Top Ten Tuesday | Shoulda Woulda Coulda... But Really Shoulda

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

It's no secret that 2016 was an absolutely rubbish reading year for me; I read half the amount of what I read in 2015 and, what's worse, there wasn't much I read that genuinely wowed me. As I'm sure you can imagine there were plenty of 2016 releases I ended up not getting to during 2016 and I'm hoping I can cross them off my TBR sooner rather than later!

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers: Considering The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (reviewed here) is one of my favourite books of all time, I don't know why I haven't read this yet. I think I loved TLWtaSAP so much I've been nervous that A Closed and Common Orbit won't be as good, but I won't know until I try and, frankly, I'm excited to read a story about two ladies in space.

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss: This is one of those novels I've heard nothing but good things about so I'm hoping to get to it soon, as with every other book on this list!

The Muse by Jessie Burton: I enjoyed The Miniaturist (reviewed here) way more than I was expecting to and I think, like A Closed and Common Orbit, I haven't picked up The Muse yet for fear that it won't live up to my expectations. I do love stories about art, though, so I'd like to get to this one at some point in the coming months - especially as I've owned a copy since its release!

A Tyranny of Petticoats ed. by Jessica Spotswood: I love historical fiction centred around women, which is why it makes no since that I haven't read this anthology yet. My only excuse is that the only other anthology I read in 2016, Summer Days and Summer Nights, I ended up DNF-ing. March is Women's History Month, though, so I think I'll aim to read it around then!

Goldenhand by Garth Nix: I was so excited to discover Nix was bringing out another novel about Lirael, but it's been so long since I read The Old Kingdom series that I'm considering re-reading Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen before I tackle this one so I can refresh my memory.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: This book has pretty much everything in it that I love about historical fiction, it was voted Waterstones Book of the Year in 2016, and I've even read about a quarter of it, but I just wasn't feeling it this year and I've heard such good things that I decided to put it down so I could come back to it when I could give it the attention it deserves. Hopefully that will be sometime soon.

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley: 2016 wasn't a great year for non-fiction, especially when compared with 2015, so a lot of the non-fiction releases I was looking forward to I just didn't get to. This is another one I'm aiming to get to soon!

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: This is another one I'm probably going to get to for Women's History Month if I can't read it before then. I'm really looking forward to the film!

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi: I've actually read the first story in this collection and really enjoyed it, but I ended up putting it down for some reason I can't remember. Hopefully I'll return to it soon.

As I Descended by Robin Talley: I have an eARC of this that I still haven't read because I'm not so secretly a terrible person. But this is also an LGBT+ retelling of Macbeth, so I will definitely be reading it at some point soon. I wonder how many times I've said the word 'soon'...

Which books made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | My Winter TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a Thanksgiving freebie, so because I'm British and therefore don't celebrate Thanksgiving, and also just don't like the origin of the holiday (sorry America!), I'm going to talk about the books on my Winter TBR instead.

The majority of these are 2016 releases I want to read before the end of the year, along with a few seasonal reads!

The Muse by Jessie Burton: I read and loved Burton's debut, The Miniaturist (reviewed here!), last year, so it's pretty ridiculous that I haven't read this one yet. To be honest I just haven't been in the mood to pick it up yet, and I'm very much a mood reader, but I want to read it before the end of the year.

A Tyranny of Petticoats edited by Jessica Spotswood: I definitely should have read this anthology by now, especially as I love historical fiction about women which is what this collection is all about. I ended up DNFing the other YA anthology I tried this year so I'm hoping I like this one more.

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss: I've heard nothing but brilliant things about this book and this author, and for someone who doesn't usually like covers with people on I think there's something so striking about this one.

The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann: A classic Christmas story I love but have never actually read, which is something I need to change!

The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman: I was surprised by just how chunky this collection of Gaiman's non-fiction is when I bought a copy, but I think it'll be a really interesting collection to dip in and out of during the winter months.

The Butcher's Hook by Janet Ellis: I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this when it first came out, it sounds fairly bizarre, but I've seen so many good reviews that I couldn't resist picking up a copy for myself and I'd really like to read it this year.

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston: I'm pretty sure this is the third year in a row this book has been on my Winter TBR. It's an ideal winter read so I need to get to it this winter.

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney: I read Penney's debut, The Tenderness of Wolves (reviewed here!), back in January and while I didn't fall completely in love with it I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since finishing it. Under a Pole Star is another book with a wintery setting, something Penney wrote brilliantly in her debut novel, and I think it's going to be a brilliant book to read this winter.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi: I have to be completely honest, the only reason I bought this is because it's a gorgeous book. I do love the sound of it, though! I read my first Oyeyemi novel this year and even though I sadly wasn't the biggest fan, I think I'll enjoy her style of writing much more in a story collection.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: I've started this one, and gotten about a quarter of a way through it, and while I've enjoyed what I've read it just hasn't grabbed me because I've been an absolutely rubbish reader this year. I want to finish it soon!

What did you talk about this week?

2016 Releases I've Pre-Ordered

So I went on a bit of a pre-ordering spree in the last couple of months of 2015 and January. I want to try and buy less books this year (hahaha) but now that I'm working I don't see why I shouldn't pre-order the books I really want to get my hands on! I know amazon is kind of evil in the bookworm, if I could afford to I wish I could buy all of my books from bookshops, but I do really like to pre-order stuff from amazon. Why? Because they don't charge you until they dispatch your order, so rather than spend a ridiculous amount all at once, my book buying is just as staggered throughout the year as it usually would be.

Anyway, here are the ten books I've pre-ordered this year. I also pre-ordered Stars Above, which has already arrived, and there are a few others I want to pre-order but haven't been able to yet, so these aren't the only books I'll be pre-ordering. It's most of them, though!

So Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant) are releasing new books this year, and considering Signal to Noise and Feed are two of my favourite novels of all time, it's to be expected that I've already pre-ordered these two. Certain Dark Things is about vampires and drug lords in Mexico City, and it just sounds brilliant, while Every Heart a Doorway sounds like a darker and better version of Narnia.

I want to continue to read more non-fiction this year, and these two sound great. Firstly, the cover of The Geek Feminist Revolution is fantastic, and it sounds like a book that's going to be right up my alley; this is probably my most anticipated non-fiction book of this year! The View from the Cheap Seats is a collection of Neil Gaiman's essays, and considering Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers I'm looking forward to reading some of his non-fiction - other than Make Good Art, I haven't read any.

Unicorn Tracks is Julia Ember's debut novel that involves LGBT+ characters and unicorns. Naturally I've been ancticipating it for a while, and I can't wait to get my hands on my copy of it! Paper Girls is the first volume of a new series written by Brian K. Vaughan, the writer behind Saga, and illustrators Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson. It's been described as Stand By Me meets The War of the Worlds, so I'm there!

An anthology of female-led historical fiction is what awaits me in A Tyranny of Petticoats, featuring authors such as Marissa Meyer, Robin Talley and Elizabeth Wein. Needless to say, I'm excited. The last anthology I read was My True Love Gave to Me, and because I enjoyed it so much I decided I might as well go ahead and pre-order Summer Days & Summer Nights - I'm hoping there'll be a UK edition that matches my edition of My True Love Gave to Me.

Robin Talley's As I Descended and Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl are both Shakespeare retellings, and as 2016 commemorates 400 years since Shakespeare's death I imagine we're going to see a lot of those. I really, really enjoyed Talley's debut Lies We Tell Ourselves, so I'm really looking forward to her modern day lesbian retelling of Macbeth, and while I haven't read any Anne Tyler before I think her retelling of The Taming of the Shrew sounds wonderful.

Have you pre-ordered any 2016 releases?

Top Ten Tuesday | Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2016

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The First Half of 2016', so I'm going to talk about the books that will be released in January, February, March, April, May and June of next year that I'm most looking forward to!

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer: Marissa Meyer is releasing a book of all her short stories set in The Lunar Chronicles universe and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. I read all of them online but I'd really like to own a hard copy of them all, plus I want to sit it on my shelf with the rest of the books in this series.

A Tyranny of Petticoats ed. by Jessica Spotswood: An anthology of female-led historical fiction including authors like Marissa Meyer, Robin Talley and Elizabeth Wein? GIVE IT TO ME NOW. *grabby hands*

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember: It has unicorn in the title. Obviously I want it. Plus it just sounds really cool!

The Amber Shadows by Lucy Ribchester: I'm all for books set at Bletchley Park, especially if they're books which just so happen to have a female lead.

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows: I'll be honest, I'm a little unsure about this one. I love the cover - it reminds me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette - but I think this is either going to be really cool, or appalling. I love my Tudor history and I've always had a fondness for Lady Jane Grey, so the fact that these three authors (and the fact that there are three writers here always has me a little unsure, as I don't know how fluid it's going to be) have turned her story into a funny one intrigues me. I'm interested to see what this book's like!

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After by Jenny Colgan: I'm weak for Jenny Colgan's adult contemporary novels, they're my guilty pleasure, and in this book her heroine opens her very own bookshop. Yes.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders: This book sounds so cool. I love stories that explore the relationship between magic and science, so I'll definitely be getting my hands on a copy of this one!

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler: This is one of the books in the new Hogarth Shakespeare series, a series in which a bunch of really well-known authors are retelling Shakespeare's plays. Vinegar Girl is a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew and it sounds really fun; I'm also looking forward to Margaret Atwood's retelling of The Tempest and Gillian Flynn's retelling of Hamlet.

Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey: This book sounds like everything I love to read - it sounds so fun! - and I really like the cover, too, so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman: Yay pirates!

Which books made your list this week?