Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.
This week’s prompt is all about going to my bookshelves (which I recently organized beautifully), and closing my eyes, touching ten random books, and telling you what they are and what I think about them. It’s a good mix of books I’ve read and books I have been wanting to read. I’m hoping that you’ve read some of the books I haven’t and can give me some insight into them! Here they are:
- Babel by R.F. Kuang — I read this one as an ARC, and absolutely loved it. I mean, what’s not to love about it?
- Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen — I haven’t read this book, but Black mermaids, and it has a sequel that recently came out? I seriously have to read this one soon.
- When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez — this novel in verse is a coming of age about a girl of Puerto Rican descent in NYC, dealing with the realities of life in her hood, and it’s fantastic. I can’t recommend it enough.
- Codex by Lev Grossman — I haven’t heard anything about this one, and haven’t read it, but the price was right at a secondhand book shop, so I couldn’t pass on it.
- Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston — I read this as a buddy read with a friend of mine, and I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed this story.
- Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — this one has been languishing in my library forever, and I don’t even know how I wound up with it, but I’m curious to see what it’s all about in the original format.
- Jade City by Fonda Lee — another book I can’t rave about enough! This fantasy involving an Asian-inspired setting, a gangland style society, amazing martial arts scenes, and compelling characters pulled me in right from the start and didn’t let go.
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich — from what I understand, this is a modern classic and I seriously need to read it rather than have it gracing my shelves unread.
- Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann — a historical fiction touching on a period of Jewish history that I haven’t read much about, this book captured my attention and has rented space in my head ever since.
- A Shadow Crown by Melissa Blair — I’ve been waiting for this book since finishing the first one in the series, and now I have to reread the first one before getting to this one.
Have you read any of these? If I’m missing out on any of the unread ones, let me know!
Categories: Top Ten Tuesday
Leah's Books 
I don’t think I recognize any of these titles. But we love the chance to discover something new to add to our ever growing TBRs. Definitely a fun topic this week. 🙂
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Agreed – seeing everyone’s diverse tastes always expands my TBR!
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Babel is on my TBR list, too. I loved The Round House. It was life-changing in my understandings.
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I can’t wait to read The Round House. And you should totally move Babel up to the top of your TBR – it’s incredible in only the way a Kuang book can be!
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Jade City is on my tbr list.I have a copy on my kindle.
https://seriesbooklover.wordpress.com/2023/05/02/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-have-randomly-picked-from-my-shelf/
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Ahhhhh that’s one of my favorite series! It’s so good, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
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I hope you enjoy all of those that you have not read yet.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/ten-random-books-i-own-picked-by-goodreads/
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Thank you!
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Faust is tough to wade through, but such a very dark and interesting story. And obviously that theme has been used in so many book and TV show retellings, I’m always very intrigued by those
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I know it’s used as the basis for so many stories, that I figured it might just be time to grit my teeth and work through the original. Plus, if it gets too difficult, I can always DNF, right?
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I’ve heard wonderful things about Babel.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-the-first-10-books-i-randomly-grabbed-from-my-shelf/
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All those wonderful things you’ve heard are 100% true.
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Jade City has been on my TBR for a while. I only ever hear great things about it! I really need to get to it. Rebel Daughter sounds interesting!
My TTT: https://www.mollysbooknook.com/top-ten-tuesday-my-husband-picks-my-tbr-with-bonus-picks-from-my-toddler/
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Both Jade City and Rebel Daughter are great books, and I really enjoyed both. I hope you give them a shot!
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I own Skin of the Sea too and have not read it. I really, really need to read it. It seems like a smaller book so it shouldn’t take me long but I just NEED to actually pick it up. LOL. Great selection of books. Jade City is amazing and so are the other two in the series!
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Thank you! I don’t know what the problem is about not reading Skin of the Sea, because you’re right – it isn’t a long book, so it won’t take long to read! Hopefully I’ll make that a summer book? And I’m still not over having to say goodbye to that series!
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Yeah, same! It’s just been sitting on my TBR cart staring at me and begging me to pick it up. Hopefully, I just pick it up one day! lol
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Maybe it’s a sign from the universe that we should buddy read it!
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haha!! Yeah, I don’t think there’s any other way to interpret that!! Let’s do it! 🙂
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Yes!!!
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I’ll DM you on Twitter!
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I really need to read something by R.F. Kuang… don’t hit me. I know
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SUSAN YOU HAVEN’T READ ANY RF KUANG? Start with The Poppy War. It’s right up your twisted alley – and NO ROMANCE!
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I started the poppy war but stopped. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. I believe other arcs came and it got buried. I’d barely started it. I’ll get back to it
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You better or I’m telling the coven you’re talking smack about them behind their backs 😈
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I hope you love all of these when you get to them!
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Thank you! Fortunately I’ve read about half of them already, and will hopefully get to the rest sooner rather than later.
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The only one on your list I have heard of is Jade City but they all sound great. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks! These are all awesome books.
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I haven’t read any of these, so I’m no help. I’ve heard great things about BABEL, though!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Babel deserves all the good things that are being said! Have a great week.
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