Top Ten Tuesday | 2017 Summer 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!

Every year I find myself making seasonal TBRs, usually made up of books that suit the season (floral books for spring, ghost stories for autumn etc.), but this year my summer TBR consists of two kinds of books: books I'm just in the mood to read right now, and books that have been on my TBR for far too long.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't read this and I definitely should have by now. I've been hearing amazing things about the new adaptation, but I want to read the book first and I'm determined to cross it off my TBR this year.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Greece always makes me think of the summer, probably because I was lucky enough to go to Crete with my parents several times during my childhood early teens, and yet I don't think I've ever actually read any fiction set in Greece. I've been in an Ancient mood recently - the warmer weather makes me want to watch films like Troy and Pompeii - and I've heard so many brilliant things about this book that I think it's about time I read it.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: This has been on my TBR for years. Years. Every year I say I'm going to read it and then I never get around to it, but I've been lucky enough to have several city breaks over the past couple of years so I'm definitely in the mood to read a book set in Barcelona now that the weather's warming up. One of my colleagues read this recently and loved it, so I'm hoping I love it too!

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng: This is another book that's been on my TBR for at least a year or so, and this past year I've been trying to make more of an effort to read books set in Asia written by Asian authors. I know so little about Asia thanks to my history lessons at school being so Britain-centric but there's nothing stopping me from doing my own research, and I learn as much from fiction as I do non-fiction. This book, in particular, sounds really interesting to me and I'm looking forward to getting to it.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant: So I went to Florence last year and it's become my favourite European city. It's the first time I've come home and felt homesick for the place I've left, and now I want to revisit it as much as I can in fiction. I picked up my copy of The Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery giftshop after having just seen the real Birth of Venus painting - how could I not? - and I'm looking forward to reading it soon.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: This book has been everywhere and I still haven't read it, but I want to get to it this year. I love the idea of exploring how a family's history, of being enslaved or of being involved in the slave trade, can impact a family throughout the generations, and I think this is going to be a very eye-opening and important book.

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi: I read my first Oyeyemi last year, White is for Witching, and unfortunately I didn't like it, but I want to give her another chance because I think she writes beautifully. This book follows a male writer who keeps killing off his female characters, only for one such character to turn up at his door. I'm looking forward to it!

Florence in Ecstasy by Jessie Chaffee: More Florence! This is a very recent release and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into it.

Stay With Me by Aọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: I've heard brilliant things about this debut novel and it's another one I'm hoping to get to fairly soon, especially as I think there's a good chance it's going to be the winner of the Bailey's Prize this year.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: Like The Shadow of the Wind, this book has been on my TBR for far too long and I've had countless people recommending it to me, so it's about time I bloody read it. I've heard amazing things and I'm sure it's going to make me cry, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Wanderlust

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 all about books that aren't set in the USA. Now because I'm not American I don't think I read as much set in America as a lot of Americans probably do. That's not to say that all Americans only ever read books set in America, that's not true, but because I'm British the majority of the books I come across are also set in Britain, so luckily I didn't find this week's challenge too difficult. But I like to read about different places as much as I can and I didn't want this to be a list of books set in Britain, so I've included ten different countries from all over the world.

Half of this list is European, and the other half is set outside of Europe. I'd like to make more of an effort to read more books set outside Europe and North America.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: Hannah Kent's fantastic debut is set in the bleak, hauntingly beautiful landscape of Iceland, and is a fictionalised account of the final days of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland. It's a wonderful book, and a very atmospheric winter read!

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton: Jessie Burton brings 17th century Amsterdam, The Netherlands to life in her sumptuous debut novel. This book is glorious, and if you haven't read it yet because of the hype I can assure you the hype is worth it for Burton's writing style alone.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: The setting is one of the things I love most about The Book Thief, because it's so rare to come across a WW2 novel set in Germany that isn't about soldiers or villains or prisoners of war. In this book Zusak shows that the German population were as much a victim of WW2 and Hitler's regime as everywhere else, perhaps even more so.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant: Not only is this book set in Florence, Italy, but I also bought my copy in Florence. I found this novel in the gift shop of the Uffizi Gallery, and having just seen Botticelli's The Birth of Venus I couldn't resist picking it up.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: As well as being set in Spain, this book has also been translated from the original Spanish. If you like mysteries and books about books, then this is the novel for you.

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Did you really think I was going to miss an opportunity to mention this book? Silvia Moreno-Garcia's fantastic debut novel is set in Mexico City in Mexico. I'd love to visit Mexico, so I'd really like to read more books set there.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney: I really enjoyed the cold, 19th century Canadian setting of this novel, even if the story as a whole left me a little underwhelmed. I need to read more books set in Canada!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer: It may be futuristic, but Cinder is still set in China! The diversity in The Lunar Chronicles is one of my favourite things about the series, and I love how neither America nor the UK are settings in any of the books.

Show Me a Mountain by Kerry Young: This is the kind of historical fiction I love: historical fiction with a mixed race protagonist, and in this novel our protagonist's home is Jamaica. Jamaica is another country I know very little about, but one I'd like to learn more about!

The Untold by Courtney Collins: The complete lack of fiction set in Australia I've read is just plain embarrassing.

Which books (and countries) made your list this week?