#TopTenTuesday Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the First Half of 2022

Top Ten Tuesday new

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 Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the First Half of 2022. No sooner have we finished looking back than we’re looking ahead to the bookish delights to come. Historical fiction fans, here are a few for your wishlist. Links from the titles will take you to the book description on Goodreads where available. 

January 2022

  • The Man in the Bunker (Tom Wilde #6) by Rory Clements – Cambridge professor and spy Tom Wilde must find the truth behind Hitler’s death. Exactly who is the man in the bunker?
  • The Winter Guest by W. C. Ryan – A gripping mystery packed with twists and turns… the perfect chilling read this winter.

February 2022

  • The Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch – Rosie’s only inheritance from her reclusive mother is a book of Russian fairy tales. But there is another story lurking between the lines.
  • The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs – Eliza Acton, despite having never before boiled an egg, became one of the world’s most successful cookery writers, revolutionizing cooking and cookbooks around the world. Her story is fascinating, uplifting and truly inspiring.

March 2022

  • The Marsh House by Zoe Somerville – Part ghost story, part novel of suspense two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by one, mysterious house on the North Norfolk coast.
  • The Physician’s Daughter by Martha Conway – It is 1865, the American Civil War has just ended, and 18-year old Vita Tenney is determined to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a country doctor like her father.
  • Sell Us The Rope by Stephen May – Revolutionary, poet, lover. Robber, murderer, spy. May 1907 and a young Stalin is in London for a conference of Russian communists.
  • These Days by Lucy Caldwell – April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war – so far. Over the next two months, it’s going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.

April 2022

  • Elektra by Jennifer Saint – The House of Atreus is cursed. A bloodline tainted by a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.
  • The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal – Set in a wealthy Parisian suburb, an emotionally riveting debut told from the point of view of six women, and centered around a group of au pairs, one of whom is arrested after a sudden and suspicious tragedy strikes her host family

#6Degrees of Separation: From Rules of Civility to Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

background book stack books close up
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.


This month’s starting book is Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, a book I haven’t read but which I know starts on New Year’s Eve in 1937. This gave me the theme for my chain, namely dates in the year that are marked for various reasons.

Let’s start in February with The Infinite by Patience Agbabi which tells the story of Elle, a Leapling (a child born on 29th February) who also possesses the ability to leap through time.

We’ll leap through time, back to 44 BC to be precise. The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder is an epistolary novel set in the period running up to the assassination of Julius Caesar on 15th March 44 BC.

Another novel where a character’s life is in danger is The Dancing Floor by John Buchan. It’s set on the mysterious island of Plakos in the Aegean and culminates in the enactment of ancient pagan rituals for the arrival of Spring.

There are more pagan rites and another island in The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy. A police man on the trail of a missing girl is lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle as May Day approaches.

Hallowe’en has become associated with superstitious beliefs and in Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate the death of a girl who claimed, at a Hallowe’en party, to have witnessed a murder.

Staying with Agatha Christie, in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas a family reunion at Christmas is marred by a brutal murder and Poirot, as a guest of the head of the household, must investigate.

My chain has taken me from New Year’s Eve to Christmas, with some deaths along the way. Where did your chain take you?