My buddy Austine over at NovelKnight had a brilliant idea to challenge us all to beat our backlist, and this happened to overlap with a goal that I had to read the books I actually own. I have a full shelf of books that I own, but haven’t read, and that ends this year! Quite a few of these backlist books are way old books that I’ve been loaned, and they need to either become a part of my shelf or go back to their homes or a thrift store.
Ebook:
The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova | Hen & Chick: The Marauder’s Island by Tristan J. Tarwatar | Pale Highway by Nicholas Conley |
Audiobook:
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older | The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison | Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho | You Can’t Touch My Hair by Jessica Williams
Physical:
Absolute Power: Tales of Queer Villainy (anthology) | Lemony Snicket: An Unauthorized Autobiography by Daniel Handler | The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver | The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin | Don’t I Know You by Marni Jackson | The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko | The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin | Longbourn by Jo Baker | Kindred by Octavia Butler | The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri | The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith | The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith | Goodnight June by Sarah Jio | I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak | It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini | The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo | Saffire by Sigmund Brouwer | Me Before You by Jojo Moyes | His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Have you read any of these? Talk to me about them and help me pick which ones to read first!
Kindred is absolutely fantastic – I’m sure everyone has raved about it enough! Tales of Queer Villainy sounds really interesting too – I’d love to hear your thoughts. The queer villain is one of my least favourite tropes – you know, the whole ‘threatening of the hero’s heteronormativity’ because GASP that’s the worst thing ever. I wonder whether they address that!
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Kindred, so I definitely need to read it. I would guess that the anthology will address it, since it’s all by queer women, but we’ll see! The same press put out The Lavender Menace in 2013 that got pretty good reviews, so I’m hopeful!
Ooh, oh, Sorcerer to the Crown! You should read that one! It’s very, very fun. Me Before You has things about it that I enjoyed, but it also felt kind of manipulative, and I mind very much that Jojo Moyes didn’t talk to any quadriplegic people before writing a book about a quadriplegic person. Skip that one and read One Plus One instead! One Plus One is a delight!
I’m in the early part of Sorcerer right now on audio and I’m really enjoying it so far! My best friend loaned me Me Before You, so I have to at least give it the good college try before returning it. I’ll definitely look up One Plus One, though! Thank you very much for the recommendation, Jenny!
Ha-ha I keep putting off that book His Majesty’s Dragon because the Temeraire series is just way too long… and I’m still missing Empire of Ivory (book 4) on my e-shelf. You have to read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho though! His writing is simply amazing. Reminds me somewhat of Peter S. Beagle’s style. 🙂
I just read Novik’s Uprooted last year and loved it, but my sister has the first 5 books in the Temeraire series, so I wanted to give it a try. I HAVE TWO COPIES OF THE ALCHEMIST AND YET I STILL HAVEN’T READ IT. It’s a horrific embarrassment to me.