Top Ten Tuesday: A Wishlist

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish

As you may or may not know, I’m participating in a reading challenge this year called #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks. It’s simple: I have to read the unread books I already own, which is quite a few (but not as many as some people – you know who you are). I’ve given myself three new release allowances that it’s ok for me to purchase, and I’ve told them to the world so I can’t go against that promise to myself and buy other new books. Naturally as soon as I’d shared that with everyone, I remembered a bunch of other books that were coming out this year that I’d completely forgotten about and there are also been a couple of older books that I’ve wanted for a while as well but neglected to buy before my book buying ban started.

So I’ve started a birthday/Christmas wishlist that will be distributed to family so I’m able to get these books and read the crap out of them. Sadly my birthday isn’t for 6 months, so I still have a while to wait. As this week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a freebie, I thought I’d share my wishlist. It’s only seven books long at the moment, but family (if you’re reading this), it’s likely to get longer. The list is in no particular order, although if I had to pick the absolute number one, it would be the first book on the list.

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin.

Have you read The Passage? No? Go do it, now. It came out all the way back in 2010 and it was AMAZING. But then all of us who’ve read it got to the end and discovered there was a sequel to come, which was annoying but we could handle that. It’s sequel, The Twelve, came out in 2012 and it was pretty good too. Until the ending when I discovered there was to be a third book. That was meant to be released in 2014. Then 2015. And now, finally, in 2016, it’s here (well, it will be in June, conveniently right before my birthday). The City of Mirrors is the third and hopefully final book in this series. I don’t think I could handle another two years of waiting for a fourth book.

Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff.

It’s fantasy. It touches on feminism. It’s translated. The English translation is published by Pushkin Press (basically my favourite publisher). It has the best cover. Why would I not want to read this? This one’s a fairly new release and every time I see the cover I just want to have the book and hold it in my hands – it’s so creepy and beautiful.

Snowpiercer Vol. II: The Explorers by Benjamin Legrand (writer) and Jean-Marc Rochette (illustrator).

This is the sequel to Snowpiercer, a graphic novel I read last year. If you’re wondering, there is a connection to the excellent film of the same name. The first volume was good, and I although I had some problems with it, namely the fact that the film is a million times better (I wrote about it here), I liked it enough that I want to continue on with the series. The writer on this volume is different from the first, so I’m interested to compare the two stories; thankfully the illustrator is the same, which is great because the art was amazing in the first volume.

Snowpiercer Vol. III: Terminusby Olivier Bocquet (writer) and Jean March Rochette (illustrator).

This one is out in a couple of months and I obviously can’t read it until I read the second volume. Interestingly, the illustrator is the same again from the first and second volumes, but the writer is different again. Anyway, I’m excited for some more amazing artwork, and hopefully a great story.

Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone (writer) and Jim Calafiore (illustrator).

I’m super late to the party on this one, but better late then never in my opinion. This is basically a graphic novel about a city, Megalopolis, that’s the safest in the world because of a bunch of superheroes who protect it. But then the superheroes go bad and all hell breaks loose. I like that. Interestingly, Leaving Megalopolis came about due to a Kickstarter project. And now there’s a comic series out (that has started recently or is about to start). I’d really like to read the comic series, but I feel like I need to read the original story first.

The Revenant by Michael Punke.

Have you seen this movie? I could carry on all day about it – it was just so spectacular. But while you were watching the movie, with that bear scene, did you know that the book was based on the real life experiences of a trapper named Hugh Glass? Yeah, there really was a bear attack like that. Scary. While what we see in the movie and read in the book might not be exactly what happened, knowing that something similar took place was enough to have me cowering in my cinema seat.

This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith.

This is the book that first introduced me to Highsmith and was the one I had hoped would be the first of her novels that I’d read. I read another novel of hers instead, The Talented Mr Ripley, and loved everything about it (I wrote about it here) and had the best time in the process. While less known than The Talented Mr Ripley, I have heard that This Sweet Sickness is actually a little better. It too deals with obsession and has a sociopath as a main character, and probably some murder as well.