#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!

Hi everyone,

Today I come to you a little sore because I have actually exercised for like the first time in three months. My partner and I have been horrific about getting any exercise in lockdown. But I’ve now been doing yoga for four days running and thus am a little on the sore side from like, actually stretching and using muscles.

This week’s theme is all about ensemble casts, groups of chaotic, useless friends who encourage each other to do dumb shit! I actually struggled a little to think of books this week, I feel like I don’t read many books with huge ensemble casts? Which feels like a weird thing to say because I read so much fantasy and these often have huge cast lists, but I don’t think a lot of them really count as “ensemble” because there’s very clearly usually a main character or two. But the following books, I think, all have an ensemble cast that is actually an ensemble cast. Maybe. Who knows really?

Burn the Dark by S.A Hunt

First up is a book with one of the coolest book pitches of all time. This horror novel is about a witchhunter who has a YouTube channel where she films herself killing witches. But the only issue is her followers don’t know it’s all real. DUN DUN DUUUUUN…..

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad

This baby is sitting absolute top of my fantasy tbr right now (minus like….all my ARCs due in September/October). I’ve had a copy since it released last year and I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet. But I’m trying to tackle the books that have sat on my TBR the longest so I want to read this asap! This is a Silk Road inspired fantasy full of magical creatures and independent, badass women!

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Okay I really need to start looking ahead at the topics for the next few weeks when writing these because I featured this last week BUT it fits so well for this theme, I couldn’t skip it. Seven Devils has a whopper SEVEN POVs which I think could be the most I’ve ever read in a book. It’s about a group of resistance fighters trying to free the galaxy from a ruthless empire.

Ravensong by T.J Klune

There isn’t much more of an ensemble cast than in books about wolf packs, where family is so so important (and usually pretty large). I read and loved Wolfsong last year but haven’t yet read the sequel, Ravensong. I’m probably going to have to reread Wolfsong before I get into this though…

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Okay I know we’re all shocked and surprised to see this fantasy novel by a WHITE MAN on this list, especially given my recent series about speculative fiction you can read that specifically aren’t written by white men. But I bought an eBook of this before I started not buying fantasy by white men, and it’s apparently sapphic and many queer book bloggers have given it good reviews. So for now, I am giving Bennett the benefit of the doubt and will try read this at some point….

And that’s my five books for this week! What’s your favourite book with an ensemble cast? A recent favourite of mine was Dangerous Remedy, which has the best group of queer disasters just fucking shit up in the French Revolution and it is fantastic.

#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 hope everyone had a good weekend. I ate some donuts and that was pretty much the highlight given we’re still in hard lockdown in Melbourne. But this week’s #5OnMyTBR is a really good theme, 2020 releases! I’m really going to struggle to actually narrow this down to just 5 books, because I have so many 2020 books on my TBR! So I decided to *cough* double the number of books on this list and do my top 10 2020 books on my TBR! This year I’ve really expanded the genres I read (I mean, I’m still definitely a SFF reader first and foremost) but I’m trying to read a bit more widely too so I think this week’s list really reflects that!

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Okay yes I’m starting with a scifi but the rest of the list has more variety I swear. This adult scifi has a whopping seven different POVs, each one of seven resistance fighters who are trying to free the galaxy from a ruthless empire.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi is fast becoming one of my favourite authors so of course I’m super excited to read their newest release, The Death of Vivek Oji. It’s a story of family and friendship and , as you can probably guess, the death of Vivek Oji.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

I usually try to read a few of the books longlisted for the Man Booker, and as I’m Scottish, I of course had to read this one! Set in Glasgow during the Thatcher years, Shuggie Bain follows a young boy growing up in public housing. It’s also written with Glasgow dialect so will I get homesick reading this? Probably. It’s a very dark read too I believe, check out the content warnings in some of the Goodreads reviews before reading!

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

This is another of my picks from the Man Booker shortlist, this one about a complicated mother-daughter relationship, as a daughter who felt neglected in her childhood now has to care for her mother at the onset of dementia.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Onto a slightly more fun one, this is a fake dating romance and so many people are seeming to love it so I can’t wait to jump in!

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

Genderfluid pirates anyone? This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I can’t believe I still haven’t read it yet! It’s about a pirate and a noblewoman prisoner who fall in love and also there are mermaids and pirates and bears oh my! (Okay probably not the bears…)

The Empire of Gold by S.A Chakraborty

Yes I still haven’t read the final book in the Daevabad trilogy because I’m a WIMP and I am SCARED.

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

This UKYA contemporary books looks like it’ll be so so powerful but I am waiting until I’m in the right headspace to read it as it deals with some very difficult topics. It’s about a teen boy trying to find out why his brother committed suicide.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

One of the biggest books of the year? Definitely. The Vanishing Half is an adult fiction novel about two sisters who live completely different lives: one lives with her daughter in the Southern town they grew up in, and the other passes for white and lives with a husband who knows nothing of her past.

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson

And finally, All Boys Aren’t Blue is next on my list of nonfiction/memoir reads. It’s an essay collection by LGBTQIA+ activist George M Johnson, and covers topics from toxic masculinity to Black joy.

That’s it for this week! Sorry for the doubley long post, I just couldn’t resist talking about all the amazing 2020 releases on my TBR!