Top Ten Tuesday #432

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these. I have a few exciting updates from last week, first off, as I mentioned in my last post, I went to review a show at the Camden Fringe on Friday (Violated) and that review is now up on the Indiependent if you want to give it a read, you can find the link on my Twitter (@iloveheartlandX). In even more exciting news from last week: I’M GOING TO THE ERAS TOUR NEXT YEAR. Yes, if you don’t follow me on Twitter and missed my very excited reaction, I managed to get a ticket to the final night in Wembley in August through the Ticketmaster resale, so I will be getting to see Taylor Swift’s concert next year. Thank you so much to whoever put up the resale ticket I got, I am so grateful to be able to go and see Taylor live again and even more grateful that there was a ticket available actually within my budget because I love Taylor Swift but I’m not paying almost £800 to go to a concert EVER. Anyway point is, I got the ticket and I’m very excited, roll on next August!

As for this week, I’m going back to my happy place, tonight I’m seeing Operation Mincemeat again at the Fortune Theatre (an unprecedented third viewing, the only other show I’ve seen that many times is Wicked which should give you a good indicator of how much I love this show) which I’m very excited for, I’ve had the cast album on permanent revolve in my head ever since it came out and it will be fun to see the show again for the first time since that’s been out as it wasn’t the last time I went to see it back in April. They also have merch now, so you can bet I’ll be coming home this time with some goodies!

Anyway, back to the subject of books, it’s Tuesday, so naturally I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all today, courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking Books I’ve Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday (topic suggested by Ellie @ Curiosity Killed The Bookworm, thanks Ellie!) and I have to admit, this was a little bit of a tricky one for me. Not because I haven’t read/added lots of books to my TBR because of TTT, I have but because I largely never remember exactly where I heard about a book from. Normally I’ll hear about a book from various different sources, TTT, friends, Goodreads and I can never remember exactly where I heard about it first. Still, I managed to come up with a list of books that I *think* I heard about through TTT, and even if it turns out I actually didn’t, I definitely read them because I saw lots of bloggers talking about them, so similar thing!

1. The Last Bookshop In London-Madeline Martin

I actually do remember who I heard about this from, it was Carol @ Reading Ladies, though I can’t remember what the specific TTT topic was-presumably something about historical fiction! Anyway, I was primarily reading historical fiction in 2021, I was looking for more and this suggestion of a WWII historical fiction book which revolved around a woman working in a bookshop seemed just perfect for me. And it was, it ended up being one of my favourite books of that year, and Madeline Martin has become an auto-read author for me. I’m so excited to read her newest release, The Keeper of Hidden Books soon. So thank you Carol for introducing me to a new favourite author, and a great book!

2. The Bear and The Nightingale-Katherine Ardern

This one I definitely can’t pin down to one specific blog because it was one of those that kept reoccurring on loads of people’s TTTs for months and months and I decided that I had to read it to see what all the fuss was about. Sadly this one didn’t work so well for me, I found it slow, confusing and kind of dull and it just didn’t really seem to have a plot. One of those where the majority of book bloggers had a very different opinion on it than me, I’m afraid.

3. A Darker Shade of Magic-VE Schwab

I know, I know, I’m now one of the ones most known for recommending this book on TTT, but it’s the circle of book blogging because I did initially pick it up based on the incredibly excited word of mouth through TTT back in early 2015. I started doing TTT not all that long after this book had come out, and it was EVERYWHERE, so I added it to my TBR and kept being like “I have to read this.” Cut to summer of 2016, I finally read it and completely fall in love with it, and then subsequently proceed to devour every single Schwab book that I could find and her new releases are always instant pre-orders for me. So this one is a very fun full-circle kind of moment because I found it through TTT, loved it, and have since proceeded to recommend it to many, many others.

4. Six of Crows-Leigh Bardugo

Another one where I saw it on a lot of TTT posts when I first started doing it in 2015, but this one took me even longer to finally get around to, as I didn’t read it till the summer of 2017. Much like A Darker Shade of Magic, I became absolutely feral for this story and these characters and now recommend it in my own TTT posts as much as humanly possible.

5. When Women Were Dragons-Kelly Barnhill

I can’t remember exactly whose TTT post I first saw this book on, I think it was a summer TBR post potentially, or maybe an anticipated releases post, I’m not sure. But anyway, anything with dragons is absolute catnip to me so of course I immediately added it to my TBR. Sadly much like The Bear and The Nightingale, this one didn’t really work for me, and this one was so much more disappointing because on paper it should have been everything I loved: feminist rage, dragons, historical setting, the list goes on. Sadly it ended up being rather dull, and a bit of a mess and there weren’t nearly enough dragons for my liking. I’m still kind of salty over this book to be honest, I had such high hopes.

6. Her Hidden Genius-Marie Benedict

Again, I wish I could remember whose TTT post I saw this one on, but I can’t, I think it may have been Best Books of 2021, from someone who had read it as an ARC before it came out? Or potentially a Winter TBR post in December? Anyway, either way, I saw it on a TTT post in late 2021, I think and added it to my TBR. I liked this one but it wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping it was going to be, I found it a little dry and lacking in emotion, it felt almost more like a biography than a novel and I didn’t find that the most engaging way to tell the story of a woman as fascinating as Rosalind Franklin is. It’s still a decent enough book, but just not as good as I was wanting it to be.

7. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin-Roseanne A. Brown

Again, I cannot remember exactly whose blog I saw it on, but it was one of the many Black author reading lists that were being published in June of 2020 and I’m pretty sure it was a TTT list, though I don’t think it was the official topic for that week. Anyway, I saw it and I was intrigued because a lot of the recommendations on those lists were YA contemporaries which I don’t really read much, so I was very excited to see a Black-authored YA fantasy. I really enjoyed it, I loved Karina and Malik and it was a very exciting book, even if the magic system and world-building could be a little confusing in places. Sadly, I didn’t love the sequel book in this duology quite as much, but the first one was definitely a great TTT recommendation!

8. Cinder-Marissa Meyer

Again, no specific blog for this one because this is another of those that I was just seeing everywhere when I first started doing TTT and tbh, is still a pretty popular choice for lists even now. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Sadly, this is another one that didn’t quite work for me, and I do think that was partly down to the hype somewhat inflating my expectations. I just found it kind of predictable and dull and I wasn’t a huge fan of Cinder as a character. I did go on to read the second book, Scarlet, and found it better but I still didn’t love it enough to finish the series.

9. Born A Crime-Trevor Noah

Finally, one where I can actually remember where I got the recommendation from. This one was from M @ Rain City Reads, they had mentioned this one on quite a few of their TTT posts and I was intrigued as I had just visited South Africa the year before I read it. Anyway, I ended up reading it at the end of 2021 and it became my favourite read of the year, and is still one of my favourite memoirs. It’s equal parts funny and also explores a lot of serious issues in South Africa’s history and Trevor Noah is just the most fantastic storyteller, so listening to him read his own memoir of the various exploits he got up to in his childhood was awesome.

10. By A Charm And A Curse-Jaime Questell

Again, I can’t remember exactly where I found this one, I got it as an e-ARC and read it before its release date in February 2018, but I cannot remember whose blog I found it on. According to Goodreads, I added it in the summer of 2017, so it could have potentially been a summer TBR post, or maybe a anticipated releases post as sometimes people do go up to the early dates of the next year with those if its an e-ARC they already have. But anyway, the point is, I found this through a TTT list, and it was a really great and surprising find. It’s set in a magical circus which is held together by this curse that prevents anyone from the circus from getting old or dying but in order for this to happen, one of the members essentially has to become a human puppet and the only way of transferring this curse is to kiss someone. The main character in this book ends up unwittingly becoming the new “Girl In The Box” after kissing the boy who was previously cursed and she then has to work out a way to escape the curse without dooming everyone in the circus. It’s such a fun and different kind of circus story, and I really enjoyed it. I’m kind of sad that Jaime Questell doesn’t seem to have written anything else since this because I would definitely read more by her!

So there we have it, some of the books I’ve read because of TTT. I tried to include a mix of ones I’ve enjoyed and ones I didn’t, just to show that not every recommendation I get is a total success, but hopefully you’ve maybe found something you can enjoy among this lot, even if it’s one that I didn’t. Have you read any of these? What’s the best book you’ve ever read because you saw it on a TTT list? Let me know in the comments!

Next week we’re talking Characters From Different Books Who Should Team Up, which sounds like a fun, if potentially tricky one, but we’ll see if I can come up with enough to make a list, and if not, then I’ll be back next week with a surprise topic for you all!