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.
Hello friends! This week’s TTT is a spring cleaning freebie, and I thought it was time to showcase my physical bookshelves I have at home. While nowhere near as pretty as some bookstagrammers’ shelves, I can at least say I have way too many books on hand that needs to be shelved.
Today, I will be giving you my top 10 books I have bought or been given over the years that I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. I’m not talking months, but YEARS. Plural. And it is about time I clean them off my TBR shelf because these are all books I have been “meaning to get back to when I’m less busy with other books”. Have any of you ever felt that way about your books? Is this how a TBR builds and builds to its overwhelming amount?
Anyhow, here are ten books I WILL read at some point in the future. Hopefully within 2021. Hold me accountable for these, will you?
1. Just Dreaming by Kerstin Gier
I bought this book right when it came out. The third and final book in its trilogy, Just Dreaming is one of the few books I’ve read and owned that actually isn’t written in English. It’s a translation from German, but the beauty and whimsical nature of this series has captured my heart since I first saw the cover of book 1. Featuring a girl who finds she can walk through the doors of people’s dreams while she is dreaming, things get a little weird when she meets an enigmatic group of teenagers are her new school who are more than meets the eye. I’ve been meaning to finish it but sometimes I just want to bask in the world a little longer before it comes crashing to a finite end, you know?
2. Winter by Marissa Meyer
This is the same for me with regards to endings. I do not think this title is a mystery to a lot of people as this explosive series took the YA world by storm when book 1 of this quartet came out. I personally love fairy tale retellings, but especially Cinderella which is why Cinder drew me in so easily. However, with all the cast from the previous 3 books meshing together in this finale, I am super nervous to see how it all ends in some way. I remember physically rushing to the bookstore the day this came out after I got home from school to get my hands on this. 800+ pages is no joke, and that’s probably another reason why it’s still in my TBR. The struggle is real.
3. The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder
This cute contemporary standalone caught my eye with its cover but also its synopsis. I was going through my own heartbreak at the time and this was on sale. I wondered if this story could help me learn a thing or two with laughs in between how to deal with heartbreak and learn to look at it with less pain. Alas, since I’m such a mood reader, I only read contemporaries when I feel like it, but I hope to come to this some day soon even though I’m in a much better place relationship-wise now.
4. The Defiant / The Triumphant by Lesley Livingston
A Canadian girl’s gotta support her local authors, and Lesley Livingston is one of mine. I had the pleasure of meeting her 3 times so far, having been introduced to her works since early high school. She always writes about fierce females who aren’t afraid to get dirty and fight for what is right, whether through swordplay or intellect. The Defiant and The Triumphant are books 2 and 3 in her series about gladiators in the time of Julius Caesar. I really enjoyed book 1, The Valiant, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a tale of survival, sisterhood and fight for freedom. I definitely need to prioritize the rest of this series this year.
5. Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith
One of my first contemporaries in YA was Jennifer’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, which is actually being made into a movie currently! I think something may even be in the works for this book too. But anyhow, I wanted to read more of her works so I picked this one up (along with Windfall – which I also haven’t read yet…), and it’s still just sitting merrily on my shelf like this was yesterday. The synopsis on this one makes me think I need to be in the mood for it. A relationship that may or may not work out due to the circumstances of going away to college, the protagonist couple will have to figure out if they should try for their relationship in the long-term or not. It sounds simultaneously delightful and heavy but I need to be in the mood for it.
6. Warcross by Marie Lu
Cool story for gaming nerds marketed as a YA Ready Player One kind of book and from a beloved author such as Marie Lu, I’m not sure why I’ve been holding onto this book without cracking open its pages for so long now. I suppose it’s the feeling when you hold onto a book that you think will be quite good but are afraid the expectation levels will bring it down? I’m not sure if you have ever felt that way, but maybe with time I’ll have more realistic expectations. Probably explains the years since it’s been since book 1 came out.
7. The Wicked King by Holly Black
Don’t hate on me for this one, but I got The Wicked King when it first came out from a book box special subscription for my birthday. I read book 1 and was okay with it. Not enamored like most everyone, but I didn’t dislike it so I thought there was potential. Now, a few years later, it’s still sitting there with its completely different cover and I’m still wondering if I am ready to continue with these faeries or not.
Also, which cover do you think looks better? I was rather conflicted when I first saw what the original and what this version looked like.
8. P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
I adore Kasie West and have own quite a number of her contemporaries. I got this one as a birthday gift from a friend, but I have heard that the romances she writes for this other publishing group (which show the full body instead of without the heads on the covers) is not as great as the stories she writes for her original publisher. I’m not sure if that is fully truth or not, but that thought has kept me from picking this (and Listen to Your Heart) up for a while now. Am I crazy for letting these whispers of others’ reviews get to me? I don’t know.
9. Night Study / Dawn Study by Maria V. Snyder
I loved Maria V. Snyder when I first got into YA from her debut Poison Study. She was one of the few authors on my auto-buy list. But when this sequel trilogy came out to the original Study series, I was excited but also super nervous. Sometimes the way a series you loved and preserved in your mind is better than knowing how it continues, you know? Better than having to deny to yourself something is cannon when you absolutely did NOT like it. So this was the conundrum with book 2 and 3 of the sequel trilogy, having kind of liked the first book but not really sure where the story line will go from there with characters I’ve loved for so long. I do hope to pick it up some day because I don’t feel like a good fan if I never even gave it a try.
10. Save the Date by Morgan Matson
Last but not least, this beautiful ARC I received and had the absolute pleasure to get it personally signed by Morgan Matson. I adore this lady, and I have loved her first contemporary novel, one of the first ones I read that got me more into reading non-fantasies. I have no good reason for why it’s still on my TBR, but mostly I think the only excuse is that I borrow so many books from the library that the priority always goes to the books I do not own since there is a deadline. It’s not a good reason, but it’s the only one I can offer because I REALLY want to read this one but I have yet to. If you liked it, let me know because it’ll help push my anticipation for it even more and maybe raise it on my TBR priority list.
So, friends, those are the top TBR books I own sitting on my physical bookshelves that are awaiting me to read. And the variety of reasons for why I find I have not picked them up yet.
Do any of these reasons resonate with you, or am I just an oddball? Have you read any of these (and maybe want to encourage me to read it NOW)? Let me know in the comments! 🙂
Down the Rabbit Hole 