This week’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt sees me, and I’m not sure I like it: “Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read”.

I confess, sometimes I even plead with my wife to go out and get me a book that’s just released, and then fail to read it for… months? Fortunately, it’s well-understood that I’m a mood reader, and that the point is having the book available for when the mood strikes makes me happy, so Lisa doesn’t mind this at all.

Anyway, let’s get on with the public shaming showcase! Since I haven’t read these books yet, I’ll stick to showing off the covers…

To be fair to myself, I’ve actually been a lot better about this in 2025 and 2026, since I had a goal of having no more than 20 books concurrently that were bought in the same year and not yet started. That was part of the point, and it’s working well! Three of the books above are ones I got in 2025, and two from 2026 that I feel I could’ve jumped on sooner given how much fuss I made about wanting them… but otherwise, the books are from longer ago. I’m actually quite impressed!

This week’s prompt from Top Ten Tuesday is about books that live in your head rent-free, and I think there aren’t going to be many surprises here from me — many of my favourites are well-known! Let’s see.

1. The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison.
   I’ve reread this book several times and will no doubt reread it many times more: I love it a lot, and there’s so much around the edges of it that the story doesn’t cover. Some of that is covered in the Thara Celehar books, but even then, there’s so much more. I adore the characters, too.
2. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.
   The same is true of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System and Heaven Official’s Blessing, to be fair — all of MXTX’s characters have really stuck with me, despite and sometimes because of the stories’ flaws. In the case of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, you’ve got Wei Wuxian and his manifest fuck-ups, but also characters like Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling, Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui, who have a ways to go to find happy endings out of their pasts, even as the story ends.
3. Feed, by Mira Grant.
   I wasn’t even into horror when I read this, but it stuck with me, and especially so after I studied infectious diseases for my MSc and after the whole world went through a global pandemic (which was comparatively mild compared to what it could have been). Reading it in the wake of that is… yeah. And I’ve no doubt I’ll read the series again in future. It’s also a book that I didn’t like that much when I first read it, but which I came back to again and again.
4. A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan.
   This another of those books that I didn’t love the first time, but I found myself drawn back — and then I loved it the second time. I’m a huge champion for this series and the way it explored a woman being a scholar in a patriarchal society, how she was still an instrument of imperialism at times when she didn’t mean to be, and how it never loses sight at the same time of the wonder of the idea of dragons being real. Also, the way the whole series slowly adds information for us until that final book…!
5. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie.
   This one always makes me think of a particular friend. I didn’t warmly love the book the first time I read it (more admired it), but over time, I’ve got such fond feelings for all the characters. Someone even did a recording of a potential tune for one of Breq’s songs, and every so often that gets stuck in my head.
6. Chalice, by Robin McKinley.
   Another one I didn’t absolutely love at first read! Those often seem to be the ones I really end up adoring, if there’s enough to them to draw me back in to try again — I can think of a couple of other examples, even. The magic in Chalice is weird and difficult to understand at times, because the protagonist doesn’t understand it: she has to struggle to figure things out for herself, and I loved her journey (and the slow building of trust between her and the Master).
7. The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell.
   I think of everything on this list, this is the one I read longest ago. It was definitely a part of shaping my interest in Arthuriana, and it’s amazing how often I think about it, even if I haven’t read it in a long time. It’s a good crack at a historical, human, unmagical Arthur, and at his companions. It gave me a serious distaste for Lancelot which other books have never really shaken, even despite my studies!
8. Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee.
   I can’t believe it’s this book’s 10th anniversary this year. What?! And I still haven’t got round to rereading it. I went into it concerned that I wouldn’t understand, but the math is basically just magic, and you can just accept that and let the weirdness sweep you along. When I couldn’t think of a name for my chocobo in FFXIV, I actually named it Jedao, which might be one of the weirdest “I named my pet after your character” situations I’ve heard of.
9. Lifelode, by Jo Walton.
   I could’ve picked Farthing or Among Others as well, or even My Real Children… but Among Others was very much a book that spoke to me a lot in my late teens/early twenties, while Lifelode is something I think about more now. I wish more people had read it, so that I could say “my lifelode is learning”, and have people understand what that means. It’s an excellent fantasy, if not a very traditional one.
10. The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard.
    There are ways in which this is very like The Goblin Emperor, which is part of what originally drew me to this book. It’s a very different world with a very different inspiration, though, and the main protagonist is a common man (albeit one who has been elevated very high). I really want to get round to rereading it, and reading the sequel, which I was desperate for after I finished it! It’s just been too long now for me to go into it cold.

So… there we go, my fairly predictable list, ahaha.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors”, which I can surely do easily… Because I’m feeling a bit not-100% (like I might develop a migraine or something maybe), I’m going to stick to just showing the covers this time rather than do my usual ramble — after all, I don’t have much to say about books I haven’t read yet!

I’m not actually sure if the mentioned authors have written other books, but presumably one day they might write others… and these will (probably) be the first books of theirs I get to!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a fun prompt: “Book Titles That Include the Word [insert word of your choice here]”, and I glanced around my shelves and took a bit of a guess at what might be interesting, picking the word “city”. Let’s see what I’ve got!

1. The Masked City, by Genevieve Cogman.
   I don’t entirely know why, but this is one of my favourites of this series — something about the atmosphere, and we’re still learning about the world, and because it’s strong on the Fae elements… And perhaps because it’s Venice.
2. A City on Mars, by Kelly & Zack Weinersmith.
   A great non-fiction look at how we could settle on Mars, what technology we’ve got that would work and what we still need to develop. Sadly, they’re not very optimistic — but it’s still a fascinating read, and they’re fun writers.
3. The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo.
   An absolute fever-dream of a book: I keep repeating that description, but it’s apt. It’s gorgeous and grotesque and weird, and I had a great time with it.
4. The Buried City, by Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
   The author is the director of archaeology at Pompeii, and this book is about Pompeii, so of course I was interested! It isn’t only about Pompeii, also musing on why archaeology is worth doing and what archaeology can do.
5. City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett.
   I actually want to reread this one so I can finish the trilogy — I only read the first two books. Both were really fascinating, and I do enjoy a fantasy mystery.
6. The Drowning City, by Amanda Downum.
   I’ve got to admit it’s been a long time since I read this one, but I remember enjoying the series a lot (though perhaps especially the second book, The Bone Palace). I can’t vouch for it as current-me, but past-me really enjoyed it.
7. The Shambling Guide to New York City, by Mur Lafferty.
   This is also a book I read quite a long time ago, and the details are somewhat obscured by time… but I know I enjoyed it, and found it a lot less gimmicky than I’d expected from the title.
8. The Just City, by Jo Walton.
   This is a fascinating thought experiment about how people might enact a thought experiment for real, and I really enjoyed the ride.
9. In the Watchful City, by S. Qiouyi Lu.
   This prompt is proving excellent at resurfacing books I’ve really enjoyed! In the Watchful City was a great novella, though perhaps not for everyone (I just stumbled across someone else’s review where they hated pretty much everything about it, haha — and I did understanding their points).
10. City of Bones, by Martha Wells.
    There is so much going on in this book, from weird gender stuff to different species interacting and fantasy archaeology, and I really need to reread it.

NB: some of my linked reviews are quite old, and I don’t know if I stand by my thoughts and feelings from back then! The suck fairy might’ve visited in the last decade+ in some cases. I’m just going by fond memories and enthusiasm, and maybe I’ll revisit some of these books myself.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about upcoming titles, and I must confess, as always I’m not very up on this, aside from the ARCs I get offered by Orbit or happen to see on Netgalley. Honestly, how do you all keep up?!

Still, I did some research and poked around, and checked my wishlist too for books I previously noted wanting, and thus found some books I’m interested in!

1. Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 3, by Feng Yu Nie.
   This is supposed to be out today according to Seven Seas, making it technically ineligible for the list. However bookshop.org say it’s out tomorrow, so it counts. I just devoured volume two a couple weeks ago, and I’m very eager to continue the story: Yue Wuhuan is pretty unhinged, but Song Qingshi is pretty fascinated by him too, and weird and over-intense though the relationship might be, I’m very curious about how they end up and what the system intends for Song Qingshi in the wake of his choosing the wrong character to rescue. The fourth volume is also due out in the latter half of the year, hitting shelves in October.
2. The Feywild Job, by C.L. Polk.
   Technically this seems to come out today as well, but I’m highlighting it because I thought it was next month, and no one can stop me, mwahaha. I’ve really enjoyed Polk’s books in the past, and this heist story sounds like a lot of fun. I like the cover, too!
3. The Reimagining of Thornwood House, by Jaleigh Johnson.
   I don’t know a lot about this, but the idea of a house getting grumpy and walking off and needing to be coaxed back sounds like a lot of fun. It comes out 2nd July, so I guess I don’t have long to wait!
4. An Expert Witness, by Sue Black.
   I only just learned about this one, but I’m excited! I’ve really enjoyed Sue Black’s previous works, because she pairs technical detail with a resolve never to lose sight of respect and humanity when handling the dead. It’s coming out on 2nd July.
5. The Wife Comes First, vol 3, by Lv Ye Qian He.
   I haven’t read the second volume yet, so there’s just a chance there’ll be a dealbreaker there… but I flew through the first volume despite its flaws, and I imagine I’ll be keen to find out how all the court intrigue comes to a head in the third, by the time it comes out. I have volume two on my ‘on deck’ pile, after all! I love Jing Shao and his realisation that Mu Hanzhang was loyal to him to the end, and the way he’s seizing his chance to do better. This one’s coming out on 21st July.
6. Dinosaur Sanctuary, vol 8, by Itaru Kinoshita.
   I love this manga so much, it’s just the perfect palate cleanser for anything. My reviews have been going up recently, actually, but I’ve been waiting since just before Christmas when I originally devoured the first seven volumes (I have a huge backlog of graphic novel/manga reviews that I trickle out to avoid overwhelming the blog with those). I love that it’s basically a story about a zoo, only the animals are dinosaurs. I also really enjoy the fact that it has a dinosaur consultant and adds little fact files by him. This one’s due out 28th July, and I think I’ll preorder it on Kobo!
7. A Trade of Blood, by Robert Jackson Bennett.
   This is the third book of the Shadow of the Leviathan series which I’ve been enjoying a lot. I actually have the ARC and need to get back to it, but I have to read it on my other device because (sigh) it couldn’t be sent to Kobo because it’s a PDF. I couldn’t resist requesting it anyway, though, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to dig in. The mystery sounds intriguing, and I imagine we’ll get more details toward a clearer picture of the world/the Empire… It’s due out in August.
8. Our Cut of Salt, by Deena Helm.
   This one is a bit out of my comfort zone, coming out from Tor Nightfire on 22nd September. It’s a horror story, with three generations of a Palestinian family linked with a home in Haifa. It might actually be one that’s more for my wife, but something about it has kinda grabbed me. Maybe the setting? Anyway, I think I’ll be giving it a try!
9. The Scarlet Ball, by Nghi Vo. 
   I love Nghi Vo’s work, so I’m planning to read this even without knowing much about it. The set up (now I’ve actually read the blurb) sounds intriguing, too: the main character can literally take the face of a missing debutante to play her part — in exchange for what? How does that all work out? Well, unless I request the ARC I’ll have to wait until 6th October to find out.
10. As You Wake, Break the Shell, by Becky Chambers.
    I didn’t know this was coming out but I’m definitely excited: I’ve enjoyed Chambers’ work so much in the past. I’m intrigued by the living ship/pilot link, too, as well as Chambers’ normal ability to make me care about the characters and relationships. It’s not due until 22nd October… big pout.

Excited to see what others highlight today! My wishlist is waiting for new finds.

I am late to post today because I had a dentist appointment today (big sadness, but at least I should have a clean bill of dental health again), so I’ll make this quick! I recently posted my 20 Books of Summer list, but there are some others I’d love to get to…

The first five are non-fiction, and the second lot fiction!

It’s a bit of a random selection, but there’s a bunch of library books and recent purchases here, so I really ought to make time!

Every so often, the Top Ten Tuesday theme is all about the books you’re hankering for right now, and sharing your wishlist so that people can get them for you if they feel so moved! So let’s see.

1. Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson.
   This was reviewed recently in New Scientist, and it sounds like an intriguing look at how evidence-based science works!
2. If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation, by Daniel Hahn.
   I saw someone mention this (I think Keira?) and it sounds fascinating. Translation is such a knotty problem, and Shakespeare is extra difficult because there’s a double-barrier of time as well as language.
3. A Widow’s Charm, by Caitlyn Paxson.
   I’ve seen some good reviews of this, and it sounds like fun!
4. Murder at the Black Cat Cafe, by Seishi Yokomizo.
   It’s always interesting to broaden my experience of crime/mystery stories and read in translation, so I’m curious about this one.
5. Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes, by Eleanor Houghton.
   Clothes tell us so much about the period they came from, the person who wore them, and the kind of life they lived. I’m very curious.
6. All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now, by Ruby Tandoh.
   I’ve been curious about this one for a while, as food history is another thing that I enjoy dipping into.
7. The English House: A History in Eight Buildings, by Dan Cruickshank.
   I’m a sucker for histories that are a history of X in Y things… and while I’m not super into architecture, it’s still a field where buildings of the past tell us an awful lot, and I’m capable of being interested!
8. The Apothecary’s Wife: The Hidden History of Medicine and How it Became a Commodity, by Karen Bloom Gevirtz.
   I haven’t heard much about this, but the topic is fascinating!
9. Ode to the Half-Broken, by Suzanne Palmer.
   This doesn’t seem to be out yet in the UK, but Amazon has it, and I’ve been reading some very positive reviews! It sounds right up my street.
10. The Nightmare before Kissmas, by Sara Raasch.
    I’m not sure that Raasch’s books are 100% my thing, but I’m happy to try outside my comfort zone, especially since I’ve been seeing glowing reviews from people I trust! So I’d like to give this one a shot — though I’d have been interested in The Entanglement of Rival Wizards instead if it’d been out in paperback in the UK, so I wouldn’t mind an ebook copy of that if it fell into my ereader, ahaha.

My Amazon wishlist is here, and I’m also game for ebook copies if you’d rather buy a book voucher for me to get an ebook with, in which case I suggest a National Book Token or Kobo voucher, since I prefer not to use Kindle anymore. My email address is bibliophibianbreathesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com.

(Buying me Kindle books and sending them to that email address does work as well, since I do have a Boox ereader and can still access the Kindle app, it’s just not my preference. Kobo deserves more love!)

Excited to peek at other people’s lists and spread a bit of bookish love today!

This week’s prompt from Top Ten Tuesday is another cover-based one, about covers featuring handwriting/fonts that look like handwriting. I don’t actually know what I’ll find, but let’s see!

Aaand the end results are a bit of a mix: mostly I kept finding the same sort of “handwriting-ish” fonts being used, the “I’m based ultimately on handwriting/calligraphy, but everyone’s used to this as a font” ones. But here are some that caught my eye, narrowed down from about twenty…

I didn’t love all these books (and I haven’t finished The Book Eaters yet), but I confess that handwriting fonts do seem to grab my attention, and I definitely like them a lot when I’m making graphics (on the rare occasions that I do). Amsterdam Three, how I love thee.

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.

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