Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Read Soon

“I walk to the bus station by myself.”

First line in Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Hi fellow readers. It’s Tuesday. It’s a Top Ten. It’s a great day. Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish but is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and today’s topic is one of the classic book-related posts: my Fall TBR. I don’t really do TBR-posts because it seems like such a commitment. One that I can’t stick to. Therefore, I’ve changed the topic a bit to books I want to read soon (not limiting myself to Fall).

I’m fairly certain I’ll have read at least half of these by the end of the year (when I return to this post in January, I’m going to realize what a failure I am lol). There is an overweight of fantasy sequels but also a few first books in series because I’m me and I can’t finish series before I start new ones. Here they are (I’ll give you a synopsis for the ones that aren’t sequels).

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Book 3 in The Witcher OR the first book that aren’t short stories so I’m kind of excited to see what that’s like. I haven’t been a huge fan of the series so far so this is basically its last chance. I’ve waited for it for so long at the library but it should be in my hands soon.

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

IT’S OUT TODAY! It’s very close to being my most anticipated release of the year (I only want The Toll more). Now I just need to wait for the library to get it unless I see it in a bookstore. Then I might buy it by accident.

Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner

Book 5 in The Queen’s Thief. This is the last book that has been released so I really want to get caught up. I believe the final book is coming sometime next year so I need to be ready.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill

With echoes of The Night Circus, a spellbinding story about two gifted orphans in love with each other since they can remember whose childhood talents allow them to rewrite their future.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one’s origins. It might also take true love.

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1910. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen.

Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city’s underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes after years of searching and desperate poverty the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they’ll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same.

I only recently heard about this book when I read review of it over at Emer’s blog, A Little Haze Book Blog. Even though she didn’t particularly like it, I knew that I needed to read it soon. The synopsis compares it to The Night Circus but from what I’ve otherwise read about it, it also reminds me of A Little Life. A mix of those two books won’t be on my TBR for long.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I long for the days before the Last Desolation.

The age before the Heralds abandoned us and the Knights Radiant turned against us. A time when there was still magic in the world and honor in the hearts of men.

The world became ours, and yet we lost it. Victory proved to be the greatest test of all. Or was that victory illusory? Did our enemies come to recognize that the harder they fought, the fiercer our resistance? Fire and hammer will forge steel into a weapon, but if you abandon your sword, it eventually rusts away.

There are four whom we watch. The first is the surgeon, forced to forsake healing to fight in the most brutal war of our time. The second is the assassin, a murderer who weeps as he kills. The third is the liar, a young woman who wears a scholar’s mantle over the heart of a thief. The last is the prince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the ancient past as his thirst for battle wanes.

The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days become ours again. These four people are key.

One of them may redeem us. And one of them will destroy us.

Technically, this isn’t on my TBR anymore because I’ve already started it. I’m including it anyway because I only made it to page 600 before I had to return it to the library. So, now I’m waiting for it again.

The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

The last book before I’m caught up with the series. It would be just lovely if I could check that off on the list before the end of the year. The previous book left me really excited for the series so there’s a chance it will happen.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

I mainly want to read this because of the anxiety representation which also means I’m very, very scared of it. I have social anxiety and have recently decided that I actively want to try to handle it and learn more about it. That means reading books like this so hopefully I’ll run out of excuses not to read it (if you know of any other books about social anxiety, please let me know).

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can’t sell—the thick silver cuffs he’s worn since birth. They’re clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he’s never been able to get them off.

One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana’Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She’s just returned to court after three years of freedom in the mountains—riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her.

The Seven Realms tremble when the lives of Hans and Raisa collide, fanning the flames of the smoldering war between clans and wizards.

You can start three new series when you’ve finished one, right? It’s quite a long series so I really want to get started on it… and then wait a very long time before I finish it.

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

I think I’ve been meaning to read this for the past 3 months. It’s probably not going to happen this year but I’m putting it on this list to at least pretend that I’m pushing myself to read it.

You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman

Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. He works hard – really hard – to make his life look effortless. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of that plan. Not when he’s number one. Not when his peers can smell weakness like a freshman’s body spray.

Figuring a few all-nighters will preserve his class rank, Ariel throws himself into studying. His friends will understand if he skips a few plans, and he can sleep when he graduates. Except Ariel’s grade continues to slide. Reluctantly, he gets a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but Amir excels in Calculus, and Ariel is out of options.

Ariel may not like Calc, but he might like Amir. Except adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push him past his limit.

Only the second contemporary on this list, and it’s for those moments when I need a break from fantasy (if that occurs).

Those were ten books I hope to read within the next three months. Do you have some books you absolutely want to get to before we hit January?