Happy Tuesday everyone!
As always, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted over at The Broke and The Bookish, and this week’s theme is:
May 9: Ten Things On Our Reading Wishlist: things you want to see more of in books – tropes, a time period, a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a certain plot, etc. All those things that make you think I WANT MORE OF THIS IN BOOKS!
This is a pretty straightforward topic so I’m just going to jump right in!
1. Unusual magic
I’m a sucker for any type of magic, but when an author takes magic that’s already well-established within fantasy (elemental magical, for example) and creates something completely new, I usually end up blown away. More of that please.
2. WOMEN
I just honestly want to see more women in books. Especially in manga. I love shonen manga, but it sometimes gets tiring having twenty male characters in a series and only four female. I want books that have more women than men (radical, I know), or even, (and this is something I really want to see) books where the world is a full on matriarchy. Now, I’m not saying that to spite men, I just think it would be so interesting to read and identify with a society full of female characters.
3. Marginalised characters
I just finished The Hate U Give, and I’m currently reading When Dimple Met Rishi, and I want to see so many more books like these two. People are all different and I want to see books that represent all of us. All genders, races, sexualities, disabilities, mental health issues. Everyone.
4. Fangirling and geekiness being celebrated
Too often in the past, being a geek/nerd/fangirl has been labelled as ‘uncool’, so I love it when books like Fangirl turn these stereotypes on their head.
5. Platonic friendships without romance
Don’t get me wrong, I really love books involving romance, but sometimes I feel authors fall into the trap of including it for the sake of including it, or trying to pair everyone off. So when a book is just about strong friendships, and doesn’t involve any romance at all, I get excited. It’s refreshing. And I’d love to see more of it.
6. Complex characters
I love complex characters because you can often tell how much time the author has spent imagining all their nuances and creating their back-story. Give me more Kaz Brekkers and Ronan Lynchs any day.
7. Gorgeous narratives
I love beautifully-written narratives that keep you spellbound with their opulent descriptions and I just want more books to have whole paragraphs and chapters that make me melt from their brilliant writing (like these two did).
8. Assassin types who are secretly squishy and have a good heart
OK these two possibly aren’t the best examples (Celaena’s not exactly ‘squishy’ for the first three novels) but that’s why we need more of them. I want whole series about assassins who are like ‘I’m meant to kill you but instead I’m going to accidentally develop a secret friendship with you, buy you snacks and make you laugh. Bonus points if it’s between two girls or two guys. (Wait, did I just come up with my first novel??)
9. Periods, spots, and everyday problems
I’ve lost count of the amount of time a book has just brushed over women having periods or doesn’t bother to mention they exist at all. It’s not exactly hard. All you have to do is say ‘she was on her period’ and then start up some dialogue about it. Kudos to all the books that do this, but I need to see it more!
10. Meta things
I love books about books, books about libraries and books about bookshops. But I also love other types of meta books where there’ll be dreams within dreams or worlds within worlds. More of all these things please.
What were your top ten picks for this week? Are there any things on this list that you would also like to see more of? Are there any things that you think I missed out? Let me know in the comments!
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These are some great picks for this weeks TTT Kate, and I definitely agree with a lot of them as well. If there was another book that had a magic system even half as unique as the one in the Shades of Magic series was that book would be a guaranteed five star read of mine, and oh I would love to see more stories that celebrated all things fandom as well. Geekerella is still on my to-read list and I can’t wait to get started on it! 😀
Thanks Beth! You know me, any excuse to talk about V and her books! 😉 Yeah, Geekerella is on my TBR too, I need to see how much it is on Amazon!
Ha, don’t worry I understand that need because it’s one I have as well! 😀
Yeah I have a copy of Geekerella myself, just need to find the time to get around to it. 🙂
Complex characters will always be a hit in my book. I love unraveling all the layers to them and exploring the complexity of human nature. There’s a reason Kaz Brekker is one of my favourite fictional characters haha.
Yes! There’s so much to analyse and understand about them. I think Kaz will remain one of my faves forever, his character definitely left a lasting impression on me.
Ee I’m reading Sabriel soon I didn’t even realise it had a platonic friendship, I’m even more excited to start it now XD Also Unusual magic is my fave too I loved Graceling and ADSOM. This whole list is just full of wither books I adore or books on my TBR I’m hoping to start Assassins Apprentice this month I can not wait to finally read some Hobb and see why she is the queen of fantasy. Great list Kate ❤
Yeah, there’s not really any romance in it (as far as I can remember)! It’s a great book, hope you enjoy it! I need to get to Lirael at some point soon. Graceling and ADSOM are two of my all time favourite books. Aww thank you! I really need to read some Robin Hobb too -I was looking for her books in the library today but they didn’t have any in!
I love fantasy with little romance give me a tight knit band of friends and I’m good 🙈 Graceling suprised me with how much I loved it I feel like it doesn’t get enough hype at times, Hopefully they can get them in from another library or you find a cheap copy soon, I picked up assassins apprentice from a second hand store but it may have been a lucky find
Yes! Same! I often prefer a squad of friends over a relationship! Yeah, I think because Graceling came out before YA started booming it doesn’t always get as much attention, but the Goodreads rating speak for themselves! 🙂 Yeah I found a copy of a Robin Hobb book recently for 99p in a charity shop and bought it as a present for my friend because it was in such good condition. Hopefully I’ll be able to find one for myself too!
I think it was the first YA series I read that was a trilogy but can act as a standalone, I really enjoyed the way they connected the stories, the only other trilogy I can think of that’s like that is Illuminae I’d love to find some more.
Hope you can grab one! Op shopping is the best when you find some gems I think a good portion of my collection is second hand and most are in pretty good condition 😀
I’ve heard Vengeance Road and Retribution Rails are companion novels, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be a duology or trilogy. Yeah I hope so too! Might search on my library’s website as well in case they do actually have them in but they’re on loan!
Oooh I didn’t know that! Going to check them out I’ve seen Vengeance Road around but only because the covers pretty I haven’t actually checked out what it’s about XD
Yeah! I was just chatting to the author yesterday on Twitter because I finished RR and she said they’re meant to be able to be read in any order. So I’m going to get VR asap! They’re both wild west-inspired historical fiction. 🙂
!! Awesome I’ll still read them in publication order but I love books that can work alone or in order 😀