Books I’ve Added to My TBR Recently #5

“Although I hadn’t been shot at for years, it took me a long time to understand that the bang wasn’t artillery.”

First line in The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

It’s been about six months since I last updated you on the books that have been added to my TBR, so it was about time I made another post about it. I generally try to keep a small TBR, so I only have seven books to share with you. In case someone specific was responsible for putting a book on my TBR, I will credit them.

Covers link to Goodreads.

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The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English-instead of French-the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,” but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he’s determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battleships of a lost empire’s Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 Natasha Pulley!!!
💥 Alternative history with the “French colony of England”. I imagine it will be satisfying to see England as a colony.
💥 Generally, everything about that synopsis!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 Seems like a classic that a lot of people like.
💥 Oscar Wilde has quite the reputation and I want to read something from him.

The book owl who put it on my TBR: Amy @A Fangirl’s Opinion

The Haunting Season: Nine Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights

Long before Dickens and James popularized the tradition, the shadowy nights of winter have been a time for people to gather together by the flicker of candlelight and experience the intoxicating thrill of a spooky tale.

Now nine bestselling, award-winning authors – all of them master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre – bring the tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding new collection of original spine-tingling tales.

Taking you from the frosty fens of Cambridgeshire, to the snow-covered grounds of a country estate, to a bustling London Christmas market, these mesmerizing stories will capture your imagination and serve as your indispensable companion to cold, dark nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the ghostly spell of winters past.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 I read neither ghost stories nor anthologies, but Bridget Collins and Natasha Pulley both have stories in this, so what do you expect me to do?
💥 Sounds like the perfect winter read!

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 So weird!
💥 I’ve seen it recommended to readers who love The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Baker’s Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan

On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country.

Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again.

But in the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers.

But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 Small French village atmosphere!
💥 The little people fighting back during World War II in small ways.

The book owl who put it on my TBR: Nefeli @BiblioNebula

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.

Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 Octavia E. Butler is an author I have to try
💥 Hyperempathy in a post apocalyptic world? Yes, please.

The book owl who put it on my TBR: Naemi @A Book Owl’s Corner

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given…

Why it sounds awesome:

💥 When talking about Butler, this one seems like a must-read
💥 Cool use of time travel!

The book owl who put it on my TBR: Naemi @A Book Owl’s Corner

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Honorable mention: I’ve added a Danish feminist non-fiction book to my TBR called Argumenter imod Kvinder (Arguments against Women). It’s basically a collection of arguments made my prominent Danes through the past 150 years about why women shouldn’t have rights. It’s not translated into English, so I’m not going to spend much time talking about it here on the blog.

That was it for this time around. Thank you to the three bloggers who made me aware of some of these books! Have you read any of these and would you recommend them? Let me know in the comments!