Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Hi everyone, and welcome to a new Top Ten Tuesday. Today I’m doing a little twist on the original topic, which was The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf. As I know my shelves too well and it wouldn’t really be random, I asked my husband for help. Just like this post from a few years ago. But this time, I asked him to only pick books he think are my favorites, based only on the cover and title.
A few side notes: my interpretation of favorite is a bit personal, but it’s mostly a book that I rated 4 to 5 stars, had strong feelings about (more than general like) and would love to re-read. Also, I only had him peruse my ebook and audiobook shelves, as I only buy/keep physical copies of favorites, so having him check my physical shelves for favorites would be too easy 🙂 Also, no two picks by the same author.
How did he do? Let’s see!
Ebooks
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! I recently read this cozy fantasy and adored every minute of it.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! Though I don’t think he’d pick this if he’d known it was a dark stalker romance… but I wouldn’t have guessed this would be a fave of mine either, and yet it was 🙂
Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry ❌🔴 UNFORTUNATELY NO… I had high expectations for this one and it had great potential to become a favorite for a while there, but then the ending ruined it all for me.
Truly Madly Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur ➖🟣 LIKED IT, BUT NOT A FAVE. I read this at the beginning of the year and liked it well enough, but it’s not favorite material. The song Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden however, IS a favorite, so bonus points for that.
Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper ➖🟣 LIKED IT, BUT NOT A FAVE. Again, I liked this one well enough (and to be fair, it’s still one of my favorite covers/titles) but the story wasn’t favorite material either.
Audiobooks
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! This hilarious serial killer romance was an unexpected favorite from 2024!
Enchantra by Kaylie Smith ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! I mean: cursed mansions, deadly games, adorable fox familiars and a tattooed grumpy hero… how could it not be?
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! This is such an emotional read but it also has so much heart and a wonderful found family.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid ✅🟢 YES, FAVE! We watched the tv adaptation together so that probably gave it away, but it’s still a fave!
The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole ➖🟣 LIKED IT, BUT NOT A FAVE. I listened to this audiobook a few years ago and remember liking it, but not much else…
Tell Me:
Do we have any of these favorite reads in common?
Fun!! Loos like you have a great collection with varying genres. 🙂
Thanks! Yes, he definitely chose a nice selection 🙂
Under the Whispering Door was such a pleasant surprise!
I still have to read Shields of Sparrows though.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/11/04/top-ten-tuesday-tbr-roulette-round-2/
Under the Whispering Door was such a nice surprise indeed! I hope you’ll love Shields of Sparrows more than I did!
I don’t think he did too bad with book choices! I like the sound of Under The Whispering Door.
Here’s a link to my TTT post
https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/%f0%9f%93%9a-toptentuesday-10-books-on-my-bookshelf-tuesdaybookblog-booktwitter-bookx/
I’m quite happy with his choices too 🙂 Under the Whispering Door is such a heartfelt read.
I need to read A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping!!
I hope you’ll love A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping as much as I did!
Haha! I love that! I wonder how my husband would do and kinda need him to do it now.
I loved Butcher and Blackbird!
I hope you have a wonderful week!
Ash @ Essentially Ash
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I’m looking forward to your post if you decided to ask your husband too 🙂 Butcher and Blackbird was so fun indeed!
Oh, this was clever. I wonder if my spouse would be willing to do such a thing. 😂
It’s definitely a fun question to ask 🙂
This is a fun twist for today! 6/10 right is not bad at all.
It’s definitely not bad, considering it’s purely based on title and cover 🙂
What a fun take on today’s prompt! 😍 Looks like your husband knows your taste rather well and did a great job picking out some of your faves, hehe. So excited to see Magical Innkeeping make this list!
He did choose very well indeed 🙂 Magical Innkeeping is one of my 2025 faves for sure!
Well he knows your taste I would say!
He does indeed 🙂
Hey he did pretty good! 😀
He did indeed 😀
Dang that Devney Perry book has a very pretty cover.
It does indeed! 🙂
I haven’t read any of these, but I do have A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping on my TBR!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
I hope you’ll love A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping!
This is such a fun idea! He’s picked out some great books… Daisy Jones is a big yes from me 🙂
Here’s my TTT – https://justreadjessie.blog/2025/11/04/top-ten-tuesday-the-first-10-books-i-randomly-grabbed-from-my-shelves/
Thanks! He did do really well – and yay for Daisy Jones!
The only one on your list that I’ve read, and totally loved, is the Mandanna book. I’m not sure my husband could do as well as yours. Though I’m sure he would do a decent job of given a list.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/ten-books-i-own-randomly-selected-bygoodreads/
Wow, your husband did pretty well! Mine wouldn’t have, I don’t think, ha ha. He always teases me that my shelves are full of books about murder and shouldn’t he be a *little* concerned about that? LOL
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
How fun!! He did good!
This is such a fun concept!! He did so well too!
Looks like he did a great job on the audiobooks! Daisy Jones was a great read/listen.