This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about new books added to your bookshelf. Obviously I talk about those in my Stacking the Shelves post, but I thought I’d highlight some of the ones I’m most excited to get round to — some of which I didn’t showcase yet in my last post, since I split my Christmas haul into two posts!
Without further ado and in no special order, let’s go…
- Solo Leveling (light novel), by Chugong. I’ve actually got all eight volumes, between Christmas presents and using my trade-in credit at Bookshop.org. I’ve started on these already (I’m onto volume three today), and I’m tearing through them. I know the story from reading the manhwa, but it’s fun to see it fleshed out a bit and presented in a different format.
- The Wolf and His King, by Finn Longman. This is a retelling of the lai ‘Bisclaveret’, by Marie de France. I studied it during my first undergraduate degree, so I’m really excited to see someone playing with it. Maybe I’ll even try to email the lecturer who introduced me to Marie de France’s work and ask if he’s checked it out! It sounds like it should be great fun for fantasy fans in general, as well.
- Craft Land: In Search of Lost Crafts and Disappearing Trades, by James Fox. I happened across this and was curious about it, and then saw someone else’s review on Litsy, so I ended up adding it to my wishlist, and someone got me it for Christmas. I’m pretty eager to dig in, it looks like fun.
- The Isle in the Silver Sea, by Tasha Suri. This is getting great reviews, and promises a Sapphic Arthurian story? I’m in, in, in. Funnily enough, I bought this for my sister for Christmas, while my wife bought it for me. We even unwrapped them at pretty much the same time.
- After Hours at Dooryard Books, by Cat Sebastian. I love Cat Sebastian’s work in general, and seeing the enthusiasm of several friends about this one makes me think I should jump in sooner rather than later.
- Like: A History of te World’s Most Hated (and Misunderstood) Word, by Megan C. Reynolds. Linguistics isn’t necessarily my thing, but I’ve enjoyed books like Because Internet, and this one sounds interesting. I try not to be prescriptivist about it, even while I find some of our verbal tics pretty lazy.
- Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It, by Cory Doctorow. It’s been a while since I read anything by Doctorow, but this seems like an important one right now, with enshittification hitting so many of the apps and services people use.
- The Keeper of Magical Things, by Julie Leong. I loved the other book in this world — it was one of my highest rated books of last year — so I’m eager to get to this soon as well. I hope it’s magical in just the same small sort of ways…
- Brigands & Breadknives, by Travis Baldree. I could’ve got a review copy, but I knew I wouldn’t get round to it in time. Now I can hopefully dig in guilt-free when the right moment arrives! I’ve loved the other two in this series, though Legends & Lattes was the favourite.
- Cat Tales: a History, by Jerry D. Moore. Digging into the history of the relationships between cats and humans sounds like a lot of fun. It was a bit of an impulse add to my wishlist, but I’m glad I got a copy, I’m really curious now!
That’s just a taster, of course — I was really spoiled this Christmas. Looking forward to see what other people have been snagging for their shelves!











I’m hoping to read Brigands & Breadknives soon.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/anticipated-2025-releases-i-still-havent-read/
Cat Tales sounds adorable.