoping to enjoy this book a lot!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done a Top Ten Tuesday list! This week’s topic is series I’d like to start but haven’t yet. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with 10, since my usual problem is reading book #1 of a series and then never getting around to the rest! But here goes…

1. Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin) — I may be the only person who likes fantasy but still hasn’t gotten to this series yet! The length is daunting to me…but one of these days I’m going to pick up A Game of Thrones, I swear!

2. InCryptid (Seanan McGuire) — I love McGuire’s Toby Daye books, so of course I’m interested in this series too! I think it involves monsters and monster hunters, which could be fun. And the first book is called Discount Armageddon, which is just a great title in my opinion!

3. Seven Kingdoms Trilogy (Kristin Cashore) — Graceling has been on my shelves for AGES, so I really ought to read it soon! So many people have told me it’s great, too.

4. A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) — Yes, I know these books are for children. But they look like smart, silly, slightly sinister fun!

5. Algonquin Round Table Mysteries (J.J. Murphy) — You guys, there is a series of mysteries featuring Dorothy Parker as a sleuth! I am intrigued. The first book, Murder Your Darlings, is on my shelves, and I plan to read it later this month.

6. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Laurie R. King) — I’m not a huge Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, but I do think he’s an interesting character. I won book #1, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in a reading challenge a few years ago, and I’ve been meaning to start it…one of these days!

7. Aubrey/Maturin (Patrick O’Brian) — I love this time period, and I’m always up for a good seafaring yarn. (Well, not always. But I sometimes am.) I’ve wanted to start this series many times, but 20 books is a big commitment!

8. Dublin Murder Squad (Tana French) — I own the first two books of this series, so there’s really no excuse now!

9. Iris Anderson series (Kathryn Miller Haines) — I’m still reading Haines’ Rosie Winter books, but I’m equally interested in this YA series that takes place during WWII.

10. Curse of Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold) — I also need to catch up with Bujold’s Vorkosigan series; I’ve only read Shards of Honor and Barrayar! But this fantasy series looks really good too.

I really hate to do this on Christmas Day, since it’s supposed to be a time of joy and love. But last week I listed my top 10 reads of 2012, and this week it seems only fair to list my 10 worst reading experiences. Consider it my Christmas gift to you — now you know what books to avoid! 🙂 Here, in no particular order, are 10 books that disappointed me this year:

1. P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley — Being a sucker for anything Austen-related and also a fan of British mysteries, I thought this book would be a slam dunk. Sadly, I was extremely underwhelmed, both by the mystery and the P&P elements. A poor start to 2012, for sure!

2. G.M. Malliet, Death of a Cozy Writer — This is a mystery in the English country house tradition, but it’s so unoriginal that I just found it boring. There are a lot of great books in this genre, but this isn’t one of them.

3. Susan Elia MacNeal, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary — A mystery set during World War II. (I don’t seem to have had much luck with mysteries this year!) I was really interested in the premise of a woman using her mathematical abilities to crack German codes, but I found this book far too scattered to be compelling.

4. María Dueñas, The Time in Between — Again, this book was supposed to be about a Spanish woman who worked for British intelligence during World War II…but that plot didn’t actually begin until about page 400 of 600. It really annoys me when a book’s blurb and cover give a completely erroneous description of what the book is about.

5. Alexandra Potter, You’re (Not) the One — This is another book whose great premise was let down by bad execution. The plot is about a girl who kisses a boy under Venice’s Bridge of Sighs, thus binding him to her as her one true love — but when she meets him again 10 years later, she discovers they’re not truly compatible. It sounded like a really fun chick lit book, but in practice it just…wasn’t.

6. Elizabeth Speller, The Return of Captain John Emmett — Another mystery! This one is set during the aftermath of WWI, which is an interesting time period to me. I think my problem with this book is that it tried to be “literary” but only succeeded in dragging and being dull.

7. Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon — With all due respect to Mr. Hammett, I wasn’t a fan of this classic noir novel. I can’t really put my finger on why; I guess it just wasn’t for me. Loved The Thin Man though!

8. Daphne Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn — This book was just way too soap opera-esque and melodramatic for me. I also found it extremely predictable. A lot of the book focuses on creating a sense of suspense, but the heroine was such a passive person that I didn’t really care whether evil befell her or not!

9. Shane Jones, Light Boxes — I found this novel a bit too experimental. There were many different narrators, a plot that didn’t quite make logical sense, and hardly any character development. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d approached it as loosely releated poetry rather than a cohesive novel.

10. Josephine Tey, The Man in the Queue — Another disappointing mystery! I love the genre, but I definitely seem to have picked a lot of clunkers this year.

I should say that I didn’t think any of these books were awful; they just didn’t appeal to me personally. I chose these 10 books because of my level of disappointment with them, which was based on my expectations. So obviously your mileage may vary.

Lest this post is too Scrooge-y, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I’m off to chill with my family and open some presents. 🙂

It’s time for one of my favorite top 10 lists of the year: the best books I read in 2012. This year my reading varied widely in quality from the absolutely amazing to the frustrating and dull. That’s to be expected, of course; but  fortunately, it was very easy for me to come up with 10 books that I really liked! Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races — Absolutely my favorite book of 2012, and maybe one of my favorite books of all time! The wild, strange setting of Thisbe enchanted me, and I loved the slow-burning romance between  protagonists Sean and Puck.

2. Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity — My other favorite book of 2012. It’s either tied with The Scorpio Races or a very, very, very close second. It’s a wonderful WWII adventure story, as well as a portrait of the close relationship between two best friends. It’s also told in a unique and interesting way that packs a huge emotional punch.

3. Poul Anderson, The High Crusade — Good writing, a kick-ass premise, and unexpected character depth made this book a pleasure to read. I’m not big on aliens in general, but when they land on Earth in the middle of the Crusades, well, color me intrigued!

4. Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs — An adorable book that is destined to become a lifelong comfort read. It’s sweet and old-fashioned and reminds me a lot of Anne of Green Gables.

5. Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen — A delicious book in more ways than one. Main character Josey comes out of her shell and finds true love amidst the lush, magical backdrop of a small North Carolina town.

6. Kathryn Miller Haines, The War Against Miss Winter — I really enjoyed this book’s unique approach to the World War II period. Rather than using the setting as a shortcut to manipulate the reader’s emotions (as I think some WWII books do), this book simply treats it as the grim everyday background of the characters’ lives. The novel also has a great twist ending!

7. Josephine Tey, Brat Farrar — Books set in English country houses are my not-so-guilty pleasure, and this novel has a wonderful setup The protagonist is a con man pretending to be the long-lost son of the family, but he soon finds himself changing in response to their kindness.

8. Jennifer Echols, Such a Rush — I really like Echols’ romantic dramas in general, but this is one of her best. I loved main character Leah and her passion for flying airplanes. She’s deeply flawed but strong as hell and determined to succeed in life. Also, the romance is wonderful, both sexy and sweet.

9. Rainbow Rowell, Attachments — This book is a delightful romantic comedy with old-fashioned flair. The love story is given a unique twist in that the hero falls in love with the heroine through reading her email conversations with her best friend, even though he’s never met her in person.

10. Helene Hanff, 84, Charing Cross Road — A must-read for every bibliophile! This collection of letters between the American Hanff and a reserved British bookseller is funny and witty and smart and charming and just amazing! It’s a real testament to literature and its ability to create lasting friendships.