#TopTenTuesday Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read #TuesdayBookBlog

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read. For this one I’m taking inspiration from last week’s topic – My Favourite Books By My Favourite Authors – and picking books from their backlists I really should have read by now, often their debut or prize-winning books. In some cases, I even own copies of the books so there’s really no excuse…

Links from each title will take you to the book description on Goodreads.

  1. Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
  2. Any Human Heart by William Boyd
  3. The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
  4. Invitation from a Dictator by Rory Clements (This is a bit of a cheat because it’s not published until August but I’ve read all his others!)
  5. Conclave by Robert Harris
  6. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
  7. Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks
  8. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
  9. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
  10. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Have you read any of these? Which books would be on your list?

Monthly Wrap-Up May 2026

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Reading update

I read five books in May:

Relative Failures by Matthew Sturgis
Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan
Bane of Bernicia by Matthew Harffy
Once the Deed Is Done by Rachel Seiffert
Carrion Crow by Heather Parry

My reading has definitely slowed down over the past couple of months but I’m attributing that to spending more time gardening, which recently has consisted mostly of watering and complaining about the lack of rain. Two books vied for my favourite this month – Bane of Bernicia and Once the Deed Is Done. I still haven’t made a decision.

Blog update

I published 28 blog posts in May:

Book reviews – 7
Memes – 11
Reading updates – 8
Reading challenges – 2

WordPress seems to be having trouble producing full stats at the moment but my blog received 8.6k views in May, down 12% on the previous month.

Reading challenges update

Goodreads – 38/104, 5 books behind schedule (eek!)
Books in my TBR for longer than two years – 2/20
When Are You Reading? Challenge – 8/12
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – 17/50
Classics Club (List 2) – 3/50
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026 longlist – 9/12 (5/5 of shortlist)
NetGalley feedback ratio – 97%
Audiobooks – 5/12

I also attended four events at Winchester Books Festival.

Coming up in June…

  • The start of the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge
  • Read A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie for the Classics Club Spin
  • Read Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo for my book club
  • Ramp up my reading!