Top Ten Tuesday #330

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, I was in London again this weekend to see Back To The Future, the new musical that’s just opened. It was good, though I have to admit, not quite as great as Hairspray was, although it’s probably not really fair to compare the two, as I’ve loved Hairspray for years!

Anyway, it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic was meant to be Books I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time but I already did that topic a few years back, and I don’t think the list has changed much since then, so I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of that, today I’ll be talking about Most Hyped Books Still On My TBR. Honestly hyped books do tend to sit on my TBR for a bit longer, because I get scared that they won’t live up to the hype! So here we go, the most hyped books that are still sitting on my TBR:

1. The Bear and The Nightingale-Katherine Arden

This is one of those books that I feel like I see everywhere, it’s a perennial feature on other blogs and everyone raves about how good it is. I definitely want to try it sometime, but I am slightly scared that I won’t love it as much as everyone else does. I’ll also probably get the audiobook and I’m not sure I’ll have enough credits for it this year.

2. Rule of Wolves-Leigh Bardugo

Honestly I was super excited for this one after watching Shadow and Bone but I’ve been in a reading slump all year, particularly with physical books and I didn’t want that to affect this book as it’s the last Grishaverse book we’re going to get for a while. I’m hoping to maybe get around to it early next year, as I really do want to see how she wraps up Nikolai’s duology.

3. Good Girl, Bad Blood-Holly Jackson

I meant to read this last year after reading A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, but I never got around to it. I may read it before the end of this year, but I’m very much going with my mood this year and just seeing what I want to read rather sticking to any sort of reading plan, so we’ll see!

4. House of Earth and Blood-Sarah J Maas

I’ve been putting this one off for ages simply because it’s so long. Even with the audiobook, which is how I plan to read it, it’s over 30 hours long and I’ve not been in the mood for that kind of reading commitment this year. I’m sure at some point, I will be in the mood for a chunky audio, but not right now.

5. Mister Impossible-Maggie Stiefvater

This one only came out in May, so comparatively speaking hasn’t been on my shelves as long as the others but I’m still a little nervous because I didn’t love Call Down The Hawk as much as I was hoping to. Middle books in trilogies are always dangerous too, they can be amazing or terrible and there’s usually not much in-between. Here’s hoping Mister Impossible falls on the good side!

6. The Tattooist of Auschwitz-Heather Morris

I’m kind of torn on this one to be honest, because it’s been super hyped, won a lot of awards etc and a friend whose reading taste I share liked it. However, there has also been a lot criticism about the accuracy of its portrayal of historical events, and whilst I do understand creative licence from what I’ve read, some of the basic details about Auschwitz in the book are wrong. So this is where my problem comes in, I want to read it because it sounds like an interesting story, but from the perspective of someone who studied history, I don’t want to read something that gets even the basic details wrong, and is an inaccurate portrayal of the experience of a real life person. It’s a tricky one for me, I don’t usually have this problem with historical fiction because even where they’ve been inspired by real people/events, the characters themselves are usually fictional.

7. A Promised Land-Barack Obama

This is 100% solely down to length. I’m sure Barack Obama’s presidential memoir will be very interesting, but it’s also almost 800 pages and I’ve just not been feeling long books this year, so this one may be going on the back burner for a while!

8. The Girls I’ve Been-Tess Sharpe

I only bought this in May, so compared to some of the others, it hasn’t been on my TBR for that long. I’ve not really got a particular reason for not reading this book yet, I’ve just not been in the mood. I’m also always a little wary with YA thrillers, because they have a tendency to not “thrill” me much!

9. Thunderhead-Neal Shusterman

I’ve been meaning to read this one for YEARS, I think I bought it in 2018/2019, but as it’s a longer book, it’s one of those that just keeps getting shuffled down my TBR pile. Whilst I liked Scythe, I didn’t LOVE it, so I’ve basically just not really felt the urge to get to this one. I would like to read it one day, but it’s not a priority at the moment.

10. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle-Stuart Turton

I’ve heard so much good stuff about this one, my friend really enjoyed it and it sounds super up my street, but again, it’s a longer book and I’ve been putting it off. I’m also slightly nervous just because the hype has been so great around this one, so hopefully it lives up to it.

So there we go, those are just some of the most hyped books on my TBR that I’ve still not read yet. Have you read any of these? Which should I start with? Do you put off hyped books for a long time too? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is meant to be Fictional Crushes, but as a 24 year old who reads mostly YA, it feels a little weird to making a list of 16/17 year old fictional crushes. So instead, I’m going to do Favourite Audiobook Narrators, as I think I’ve listened to enough audio now that I can make a list of these!