Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Indie Reads

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish back in June 2010. It is currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and, as is stated on the blog, it was “born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.”

Hello, reader!

It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday, y’all! I’m excited about this week’s topic because I get to talk about my favorite indie reads. Well… it’s technically an indie freebie, but that seemed like the perfect excuse to make the topic some of my favorite indie books/authors! I love exploring books that are published outside of the major publishers because you can truly find some gems.

That being said, let’s get to the list!

My Favorite Indie Reads

Miss Bennet’s Dragon by M. Verant
The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
Bad Grains by Susanne Schmidt
Glunda the Veg Witch by Keith W. Dickinson
A Necromancer Called Gam Gam by Adam Holcombe

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goodreads monday

Goodreads/TBR Monday: September 7th, 2026

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Goodreads Monday/TBR Monday is a bookish meme hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog invites you to post about what books are on your Goodreads “to read” lists or TBR lists, the progress you have made on your current books and reading challenges, and any other bookish news!

Hello, reader!

Goodreads Monday has arrived! It’s Labor Day here in the States and, for once, I’m not working. I’m going to take the day to chill and read and, of course, take a peek at my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf. Let’s see if the random book that gets picked is one that gets to stick around on the TBR.

Time to see what book that will be!

Random Goodreads Pick

Book:
Every Body Looking

Author:
Candice Iloh

Publisher:
Dutton Books for Young Readers

Publication Date:
September 22nd, 2020

Pages:
416

Genre:
Contemporary/Coming-of-Age

Synopsis:
“Ada” means first daughter, means oldest girl, means pressure. “Ada” means you are expected to do a lot of things because the honor of this family rests on your back.

When Ada leaves home for her freshman year at a Historically Black College, it’s the first time she’s ever been so far from her family—and the first time that she’s been able to make her own choices and to seek her place in this new world. As she stumbles deeper into the world of dance and explores her sexuality, she also begins to wrestle with her past—her mother’s struggle with addiction, her Nigerian father’s attempts to make a home for her. Ultimately, Ada discovers she needs to brush off the destiny others have chosen for her and claim full ownership of her body and her future.

Every Body Looking is a luminous and inspiring novel in verse about bearing the weight of others’ expectations and finding the courage to shape a life of one’s own.

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the sunday post

The Sunday Post: September 6th, 2026

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The Sunday Post is a blog news meme created by @CaffeinatedReviewer! It gives you a chance to post a recap of your last week, whether that pertains to books or not. You can talk about however much (or however little) you would like.

Hello, reader!

Sunday has rolled around and that means it’s time for The Sunday Post! This week went by in a flash and I’m surprised it’s already the end. At least it’s a long weekend so I get one more day to relax. Now, though, it’s time to talk about last week on the blog and in life.

Let’s jump in!

Week in Review

It was a fairly boring work week, though a busy one. Busy meant it went super fast and I appreciated that! We have a bunch of people going on leave in a couple of weeks so I’m trying to enjoy having a full staff for the next week 😅 We’ll see how it goes!

I had a day off on Thursday since I had to work Saturday. I spent it running a bunch of errands, but I also got to go to one of my favorite places: the library! I spent a couple hours there just browsing, reading, and hanging out. It was glorious. I’ll be updating y’all soon as to what I picked up.

Saturday was work but we also had another D&D session. It was a lot of fun, especially since my wizard was kicking ass last night! I rolled a nat 20 two times in a row! It doesn’t happen often; my rolls usually make me want to put my dice in jail 😒 It was a great session.

As for today, I didn’t feel like doing anything, so I spent the day being lazy and reading. It has been just what I needed. Perhaps I’ll do the same thing tomorrow, haha.

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book blogger hop

Book Blogger Hop: Lesser-Known Books

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The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Crazy-For-Books and is currently being hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer. Every Friday, a new question is posted for book bloggers to answer in the coming week. The purpose of the hop is connection and community. You can discover new blogs to follow, new books to read, and you may end up with some new followers, as well!

This Week’s Prompt

What book do you think deserves more love but flies under the radar?

Submitted by Billy, Coffee-Addicted Writer.

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first lines friday

First Lines Friday: September, 4th 2026

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? If you want to make your own post, feel free to use or edit the banner above, and follow the rules below:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!

If you’re sharing on social media, don’t forget to use #FirstLinesFridays!

Hello, reader!

It’s time for another First Lines Friday! For today’s book, I thought I’d share with you another book I’m currently reading. It’s a non-fiction that I’m sure you’ve seen me mention a few times on the blog recently. I finally started reading it and I’m having a great time!

Now, let’s see if the first lines can grab your interest.

The Line(s):

“‘On October 8, 2016, I sat down and wrote a letter to my father, who had been dead for twelve years.”

The Build Up:

The Reveal:

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wrap up

August 2026 Wrap Up

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Hello, reader!

It’s the best month ever, but that doesn’t mean we can leave August in the dust just yet. I still need to do my August Wrap Up after all! And I’m doing it before we’re halfway through the month! Please clap 😂 August was an odd reading month in that my focus for anything other than audiobooks was completely shot… but I still had a good time!

Before I keep rambling, let’s get to the wrap up!

August Reading Stats

In August 2026, I read 9 books for 3,451 pages. Definitely less than the past two months, but I’m still not mad at it! I think I burned myself out a teeny bit with how much I read in June and July, haha. I will say I also tackled thicker physical books in August (that I still haven’t finished…) so perhaps that contributed to my books read being a little less.

Kind of love that LGBTQIA+ lit is sitting pretty at the top of my genres for August! I’m also surprised that YA is number two because A) IT’S NOT A GENRE and B) I don’t read a ton of YA these days. Other than that, I feel like this mix is a bit of the usual. I like what I like, what can I say?

Remember last month when I was so happy that physical books made a comeback at got to 50% of the chart? How I wanted to keep that trend going? Yeeeeeaaaah… 😅 Audiobooks didn’t give any other format a chance in August at a whopping 78% of the books I read! I was just in a mood to consume all my books through my ears, apparently. And, hey, I loved the experience! We’ll try and give physical books more of a chance in September, heh.

Somehow I beat my average rating from last month! I had an average star rating of 4.33 stars in August! So clearly the audiobooks were working, haha. I had three 5 star reads! One of which was a re-read that I bumped up from 4.5 to 5 stars. That’s the most I’ve had in a month all year. So maybe I didn’t read as many books in August, but I certainly enjoyed then a hell of a lot!

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www wednesday

WWW Wednesday: September 2nd, 2026

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It’s time for another WWW Wednesday! This is a bookish meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words where bloggers answer the 3 Ws:

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

If you’d like to learn more about any of these books, click on the cover to be taken to the Goodreads page.

Current Reads

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher: Ever thought about going caving? Maybe don’t read this book because you will swiftly change your mind 😂 I’m learning that I am maybe claustrophobic (?) because the description of the tight spaces and being so deep underground have me genuinely shivering. Absolutely not, could NOT be me! Reading about other people dealing with horrors in the dark, however, is my idea of a good time. So you won’t be surprised that I am loving this book!
The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty: Oh it feels so good to be back in this world! I adored The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, so I was eager to read the sequel that came out earlier this year. I wanted to read it via audio again and, unfortunately, the wait at my library took ages. But it’s hear, and I’m reading, and it’s perfect 🥰 I am worried about these beloved characters, though, because the narrator has already promised that this is gonna be more on the dark side… This book is going to make me cry, isn’t it?

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monthly tbr · readathon

Magical Readathon: Orilium Autumn Equinox 2026

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Hello, reader!

Happy September, everyone! This is my favorite month of the year for multiple reasons. Namely, it’s my birth month 🥳 But, also, this month contains one-half of my favorite readathon: the Orilium Autumn Equinox! This is the second half of the Magical Readathon and I always love participating.

But, before I talk more about new adventures, what is the Magical Readathon? It is the brain child of the marvelous G @ Book Roast, who created the world of Aeldia, where Orilium dwells, and every aspect therein. It’s an incredibly creative readathon where you build a character, choose a guild, and guide your character through classes to achieve their calling. I am notoriously bad at giving all the details in a coherent way, so you should definitely watch G’s announcement video for the scoop:

My Character

✨✨✨ Name: Korrin Musgrave ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Calling: Beast Master Master ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Guild: The Order of the Crescent Moon ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Current Guild Reputation Points: 805 gp✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Conduit: Quarterstaff ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Legacy: Wolf familiar (Venandi) ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Background: Wildling ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Province: Irtheria ✨✨✨
✨✨✨ Heritage: Earthling (earth element) ✨✨✨

If you want to learn more about these various choices, you can check out the Brief History of Aeldia on the Google drive. It’s awesome what G has dreamed up!

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goodreads monday

Goodreads/TBR Monday: August 31st, 2026

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Hello, reader!

It’s the beginning of the week and it’s time for another Goodreads Monday. That means I need to pick a random book from my Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and see if I want to keep it on my shelf. My amount of books has climbed a bit because I found myself browsing around Goodreads and… things happened 😂 So we’ll see if this random pick helps me bring the count down or not.

Let’s jump in!

Random Goodreads Pick

Book:
A Clash of Carnivores

Author:
Liselle Sambury

Publisher:
Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date:
August 4th, 2026

Pages:
608

Genre:
Horror/Fantasy

Synopsis:
The thrilling sequel to A Mastery of Monsters, following the fiercely determined eighteen-year-old August Black as she infiltrates a secret society hiding the frightening reality that monsters are real, while unraveling the mystery behind her brother’s disappearance.

August risked everything to find her brother, joining a deadly secret society protecting the chilling truth that monsters are very, very real. She thought when she found him that she would leave the society behind.

Instead, she fought and bled to bond herself to a Monster for life.

Now, despite her efforts to stay unattached, her connection to her Monster partner, Virgil, continues to grow. She can’t stop replaying the memory of their forbidden kiss that Virgil wants to pretend never happened.

Their strained bond is put to the test as they prepare for the Monster’s Ball, a brutal tournament where pairs battle for the coveted title of Master. But despite the danger of the contest, August is consumed with finding her mom’s killer and getting revenge. Her vendetta leads to her accidentally form a rare second bond with Nolan, a Wild Monster who wants nothing to do with her. And if the three of them can’t work together, they’ll be kicked out of the tournament before it even begins.

But August can’t pull her focus away from revenge—even if it means becoming the worst sort of monster herself. She believes that vengeance will cure her grief, but it may just be the thing that breaks her bonds for good.

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the sunday post

The Sunday Post: August 30th, 2026

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Hello, reader!

The end of the week is upon us and that means it’s time for another edition of The Sunday Post! Time to share what I’ve been up to here on the blog and in life offline. I’ve been a bit busier than usual this past week, so more to talk about today!

That being said, let’s jump in!

Week in Review

Work was a blur last week, I’m not gonna lie. We had people out that lead to me having to work the bench a few days and I was going in early so I could pick my husband up from work. So I was tired and busy, haha. Still, it was a good work week because I got quite a bit done! I think working from home on Friday certainly helped with that.

Saturday, we brought our eldest back to her university to start her sophomore year 😭 I’m so proud of her work so far and I know she’s going to do wonderfully again this year! Still, I already miss her. Her new dorm situation is almost like an apartment set-up, which is nice. Her room has a living area which has a kitchen and a washer and dryer! I hope she has an amazing year.

Today, I spent my day in Boston with my bestie to check out a restaurant called the Union Oyster House. It’s a staple in Boston that has been around for years and yet neither of us had ever been there, haha. The food was delicious! After lunch, we headed to the Boston Market to stroll around. We ended up picking up some apple cider donuts and questionable mixed drinks 😂 Then we headed back to her place and watched some YouTube. It was a lovely day!

Now it’s back to the grind and getting the youngest ready for his first day of school. Then we’ll be back to our typical routine.

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