Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books that Conjure Up Happy Memories & Tell Me Something Tuesday: If you had to teach a class or give a TED Talk, what would it be about?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

Happy first Tuesday of October! We are having a seasonably cooler week with a fair amount of sunshine. Perfect fall weather. The Big E is over for another year, and now we can focus on apple picking, fall festivals, book festivals, and more. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about happy memories. What books are on your list that conjure those joyful feelings from days gone by? Here are my...

Top Ten  Books that Conjure Up Happy Memories

Song of the Seasons by Glenys Nellist reminds me how thankful I am to live in a geographic location that includes all four seasons. 

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder brings back happy memories of having a book series that I've come to treasure that was passed down from my sisters. 

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery was a present for my 11th birthday. It was the last birthday before my mother's cancer diagnosis, making it the last year I felt truly carefree. 

The cradle on the cover of Beyond the Code of Conduct by K. M. Daughters reminds me of a hand-crafted doll cradle made by one of my cousins who has since passed away. I still have it. 

Murder, She Wrote by Jessica Fletcher and the numerous other authors credited with the series reminds me of sitting in front of the television in our house and then in my apartment, watching Jessica Fletcher solve crimes in the quaint town of Cabot Cove. 

Every Christmas, my childhood house would welcome the Christmas village, the artificial tree, and somehow had enough room for a mountain of relatives. But some of the fondest memories are of attending midnight Mass together and listening to O Holy Night sung in French. Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam by James W. Moore reminds me of those days.  

This particular edition of The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough was the same one my mother read. I don't read it anymore. The cover is torn off, and the pages are curled. But it is a connection to her and all that we shared. 

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts reminds me of the joy of waiting for The Wizard of Oz to be televised once a year and reliving it all over again. 

The Bastard by John Jakes reminds me that by the time I was 14, no one was paying attention to what I was reading. I remember a lot of steamy romance in this series. 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott was also a present for my 11th birthday. I read this series before Anne of Green Gables. It serves as a reminder that my oldest sister always took care of me and thought I deserved something special. 

Tell Me Something Tuesday (TMST) is hosted by Jen Twimom at That's What I'm Talking About. TMST is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics, from books and blogging to life in general. Participation is optional, and you can leave your comments in the weekly post when you participate. Check it out if you're interested in joining.

This week's Tell Me Something Tuesday prompt is fun: If you had to teach a class or give a TED Talk, what would it be about?

I am good at training others. I've been doing it since I was a teenager. In college, I took public speaking, which helped me feel comfortable speaking in front of others. Now, I have to be prepared. I am not good at speaking off the cuff. My brain is too distracted thinking about what to say.

This year, I held social media classes and sat on a panel about rentals. In the past, I've shared my experience in promoting books. I created training classes for numerous departments at my last Corporate America job. 

If I ever gave a TED talk, it would be called “Stuck in the Middle with You: Why You Don’t Have to Be in the Top 1% of Real Estate Agents to Be Successful.”

In real estate, there’s so much noise about being a top‑tier producer that the solid and steady mid‑range pros get overlooked. I’m talking about the agents who consistently land in their company’s Top 25 and sometimes break into the Top 10 — the ones who show up, do the work, serve their clients well, and keep the business running year after year. 

Not all of us want to sell 100+ homes annually. Not all of us want to build a team or chase every award under the sun. Some of us simply want to be reliable, consistent producers who make it possible for the brokerage to keep the lights on, delivering for our clients without burning ourselves out.

I’d focus on helping them tune out the pressure to be “more,” build systems that make their work smoother and more efficient, and find the motivation to push through when transactions get messy or the year isn’t shaping up the way they hoped. 

Do you think I've thought about this before? LOL!  This is true of any sales position. We don't need to be pushed into being more than we want to be. 

Can't wait to check out your blogs this week.