#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

After spending most of this year struggling to reach my goal of 10 books a month, I’m somehow on my 8th book already and it’s only DAY 9 of November. I don’t know what has happened to my brain but I would like it to continue please. I’ve also almost got all my judging entries read for the British Fantasy Awards and hoping to get stuck into my entries for the Aurealis awards this week! This week’s #5OnMyTBR theme is all about friendship, so I’ve got a mix of books about fun friendship groups/found family, as well some books looking at smaller, best friend relationships!

The Archive of the Forgotten by A.J Hackwith

The Archive of the Forgotten is the sequel to one of my favourite fantasy novels, The Library of the Unwritten. It’s a series set in Hell’s library, and in the first book follows a librarian who is hunting down a character who escaped from one of the books. In this sequel, the team of Claire (former librarian and new Archivist), Hero (formerly escaped character), Brevity (muse and new librarian), and Rami (fallen angel) must work together to find out why the books have started leaking a strange ink. The first one was so much fun and had such a great group of charcacters and as my copy arrived last week, I’ll be picking this one up asap!

Architects of Memory by Karen Osbourne

I think science fiction books do friendship groups really well. My re-introduction to scifi in recent years was Becky Chambers and her books have excellent friendship groups/space crew which is probably partly accounting for why I think this, but when I also think of my more recent reads like Unconquerable Sun, the statement holds true too! So I’m hopeful that Architects of Memory will also have a great crew on board a ship with a terminally ill pilot looking for a cure, but instead finds the remains of a genocidal weapon.

Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam

Yep, it’s the title that appeared on mt #5OnMyTBR lists like three times in a row earlier in the year and which I STILL have not read. Someone please shame me into reading this. This is another scifi space crew book, with a whopping seven different POVs and follows a group of resistance fighters as they try to free the galaxy aka it’s queer Star Wars.

The Adversary by Ronnie Scott

The Adversary is a local queer Aussie literary fiction title and because I always struggle to explain what literary fiction books are about, I’m stealing the blurb for this one: “The Adversary is a sticky summer novel about young people exploring their sexuality and their sociability, where everything smells like sunscreen and tastes like beer, but affections and alliances have consequences. It asks what kinds of stories are possible – or desirable – for which kinds of friendships, and what happens when you follow those stories to their natural conclusions.” It was very amusing to me that as I wrote this post my flat does smell like sunscreen because it’s finally starting to get hot again here.

Let’s Call it a Doomsday by Katie Henry

Let’s Call it a Doomsday is about two girls who meet in their therapist’s waiting room and become best friends. One spends her life in constant anxiety about how the world is going to end; the other knows exactly when it will. I’ve heard this has really excellent anxiety and faith representation, as well as a questioning bi girl. I’ve had a copy since earlier this year but given the state of the world and thus the state of my mental health, I’ve put off reading this book until I’m in a slightly less anxious frame of mind!

And that’s another week! As I mentioned last week, this will be my only post for the week since I’m busy with judging duties. But I’ll be back next week to talk about more books on my TBR in the hopes it will shame me into actually reading some.

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I can’t believe it’s November. What a year. I’m not going to be appearing on my blog much this month, as I’m busy judging for the British Fantasy Awards and Aurealis Awards! But I will be popping in for #5OnMyTBR every Monday. This week’s theme is ‘death’ and I thought I’d struggle with finding books to match. But turns out I actually have rather a lot of books on my physical TBR about death, apparently I like books about pain.

And just a content warning for this post, several of these books explore the aftermath of suicide and so this is mentioned throughout the sections on The Perfect World of Miwako Sumido and And the Stars Are Burning Brightly, if you would like to skip past those sections.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Let’s start with a book that even has death in the title!! This book, obviously, is all about the death of Vivek Oji, whose mother finds his body on her front step. The book explores those affected by Vivek’s death, both before and after he dies. I loved Emezi’s YA book, Pet, so I can’t wait to read this one (and their other book on my TBR, Freshwater).

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan

In this book, the titular character Miwako Sumida, has hanged herself, after hiding away in a small mountain town in the months before she killed herself. The book follows two friends of Miwako as they try to discover why she was in hiding and pick up the pieces after she’s gone.

Who I Was With Her by Nita Tyndall

I really want to read this book asap because I think it will end up being one of my favourite books of the year. It’s about a closeted bi girl whose secret girlfriend dies unexpectedly in a car crash. The only one she can talk to about her grief is her dead girlfriend’s ex; and that’s also the person she should definitely not be getting feelings for.

After Elias by Eddy Boudel Tan

Another book I want to read asap because I think it’ll be a new favourite because I love PAIN. In After Elias, we follow Coen after his soon-to-be-husband’s plane crashes the day before their wedding. But the cryptic last words from Elias on the plane’s recording confuse Coen and Coen is soon forced to question everything he knew about Elias and their relationship.

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

Finally, this UKYA book has been on my TBR since my preorder arrived earlier this year and seriously, much like every other book on this list, I need to read it asap. It follows 15-year-old Nathan after his brother commits suicide as he tries to retrace his brother’s steps to figure out why he did it, along with the help of Meg, one of his brother’s classmates.

So yeah, a heavy topic this week and pretty sure if I had to put money on what books on my TBR will make me cry, it’ll be these five. I really like reading books that are as hugely emotional as these books will likely be: I like being made to feel something, even if that something isn’t necessarily a happy emotion. Do you like to read books like this? Do you have any favourites that deal with death? Let me know in the comments!

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

Another week of lockdown has gone by, and this week we had a public holiday weekend in Melbourne. Since I can’t leave the house still, I instead spent it making prosecco cupcakes and drinking cocktails by myself (well my partner was with me too so I wasn’t quite all alone!) I hope you all had a more interesting week than me! This week’s #5OnMyTBR theme is a Halloween freebie so I thought I’d just talk about some of the spooky/horror/vaguely Halloweeny books on my shelf right now.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Tender is the Flesh was my most anticipated book on my October TBR but then Australia Post lost my parcel and I’ve only just got them to give me confirmation that it’s lost so still haven’t got a copy of this yet…. Probably going to be at least another week or two until Attempt 2 arrives so spooky month will be long over, but I really want to read this book this year! It’s a translated novel about a world where a virus made animal meat poisonous to humans so production of human meat is legalised. Yeah it’s all about cannibals and sounds highly fucked up.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

I really liked the creepy atmosphere and body horror in Power’s first novel, Wilder Girls, so of course I’m very excited to read her second novel which released earlier this year. Burn Our Bodies Down is about a girl who knows nothing about her past and returns to her mother’s hometown to try find out about it. But, obviously, things aren’t quite right in the hometown…

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

I haven’t read Susanna Clarke’s much loved and lengthy Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell, but I was very intrigued by the sound of her second novel, Piranesi, which released last month. It’s a gothic, magical tale set in a house that’s actually a labyrinth and follows Piranesi as he explores the house. I don’t know much about this one as several reviewers have said it’s best to go on in knowing as little as possible! I love gothic books so fingers crossed this atmosphere is as wonderful as I’m hoping it will be.

The Silence of Bones by Jane Hur

Like Tender is the Flesh, this book is another which has had many shipping difficulties getting to me. I preordered The Silence of Bones back in March but it finally reached me this month and I couldn’t be more excited!! It’s a murder mystery novel set in 1800s Korea and promises a spooky and mysterious atmosphere that is perfect for Halloween!

Hurricane Season by Fernando Melchor

And ending on another translated novel, Hurricane Season was recently shortlisted for the International Man Booker prize. It’s about the murder of a witch in a small village in Mexico, and the investigation that follows after. I’ve been wanting to read this since I first got a copy, back at the start of the pandemic, but my literary fiction brain has really struggled concentrating throughout the pandemic, and I want to save this one for a time when I know I’ll enjoy it. Which will hopefully be SOON.

And those are five vaguely-Halloweeny books on my TBR right now! All of these are ones I’d love to read before the end of the year but given how much I’ve failed at reading my owned books this year, I am rather pessimistic about whether or not that will actually happen.

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

If you followed this blog during Pride month, it is probably no surprise to know that enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes (in fact I posted a recommendation list for amazing queer enemies to lovers books that you can check out here!) There’s just something about that line between hatred and love, that overwhelming passion that comes with both hatred and love, that make this trope so full of yearning and pain. So here’s five on my TBR!

The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Book I am most guilty and ashamed of not reading yet? THIS ONE. This was one of my top 5 most anticipated books of the year. I have no excuses for why I haven’t read it yet. But I am vowing to read it before the end of the year! It’s about a genderfluid pirate and the hostage noblewoman they fall in love with. And mermaids and witches I guess.

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard

Okay a dark sapphic Beauty and the Beast retelling where the beast is a dragon?! This is pretty much the best pitch ever. I finally picked up an eBook copy a few months ago so I can finally read it. Enemies to lovers + monster romance = A BOOK MADE FOR ME.

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

This is another book I feel enormously guilty about not reading yet, because I preordered it in JANUARY and it is now OCTOBER. It’s a retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo with lots of queer rep and a girl on the cover who I want to stab me so should be a great read which I eventually read it.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

So yes, I have already read this book. But I recently bought a physical copy of it so I really want to reread it now. It’s this incredible, creepy scifi set in caving system where someone is trapped and trying to escape, and the only person she can talk to is her handler, who is guiding her from a control room. But she doesn’t know whether to believe her because she keeps seeing strange things. Anyway it’s BRILLIANT and one of my favourite books so I can’t wait to reread.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

There’s only one month to go until one of THE YA books of the year is released, These Violent Delights. I think this might be more lovers to enemies than enemies to lovers (or maybe both??) but either way it is sure to be excellent! It’s a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai and there’s lots of knives which is all I need to know to want to read this!

I’m excited to read everyone’s lists this week because I love this trope and want to add more books to my TBR (a totally sensible idea given the stack I already have of course…) Do you like this trope? What’s your favourite book with enemies to lovers? Let me know in the comments!

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

This week we’re talking all about historical fiction! This isn’t a genre I’ve read a lot of until this year, and now some of my favourite books of the year are historical fiction! The key determining factor that has resulted in my new found enjoyment of these books? Only reading the queer ones! So here’s five historical fiction novels that are on my TBR.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

I’ve been saying I need to read my first Sarah Waters book for months now, but I swear it might actually happen this month. Fingersmith is one of the books on my Gothtober readathon TBR so fingers crossed October is finally the month to read this lesbian thief falling in love with their noblewoman mark. It’s described as Dickensian lesbians which sounds much more exciting than actual Dickens.

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis

Another author I’ve been saying I’ll read for the past year is Carolina De Robertis. I have two of her novels on my shelf, but Cantoras is a book I have been absolutely dying to read so I’ll probably read this one first. It’s set in 1977 Uruguay, where homosexuality is still punishable, and follows five queer woman over 35 years of their lives.

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

Swimming in the Dark is set in 1980s Poland, and is the love story of two queer men who end up on opposite sides of politics. One ends up with a high ranking position in government, while the other turns to protest in the face of the economic situation in the country, and the two are torn apart in their fight to survive in the country.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Random anecdote but the cover of this book is so soft, I don’t know what’s different about it to other matt lam covers, but it is so. soft. The Pull of the Stars is a novel about three queer women at a hospital in 1918 Ireland during the Great Spanish Influenza pandemic: a nurse, a doctor and a volunteer who all work on the ward where pregnant mothers who have caught the flu are placed.

The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

As described by the author, The Spy with the Red Balloon is ‘Queer Jewish Kids Punch Nazis While Doing Science and Sabotaging Hitler’. Not sure what I can say to improve that description, but basically it’s about two kids who can do magic and are blackmailed into service during WW2, one helping America make an atom bomb, and the other trying to sabotage Hitler’s nuclear program within Germany.

History was queer, folks, that’s all I have to say. Bring me all the queer historical fiction because I have read some incredible ones this year and I can’t wait to read some more!

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

We are moving ever closer to October, one of my favourite reading months of the year! I actually think I might complete my goal of reading all outstanding 2020 ARCs in time to read nothing but spooky gothic books for the Gothtober readathon. This week’s theme for #5OnMyTBR is books about books and oh my god, this was so hard. I had to dig deep into my Goodreads to try find books about books. A few are more books about bookish things (like libraries), and there’s only two currently on my immediate, TBR but I’m sure I will get to the others eventually!

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

This is one of only two books on my definite, immediate TBR (thanks to the fact I have preordered it!) It’s releasing in November and is a trans Syrian-American ownvoices story about an artist who finds a tattered journal belonging to a famous Syrian artist who dedicated her life to painting birds, and who mysteriously vanished after meeting a rare bird, the same bird the main character’s mother saw before her death.

The Archive of the Forgotten by A. J. Hackwith

This is the second book on my immediate TBR as it’s another preorder, this one releasing October. The Archive of the Forgotten isn’t about a book, but more about lots of books: specifically, a library. It’s the second novel in one of my favourite fantasy series about Hell’s library, which began with The Library of the Unwritten. The Library of the Unwritten was one of the most fun books I’ve ever read so I can’t wait to read this when my preorder arrives! It’s out in October which means my preorder might reach Australia just in time for Christmas…

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite

I definitely will read this one at some point, I just haven’t got around to getting a copy yet! It’s the second novel in the Feminine Pursuits sapphic historical romance series and isn’t technically about a book per se, but it is about a bookbinder so I figured that’s good enough! This book also features bees so I am 100% sold on it.

The Binding by Bridget Collins

This is one of those books that has languished at the edge of my awareness since it was released and I’m sure I will to get it eventually. The Binding is set in a world where people visit bookbinders to get rid of painful memories; once their stories have been told and made into a book, their memories lose the power to harm them.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

This is another book that is kind of languishing at the edge of my awareness as something to read eventually. I’ve heard a lot of very good things about this book, but I sometimes struggle with very poetic, reflective writing styles which this one seems to be from reviews. I’m reading an ARC of Harrow’s second novel at the moment so depending on how much I like that one, will likely impact whether I’ll read this one sooner or later (or not at all…)

Those are my five books about books on my TBR, have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments below. I hope you all have a great week!

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I have been waiting for this week’s #5OnMyTBR because I’ve wanted to talk about several of these on previous weeks but thought I’d save them all for today’s classics theme! I’m doing the Gothtober readathon in October, a readathon celebrating gothic fiction, and several of these are on my TBR for it, I can’t wait to read some new gothic classics as well as reread some favourites.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is one of my new classics, I’ve never actually read it. But, I want to read it before the Netflix film release near the end of October because I’m very much someone who needs to read the book before they watch something. I’m aware of the plot because it’s just one of those books where you kind of know what happens, but that doesn’t make me any less excited to finally read this!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This is another I’m planning to read for Gothtober. I have read this one, but it was absolutely years ago and I’m very much due a reread! Oscar Wilde is just such a fascinating person, he’s the one I always choose when I’m asked ‘who from history would you like to have a dinner party with’. One of my most precious books is a collection of his poetry in a hardback with foil that I found in a second hand bookshop and it’s so pretty.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Of course, how could any gothic fiction readathon tbr be complete without Dracula?! This is another of my favourite classics, and is actually the novel I chose to write my dissertation on in my senior year (I pretty much wrote an essay on queer sexuality in Dracula and Carmilla and it was MUCH FUN).

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The last classic on both this list and on my Gothtober TBR is The Phantom of the Opera, which despite being a HUGE fan of the muscial and the film version with Gerard Butler, I am ashamed to say I’ve never actually read… I will finally be righting this awful wrong in October!

Olivia by Dorothy Strachey

Last but definitely not least is the only non gothic classic on the list, huzzah! Olivia is “considered one of the most subtle and beautifully written lesbian novels of the century” therefore obviously I need to read it.

And those are five classics on my TBR! Are any of your favourite classics on this list? If not, what are your favourites? Let me know in the comments!

#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

It’s another one of my favourite weeks on #5OnMyTBR! I love cover prompts because I get to look at gorgeous covers and the posts always look so beautiful and cohesive. I actually did struggle a bit with red covers though, it turns out I don’t actually have that many books with red covers on my owned TBR right now! So some are maybe more pink than red…another a bit orange….one is half blue… Clearly I need to buy more books with red covers!

A Burning by Mega Majumdar

A Burning is a literary fiction novel set in India about a Muslim girl from the slums who is imprisoned for a terrorist attack thanks to a careless comment on social media. I’ve been trying to read more widely genre wise this year, so this is one of the books I bought to explore more adult lit fic!

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

This month I’m aiming to get all outstanding 2020 ARCs read, and this is the one I’m most excited to get to! It’s about an artist who is recruited to paint the mystical sygils on the government’s automaton soldiers. But when they discover how the paint is created, they say fuck the government and steal an automaton dragon.

Proxy by Alex London

I’ve had a copy of this for a while and I really need to find time to read it! It’s about a world where rich people have “proxy’s”, people who take all their punishments for them. Knox is a rich kid, Syd is his proxy. And the two run away together to try beat the system after Knox kills someone and Syd is branded and sentenced to death.

The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang

I read and adored Neon’s Yang’s novella The Black Tides of Heaven, which is the first in a four part novella series. I immediately bought the following three after I read it but I still haven’t found time to read them! The Red Threads of Fortune is the second in the series and follows the twin of the main character from the first book.

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta

Okay yes, this cover is definitely more pink but I ran out of red covers. This verse novel is about a boy coming to terms with his identity as a mixed race gay teen who finds himself through drag at university.

So yes I totally failed this week. There’s two vaguely pink covers, an orangey one and then one that’s half blue.. Oh dear. I promise I will do better next week! Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!