top ten tuesday

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books on My Winter TBR

- Meg 2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly discussion hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl (and formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish), and this week’s topic is “Books on My Winter TBR” and some of these have been on some form of a TBR at some point or another, and I’m going to read them by the time the winter season is over!! It’s time to stop distracting myself and get to reading what I’ve been gravitating toward.

  • The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo – I think I read this when it first came out, or likely flipped through a lot of it. It wasn’t until I watched the show again recently that I wanted to read the book again. I know a lot of people think the book by itself isn’t necessarily helpful, but the show helps cinch it all together and make it make sense. One of the phrases I’ve really liked from the show is “do you want to take this into your future,” and I get really stuck on the sentimentality of things, so that question has helped a lot. Besides, I really want to get a handle on my life before I make a move, and there’s so much stuff I don’t want to take with me into my future.
  • My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh – I am in such a mood for historical romance, and this fake dating one with a SCHOLAR sounds right up my alley.
  • Any Rogue Will Do by Bethany Bennett – This cover is just so pretty?? I just need to read it.
  • Culture Warlords by Talia Lavin – This was sent to me by Hachette after I requested it because it’s been on my radar since I started following Talia Lavin on Twitter a while back. It seems like an infuriating, yet important read.
  • Real Life by Brandon Taylor – This has been one of my most anticipated reads because Brandon Taylor is such a delight on Twitter, and I’ve heard endless good things about this.
  • A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday – Is it really Christmas if you don’t read a cute Christmas book? I grabbed this off the ARC shelf at work in October but decided to save it until December! It’s up next on my to-read list!
  • Simmer Down by Sarah Smith – This was such an impulse buy after finding out it’s a romance centering on a food truck, and it’s high time I read it!
  • Ex-Libris: 100 Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani – Books about books are some of my favorite books to read, and the illustrations in this are to die for.
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – I’ve been wanting to read this ever since Schwab mentioned it years ago, and to be honest I’ve already started it and it’s already drawn me in.
  • Persephone Station by Stina Leicht – The other day I remembered this comes out in January and it hit me that January is only a couple of weeks away. This popped up in a Netgalley email and I wanted to read it just for the cover! The description says it’s for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop, and those are two things I like, so this will be the next digital arc I read!

I realized I didn’t do a fall TBR, nor did I read anything off my summer TBR, and this is the moment of changes, so I’m going to be better about reading all of these.

What is on your winter TBR?

 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I Want to Read Again

- Meg 6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly discussion hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl (and formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish), and this week’s topic is “Books I Want to Read Again” and even though there are so many new books to read, sometimes it’s a joy to revisit something you’ve read before and find something new in it (and be comforted because these are almost all comfort reads to some degree).

  • Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine – This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I try to read it about once a year. I don’t actually remember the last time I read it, so it’s definitely time for a revisit.
  • Emma by Jane Austen – Even though this is on my 2020 reads list and a challenge I’m not likely to finish any time soon, I’ve been wanting to revisit this ever since the movie came out earlier this year.
  • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett – I last read this forever ago and meant to revisit after the TV series, but I’m in the mood for something funny and this should do the trick.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien – I used to read this once a year in the fall but I haven’t done that in about five years or more. With the release of these new covers, I’m ready to dive back into Middle Earth.
  • The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot – I didn’t realize any of these were getting rereleased for their TWENTIETH anniversary, but I ate these like candy when I was younger and I’m happy to see them out in print again.
  • The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald – If you don’t read Fitzgerald in the 2020s, who are you? The parallels of the two decades are interesting, and I’m curious to revisit this after seven years according to my Goodreads!
  • The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien – I last read this sometime in the midst of the film trilogy’s release and I remember nothing about it. With the extended universe series coming out at some point, I want to revisit this (and with the shiny new cover).
  • Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas – I am working on finishing series that I started, bought the books, and never finished. But I don’t really remember what happened in the first five books to truly pick up the most recent one I haven’t read. I remember these being fast, fun reads though!
  • Truthwitch by Susan Dennard – This is another one of those series where I read the first book, continued to buy the next installments in hardcover on release, and then just never read them. The next one comes out in the near future, so I want to get caught up!
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – I told myself I wouldn’t read the second book in this trilogy until the third book was announced, and the third book came out this year, so it’s time to dive back into this brilliant view of the Tudors.

What are you looking forward to rereading?

 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Anticipated Reads Cover Love

- Meg 6 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly discussion hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl (and formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish), and this week’s topic is “Cover Freebie” so I decided to look up some books I’ve been hearing about recently and books I’ve been waiting a while for their release and collected all of the covers!

  • A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik – I have actually never read anything by Naomi Novik (yet!!), but I love magical schools and this seems to be right up my alley.
  • In the Quick by Kate Hope Day – This is compared to The Martian and is about a female astronaut’s life and a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew, and I’m intrigued? The cover of this is interesting, too!
  • The Gilded Ones by Naima Forna – I think the date of this one got pushed back, but a young woman who prays for her blood to be a certain color and fate intervening looks like it will be something I’ll like!
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – This seems like it’s on everyone’s lists this fall, but I’ve enjoyed every book of hers I’ve read, and this one looks to be one of her more ambitious endeavors.
  • The Mask Falling, by Samantha Shannon – I’m a book behind in this series, but I’m looking forward to a reread of all of them soon as I got an arc of this! I love binging series, I’ve noticed, so the more I can read at once, the better.
  • Malice, by Heather Walter – This comes out like two weeks before my birthday next year and it’s a f/f retelling of Sleeping Beauty, one of my favorite fairy tales, and I just want this in my hands now.
  • The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers – Becky Chambers writes amazingly wholesome and heartfelt science fiction, and I’m very happy to see they’re continuing the Wayfarers series.
  • The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George – I love stuff set in the Gilded Age? Like give me all the things.
  • The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec – A banished witch who falls in love with Loki??? I love ancient myth retellings, and this one popped up on my radar the other day and stuck.
  • Wild Women and the Blues, by Denny S. Bryce – This ties together a film student in 2015 and a chorus girl in 1925 in Chicago, and I’m looking forward to reading a lot of jazz age books this decade.

Are any of these on your radar? What are you looking forward to reading most?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books on My Summer 2020 TBR

- Meg

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly discussion hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl (and formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish), and this week’s topic is “Books on My Summer 2020 TBR.” I have an endless unread shelf because I work in a bookstore, have a decent discount, and am buying things that catch my interest, but this summer, aside from my yearly challenges, I want to read the following books.

  • Witchmark – C.L. Polk – How many times have I added this to a TBR and never read it? Enough. After I finish one of my current reads, this is getting read. The final installment of the trilogy was just announced, so it’s time to actually buckle up and read this. I also have a problem with finishing series, especially not finishing series until the final book is out.
  • A Song of Wraiths and Ruin – Roseanne A. Brown – This has been on my radar since I saw the announcement for it a long time ago, and I’m finally glad to have the book in my hands! I’ve heard so many good things about it so far, and a stabby, deathy YA fantasy is something I need to read right now.
  • Beach Read – Emily Henry – This one I bought partially because of Instagram’s influence, but also because once I started reading people’s reviews, it appears to be much more than your typical summer beach read romance. I love the idea of writers switching from their usual genres, so I’m looking forward to this one!
  • Binti: The Complete Trilogy – Nnedi Okorafor – I have read the first of this trilogy, but when these new covers and this omnibus came out, I needed it, mostly because this omnibus also has some short stories that interconnect the novellas.
  • Crave – Tracy Wolff – This one is so out of my usual genre (I have never read Twilight!), but one of my friends read it and loved it because she said it’s just so out there that I have to read it so that we can talk about it.
  • Rosewater – Tade Thompson – I’ve had this book on my shelf forEVER, and again with the series thing, but I want to read this and the other two in the series ASAP.
  • Something to Talk About – Meryl Wilsner – I am a sucker for Hollywood stories? I don’t know why? I’ve had this on my radar since it was announced, it’s a f/f romance, and just looks like a fun escape.
  • The City We Became – N.K. Jemisin – I haven’t finished The Broken Earth Trilogy yet (also to be read/reread soon), but this one is an urban fantasy about New York City that looks so good. Everything I’ve read by Jemisin has been a masterpiece, so I fully expect to enjoy this one.
  • When We Were Magic – Sarah Gailey – Gailey is one of my favorite authors, and their work is everything I want and more, so to have a book like this about queer teen witches and a murder, I need it. I NEED IT.
  • The Shining – Stephen King – Full confession, the only thing I’ve read by King is On Writing and I don’t think that counts, so I’m starting here and seeing how I fare. I’m not one for horror, generally speaking, but it’s on my shelf, I bought it because I wanted to give it a go, and summer feels like a good time to read it.

Have you read any of these? What’s on your Summer 2020 TBR?

 

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books On My TBR That I’m Avoiding Reading and Why

- Meg 2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly discussion hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl (and formerly hosted by The Broke and the Bookish), and this week’s topic is “Books On My TBR That I’m Avoiding Reading and Why.” I feel like I have so many books on my TBR, physical and digital, that I’m avoiding reading for a myriad of reasons. I’ve picked out ten books from my physical TBR shelves, and they’re below!

  • Witchmark, by C.L. Polk — I really don’t know why I keep putting this off. It’s magical Edwardian England with queer characters, and it’s everything I’m interested in! I think the reason I keep putting it off is the small bookstagram hype that surrounded its original release, and I’m afraid it won’t live up to it. HOWEVER, this is published by tordotcom, and I have never been disappointed with the works they publish.
  • Vengeful, by V.E. Schwab — I’ve put this one off because Vicious is one of my favorite books, it has SO MUCH hype, and I’m terrible at finishing series.
  • The Silent Companions, by Laura Purcell — This is another one that had some bookstagram hype around its initial release. I don’t know why I’ve been putting it off other than that. It looks like everything I’d enjoy (weird ghosty gothic historical fiction), and it’s on the shorter side…
  • The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings, by Edgar Allan Poe — I am kind of ashamed to put this on here because I’ve featured it for two years in a row now during the spooky months on my Instagram, and I still haven’t read it. Not even the introduction. Why? Because I’m weird. I don’t know. It’s poetry and short stories, many of which I haven’t read before, and I need to get on it.
  • The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe, by D.G. Compton — I’m really terrible about reading any of my NYRB Classics even though I keep buying them. This one caught my eye because it was shelved in the science fiction/fantasy section of my old store, and these rarely get shelved in the genre sections. It also has an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer, who is a favorite of mine.
  • Something Strange and Deadly, by Susan Dennard — I love Susan Dennard’s Truthwitch (but another series I started and haven’t finished even though I’ve bought them on release day ever since), but I’m terrible at starting series, even if they’re set close to where I used to live, are historical YA fiction (which seems more rare these days). Working in a bookstore exposed me to a lot of things I might not have noticed otherwise, and I’m glad I noticed this trilogy. Now to read it.
  • Into the Drowning Deep, by Mira Grant — I’m terrified of the depths of the sea, but I love mermaids. I don’t live near big bodies of water right now and I’m not going near big bodies of water any time soon, so I should be safe to read this now, right?
  • Hild, by Nicola Griffith — I started this ages ago and for some reason set it aside. I don’t remember why, because I loved the first fifty or so pages I got through. I also have a terrible habit of picking up books, reading them for a bit, and then forgetting where I leave them or getting distracted by something else. I’ve heard so many good things about this, and now that I feel a little more knowledgeable about English history, I want to tackle this again.
  • Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn — This one falls under the “I bought it because of the general hype and bookstagram hype and now I’m afraid it won’t live up to the weird expectations I now have about its grandeur” umbrella.
  • Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente — I’ve heard so many people say so many good things about this, and it’s lauded across the board, and I’m worried it’s not going to live up to the hype for me.

Overall, I know there’s a theme here: I get excited and interested in stuff I see on Instagram, go out and buy it, and then hoard it away until I’m forced to reconcile with TBRs, moving, and posts like these. I’m putting these in my book cart so they’re present and in my face, and maybe I’ll get to them by the end of the year… Let’s recap on December 31, shall we?

What’s on your TBR that you’re avoiding reading? Which of these have you read? Which would you recommend over the others?