Top Ten Tuesday #425

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a good week since I last did one of these. As I mentioned in my last post, I went to see Mrs Doubtfire with my mum on Thursday and we had a really great time, the show was super fun & the theatre had the BEST ice-cream that I’ve ever had, so much so that my mum actually looked up where we could get it when we got back home because we both enjoyed it so much. I’m quite glad that our original gift experience didn’t work out now because Mum and I both really enjoyed the show and it’s one that we might not have thought of going to see if it hadn’t been available on this gift voucher scheme.

I also went to West End Live on Saturday, which if you’re not familiar is a free theatre event in London, loads of shows from the West End come and do performances in Trafalgar Square over the course of the weekend. I only stayed for part of the day as all the shows I wanted to see were on before 2.30 and honestly by the time Six performed (who were the last cast I’d wanted to see), my feet were getting quite tired and I was ready to head home, I don’t think I could have made it another two hours. I absolutely loved it though, I got to see the casts of 19 different shows perform, added even more theatre to the list of shows I want to see and we even got to see the flypast for the King’s official birthday going overhead during the day. I even booked to go and see Moulin Rouge again this week because Jamie Muscato’s performance of Roxanne was so amazing, I decided had to go and see it again. It was definitely a very fun, if slightly tiring day as I had to get up quite early to join the queue to get in, which I do have to admit was quite ridiculous, I arrived at 8.45, about an hour and half before they were going to start letting people in and the queue was already at Leicester Square! It’s great to see so many people excited about theatre though and was super fun to sing along at the tops of our voices to some theatre classics.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, it’s Tuesday and so it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is our annual Summer TBR topic. I have to admit, I did not do that well on my Spring TBR, I only read 2 books off it! In my defense, I did read more books than that, but my mood was taking me anywhere but the books on my seasonal TBR list and as a newly reformed (in the past couple of years) mood reader, these days I follow my mood wherever it takes me. Anyway, I still enjoy making these lists and it’s good to have them as options to refer to when I’m struggling with what I want to read next, so that’s how I plan to think of this list again: instead of a strict TBR, these are summer reading options:

1. The Librarian of Burned Books-Brianna Labuskes

This is my current read and I’m enjoying it so far, I’m not sure on one of the narrators (the one who narrates for Hannah, Karissa Vacker, I think) but I’m liking the other two. I definitely like Hannah and Viv more than I like Althea at this point, but I get the feeling that we’re not meant to like Althea much! Viv is definitely my favourite of the three so far but I’m intrigued to see how their stories become intertwined throughout the rest of the book.

2. I Must Betray You-Ruta Sepetys

My other current read, this is the physical book that I’ve been kind of dipping in and out of over the past couple of months, but this book is quite good for that as the chapters are very short so I can read a little at a time when I have the time to sit down and read a physical book. I’m intrigued thus far but I will say the downside of the short chapters is that I don’t feel like I’ve really got to know the characters that well yet. Sepetys certainly has painted a great picture of how brutal Communist Romania was though. I think I’m still very much in the build-up stages of this book so I’m sure it will get more exciting as I get further through.

3. The Keeper of Hidden Books-Madeline Martin

I’ve been loving Madeline Martin’s books over the past couple of years and her latest one releases in August. This one is about the Nazi occupation of Warsaw and a young woman fighting to save her best friend from the ghetto and salvage books banned by the Nazis. I have really high hopes for this one after enjoying The Last Bookshop In London and The Librarian Spy so I can’t wait till August so I can read this.

4. The Phoenix Crown-Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

Kate Quinn has fast become one of my favourite authors, so of course her upcoming historical fiction, co written with Janie Chang was immediately added to my TBR. I’ve only read her WWII fiction before so this will be new territory for me with her as this book is set in the early 20th century (1906 & 1912 to be exact) so I’m intrigued to see how she handles the new setting. The book sounds fascinating as well, about two women whose paths cross searching for the Phoenix Crown, a relic from the ancient Summer Palace in Beijing. The Goodreads page for some reason says 2024 now but I’ve not seen any announcements from either author that the release date has been pushed back, so hopefully it’s still coming this September!

5. The Golden Spoon-Jessa Maxwell

This is one I discovered on a lot of people’s anticipated releases lists for the first half of the year and it sounded like so much fun: it’s basically Bake Off but make it a murder mystery which was something I had no idea I needed in my life till I read the synopsis! It finally comes out here in the UK in September so it’s definitely one that I’ll have on my TBR for later in the year (there’s a very good chance it may also make my Autumn TBR list because there’s no way I’ll read all ten of the books on this list before September).

6. The Bronzed Beasts-Roshani Chokshi

I’ve been meaning to read this one for more than two years now, so once I’m done with I Must Betray You, this is definitely where I’m heading next because I have to find out what happens to Severin and the rest of his crew (DOES LAILA ACTUALLY DIE? I’M GOING TO BE SO PISSED IF SHE DOES). I’ve just not really been reading physical books over the past couple of years so that’s why I’ve not got to it yet, but I’m hoping I will before the end of this year (if not over the summer) as I really want to see how this series ends.

7. City of Nightmares-Rebecca Schaeffer

This is a carryover from my Spring TBR, I’m still super excited to read this one, I was just feeling more in the mood for a historical than a fantasy when I finished my last book, so I went for The Librarian of Burned Books instead, I have a feeling this might be my next read though, I’ve not listened to anything narrated by Saskia Maarleveld yet this year, and that MUST be rectified. Also it just sounds like a ton of weird, gross and wonderful fun!

8. The Bandit Queens-Parini Shroff

This actually wasn’t super high on my radar but I listened to a sample of the audiobook and loved the narrator so much that it moved higher up my TBR (that’s actually going to be a theme here as all three of the last few books on this list, I added because the narrator of the audiobook sounded so great). Anyway, this book is about a woman in India whose husband died and everyone thinks she killed him (even though she didn’t) who then gets unexpectedly roped into helping…..dispatch the no-good husbands of the other women in her village. It sounds like an absolute riot of a book and I can’t wait to read it.

9. Psyche and Eros-Luna McNamara

This is another one that wasn’t super high priority on my TBR, I mainly added it because of the pretty cover and thought, “Ah, I’ll get to that some day”. But again, I listened to a sample and the narrator Rachel Petladwala (those of you who like me are British and were a kid/teenager in the 00s/early 10s might remember her from the CBBC series M.I. High) was so great that I just had to bump it up my TBR. I’m sure the other narrator Joshua Riley is also great, but his voice wasn’t on the sample I listened to!

10. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven-Juno Dawson

This one was one that wasn’t really on my radar at all, and I’m not sure why because I do like witches, there are just so many books coming out every year that it’s hard to keep track. But anyway, it wasn’t on my TBR and then I found out that Nicola Coughlan narrates the audiobook and I LOVE her so much so I figured that this book was worth giving a try for that at least (plus I have heard people say that it’s good).

So there we go, those are the books on my Summer TBR. Like I said, I’m going to be fairly chill with this, I might read these books, they are options (and certainly books I’m very interested in at the minute) but if I find other books that take my fancy more, I will read those. I have to say I’ve found it very freeing not having my reading planned in advance the past few years! I’m sure I will definitely get to all of these at some point anyway, it just might not be in the next three months. How about you? What’s on your Summer TBR this year? Have you read any of these (of the ones already out)? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, it’s another annual one, Most Anticipated Releases For The Second Half of The Year (July-December). I have to admit, it was a fairly top heavy release year for me, so my second half of the year list may be quite a bit shorter than my first half, I’m looking forward to hopefully finding some new discoveries in other people’s lists next week because I feel like I’m kind of behind on what’s actually coming out in the rest of the year, so hopefully I’ll be able to find a lot more upcoming releases to add to my TBR next week!