It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly feature hosted by the blog, The Broke and the Bookish – http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.co.uk/
Each week they ask people to write a top ten list of something on a literary theme. It’s a nice simple one this week: books you’re planning to read over the summer. I’ve kept this down to eight on the basis that there are bound to be things I want to read on a random, spur-of-the-moment basis, not to mention things I suddenly find myself desperate to read once I start browsing other people’s lists:
1) The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman) – the new Neil Gaiman. I think that’s enough said.
2) Sisterland (Curtis Sittenfeld)- and the new Curtis Sittenfeld. A few months ago, when there was a Top Ten Tuesday about autobuy authors, she was high up my list. Besides which, the theme of psychic twin sisters sounds intriguing, even if it’s a bit too similar to my favourite story in Girl Reading.
3) Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch) – London based urban fantasy (in the most literal sense of both words) that was recommended to me by someone whose taste in books hasn’t failed me yet. And since they expectantly lent me their copy, I’ve kept seeing praise lavished on it from all quarters.
4) Seraphina (Rachel Hartman) – All through my teens, Seraphina was my favourite name. I used it as the name of the character in my first novel (which possibly tells you everything you need to know about said novel!), used it as my default internet screen name and seriously planned to lumber my first born daughter with it – actually, don’t tell my fiancé, but I’ve still not entirely ruled that out. When I saw there was a fantasy novel with this title, I almost wondered if I’d written and published it myself whilst drunk. Beyond the name though, I’ve heard good things about this, and I love the idea of a proper hardcore fantasy novel written by a woman.
5) Throne of Glass (Sarah Maas) – And while we’re on the subject of female-authored fantasy, this always seems to be mentioned in the same breath as Seraphina, and also sounds potentially fantastic.
6) Grave Mercy (RL LaFevers)- the more reviews I’ve read, the less sure I’ve been, but when I hear there’s a novel about an assassin nun in fifteenth century France, I’m sold.
7) The Shining Girls – as a general rule, I hate books about serial killers (books about crime full-stop really) but love books that make clever use of time travel. I’m desperate to see which side wins out when I read this tale of a time-travelling serial killer.
8) The Teleportation Accident (Ned Beauman) – I always try and read my way though those bits of the Booker Prize shortlist that look vaguely interesting, and this entry from last year with what appears to be a weird, time-bending structure has been hanging around on my TBR list for months.
So, anyone want to warn me off any of these or encourage me to hurry up and start one of them?
