This week’s Top Ten Tuesday post is about books I’m anticipating in the first half of 2016, and guys, I have no idea. I don’t keep good enough track. So instead, here’s a replacement theme: my favourite books to give as gifts.

1. Among Others, Jo Walton. I think I might have gifted this 5+ times already? Basically, I love it to pieces and it speaks to me and if you read it and you know me, you’ll immediately get why.
2. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. I just love this one. 3+ times gifted?
3. The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. 2+ times gifted, but I love it so much I own two copies, ready to give it to someone deserving.
4. Sabriel, Garth Nix. It stands alone reasonably well and it’s a fascinating world, so yeah. I think I’ve gifted it twice.
5. The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay. This was my introduction to Kay’s work, and I do recommend it — even if at times it’s a bit derivative. 2+ times gifted.
6. Kushiel’s Dart, Jacqueline Carey. I’m careful about who I gift this to, because there are some themes that aren’t suitable for some people. But I’ve gifted it at least twice.
7. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. It’s Le Guin. Enough said. I’ve also gifted Changing Planes a couple of times, as a good gateway drug.
8. The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper. Usually as the whole series. This is… not a shocking one at all. I love these books without reason. 3+ times gifted.
9. Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb. Only gifted it once, I think, but it’s excellent fantasy.
10. A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge. Gifted twice, I think, counting this Christmas.

What book do you inevitably consider giving to everyone?

This week’s theme is books I’d like to find under my Christmas tree. Well, I know what Santa is bringing me via my sister and my dad, so I’ll just pick stuff from my Amazon wishlist I’d like to get sometime soon!

If you’d like to help with that, well hey, my Amazon wishlist is here! (I can dream, right?)

1. Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’ve been curious about this one since I saw Tchaikovsky at a con.
2. Scarlet, A.C. Gaughen. I figure it’s about time I tried it.
3. Illuminae, Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman. I’ve been hearing so much about it.
4. Planetfall, Emma Newman. The anxiety stuff might be a bit much for me, but I am interested in it.
5. Gunmetal Magic, Ilona Andrews. A spinoff series with Andrea? OKAY.
6. A Crown for Cold Silver, Alex Marshall. I kept meaning to pick this up, but haven’t yet.
7. Darkwalker, E.L. Tettensor. I’ve had this on my wishlist for aaaages.
8. Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Carooool.
9. Silk: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon, Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee. About time I read this…
10. Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. I was curious about this before I started reading the Grisha books, and now I’m sure I want it.

I’m pretty sure I won’t find these under my tree, but hey, I can dream, right?

This week’s theme is the Top Ten books I read this year. Off we go! The titles will link to my reviews, so you can read more about them.

1. The Tropic of Serpents and Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan. Can’t choose, don’t make me. Both of these really kicked my love for the series into a higher gear, after I wasn’t that enchanted by A Natural History of Dragons.
2. The Tale of Duelling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean. Very good non-fiction; engaging, interesting, wide-ranging.
3. Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear. So. goshdarn. cute. Also cool alternative history.
4. The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth J. Dickinson. Criticisms by other people be damned, I loved it.
5. The Wicked + The Divine: Fandemonium, Jamie McKelvie & Kieron Gillen. It’s bloody gorgeous.
6. Cocaine Blues, Kerry Greenwood. This was a reread, which mostly I’ve avoided in this list, but it was like reading a new book, because I liked it so much more this time.
7. A Taste of Blood Wine, Freda Warrington. This series has me mega-conflicted morally, but enraptured in terms of the writing quality.
8. Lock In, John Scalzi. Scalzi’s books are always solidly fun, and this was a little more than that, I think.
9. Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon. Awesome elderly female protagonist!
10. Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari. Very good overview of human prehistory and history.

I totally recommend all ten of those — they weren’t all 5* reads, but they were very enjoyable.

This week’s theme is the top ten new to me authors I’ve read this year. So, with the help of Goodreads, here goes!

1. Kerry Greenwood. Actually technically not new to me, because I’d read Cocaine Blues before. But I hated it, for some reason, and didn’t read the whole thing the first time. This time, I devoured it and went on to eat up the rest of the series too (something I’m still in progress with). So I’m going to pretend the first time didn’t happen. I was clearly cranky at the time.
2. Leigh Bardugo. I know I’m late to the party, but I finally read Shadow and Bone, and found myself unexpectedly riveted.
3. Ann Leckie. Again, rather late to the party, but at least it meant that I got to read the whole trilogy more or less at once, with just a couple of months waiting for the last one!
4. K.J. Parker. I’m not just late to the party, I crashed in after several hours. But I read the Tor.com novella and now I know I need to get round to more of Parker’s work.
5. Freda Warrington. Her vampire novels are just ridiculously addictive. Hurrah for Titan rereleasing them so they came to my attention.
6. Patricia Briggs. I have some problems with her books, but they’re also dead fun.
7. Elizabeth Bear. Rather late to the party again, but Karen Memory made me want to read more of her work.
8. Seth Dickinson. The Traitor Baru Cormorant was awesome.
9. Zen Cho. I enjoyed Sorcerer to the Crown.
10. Greg van Eekhout. I really need to get round to the third book in his trilogy, Dragon Coast.

I’ll be interested to see what other people have discovered this year! A couple of mine were actually debut authors, but as you can see from where I’ve been late to the party, a lot of them were discoveries of authors who’ve been going a while.