My best of the first half of 2025:
5⭐️
Don’t Cry for Me by Daniel Black
Black in Blues by Imani Perry
Freedom is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana
The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni
4.5⭐️
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
The Slip by Lucas Schaefer
Spell Freedom by Elaine Weiss
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
On the Calculation of Volume #1 by Solvej Balle
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Thanks for your question. First some background. A few years ago, I discovered that seeing the cover of a book in a listing of a book inventory has so much more of an impact on me that simply listing title and author. It isn’t like I actually ever hold in my hand a book with the cover as everything I read is electronic, and mostly audio. Somehow seeing the cover encapsulates the book for me.
I have my total book personal library created in Library Thing and Goodreads and from either of them I can obtain an http link to the cover image for any individual book. Library Thing has an option to show all the covers in a list like mine side by side on a screen. I then take a screenshot of the screen to create a .jpg of the set of books which I can insert into my Book Browse post.
I have been thinking of asking Book Browse developers to offer such a facility to other members. BB commonly shows a collection of covers as part of their displays and it would be great if any member could create such an image for a collection of their choice.
I haven’t messed around with Library Thing for a long time. Can you use a date range to select your titles/images?
I too am drawn to “historical fiction with an ingredient of suspense, or mystery”, but oftentimes move away from that genre combination for lighter reads. And also like you, the reading lists compiled by other members are an enticement to add even more books to my TBR list. 
Way too many books for the time available to read them, but I believe that posts like yours provide us all with an opportunity to be all the more selective, further separating the wheat from the chaff in TBR lists.
Yes you can in several ways. First is the field Date Read, which I usually only put in the year, but you can do complete dates. I find more useful is to create a Collection where I place a category, like memorable books of 2024 etc.
You can choose to look at covers, or any of their fields. Anyone can get a free membership in Library Thing. If you have one you can go to my member ID, which is JoeB1934 and see all of my library.. LT is very useful for maintaining a library and you can convert it to GR very easily. Very important however is to have an ISBN for each book. Feel free to look at my library.
I also should say that I find Book Browse to be more helpful to me in finding out about new books, or any books. My other favorite method is to follow another LT member who seems to like books I like and posts about their new reads.
I agree whole heartedly with what you are saying. On LT I am considered a ‘numbers’ guy because I like to look at book genre stats and match what I consider my favorites. But when it comes to rating a book I tend to be very emotional and non-analytical. I don’t produce reviews because I am always on the side of the author and believe that if I didn’t care for what/how they said things that’s my problem and not theirs.
Thanks @Joe_Bozovich. I can see how collections would easily work by month. I’ll check out your date read suggestion also.
I used to be active on LT but now I keep it as a storage place for books I’ve acquired and don’t want to forget from what app/service. So I have collections for each place from which I purchase (kindle, libro, bookshop, etc). Makes it easy to find them and I can also scroll through covers to remind myself what I want to read.
I really appreciate your explanation.
I’ve had a good year so far. Some of my favorites have been
Good Dirt
Frozen River
One Good Thing
I See You’ve Called in Dead
What Happened to the McCrays?
Looking Forward to
Becoming Madam Secretary
The Correspondent
The Black Wolf Will it be Penny’s last Gamache? I think so.
Also hopeful to catch up on some of the back list titles on my Kindle. One I’d like to finally get to is The Shell Seekers…an oldie but it keeps popping up on favorites lists.
I have a short list so far this year:
The Dark Wives: A Vera Stanhope Mystery
Trust Her by Flynn Berry
And, in my niche reading which doesn’t overlap with BB members:
God: An Anatomy by F. Stavrakpoulou
Your two mysteries are right in part of my interests. The Dark Wives I have read, and Trust Her is one I am adding to my TBR. To top it all off God: An Anatomy is a book I want to read. The portrait of God ties into my interest in the age of the earth and the role of humans in coping with the unknown. So, your niche is more interesting than you imagined. Thanks for the list.
I’m glad to add to your TBR list! Everytime I check in I scoop up a few more titles.
Hi Robin–I like the image created with you “scooping up” more titles. A great visual and so apt! 
Recently finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and I absolutely LOVED it! It’s not my typical read, which was a little out of character for me, but I am a big fan of the movie The Martian (Matt Damon) based on a book by the same Author. I discovered I love his writing style!
Project Hail Mary is such a surprising book. I did not expect that story and was so pleasantly surprised that it went where it went. I push it into everyone’s hands that I can because if you know, you know. Right?
Right! I couldn’t agree more! It was recommended by a friend, who is an avid reader and has given many recommendations. I was skeptical, at first. But once I started, I was hooked!
The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
Change the Recipe by José Andres
And a couple that have been around for awhile:
House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olson
On Call by Dr. Fauci
Kim, I highly recommend Theo of Golden by Allen Levi and Lady days of Night by Graham Moore. Both older books I never heard of but were fabulous surprises.
4 posts were split to a new topic: Is All the Colors of the Dark a good book club book?
Thanks, @Beth_M, I’ll have to check those out!
Books I’ve enjoyed so far in 2025 are as follows:
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
And a few of the books I’m looking forward to the rest of the year are
To name a few!