This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is all about books you can’t believe you’ve never read… and I’m going to steer away from the classics and 1,001 books to read before you die type choices, and look more at my TBR.
- Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch.
I loved the first books in this series! I was very eager for Republic of Thieves! But somehow I never got round to it, and then I got sulky about being nagged to get on and read it… and of course, there’s no saying when there will be more in the series. I still technically want to read this, but it is sitting in limbo more than a little. - Red Right Hand, by Chris Holm.
I’ve enjoyed Chris Holm’s work since the Angry Robot days with the Collector trilogy, and enjoyed the book that Red Right Hand follows up, The Killing Kind. Unfortunately, by the time Red Right Hand came out, I’d forgotten too many of the details, meant to reread that one first, and somehow… never got back to it. - Malice Aforethought, by Francis Iles.
This is one of the classic mystery stories, but somehow I’ve never got round to it (in part because I’m not a huge lover of Francis Iles AKA Anthony Berkeley Cox’s work). Still, it’s a really important one in the development of the classic mystery genre, and I do want to read it. Eventually. - The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey.
I was put off by reading something else by Tey which was just hopelessly racist, but her work is very classic, and I want to get round to this at some point — particularly as people often cite it as a favourite. Plus I am kinda interested in Richard III and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, which makes the concept interesting to me. - Cassandra, by Christa Wolf.
A copy of this has been following me around for… quite a long time, so long that I’ve actually forgotten who recommended it and why — but they were definitely very enthusiastic. The story of Cassandra is one that interests me a lot, too; the tragic possibilities of knowing what’s going to happen, but being totally powerless to convince anyone else… - Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC, by Susan Fisher-Hoch & Joseph B. McCormick.
I did actually start this at some point, so I’m also surprised I never finished it, but I think I may have got it quite early in my interest in infectious diseases and it was maybe a little too anxiety-provoking. I think I’d tolerate it better now, degree in infectious diseases behind me, and maybe appreciate some aspects of it more, too. That said, this will never be my job, even if I do switch into a career in infectious diseases. Yikes on bikes. - The Tower at Stony Wood, by Patricia McKillip.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of McKillip’s work, but there are several I still need to get to that could all take a turn on this list. I find her writing a little opaque at times; beautiful, but sometimes requires a lot of attention to fully extract the meaning. Maybe that’s just me — either way, her style takes work, and so her books always await the exact right mood. I did pick up my copies from my parents’ house semi-recently (well, at least a year ago, possibly two), so they are at least on my shelves here… - The Outskirter’s Secret, by Rosemary Kirstein.
I really like The Steerswoman, so I don’t know why I’ve never got on with it and read the remaining books. Maybe it’s knowing the story is unfinished. Maybe it’s because I know a little too much about the other books and how things work out, so one element of the tantalising mystery at least is a little bit spoiled (though spoilers don’t usually bother me, this is a bit of a special case, I’d say). - A Brother’s Price, by Wen Spencer.
This is one of several books that I got at some point or another for The Alternative World book club on Goodreads, and never got round to. I remember people being so enthusiastic about it, though, and their recommendations were definitely pivotal to quite a few of the SF/F books I loved (including The Steerswoman, actually) at that time… so yeah. - Or What You Will, by Jo Walton.
Somehow I missed when this came out, and only realised a bit later… and somehow still haven’t got round to it, which is just shocking given how much I’ve generally enjoyed Jo Walton’s work. Soon, I hope!
I keep thinking of other potential choices — I can’t believe I still haven’t managed to read anything of Sarah Pinsker’s, for example, given she was a part of The Alternative World group on Goodreads! But this is a reasonable survey, and covers a mostly-satisfying/representative spread of genres, so let’s leave it there…
