Welcome to another TTT! Every once in a while I enjoy putting a topic on the schedule that focuses on the person rather than the books. I love fostering community and friendships in the online bookish world, and today is one of those days! Today’s topic is Top Ten Things That Make Up My Perfect Day. Share the people, places, activities, foods, circumstances, etc. that make a day perfect for you. Go into as much or as little detail as possible!

I can think of many perfect days, but I think the one that warms my heart the most is during my favorite time of year with my mom!

1. It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and all my chronic health conditions and pain is under control. I feel good!
2. The house has been well and truly decked out for Christmas, and everything is twinkling and glowing and festive. The mess of all the decoration storage boxes is already packed away.
3. The carols of Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Burl Ives, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, and Tony Bennett are playing in the background.
4. It’s snowing outside and everything is blanketed in snow.
5. My mom and I spent the morning cozied up with our laptops shopping the last of the Thanksgiving weekend sales and chatting (while eating leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast, of course).
6. After the shopping is done, we spend the afternoon baking Christmas cookies and other treats.
7. We DoorDash Olive Garden for dinner. Hello, chicken alfredo (sub out the grilled chicken for crispy chicken) and breadsticks (with more alfredo sauce for dipping, naturally)!
8. We head out to drive through the most amazing Christmas lights display. It’s seriously magical, and all the snow has made everything even more bright and glowy.
9. Then it’s home, jammies, and a Hallmark Christmas movie while we munch on the cookies and rice krispie treats we made earlier.
10. I climb into bed with my cats and a Christmas-themed romance novel and read by the light of my little Christmas tree until I can no longer keep my eyes open and fall asleep all warm and cozy.

What does your perfect day look like?
Are you surprised I chose a Christmas perfect day? Probably not. lol.

NOTE: In other news, the InLinkz saga continues. They have migrated my subscription to their new website, which is more secure and actually supported so it won’t malfunction anymore. It also means the linky will be a little different moving forward. The biggest difference is that your link will have a little icon image to go with it. When you paste the link to your TTT post into the form, InLinkz will populate the form with a few images from your blog that you can choose from. You will also be able upload your own image if you’d prefer (like maybe your blog’s logo–the size of the icon will be roughly 100×100 pixels). Unfortunately, I can’t have a linky with no images so if you don’t want to use an image at all feel free to upload a colored square. Just Google Image “colored square” and pick something pretty so the list looks nice! lol. The cover of your favorite book works as well! Or a photo of your pet! I love animals. I’ll start using this new linky next week and if we all hate it, it’s back to the drawing board!

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is: Top Ten Authors I’ve Met. I used to go to a lot of author events when I read YA, but there aren’t as many opportunities for adult fiction authors (at least where I live). It was hard limiting my list to just ten, as I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few amazing authors, but these ones have been the most memorable!

Marissa Meyer
She came to my local library in 2012 as part of the Fierce Reads tour when Cinder came out, and I was so excited to meet her! I love the Lunar Chronicles.

Leigh Bardugo
She was also part of the Fierce Reads tour for Shadow and Bone. I literally bought the book only because it was one of my first author events and I was excited to meet authors and get some signed books. I had no idea how much I would love the Grishaverse. I met her again at an ALA annual conference and she complimented my long eyelashes and slipped me some Grisha nail polish under the table that she wasn’t supposed to give me. lol.

Sarah J. Maas
I met her at my very first ALA annual conference in Anaheim! She was there to promote Throne of Glass. I’d never heard of the book before, but it looked really good so I had her sign my ARC. Again, I had NO idea how much I would love the worlds she’s created since.

Marc Brown
I met him at ALA in 2014! If you don’t recognize his name, he’s the author and illustrator of the Arthur children’s book series! I have always adored Arthur, even as an adult. The books and show were a huge part of my childhood and it was surreal meeting him. It was a surprise to see him there, and I wish I’d known ahead of time so I could have brought some of my Arthur books for him to sign. I did get a lovely hardback copy of his new (at the time) book titled In New York, though.

Markus Zusak
Another ALA author surprise! His flight was super delayed and they worried he would not make it in time, but he got there and stayed way longer than he’d planned to make sure everyone could get their books signed. He signed a complimentary copy of The Book Thief for me, which I later read (and loved) as part of my YA lit class in grad school. He was so, so nice.

Susan Wiggs
She was the keynote speaker for the Utah Readers Luncheon in 2018 and it was really fun meeting her! She signed my copy of The Charm School.  When I handed it to her she gave it a wistful smile and told me it had quite the cult following among teens when it came out in 1999. It’s still my favorite book of hers.

Susan Mallery
She was the keynote speaker for the 2019 Utah Readers Luncheon and I got quite a few of her Fools Gold books signed.

Mo Willems
The author of the Pigeon books! I met him at ALA (I can’t remember which one) and I was so excited. He’s so nice!

Mary E. Pearson
Mary made me feel like a celebrity. I was standing in her signing line at ALA and when she looked up and saw my name and my blog’s name on my badge, she screamed “Jana!!!!” and jumped out of her seat and ran around the table to hug me. Everyone looked at me like “who the heck is she??” I’d fangirled hard over The Kiss of Deception and interviewed her on my blog, and she remembered me!

Anna Banks
I also met her at my library for the 2012 Fierce Reads tour. I was a newish blogger and had been requesting ARCs from so many publishers and getting declined for all of them. Of Poseidon was the very first ARC I was actually sent as the result of an emailed request. Up to that point, I was just reviewing what I bought and what I could “read now” on Netgalley. Macmillan took a chance on me with Of Poseidon and I have been receiving their books for review ever since! I can’t believe it’s been 14 years now. Anyway, Anna signed that ARC and drew a little shark in it.

Do you like going to author events and book signings?
Which authors have you met?

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted by Susan @ blogginboutbooks.com and is: Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life. To get the gears turning, here are some ideas: Hotshot Doc could describe you if you’re an awesome doctor, Falling into Place could describe a life where things are starting to work out, An Infinite Love Story could describe your relationship, and It Could Have Been Her could describe a thing you’re happy you avoided or a path you could have taken but didn’t. You can explain your choices or not, and they can be as specific or as abstract as you’d like. This is such a fun topic, and I’m excited to see what everyone picks and how creative you get with it!

Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca
I love traveling, and have been to many amazing places!

Brighter Than Before by Courtney Walsh
I have a plan for some things on my life and lots of hope that brighter times are ahead.

Miss Christmas by Gigi Garrett
People have actually called me this! I love Christmas!

How to Be A Wallflower by Eloisa James
aka the title of my memoir.

Going Overboard by Portia Macintosh
This is what I do! I go overboard on everything, whether it’s decorating for a holiday or stressing (hello, crippling anxiety!). If I’m going to do something, chances are I will go overboard with it.

Off the Beaten Path by Madison Wright
I love finding hidden gems that are lesser known such as fun little shops, restaurants, books, movies, music, etc.

Can’t Help Falling in Love by Sophie Cousins
I fall fast and hard for people and animals.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
This is literally how my life feels sometimes. lol.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
I’m either reading romance novels, watching rom-coms, or hoping for romance in my own life!

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson
I’m happiest when I’m by or on the ocean.

Do any of these titles sound like you, too?
What titles did you pick this week?

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is: Books About/Set In Places on My Bucket List and was submitted by Rachel @ Sunny Side. This topic is made for me! I love traveling, and my bucket list of places I’d like to visit it extremely long (I had to limit myself to these ten because I could have kept going). I’ve been to many amazing places, and will be excluding those from my list this week even though I’d love to return to all of them someday! This list is a mix of older and newer titles (some are even upcoming releases). I’ll put an asterisk by the ones I’ve read. All the others are from my TBR!

Egypt
The Promise of a Kiss by K.C. Bateman* (5 stars)

The Galápagos Islands
Shipped by Angie Hockman* (2 stars)

Ireland
Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews

Greece
A Perfect Story by Elísabet Benavent

Finnish Lapland
Christmas at Frozen Falls by Kiley Dunbar* (5-star favorite)

Scotland
Scot and Bothered by Alexandra Kiley

Copenhagen, Denmark
The Floating Copenhagen Café by Annabel French

Iceland
The Northern Lights Lodge by Julie Caplin

Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Diaries, Caroline, by Rebecca Hunter

Turkey
Troy Story by Carla Luna

Have you been to any of these places? Read any of these books?
What location is at the very tippy top of your bucket list?