#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 have another fun cover theme for #5OnMyTBR this week! These are definitely my favourite prompts because I love looking through and admiring all the book covers on my shelf. And then crying in shame at many unread books I have.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

When Melbourne first got out of lockdown a few weeks ago, on my first visit back to a bookshop, I picked up this novel, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. From what I gather from reviews, it’s very weird and dark and disturbing and the plot is utterly unexplainable so all I can say is it’s about a girl who might be a witch or an alien who vows to survive at all costs.

Goldilocks by Laura Lam

This has been such a fantastic year for queer science fiction and Goldilocks is just one of them! I am so mad at myself for not reading this yet. This is about an Earth in the midst of environmental collapse, so an all-female space crew plan to journey to find a different planet. But the mission is stolen from them at the last minute and so they steal in the ship in return.

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus

This YA contemporary has been on my physical TBR for an embarassing amount of time and I can’t believe I still haven’t read it. It’s about a girl from Trinidad who is sent to the US after her mother catches her kissing the pastor’s daughter. But in the US, she grows close with the girl who helps her get to grips with an American high school. Also this cover is absolutely gorgeous, it’s one of my favourites!

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

When this book first released, I wasn’t really reading much, and especially not in YA. But now that I’ve been back reading for a little while, I definitely need to finally pick this up! I found a very cool edition with this black cover in a bookshop here so I’ll hopefully get to it soon!

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

I recently read and adored my first Sarah Waters’ novel, Fingersmith, not least because it had one of the most shocking plot twists I’ve read all year. So I can’t wait to read some more of her work, starting with probably her most well known book, Tipping the Velvet. According to Wikipedia this has “pervasive lesbian themes” and really I don’t need to know any more about this book to know I want to read it.

And that’s it for another week! I hope everyone has a good week. This week I’m off to get a doctors checkover for my permanent residency so fingers crossed everything goes well!

#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’s topic for #5OnMyTBR is humour! And I’m pretty sure I might fail again at the theme because I read so few happy books. I do have a few that might be able to fit this theme so here’s half a list of humour, half a list of ‘happiest books I could find on my TBR’.

The Love Hypothesis by Laura Steven

Laura Steven is the most hilarious author I’ve ever read. Her duology The Exact Opposite of Okay and A Girl Called Shameless just blew me away with how funny they were – and I’m someone who doesn’t read much humour books because I rarely find them actually funny. Steven just published another book, The Love Hypothesis, which follows physics’ genius Caro as she discovers a scientific breakthrough that makes you irresistible to everyone around you.

Finna by Nino Cipri

Hi hello, sci-fi adventure set in an IKEA when two employees (who also happen to be exes) have to venture into a wormhole to retrieve a lost customer and have chaotic queer fun as they do so. This sounds like the biggest fun ever and I can’t wait to read this one!

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by Lev A.C Rosen

Lev A.C Rosen has a book publishing this year, Camp, a comedy looking at toxic masculinity within the queer community. But also sounding just as fun in his first YA, Jack of Hearts (and other parts), a brutually honest sex ed class for queer teens in book form!

Bloodlust & Bonnets by Emily McGovern

I am not a huge graphic novel reader (in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read one.) But, I adore Emily McGovern, otherwise known as the creator of the My Life As A Background Slytherin comics. I even have a print of one of them on my wall. So when I heard she was releasing her own graphic novel poking fun at Romantic era literature plus vampires, I was 100% on board! From what I’ve seen of this, it looks utterly hilarious and super queer and fun and I seriously need to read my first graphic novel.

The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton

Okay, this probably would’ve fit better with last week’s RomCom theme (whoops), but I think this sounds like such a bowl of laughs I’m including it here! Kit Sweetly works as a wench (in modern lingo: waitress) at a medieval themed restaurant. But she doesn’t want to be a wench, she wants to be one of the knights, like her brother. But only boys can be knights. So, when Kit sneakily takes her brother’s place one night, and reveals herself at the end of the show, she shoots to internet fame and glory (and brings down corporate management down on her head).

That’s it for this week’s #5OnMyTBR, which despite being a happy theme, I actually think I managed to do. I can’t wait to see everyone’s lists and actually add some more happy books to my TBR for a change!