Top Ten Tuesday | Pride Month Reading Recommendations!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. 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 'Books I Decided to DNF (did not finish) too Quickly', but as someone who's a big fan of DNFing books that just aren't working for me, I decided to talk about my LGBT+ recommendations for Pride instead - Happy Pride Month!

(I'm also hoping to read at least one LGBT+ novel this month - you can take a look at my TBR here, if you like.)

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: We're starting off with a strange recommendation because I didn't actually enjoy this one very much; I liked the concept far more than its execution, but this is the only book I've come across (so far) in which the protagonist identifies as asexual, and describes herself as such, and we need far more asexual representation in fiction.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley: Set in America in 1959 when black students were first admitted to previously all-white high schools, this powerful debut follows two teenage girls, Sarah and Linda, as they battle racism, both outwardly and inwardly, and their growing feelings for each other.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Another fantastic voice in the world of YA, Becky Albertalli's debut follows Simon as he tries to find the courage to tell his friends and family that he's gay, only to be blackmailed by a fellow student who wants his help winning the affection of a girl at school. This is fun, funny and heart-warming, and has some brilliant things to say about the process of coming out.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: A spoiled, wealthy, bisexual boy from an aristocratic family is given the opportunity to take a tour of Europe before he must resolve himself to the family business in this incredibly fun novel. Add to the mix the best friend he's fallen in love with, a sister with no intention of going to finishing school and a theft that sees them being pursued across Europe and you have a wild ride of a novel.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: Quite possibly the twistiest, turniest book I've ever read, Fingersmith is considered Sarah Waters' masterpiece and reads like a Dickensian thriller - only this time, the women have agency. Because of the Victorian setting this one is a great book to read in the autumn, but if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into for Pride this month I'd definitely recommend this one.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: This is one of my favourite science fiction novels. While its focus is far more on character than plot, the universe Chambers has created is such a beautiful, hopeful vision of the future. She explores sexuality, gender, family units, war, peace and what it means to be human, and if you haven't read this one yet then I can't recommend it enough.

A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan: The stories in this collection, inspired by Scottish folklore, are told to an unborn child by its mothers, who are eagerly awaiting its birth. It's a lovely, melancholic collection and definitely one to read for anyone interested in folklore and fairy tales.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: One of my favourite novels of all time, this stunning novel tells the story of Patroclus and Achilles, from their childhood together up to their roles in the Trojan War, and their relationship as it grows from friendship, to companionship to love. Definitely one to read if you haven't already!

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Given that this is a Victorian novella I can't imagine Le Fanu would have described this as a lesbian story but, like most early vampire stories, Carmilla is awash with homoeroticism. This novella was released about 25 years before Dracula and, in my opinion, is the far better work. One to read if you'd like something short this month!

The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg: This beautiful graphic novel has stories within stories as two women in love tell tales to a friend of the husband of one of the women who has made a bet that he can seduce her while her husband is away. Inspired by The Arabian Nights, it features stories about and for women in a fantasy world where women are second-class citizens.

Which books made your list this week?

Pride Month Reading Challenge | TBR

Happy Pride Month!

This month Simon @ Savidge Reads and George at @ The George Lester are hosting a reading challenge to celebrate Pride, and as someone who doesn't identify with any kind of label but definitely doesn't consider herself 'straight', I couldn't resist joining in.

They're hosting some fun challenges on Instagram that you can take part in, so today I thought I'd share my very tentative TBR for the month. Now as many of you know already I don't do well with TBRs, but it's my goal to read at least one LGBT+ book this month and there are several I can choose from, so today I thought I'd share them with you!

The Night Watch is the only one of Sarah Waters' novels I've yet to read. I've actually started it a couple of times and haven't been able to get into it, but as she's one of my favourite authors I'd really like to have all of her novels under my belt until she releases her next one, whenever that may be. The Night Watch is set during the Second World War and is told backwards, following a group of characters in London during The Blitz. As with all but one of her novels, The Night Watch is a book with at least one queer protagonist - although her non-queer novel, The Little Stranger, has a side character who it's fairly heavily implied is not heterosexual - and I'm looking forward to reading another novel from one of my favourite storytellers.

Yet another favourite author of mine, I've adored both Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, who is now my go-to author for YA contemporary fiction. Now her latest novel, Leah On the Offbeat, follows one of the side characters from Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda who just so happens to be bisexual. It's very rare to come across bisexuality in fiction, especially a bisexual main character, so I can't wait to read this one.

One of my friends is a big Alexander the Great fan and she's been recommending Mary Renault's novels to me for a while now, so really it's about time I picked up a copy of Fire From Heaven and I now have a copy of this gorgeous new Virago 40th anniversary edition. It's so warm in the UK right now that I've been craving some fiction set in Ancient Greece and this novel is the perfect opportunity for me to merge that desire with Pride!

All I know about Emily Skrutskie's The Abyss Surrounds Us is that it's the first book in a duology, something I'm very into right now, and it's a book about lesbians, pirates and sea monsters. What more could a girl want? If I enjoy this one it'd be nice to to read the whole duology this month but we'll see how my reading goes as I recently started Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings, which is quite a beast.

Gail Carriger has become one of those authors I turn to when I'm in the mood for something comforting and fun, but whether or not I read her two novellas, Romancing the Inventor and Romancing the Werewolf, depends entirely on whether or not I finish her Parasol Protectorate series this month. To be honest I might just read Romancing the Inventor as I'm fairly sure Romancing the Werewolf is set over Christmas, so it'd be nice to save it for December, but if I feel like I need some gay werewolves in my life this June - and when don't I, let's be honest - I'll be picking this one up too.

Have you got any reading plans this Pride Month?

Top Ten Tuesday | Readfresh My Memory

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. 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 'Books I Really Liked but Can’t Remember Anything/Much About'. I decided to play around with the theme a little this week and talk about ten of my favourite/most loved books that I'd like to reread because it's been a while since I last read them!

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling: It's been a long time since I last read this series and every year I say I'm going to reread them only to forsake them for newer reads. This year I'd really like to try and get to them because it's been so long since I read them I think it'll be like reading them for the first time all over again.

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman: This was the first book that made me bawl my eyes out. I'd like to reread it soon, especially as I believe there's finally going to be an adaptation on the BBC!

Sabriel by Garth Nix: I have a copy of Goldenhand that I still haven't read because it's been so long since I read The Old Kingdom series I've forgotten quite a lot about it. I'd love to reread these books because I adored them growing up and Sabriel was always one of my favourite heroines.

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya: Fun fact! Natsuka Takaya and I have the same birthday. I love the anime and read the manga when I was younger but only read up to around volume 11, so I'd love to reread the series from the beginning and finally finish it.

Witch Child by Celia Rees: Celia Rees was one of the most formative authors of my childhood and early teens, and it's thanks to her that I grew up so interested in historical fiction and books about witches and witchcraft in particular. I loved Witch Child the first time I read it, but I do worry that I might not love it as much if I read it again now.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A film adaptation of this one is being released later this year starring Domhnall Gleeson and Ruth Wilson so I'd like to try and reread it before I see the film. It's an excellent book and one I highly recommend if you're in the mood for a ghost story!

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie: I had to read this one during my first year of university and I really, really enjoyed it. I'd love to read it again.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: Another one I had to read for university, although I grew up loving the 1993 adaptation, and another one I absolutely loved. This is probably my favourite children's classic, with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a very close second, and I think this would be a lovely one to reread in the spring.

Feed by Mira Grant: One of my favourite books of all time and yet it broke my heart so much that I haven't read it from beginning to end again since the first time I read it. I think I might try and reread this one this year!

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë: My favourite Brontë and one of my favourite Victorian novels. It's a short, quiet book, but I love its exploration of how class doesn't matter if you're a woman - either way you could potentially be treated badly by the men in your life, and that's why it's important to support each other. In my opinion Anne Brontë was the most feminist of the Brontë sisters and I want her to receive far more love than she does.

Which books did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Playing Dress-Up

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!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Christmas will always be my favourite holiday, but Halloween is a very close second - which is probably why I love The Nightmare Before Christmas so much. Today's theme is a Halloween freebie and, while I thought recommending you some Halloween reads would be fun, I thought I could do something a little different: today I'm going to talk about couples in books, and who I think they should dress up as, from another book/movie, for Halloween!

Molly and Reid from Becky Albertalli's The Upside of Unrequited as Arwen and Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Given that Reid is the ultimate Tolkien superfan, I'd be very surprised if he didn't want to dress up as Aragorn with Molly beside him as his beautiful elf queen.

Aileana and Kiaran from Elizabeth May's The Falconer as Titania and Bottom from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: An opportunity for Aileana to be a faerie queen and dress Kiaran in donkey ears - why would she say no?

Cress and Thorne from Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles as Leia and Han from Star Wars: Honestly, can't you imagine Thorne taking great delight in dressing up as Han Solo? And if it meant he got a chance to see Cress dressed as Princess Leia, he'd definitely be all for it. Besides Cress loves make-believe, she loves pretending to be someone else, so I think she'd have a lot of fun pretending to be the galaxy's greatest princess and general.

Nix and Kashmir from Heidi Heilig's The Girl From Everywhere as Elizabeth and Will from Pirates of the Caribbean: From one pirate ship to another, I think Nix and Kashmir are both accustomed to having to pretend to be someone else and they'd enjoy playing the part of these two. Then again, Kashmir might think of himself as more of a Jack Sparrow than a Will Turner...

Bella and Edward from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight as Mina and Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula: If the two of them never do this then they're missing out on the one good opportunity their relationship can give them.

Pei and Ashby from Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet as Zoe and Wash from Firefly: TLWtaSAP has been compared to Firefly a lot, and I can understand why - I think Ashby would be missing a trick if he and Pei didn't dress up as these two.

Maxim and Mrs. de Winter from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca as Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre: I've always wondered if du Maurier was a little inspired by Jane Eyre when writing Rebecca, and I don't want to say much more than that - if you haven't read either novel I don't want to spoil them for you, but they're both great books!

Meche and Sebastian from Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise as Anne and Captain Wentworth from Jane Austen's Persuasion: I can't imagine Meche is a big fan of Austen, but given he's much more of a reader than Meche is I like to think Sebastian has read some Austen and would get a lot of fun out of seeing Meche in a bonnet. Both these novels share the theme of second chances, something I think Sebastian, at least, might appreciate.

Alexia and Conall from Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf: If I was married to a werewolf, I'd take great pleasure in dressing him up as the Big Bad Wolf for Halloween, and I'd be disappointed if Alexia never thought of doing the same to her husband.

Sue and Maud from Sarah Waters' Fingersmith as Carmilla and Laura from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla: Carmilla is one of my favourite pieces of Victorian literature, a vampire story that pre-dates Dracula and has some serious homoerotic vibes. Given that Sue and Maud are also lovers from the 19th century, I think they'd have a lot of fun pretending to be these two.

What did you talk about this week?

The New Disney Princess Book Tag!

I saw Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books do this tag and, being the Disney nerd that I am, I couldn't resist doing it myself.

THE RULES

• Mention where you saw the tag/thank whoever tagged you!
• Tag Zuky and Mandy's posts (the awesome creators of the tag) so they can check out the wonderful Princess fun throughout the blog world (Mandy @ Book Princess Reviews & Zuky @ Book Bum)
• Play a game of tag at the end!

SNOW WHITE

This book (like the movie) started it all

Favorite Debut Book from an Author

I know you're all so shocked, but of course it's Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Signal to Noise. This debut took me completely by surprise in 2015 and it's one of my favourite novels of all time.

CINDERELLA

A Diamond In The Rough

Just Like Cinderella, You Either Didn’t Expect Much Out of This Character in the Beginning But They Turned Out to Be a Total Gem

Neville Longbottom. What a precious bean. I don't think anyone really expected much from Neville, not even his own grandmother, and then he grew into one of the best characters in the Harry Potter series. I love Neville.

AURORA

Sleeping Beauty

A Book That Makes You Sleepy, or Just Could Not Hold Your Attention

I'm sorry to say it's Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, knowing how beloved it is. I did like it but it took me so long to get through; the circus itself fascinated me, but I actually found Celia, Marco and their relationship really boring. I might try rereading it at some point, though, because my tastes have changed a lot since I last read it.

ARIEL

Under the Sea

A Book With a Water/ Ocean Setting

I'm really looking forward to reading Julia Ember's The Seafarer's Kiss, a lesbian retelling of The Little Mermaid with vikings. All the yes. I'm saving my copy for the winter months because I'm going to Iceland in the first weekend of December, so I think Reykjavik will be the perfect setting to read about vikings.

BELLE

Beauty and the Books

Name A Book With The Best Bookworm/ Booklover

Hermione Granger is the obvious answer, and I do adore her, but instead I'm going to go with Catherine from Austen's Northanger Abbey, who loves Gothic fiction so much she wrongly accuses her future father-in-law of murder. Oops.

JASMINE

The Thief and the Princess

Name A Book With An Unlikely Love Story (Either in Terms of Romance, or a Book You Didn’t Expect To Love So Much)

I think I'm going to go with Agnieszka and The Dragon from Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Heteronormativity is real, so whenever a book is released with one female and one male protagonist we can be certain they're probably going to fall in love at some point, but when I started reading Uprooted I began to think there wasn't going to be a romantic relationship, after all. What surprised me most, though, was that when their relationship did become romantic, I actually really liked their chemistry. So kudos to you, Naomi Novik, you did a good job!

POCAHONTAS

The Real Life Princess

Name A Book That is Based On a Real Life Person You Want to Read or Have Read

It's been on my TBR for a while now and I still haven't read it simply because, when it comes to historical fiction, I don't tend to read many books set in the medieval period, but I really want to give Sharon Penman's Here Be Dragons a try. Penman is such a huge name in the realms of historical fiction, so I need to read some of her anyway, and Here Be Dragons follows Joan, Lady of Wales, also known by her Welsh name Siwan, who was an illegitimate daughter of King John and was married off to the Welsh Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth. I've always been fascinated by her, it's a shame we know so little about her.

MULAN

The Princess That Saved Her Country

Name the Fiercest Heroine You Know

That has to be Saba from Moira Young's Blood Red Road. I adore her, she's a real survivor and I wouldn't want to cross her.

TIANA

The Princess With the Coolest and Most Diverse Crew

Name A Diverse Book, Whether it is a Diverse Set of Characters (Like Tiana’s Group of Naveen, Louis, Ray, and More)or Just Diverse In General

That has to be Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, whose entire cast of characters are different species and genders and sexes and sexualities and nationalities and races whom Chambers uses to explore what makes us different and, more importantly, what makes us similar. It's often compared to Firefly and I can understand why, but honestly I think I'd much rather watch a TV adaptation of this.

RAPUNZEL 

Let Your Longggggg Hair Down

Name the Longest Book You Have Ever Read

I had a look on Goodreads and was surprised to realise that the longest book I've read so far is Winter by Marissa Meyer. I don't know why I was surprised because I never read books that are 800 pages long or more (my edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is only 766 pages long) although I'd like to read more long books in future, because I certainly own plenty to get through.

MERIDA

I Determine My Own Fate

A Book Where There is No Love Story/ Interest or Isn’t Needed

I'm going to go with Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, which is one of my favourite books ever. Our protagonist, Maia, becomes betrothed in this book and we do get a hint that he and his fiancee will be happy together and might even love each other one day, but there's no life-altering romance getting in the way of what is already a wonderful story.

ELSA & ANNA

Frozen Hearts

A Book in a Winter/ Cold Setting

No book has ever made me feel as cold as Hannah Kent's fantastic descriptions of the Icelandic landscape in Burial Rites.

MOANA

How Far I’ll Go

A Character That Goes On a Journey

I have to go with Nan King. Tipping the Velvet isn't my favourite of Sarah Waters' novels, but it's a true coming of age novel and such a fun, saucy romp through Victorian London. While reading it I got the feeling that Waters had a lot of fun writing it - there isn't much that poor Nan doesn't go through, and by the end of the novel she's a completely different person to who she was at the beginning.

If you'd like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged!

The Aussie Book Tag

G'day mates! And now it's time for me to apologise to literally everyone in Australia. Cass @ Words on Paper very kindly tagged me in the Aussie Book Tag and, as you know, I'm always up for  a tag. You can find Cass's answers here and the original, created by Ngoc @ Happy Comes First and Julia @ Picnic Reads, here!

I've never been to Australia but I'd love to go (the only thing that really puts me off are the spiders because I am severely arachnophobic) and the more I thought about it the more I realised I've read barely any Australian writers; Markus Zusak, Garth Nix, Geraldine Brooks and Hannah Kent are the only ones who immediately spring to mind. You don't have to talk about Australian books and authors for this tag, but doing this has definitely made me realise it's a country that I seem to neglect in my reading. That's something for me to rectify.

If anyone has any recommendations, particularly about/written by Australia's indigenous population, please let me know!

That has to be Maia from Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, not only is it one of my favourite novels of all time, but Maia is one of my favourite fictional characters, too. He's such a good egg and I adore him. You can check out my review of The Goblin Emperor here!

This is a tricky one because I'm usually the grumpy one who hates what everyone else loves, but for this I'm going to go with Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. I don't think everyone hates it by any means, but I do think Anne is forgotten next to her sisters and she shouldn't be. Of her two novels Agnes Grey is probably the lesser known, but I really enjoyed it when I read it and I'd love to see more people reading Anne's work.

I can't possible talk about a fictional squad without talking about Harry Potter. If I wanted to be part of any gang, it'd definitely be Dumbledore's Army because I am all for students standing up to bad teachers.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, which I reviewed here. I can't wait to read whatever Adébáyọ̀ brings out next and I highly, highly recommend this debut!

It'd be pretty easy to mention Harry Potter again here but I think Harry Potter gets enough love as it is, so instead I'm going to go with Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman which is one of my favourite books from my early teens. It's the first book I can remember crying over and it's still very special to me and so worth reading if you haven't already.

Isabel Greenberg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero (reviewed here) is a gorgeous graphic novel but it's so huge which means it can be quite difficult to read comfortably - it's worth it, though!

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is super depressing but it's such an iconic work of dystopian fiction and it's definitely worth checking out if it's on your radar. Is it the best piece of dystopian fiction out there? No, not necessarily, but it's a really interesting novel and I think it's worth a bit of your time.

I know I keep saying it, but no novel has surprised me more than Sarah Waters' Fingersmith (reviewed here). It's one of the twistiest, turniest novels I've ever read and it's so much fun - if you haven't read any of Waters' work, Fingersmith is a great place to start!

I adored Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (reviewed here), especially because I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did, and Becky Albertalli has quickly become my favourite YA author following her equally excellent sophomore novel, The Upside of Unrequited (reviewed here). Yet again, I recommend reading her if you haven't already!

I'm a big mood reader so the books I reach out for when I'm feeling slumpy usually change depending what I'm in the mood to read - sometimes it's YA, sometimes it's a thriller, but it's usually something I don't tend to read a lot of - but this year I find myself turning more and more towards Fantasy of Manners books when I'm feeling slumpy, particularly Gail Carriger's work. It's so fun!

Thanks so much for tagging me, Cass! I'm going to go ahead and tag some people below, so:

Natalie @ Orchestrating a Sea Change

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews

Deanna @ Deanna Reads Books

Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Lynn @ Lynn's Film & Book Review

Catherine @ We'll Meet it When it Does

Vena @ Vena Isabella

consider yourselves tagged!

Top Ten Tuesday | Cover Lover

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 cover theme freebie, so I thought I'd share my ten favourite historical fiction covers!

Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre: I still haven't read this, I haven't heard the best reviews, but I will always love that cover. It reminds me of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette with that juxtaposition of the historic and the modern.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier: Daphne du Maurier's books have many pretty covers, and rightly so, but I love how nautical this edition of Jamaica Inn is. I didn't love Jamaica Inn a huge amount when I read it, though all of du Maurier's novels pale in comparison to Rebecca, but it's a fun book and a great one to read if you happen to be visiting Cornwall.

Witch Child by Celia Rees: The cover of Witch Child is what convinced me to pick up a copy in my early teens, and it's thanks to this book that I love historical fiction so much now. This cover is haunting and I can't help but be drawn in to those eyes.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge: I will love anything that has some of Chris Riddell's art on it. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm glad to have this edition on my shelves.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton: This cover has so much character, and I think it's certainly one of the many reasons this book did so well when it was released. If you haven't read this one yet I recommend giving it a try - it's a very good book!

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: My favourite covers are simplistic ones, and that's why I love these editions of Waters' novels. This edition of Fingersmith, in particular, I like a lot; I don't own many books with grey covers at all, but this book uses the colour well.

The Witchfinder's Sister by Beth Underdown: This book is even more beautiful in person because it's textured. I haven't this one yet either, but it's a recent release and I'm planning to pick it up soon.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood: I really like these editions of Margaret Atwood's books too, with bold colours and a black and white image in the centre, and this edition of Alias Grace always catches my eye.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: I own the normal hardback edition, which I think is beautiful, but I love the colours on this special edition, too.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon: Again, I love a simplistic cover and this one's as simple as they come.

What did you talk about this week?