#TopTenTuesday Books I Was Excited To Get But Haven’t Read Yet

Top Ten Tuesday

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 topic is Books I Was Excited To Get But Haven’t Read Yet. We’re also invited to share how long since we acquired them – if we dare! Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads.

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel – Having loved the previous two books, I pre-ordered this final book in the trilogy back in January 2016 and still haven’t read it. It’s a whopper is my excuse.  I also have the audiobook version which is 36 hours long!
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee – Since To Kill A Mockingbird is one of my favourite books, I was thrilled when I spotted a copy of this in my local Oxfam bookshop. It’s been waiting patiently on my bookshelf since April 2016.  
Pompeii by Robert Harris – I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Robert Harris and I’m pretty sure this was another charity bookshop find… from August 2017.
Transcription by Kate Atkinson – Like a lot of other people, I loved Life After Life and started looking out for more books by the author, hence my acquisition of this one.  The period setting – WW2 and its aftermath – should have had me grabbing this as soon as it arrived in the house in January 2018 but…
Tombland by C. J. Sansom – I’ve read all the previous books in the series and was really excited to get this (in May 2018) but as it’s an audiobook it’s rather slipped under the radar. Out of sight, out of mind? 
The Binding by Bridget Collins – How can a book about books and with such a beautiful cover go ignored for so long? (Since January 2019, to be precise.) It beats me. 
The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood – I always try to read books nominated for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and this was on the longlist for the 2020 prize. Hmm, it needs to come out of hiding.
The Night Raids by Jim Kelly – This is the third book in a great historical crime series. I’ve been meaning to read it since I bought it in January 2020.  I’ve included it in my list for the 20 Books of Summer 2022 Reading Challenge so fingers crossed!
Hammer to Fall by John Lawton – I won this in a Readers First giveaway in March 2020 but at the time I hadn’t read the previous book in the series, The Unfortunate Englishman. I was planning to pick it up once I’d read that (which I did as part of last year’s 20 Books of Summer reading challenge).
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce – As a fan of Rachel’s books this should have been irresistible from the moment I purchased it in June 2020 but sadly two years on it’s still waiting. 

 


#TopTenTuesday Bookish Characters

Top Ten Tuesday

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 topic is Bookish Characters. For example, readers, writers, authors, librarians, professors, etc. My list contains a mixture of most of them.

  1. Reclusive author, Vida Winter in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  2. Author, bookshop owner and dispenser of ‘literary prescriptions’, Nancy Mitford in The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable
  3. Esme, would-be lexicographer in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
  4. J.D. Salinger, aspiring author in Sergeant Salinger by Jerome Charyn
  5. Temporary library assistant, Aleisha and widower Mukesh in The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
  6. The Brontë sisters, authors and lady detectors in The Red Monarch by Bella Ellis
  7. Viktor, aspiring author and reluctant obituarist in Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
  8. Would-be author, ‘The Literary Innkeeper’ whom Richard Hannay meets in The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
  9. Emmett Farmer, apprentice bookbinder in The Binding by Bridget Collins
  10. Mr Penumbra, eponymous owner of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan