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…

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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…
9. 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.
10. 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!

It’s been a minute since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, again, but I always like the TBR ones! So here’s my winter TBR… which is not really themed, because I don’t go for that much.

1. The Palace of Illusions, by Rowenna Miller. This is kinda seasonal, since it’s Nutcracker-inspired, and I’ve got started on it already. I’m not very far into it, but I’m very curious about the magic, and how it all relates to the Nutcracker.
2. We Could Be Heroes, by PJ Ellis. A romance between a guy playing a superhero who sounds like the equivalent of Superman or Captain America… and a drag queen? Sounds fun, I’m curious! Again, this is on my December TBR and I’ve actually started it already, but I’ve only read two chapters. I think the guy who plays the superhero is about to show up at the drag show, and I presume sparks will shortly fly for some kind of meet-cute.
3. Strange New World, by Vivian Shaw. This is the latest in a series I love, so I’m keen to jump in, and it’s part of two reading challenges I’m in. I didn’t expect a sequel given that the last book was so apocalyptic, so I’m quite curious where it will go.
4. The Otherwhere Post, by Emily J. Taylor. I know very little about this one, but picked it up to review for Postcrossing’s blog since it involves magical mail. I did start reading it, and the multiple worlds idea — and the postal workers who are the only ones who can slip between them — is pretty intriguing.
5. After Hours at Dooryard Books, by Cat Sebastian. I’ve heard a couple of glowing recommendations for this, and someone just bought me a copy, so it’s quite high on my list! I generally love Cat Sebastian’s romances and find them very satisfying anyway, so the praise is just the cherry on the cake there.
6. Spinosaur Tales: The Biology and Ecology of the Spinosaurs, by David Hone and Mark P. Witton. Yeah, I know, this is an abrupt switch in gear, but y’all know me! I love my non-fiction too, and I really liked David Hone’s The Future of Dinosaurs and The Tyrannosaur Chronicles. His work is very readable, but thorough; I know very little about spinosaurs, so I’m extra interested to get into it, especially since I’ve been reading the Dinosaur Sanctuary manga. Who knows when that might feature some spinosaurs?!
7. Solo Leveling, by Chugong. I read the manhwa adaptation earlier this year, so I’m curious about the original! I’m told there are some differences in the story, which sounds intriguing, and also I usually find novels a bit easier to follow than visual media. Again, just got gifted a copy of the first volume, so it’s an excellent time.
8. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, by singNsong. I’ve heard great things about this series, so I want to dig in and give it a go. I got gifted this as well, so I want to dig in ASAP.
9. The Wife Comes First, by Lv Ye Qian He. The first volume is out as of today, and I’m curious about this one from the summary — it sounds like an interesting idea for a romance, with some fun court politicking, without being a many-volumes long investment like some other danmei I’m interested in. I’m not sure if I’ll get it for Christmas, since it’s not in stock currently in most places and Bookshop.org says a few days for delivery (which often means they don’t actually have copies yet)… but maybe I’ll get it for myself after Christmas if not.
10. Thrice Married to a Salted Fish, by Bi Ka Bi. Another danmei I’m curious about! I read the preview, and I’m dying to know what’s going on, I must be honest. Again, I don’t have a copy yet, but might get it for myself if Santa doesn’t bring it.

Curious to browse other people’s lists when I get the chance! Hope everyone’s having a good December so far.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is about books you’ve read (or want to read) that are outside your comfort zone. I read so widely/apparently randomly that it’s kinda hard to define what my comfort zone looks like, especially since each book holds the potential to expand it, but let’s see what I can come up with!

1. Feed, by Mira Grant. Granted, I adore this one now, but I didn’t always. When I first read it, it made me feel reaaaally on edge and uncomfortable, because horror isn’t my thing and the idea of everyone being infected with a cocktail of viruses that could turn them into zombies at any time was… yeah, definitely dancing around on my anxieties.
2. Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt. I just finished this one, but I think it counts; it’s not really a topic I’m interested in per se, definitely not for prurient interest, but I decided to give it a go because it wasn’t a subject I’m very familiar with, and new knowledge is always of interest to me. I need to write up my review of this one, because I just finished it last night!
3. Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal. By heavy contrast to the previous two, ahaha, this is a Regency-ish Austenesque fantasy. It is actually pretty squarely in my comfort zone now, but when I read it I tended to be allergic to anything that smacked of Jane Austen, wasn’t a romance fan, and in general wasn’t best positioned to enjoy it. I didn’t rate it very highly the first time, but I revisited and enjoyed it more, and particularly started enjoying Glamour in Glass, the second book.
4. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This was my first danmei, and I really wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. I remember reading it in a hotel room in Bath during a long weekend getaway with my wife, and just constantly making WTF noises at it — all I’d really understood going into the story was that the two main characters were canonically terrible at sex, and that some people really really loved the books. I don’t know why I picked them over Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation or Heaven Official’s Blessing, which might’ve been less weird introductions to danmei… but hey, it ultimately worked. I finished the first book and decided that I did really need to know where it went. That said, the series still kinda sits on the edge of my comfort zone for a couple of reasons: the student/teacher relationship (which I feel is carefully managed and balanced in context, but is still on edge of what I’m okay with) and the fact that it’s a satire of a genre I don’t really know (the cultivation novel).
5. What Moves The Dead, by T. Kingfisher. I am a wimp about horror. I’ve read a surprising amount of it for someone who isn’t a horror fan, one way or another, but it’s still not my comfy genre. What Moves The Dead was pretty brilliant, but it also freaked me out, dancing around the edge of my anxieties about contamination and disease.
6. Spillover, by David Quammen. I hardly need to write an explanation of this anymore for regulars here, who won’t be surprised to see it in the list! Back when I read Spillover, I was deliberately forcing myself to be curious about something that terrified me: infectious disease. A popular science book seemed like a reasonably controlled way to do it. It wasn’t comfy reading for me, though it helped that spillover events don’t generally happen in UK back gardens, and that Quammen is very measured and careful in assessing risks. Now, of course, I have an MSc in infectious diseases (or I will once my graduation ceremony is held); Quammen really started something for me. It was also part of my initial attempts to read more non-fiction (which now constitutes about 30% of what I read), so, yeah, a great success all round.
7. Crypt of the Moon Spider, by Nathan Ballingrud. This was an impulse read from the library, one I knew wouldn’t be a comfortable one for me given the premise. It ultimately turned out more uncomfortable for me than I’d expected with some vivid imagery (let’s just say it’s not one for the arachnophobic, and leave it there), and I didn’t love it.
8. Yellowface, by Rebecca F. Kuang. This ended up being a five-star read for me, but I tend toward genre reads rather than this more literary sort of choice, so I really wasn’t sure how I’d find it. It felt like watching a trainwreck, with a main character both despicable and pitiable, and it was fascinating.
9. The Gabriel Hounds, by Mary Stewart. I remember reading this as one of the first Mary Stewart books I read — I can’t remember if it was the first, that might’ve been Touch Not The Cat, but I definitely wasn’t sure whether it was going to be my thing. It was definitely before I started reading romance in general, at any rate. And I had a lot of fun!
10. Solo Leveling (manhwa adaptation), by Dubu. I wasn’t sure whether Solo Leveling would be my thing: it sounded a bit dark, and very battle focused. Honestly, I’m not sure why I did give it a shot — but I ended up really sucked in, and quickly acquired the whole series. Now I definitely wouldn’t say no to trying the light novel, too.

So there we go, I did manage to come up with ten! Very curious to see what others’ picks are.

I thought this week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme would be kinda fun, and maybe a good prompt to get round to reading some books I’ve been neglecting, so… here we go. The prompt is the ten books you find from randomly grabbing books from your shelves — let’s see what I find on my shelves!

1. Love, Theoretically, by Ali Hazelwood. I haven’t read this one yet. I’ve enjoyed a couple of Hazelwood’s books/stories, so I’m looking forward to getting around to it, though I have to be in the right mood to pick something described as a romcom. I get embarrassment squick really easily!
2. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers. The second book in the Monk & Robot duology. I didn’t love these as much as Chambers’ other work, but there’s always something kind about her work that I’m drawn to.
3. The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean. Ah, definitely one I’ve been neglecting. I passed it up for review because I wasn’t quite sure about it, but ended up buying it a couple of years ago in Topping & Company in Edinburgh (an excellent indie bookshop).
4. A Mourning Wedding, by Carola Dunn. This is fairly deep into the Daisy Dalrymple series, and probably one of the furthest along I’ve read, though I haven’t got to it yet in my reread (preparatory to actually finishing the series). By this point things are a little repetitive, to be honest, and it’s possibly time for me to let go of this series.
5. Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. I’ve been meaning to read this for ages — it digs into what is an absolute scandal of scientists manipulating public opinion with unfounded claims. I think this one is only getting more relevant, not less, though the examples will be out of date.
6. Hot Earl Summer, by Erica Ridley. This is in the Wild Wynchesters series, and I’m a liiiittle behind. I should really catch up, because I’ve absolutely loved the books. This one sounds a bit over the top and bonkers, but hopefully it’ll be fun anyway.
7. Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 8, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Ahhh, my beloved. This volume finishes off the story and contains the extras as well. There’s some really lovely stuff, though I can’t say it’s my favourite volume because it is a bit scattered, given it’s about a third of the main story plus disconnected extras. Still, a wonderful series.
8. The Shards of Heaven, by Michael Livingston. Hm, I’ve forgotten everything I might have ever known about this one. Looking at the summary, I’m curious how it turns out, mixing magic and the fallout from the assassination of Julius Caesar. Might have to be in the right mood for it, though, since it’s a series and I can be quite slow with reading the next book sometimes.
9. Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, by Bettany Hughes. It’s… been a while since I picked this one up. I want to learn more about this part of the world, especially beyond just Byzantium (which I have read about in the past), but this book’s daunting me, I must admit.
10. Archivist Wasp, by Nicole Kornher-Stace. I’d almost forgotten about this one, but I’ve been meaning to read it forever. The ghost-hunting, post-apocalyptic setup sounds fascinating.

And there we go! I almost wanted to keep going and pull a few more random choices…

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is about satisfying series, so let’s see what I can come up with!

1. The Peter Wimsey books, by Dorothy L. Sayers. At first, Lord Peter seems like a fairly standard series detective, with a distinctive background and manner, but no real chronology or development between books. But then in Strong Poison a love interest is introduced: she doesn’t appear in every book (e.g. The Nine Tailors or Five Red Herrings), but over the course of the books where she does appear, her relationship with Peter slowly develops until she is certain of her feelings and ready to accept his hand in marriage. The series ends with Busman’s Honeymoon, in which they’re married and different threads of their characters and experiences come together beautifully, as she understands his shellshock and he finds something of a shelter from it and the world. It’s a heck of a journey from Peter’s first appearance on-page, and very satisfying.
2. The Phryne Fisher mysteries, by Kerry Greenwood. There is a thread of character development running through the stories, but they’re pretty episodic/mystery-of-the-week, and you can dip in at most stages and be able to follow the action. This series is satisfying because it has a few predictable elements (beautiful young men, lovely food cooked by Mrs Butler, ravishing fashion as worn by Phryne herself) and always delivers.
3. The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan. A perennial favourite of mine. Rereading it is just as satisfying as a first read, maybe more so, because you can see how the pieces will come together and how Isabella’s great discoveries will be made, what they’re leading to, etc. Each book adds on another block, until the last book — well. No major spoilers, this one’s worth experiencing for yourself. She also gets a personal arc of loss, grief, and second chances which is very satisfying too.
4. The Imperial Radch books, by Ann Leckie. Mostly the original trilogy; I loved Provenance and liked Translation State, but the original trilogy is a safe happy place for me. Not that the books are in any way cosy, quite the opposite, but there’s something about Breq, Saivarden, and the cast of characters around them that just calls me back every so often.
5. Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. I don’t know of many authors so willing to look back at an earlier book, realise that there was something unpleasant about it — something they didn’t mean to say — and then work with it/against it so ably, within the world. Le Guin realised that A Wizard of Earthsea was sexist as heck, and then spent the rest of the books replying to it within the bounds she’d already set. And the best part is that A Wizard of Earthsea isn’t bad, it has a lot of beautiful stuff to say and is a book that’s very important to me, but the other books add to it and play with it and make it better.
6. The Dark is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper. I love these books so much. I read my copy to pieces, and every word of the books is familiar to me now, so much so that I’ve been giving it a long rest before reading it again. It plays with mythology and folklore, with huge and terrifying forces, and then at the end hands responsibility back to us. There are aspects that are a little iffy (the Dark rising with waves of immigrants who are then tamed by the land; I think this is mostly about invasions, like the Norse, the Saxons, the Normans, but it has worrisome connotations even paired with the scene where Stephen and Will defend an immigrant boy), and it probably feels very dated now to a young person coming fresh to it… but all the same, I love it.
7. The Greta Helsing series, by Vivian Shaw. Okay, I haven’t actually read the most recent book, but I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun. I love the idea of a doctor who treats monsters, and I love Greta’s dedication to the task, and the found family of Ruthven and Varney and Fass and Greta and and and. I admit I’d thought the third book was intended to be the end, and it would’ve been a very appropriate one, but I’m excited to read further.
8. Heaven Official’s Blessing, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This story really goes places. It takes a while for all the pieces to come together, with two extended flashbacks filling in Xie Lian’s past, but when it does… wow. As a reader you certainly have to wait for the full payoff, and there’s a lot of suffering for Xie Lian (and various other characters, but primarily Xie Lian) along the way — but it really, really pays off. And there’s a reason there’s an AO3 tag, “Hualian invented love”: the devotion between Xie Lian and Hua Cheng is intense and their love story spans 800 years.
9. Fairyland, by Catherynne M. Valente. I reread this series every so often because I love the narrative voice. I don’t always love Valente’s writing — sometimes it gets too lyrical and purple-prosey for me — but it hits a sweet spot with Fairyland, calling on the same kind of warm, parental narrator’s tone as C.S. Lewis’ best moments, and September’s whole journey is a lot of fun.
10. A Side Character’s Love Story, by Akane Tamura. This series isn’t finished yet, but I already reread it once, because Hiroki and Nobuko’s relationship is just so cute. A slow-burner at first, but I love that they communicate and figure things out together, and the character growth they both get through the story. Plus there are some fun side characters, too.

Okay, that took me a bit of thinking, and I’m sure I could come up with a whole different list if you gave me long enough — but there’s some nice variety here, so let’s go with this.

It’s definitely beginning to feel autumnal here, with the temperatures falling and some very rainy days. I’m all for it — I love rain, especially listening to it against the windows while I’m reading, because I’m a cliché, and I’m also not super keen on very warm weather anyway (despite the problems I have with my poor circulation meaning I’m easily cold).

So it’s time too to think about my fall reading list, thanks to Top Ten Tuesday. I know there are a lot of books releasing soon that I’m interested in, so I’ve included a couple of those, but mostly I’m trying to leave those on my wishlist for Christmas, and focus on some of the neglected books of my TBR.

1. Mockingbird Court, by Juneau Black. I love the Shady Hollow series, and the one is due out on 7th October, so it has to earn a place on my list. It’s also set in autumn, so it’s coincidentally seasonally appropriate, too! Even though there’s murder and danger, these books are so cosy to me — I can’t wait to settle down with this one.
2. The Beauty’s Blade, by Feng Ren Zuo Shu. I haven’t read any baihe (f/f Chinese light novels, equivalent to the m/m danmei) yet, but I heard about this one and it sounds like a lot of fun. It’s due out in November, and I need to snag a copy right away so I can check whether my sister will be interested in it. (I mean, probably: badass ladies with swords who presumably end up kissing, it’s right up her street. But I do have to check for a happy ending.)
3. The Library of Ancient Wisdom, by Selena Wisnom. I’d actually sort-of started this at one point, but got busy and didn’t dig into it properly, but it looks like a fascinating history of Mesopotamia through the library of Ashurbanipal, and I enjoyed the chapter I read. It looks like a bit of a chonker, but I think it’ll be one I gladly sink into once I give it the time.
4. Pagans, by James Alistair Henry. I’ve technically started this as well, but it wasn’t the right moment, and now I want to get back to it. It’s a mystery set in an alternative universe where geopolitics has worked out very, very differently (e.g. no Norman invasion, Britain’s kind of a backwater, society is largely run by Anglo-Saxons with Celtcs being a heavily marginalised group, etc). Parts of it don’t seem to totally make sense, but I didn’t get that far into it, and I’m very curious how things work out, all the same.
5. You Should Be So Lucky, by Cat Sebastian. It’s on my TBR for this month, but I haven’t got to it yet (given that I’ve been warned it deals with an amount of grief and loss, last week didn’t seem like the right time mentally). I really want to read it, though, so it’ll probably be one of the next books I pick up! I love Cat Sebastian’s romances in general, and I feel like she’s also always improving as a writer.
6. The Duke at Hazard, by KJ Charles. Another one that’s on my September TBR but hasn’t been read yet. This one’s definitely a priority — I don’t know why I’ve waited so long on it. I love pretty much all of KJ Charles’ work, so I expect to enjoy it.
7. The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club, by Christopher de Hamel. This is a bit of a random choice, but it’s been on my shelves for a while and I’d love to dig into it. I really enjoyed Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, and this one has in-page colour illustrations as well, so it should be fascinating. It’s a bit of a chonker, so I might not schedule it for the same month as the other chunky books I’m thinking about!
8. Folk Song in England, by Steve Roud. I like a lot of modern British folk, and the efforts of singers and groups like Jon Boden (and Spiers & Boden), Fay Hield, Eliza Carthy, Seth Lakeman and Bellowhead have given me quite the appreciation for traditional songs and their many variations. It’s another chunky book, so it’s a little intimidating, but I’m sure I can get to it!
9. The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, by Xue Shan Fei Hu. This sounds absolutely nuts as a concept, and I really want to dig in. I want to finish my reread of another isekai-type danmei, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, first… but once I have, I really want to get to this one, especially as it isn’t super-long (four volumes, I think?).
10. Paladin’s Hope, by T. Kingfisher. I’ve been loving Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel books, and this is the next up! It looks quite a bit shorter than the last one, but hopefully it will do justice to Piper and Galen. Galen deserves some happiness now!

Yes, yes, I know — a very varied bunch. Very curious to see what other people are hoping to read soon!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “villains”, which I’m finding pretty tricky to fulfil… but let’s see what I can do!

1. Shen Qingqiu, from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu). Well, okay, the original Shen Qingqiu is not that inventive as a villain… and to say we’re talking about Shen Yuan mostly removes his claim to be on this list. But I thought I’d be funny and give a nod to him for anyone else who knows the fandom. The real villain is Shen Yuan’s internalised homophobia and general obliviousness to Luo Binghe’s feelings, though, am I right?
2. White No-Face (Bai Wuxiang), from Heaven Official’s Blessing (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu). This guy is a genuine villain. No spoilers for his true identity, but he torments Xie Lian and orchestrates his fall from grace, and makes it so that he can’t die no matter what happens to him. Xie Lian suffers immensely just from that, but White No-Face also gets into his head and warps his reality, trying to damage his essential goodness. He’s a hell of a villain, even without getting into the spoilery stuff.
3. Anaander Mianaai, from Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie). Anaander is a really fascinating villain, divided against herself due to her many bodies, and somehow managing to hold it all in balance and keep secrets against herself. She’d be run of the mill as a mere tyrant, but her war against herself makes her fascinating.
4. Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel, from Kushiel’s Dart (Jacqueline Carey). Melisande is a complicated figure, with her own motivations that from her point of view are perfectly reasonable. She’s a villain because we care about the characters she moves against, and she’s amoral on her way to her planned victory… but if she’d succeeded in her aims, history might’ve cast her as a hero.
5. Roland, from the Kate Daniels series (Ilona Andrews). This one’s a long story, much of it spoilery for anyone who hasn’t read the whole series. There’s never any doubt, though: Roland will crush anything that doesn’t go the way he plans.
6. Kossil, from The Tombs of Atuan (Ursula Le Guin). The Nameless Ones are formless, dark and terrifying, but they’re like forces of nature. Kossil is self-serving, cruel, and motivated by worldly power. Her evil is so mundane compared to the dark weight of the Nameless Ones, which… actually makes her more awful.
7. Governer David Tate, from Feed (Mira Grant). A right-wing conspiracy taking advantage of a zombie plague is all too realistic, so I couldn’t pass this one up. It’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course (further awfulness follows in the later books). But no spoilers…
8. The Company, from The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells). It looms large over Murderbot’s existence, so much so that Murderbot won’t even say the name of the Company and edits it out of everything it says and remembers. Capitalism’s everything in the Corporation Rim, and arguably the whole system is the villain here, but the Company is certainly a potent avatar of it.
9. Lancelot, from The Winter King (Bernard Cornwell). It’s rare for Lancelot to be cast as a villain — and admittedly he’s a very petty one — but this one’s memorable because it’s a very unusual choice to portray Lancelot as a small and cowardly run-of-the-mill villain, rather than some kind of tortured hero.
10. Regal Farseer, from Assassin’s Apprentice (Robin Hobb). Regal’s pretty much never likeable on the page, and his arc is pretty obvious from the outset, so in a way he’s a very obvious and unsubtle villain, and not exactly a favourite of mine. Still, he’s certainly memorable.

It took me a while, but I did it! I’m very curious what villains other people will name, though I spotted a lot of people going off-piste this week, so far…

This week’s theme from Top Ten Tuesday is all about the big chonky books. I don’t have stats on all my books, since I left Goodreads in a huff some years ago and then only settled into StoryGraph a year or two later… but let’s see what I can do.

I’ll skip the most obvious (The Lord of the Rings) and the technical (Control of Communicable Diseases Manual), I think! I also realised that the illustrated Earthsea I have is probably chonkier than any of these, but I didn’t think of it. So here we go.

1. The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard (899 pages). Some editions even run to ~1100 pages, but mine’s “only” 899, and apparently one of my chonkiest books. I’ve read this one, and really love it — I want to reread it soon. It’s wish fulfillment, about dismantling an empire and turning it into something fairer and kinder, but the relationship between the former Emperor and the main character, Cliopher, is really lovely. There’s also At the Feet of the Sun, the sequel (at 790 pages). It looks just as chonky on the shelf, though! I have to get round to it soon, but I’ve waited long enough thanks to a poor attention span that I really do want to reread the previous book first.
2. Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey (901 pages). I’m surprised this is so long, actually, because I know I’ve completely inhaled it in the past, and these days I seem to find 400 page books quite intimidating. It’s the start of a fantasy trilogy that I really love, though sometimes the violence (consensual and otherwise) is a lot to read, even with the conceit of Phèdre’s abilities.
3. The First Binding, by R.R. Virdi (929 pages). I don’t remember anything about this one! I haven’t read it yet, and I think I had it as an e-ARC. Oops.
4. Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, by Norman Davies (830 pages). This one’s still on my TBR, and I’m still looking forward to it, but… it’s just waiting for me to get round to it.
5. The Ember Blade, by Chris Wooding (824 pages). This is another one where I don’t really remember anything about it, it’s just been on my TBR a while. It sounds like pretty traditional fantasy, like it makes a point of being so even, so… maybe it’ll be fun?
6. Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, by Bettany Hughes (900 pages). I’ve liked some of Hughes’ work before, which I read because she got an honorary degree from Cardiff University at my first graduation ceremony. So I’m curious about this one, but it’s quite a commitment, so it’s been waiting on my TBR for the right mood.
7. The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn, by Tyler Whitesides (784 pages). Again, this sounds like pretty traditional fantasy, could be fun, but I haven’t got round to it yet.
8. Making History: The Storytellers who Shaped the Past, by Richard Cohen (708 pages). Understanding who is writing the history books is a very important thing, so this sounds very interesting. Though slightly daunting!
9. European Travel for the Mysterious Gentlewoman, by Theodora Goss (708 pages). I haven’t read the first book yet, so this one’s waiting behind that one. I didn’t realise this was so chonky — I have the ebook edition!
10. Plagues Upon the Earth: Diseases and the Course of Human History, by Kyle Harper (704 pages). As ever, can’t resist something about infectious diseases! I think it’s been on my TBR since last year? Ish? But I thought I’d probably enjoy it more when my MSc is all done and dusted.

So there we go, those’re my chonkers — mostly still waiting to be read!