Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Reads for 2017

It’s another week of Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish link-up for bloggers to share their top ten lists! My it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these…and what a perfect week to do it, because it’s a freebie week!

So one of my big goals this year (besides a myriad of others) is to hit my reading goal for 2017. I was so happy to have hit my reading goal of 25 books last year, and I want to keep that momentum going by reading at least 27 books.

Since I’m rereading the Harry Potter series this year, I know I have seven books under my belt for the year, but what about the other 20?

These are the top 10 books I hope AND PLAN to read in 2017. Have you read any of these?

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Illustrated Edition) by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay: Because I loved the the illustrated edition of the Sorcerer’s Stone, I’m really looking forward to reading the illustrated Chamber of Secrets.
2. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts 1 and 2 by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany: It’s a play, I know it’s a play. But I need to see what all the hype (and disappointment) was for this for myself. And I will do that after I reread the series, just so everything is fresh.
3. Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham: If my brother is reading this, I know he’s having a fit. While he might not like Lauren Graham or Gilmore Girls, she and it are two of my favorites. So the fact that she wrote a book recapping her career that flourished because of an all-time favorite show of mine–I’m really looking forward to it.
4. To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin: I’m not sure if I’ve shared this before, but I’m obsessed with all things French, as well as historical fiction. Give me a historical fiction novel set in France and I’m as happy as a clam.
5. The Queen’s Accomplice by Susan Elia MacNeal: Besides loving all things French, I’m also a big Anglophile. Who binged watched The Crown on Netflix? This girl. Who watches movies and documentaries revolving around the British Monarchy? This girl. So an espionage/spy book set in Britain during WWII. Again, happy clam.
6. The Innocent by Harlan Coben: The first genre that I religious read before expanding into other genres was mystery. I’ve only read one of Harlan Coben’s books, and I remember it put me on a thrill-ride.
7. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: THIS HAS BEEN YEARS IN THE WORKS AND IT’S JUST SO INTENSE THAT I GET SCARED IN THE DAYLIGHT. But this will be the year I finish it! 
8. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson: As an Illinoisian, I obviously have pride in my state, and the World’s Fair of 1893 in Chicago is absolutely fascinating. This is a non-fiction piece about the splendor of building the World’s Fair exhibition grounds known as the White City as well as the movements of the United States’ first serial killer using the fair as his hunting ground.
9. The Mother’s Promise by Sally Hepworth: I read The Things We Keeplast year and I fell in love. Sally Hepworth does an amazing job of capturing the emotion of family, loss and hope in a way that I can’t explain. In short, this book is about “the story of a single mother who is dying, the troubled teenaged daughter who is battling her own demons, and the two women who come into their lives at the most critical moment.” (From Goodreads).
10. The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis: I picked up the arc for this from NetGalley late last summer and haven’t gotten around to reading it. Time to change that. Yay for historical fiction set in New York City with a mystery appeal to it.

What’s on your reading list for 2017?

Auto-Buy Authors – Top Ten Tuesday

It’s another week of Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic is top ten authors whose books you’d automatically buy. Considering I’m a sporadic book-buyer and I also go to the library frequently, I may have to bend the parameters for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday.

The ladies at The Broke and The Bookish have already allowed some rule-bending: Top 10 authors or genres I’d automatically buy. I’m going to take it one step further and throw in “collections” and “topics,” and you’ll see why.

Authors

1. Joyce Carol Oates – I have a spreadsheet of all her published works, which needs to be updated since The Accursed came out. Several more books have been published since then, and I need to beef up my collection. My list also includes books published under her pseudonym, Rosamond Smith. Total in the collection so far: 29.

2. Past Professors – I know that’s really vague, but if I happen to stumble across a book by a past creative writing professor from my undergrad, I’ll usually snag it (most likely at a book fair).

“Collections”

3. Norton Anthologies – Maybe it’s the English major in me, but I’m a sucker for these anthologies. Short biography of the author, description of the time period and the published work? Yes, please! Total: 8.

4. Norton Critical Editions – See above. It’s great to get additional footnotes and essays in the “Critical” portion of these books. Total: 6.

5. Little Golden Books – This is truly heartbreaking. We probably had at least a hundred Little Golden Books, including Poky Little Puppy. I can’t explain my rationale for doing this, but I donated the whole box, which had other pristine-condition children’s books, to Goodwill. If I could go back in time and stop myself, I would. Now I’m on a mission to rebuild that library.

Genres

6. Historical Fiction – I think I should’ve minored in history because I really like it when books take on the essence an era or decade. Not only does it put the characters’ motivations in perspective, but it gives a good backdrop (only when executed well, of course).

7. Mystery – I’m into good mystery books every once in a while. In terms of contemporary mystery authors, I’ll jump on a Harlan Coben book.

Topics

8. Books about writing – Understanding an author’s writing process can help formulate your own process. I’ve read Life of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art by Joyce Carol Oates, and I’m hoping to get my hands on a few more, perhaps by Stephen King or Anne Lamott.

9. Fictionalized books about authors – Biographies and memoirs are somewhat rare in my collection, however, fiction novels that use real names as characters capture my attention. The Paris Wife, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, and Mrs. Poe. The only difficulty is that sometimes it’s tough to separate what’s fact from fiction and not take it too seriously.

10. Books set in France – This double-dips into historical fiction. This doesn’t necessarily mean French literature, even though it could, I suppose. I’m fascinated with France, French architectures and French history, so I’m always ready to jump on a book set in France, like Paris: A Novel by Edward Rutherford (Beware: That book is over 800 pages long and jumps across various storylines and time periods).

 

Who does your top ten include? Do you have ten authors you’d automatically buy books from? If so, how empty is your bank account, like I assume it would be?