Category Archives: Lists

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2025

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2025. Artwork by @sennydoesarty

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2025

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is a really great one: bookish goals for 2025!

FIRST OF ALL. Did you see this adorable artwork of me and my two cats that Senny designed for me? You can find her on Instagram at @sennydoesarty. She’s amazing. I can’t recommend her enough. I am redesigning my blog banner to include these images, but it’s taking me forever, and I can’t wait any longer to share them.

This year, I plan to repeat some of the same reading challenges that I’ve been part of … Continue reading →

10 Best Books I Read in 2024

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10 Best Books of 2024 (includes YA and MG titles)

10 Best Books I Read in 2024

I’m finally catching up on some stats and information on my reading life in 2024, and that process reminded me that I haven’t shared my top 10 best books I read in 2024 yet!

Since I review mainly young adult and middle grade books here on The Story Sanctuary, the list will center on books for those age groups. In the past, I’ve made a separate list for each age group, but this year, I’m just making one list and including both. As a bonus, I ranked them.

Note: This post contains affiliate links that do not cost you anything to use but help support this … Continue reading →

Fall 2024 Backlist Reading Check-In

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Fall 2024 Backlist Reading Check-in

Fall 2024 Backlist Reading Check-In

Normally, I start a post like this at the beginning of the season and add to it as I finish reading each book. That gives me a diary-like record of my experience with each book, which I enjoy looking back at later.

This time, I forgot to start the post and only remembered about it in mid-November when I began making my calendar of list posts for next year. At any rate, I did manage to get my Fall 2024 backlist reading list together, and I’m excited to talk about some of these books.

I somehow managed to get to a lot more backlist titles than I thought I did. My … Continue reading →

28 Books Still on My Fall 2024 Reading List

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28 Books Still on My Fall 2024 Reading List

28 Books Still on My Fall 2024 Reading List

What happened to the fall? Is this what a reading slump feels like? These are the questions I’m asking myself this weekend as I finish up this post about my lack of fall 2024 reading and prepare it to go live. Whew. It has been a wild month, y’all.

One of the really terrible things that I’m learning about myself is that when my anxiety level peaks past a certain point, I almost physically cannot read. It’s like my eyes and brain simply do not cooperate. I start the page taking in letters, words, sentences, but within a line or two, I realize I’m … Continue reading →

Summer 2024 Backlist Check-In and Life Update

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Summer 2024 Backlist Reading

Summer 2024 Backlist Check-In and Life Update

This summer absolutely flew past me. My family didn’t have huge plans, but we had a lot of little things to do that kept us close to home and pretty busy. We managed to get most of those things done and still visit the beach a few times and see friends, so I feel like overall it was a successful season.

I also managed to read a pretty long list of backlist books. I listened to seven of these as audiobooks. Five of these titles are graphic novels and another two are heavily illustrated, which are also pretty quick to read. All of that combined to help … Continue reading →

Spring 2024 Backlist Reading Check-In and Life Update

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Spring 2024 Backlist Reading Update

Life Update: It’s Been Wild

Whew. It has been a tough few months, y’all. Wowza. I had to take an unplanned break from reading because things got too overwhelming. And the weird thing is, there wasn’t a gigantic, immediate crisis at any point.

My kids hit some big milestones and needed extra support. My partner was traveling for work. It meant additional output from me, but nothing that I would have called unmanageable.

Except that it was. Which, thankfully, prompted me to get medical advice. I’ve had some low-key, annoying, but not dangerous, issues going on for a while. I thought by now, I’d be getting relief from new meds and treatment. … Continue reading →