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 forgotten backlist titles, with the direction to spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore, and I feel like this prompt was custom-made for me. I took a long break from reading as an adult, and didn’t come back to it until the last few years. This left me with a lot of reading to catch up on, and I’ve discovered a bunch of great backlist books that I haven’t seen anyone really mentioning. Here are some of my favorites:
- Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat — I read this as a buddy read and it was fantastic, yet I haven’t heard anyone mention it except the people I read it with.
- The Reader by Traci Chee — this is another cool fantasy series set in a world where reading isn’t a thing, and a girl on the run for her life has access to the only book.
- Lobizona by Romina Garber — I loved this story of Argentine werewolves and it was so easy to get lost in that I can’t figure out why more people don’t discuss it!
- Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep — this is one of the first fantasy series I started reading, and it’s amazing, yet I haven’t seen it on any social media except one person’s other than mine.
- The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant — this book is a retelling of Les Miz, and it was wonderful! It’s been a while since it came out, and it’s completely underrated.
- Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams — this contemporary fiction of a young Black woman in Britain trying her best to get by, and dealing with some pretty heavy issues was done so well that I kind of want to throw a copy at everyone!
- The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed — a historical fiction about the aftermath of the officers being acquitted in the beating of Rodney King through the eyes of a Black teenage girl in LA, this story explores how her life changes and is a gripping and fantastic story.
- Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore — this book involves dual timelines between present day and the time of the Dancing Plague in Strasbourg, and it was absolutely wonderful.
- We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia — I read this when it first came out, and I remember everyone talking about it, but all the hype kind of petered out, despite how good this book was.
- The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu — this awesome dystopian/fantasy/mystery series is so creative and intriguing and fun, but I haven’t seen anyone talking about it.
What are some of your favorite overlooked backlist titles? Have you read any of the ones listed above?
Categories: Top Ten Tuesday
Leah's Books 
With exception to one I don’t think I’ve heard of any of these books. This is why featuring books we don’t talk of often is a fun topic! 🙂
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That’s my favorite part of this – I always get to discover new books!
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I haven’t read any of these, but I’m going to check them out. I see several that may find their way onto my TBR. Thank you for sharing!
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Ooooh, I love hearing that I’ve added a book (or several) onto someone’s TBR. I hope you enjoy them!
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Lobizona looks good.
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
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That’s such a great story! You always pick the most unique and intriguing story out of the list each week.
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I actually had The Library of the Dead on my TBR for a while but I think I did some cleaning up and I decided to ditch it since it seems like a more Halloween-time type of series to get into. I also went a little crazy and added way too many series. 😅 This makes me want to add it back though…
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I hope you do add it back to your TBR! It’s such a fun and quirky read that I love. But I definitely get the despair of realizing that I’ve gone a bit overboard with adding to my TBR 😬
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I don’t seen many people reading Jennifer Estep, period! Which is a shame. She’s got some good stories! I used to love her Elemental Assassin series.
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It really is a shame, she’s such a talented writer. I need to start the Elemental Assassin series.
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What a brilliant selection of covers. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by a cover but I can’t help if it’s got curb appeal!
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Oh, I’m a total sucker for a pretty cover!
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The Black Kids is so good!!! Here is my post-https://paigesofnovels.com/2023/08/01/top-ten-eleven-tuesday-backlist-books-i-loved/
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I’m so glad to find someone else who read it! It’s such a great story.
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I haven’t read any of these, but I remember seeing most of those covers in the past.
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It’s funny – so many of these were really hyped when they came out and then have been just completely forgotten about!
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Such a diverse list of books. I’ve heard of a few of these, but I haven’t read any or added them to my TBR.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/summer-2023-additions-to-my-tbr/
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Thank you! I’ve really been working hard to increase my diversity in reading.
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I haven’t read any of these and, really, I haven’t even heard of most of them. That’s why this week’s prompt is so great! THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD sounds like one I need to check out.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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That’s one of my favorites! I love posts like this because it introduces me to some books that might have otherwise flown under the radar. And I seriously hope you read The Library of the Dead, because it’s so good!
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