Ok, so, first things first - yes it's Wednesday and this is my Top Ten Tuesday post... but I loved this week's theme so much that when I didn't get to it yesterday I didn't want to miss out on talking about it, so figured I'd go ahead anyway!

Top ten Tuesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's prompt was to talk about the top ten books on my autumn TBR.

Like many readers, I have a GIANT TBR. I'm pretty sure that if someone made a t-shirt with a Bron quote on it, it would say "oooh I have that book... but I haven't read it yet" haha. A not insignificant proportion of my life is probably spent thinking about my TBR, planning the order to read my TBR, juggling library loan due dates, and justifying to myself buying more books despite my TBR.

For this task I've pulled the 10 books I would most like to read over the next three months, but in no particular order - these might not be the next ten books I read, but I definitely want to get through them all in the next little while. There's a mix of library books, ARCs I've been sent for review, #loveozya, and things I want to read for challenges/because they're on award short lists. Also, these are all Australian books AND almost all women writers!

Tin Heart - Shivaun Plozza
This one is a new #loveozya release, which also happens to be the first book for the new book club starting at my favourite local bookstore. =)

Untidy Towns - Kate O'Donnell
This is #loveozya on the longlist for the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year for Older Children - which I'm really hoping to read.
 
My Life as a Hashtag - Gabrielle Williams
More #loveozya from the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children longlist

Small Spaces - Sarah Epstein
I'm super excited to read this brand new #loveozya thriller, which Walker books were kind enough to send me a review copy of =)

Whisper - Lynette Noni
I won't bore you with the story of how much I love Lynette Noni (again), but I'm was so thrilled when Pantera Press sent me an advance review copy of this upcoming #loveozya release.

Obsidio - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
These two are pretty much #loveozya royalty at this point. This was one of my most anticipated new releases for 2018 AND I'm headed to Melbourne to see them both at the end of April, and the following week seeing Jay again - at the Sydney Writers' Festival All Day YA event. SO EXCITED.

Reckoning - Magda Szubanski
I have had this one out from the library for a little while now, but just can't return it unread because I really want to read it! This is going to be my celebrity memoir for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

The Life to Come - Michelle de Kretser
This one is on the Stella Prize shortlist, which definitely want to read (I'm halfway through!)

Terra Nullius - Claire G Coleman
Another book from the Stella Prize shortlist. While I'm only halfway through the list, based on what I've heard I have a little feeling that maybe this will be the winner... Also, Claire G. Coleman is going to be on the same panel as Jay Kristoff at the SWF All Day YA =)

The Lily and the Rose - Jackie French
This is another review copy I was sent, this time by Harper Collins. I have just finished reading the first book in this series, and I really loved it, so I'm excited to see what happens next.

So that's my top ten autumn TBR wishlist... I'd love to know what you thought of any of these if you've read them! And don't forget to pop over to see the other posts for this week over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

xo Bron

 

xo Bron

 

So, those are three brilliant women whose books I either already adore or am super keen to get into! Don't forget to add your link or let us know in the comments below which authors you can't wait to get into your eyeballs!

xo Bron

Amie Kaufman - Sci-fi
If you've been here before you might know I like to find any excuse to mention #loveozya, so talking about an Aussie YA author was too tempting to pass up! I have only read a couple of Amie Kaufman's books so far, but I have loved them and plan on reading all of her work. Her books are space adventure sci-fi with awesome characters and authentic relationships (and feelings! so many feelings!). Apart from her amazing writing, I have seen Amie at a couple of events and I just love her. She did a panel on women (and sexism) in publishing at the Sydney Writers' Festival last year that just blew me away. She is also so open about her writing process and experience - I love following her writing updates in her Instagram stories. I am ALMOST a bit embarrassed to admit I think Amie is so wonderful that I have booked tickets to see her (and her co-writer Jay Kristoff) at Speculate (which means the super early flight to Melbourne in the morning and then flying to Sydney followed by a 3 hour bus to Canberra to get home).
While her published novels so far have been co-authored YA sci-fi, Kaufman has a middle grade book coming out in March (Ice Wolves) which is fantasy, and which sounds amazing!

Hannah Kent - Historical Fiction
I am pretty sure Aussie author Hannah Kent is either some kind of genius or magical writing witch. I have only read The Good People, but have heard only good (wonderful) things about her debut novel, Burial Rites, as well (it's on my giant TBR!). I have also seen Hannah Kent at an event and just thought she was so brilliant - she is extremely eloquent and give the most thoughtful, measured answers when she is interviewed. If you can access it, I'd definitely recommend checking out her discussion with Richard Fidler about The Good People on his podcast (Conversations).

Shirley Jackson - Horror
I first picked up Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle after hearing Book Riot's Liberty RAVE about it, and gosh I loved it too! Jackson is another writer that I absolutely admire, but who's work I haven't read very much of - only We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, but we do have some of her short stories that I really want to get to.

So, those are three of my favourite women writers of genre fiction - pop over to Doddy About Books
to join in, and see what everyone has written about this prompt.

xo Bron

Here's a little bit about the book, from the Goodreads page...

The writing style was pretty much perfectly suited to my reading tastes. It had a literary, dreamy kind of feel that reminded me of the Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (which I count as one of the most beautiful books I've ever read), and made me feel like we were drifting towards fantasy. The other thing about this that gave me Scorpio Races vibes was the development of the relationship between two of the main characters - my heart hadn't been so invested in a couple since Sean and Puck. So, if you loved the Scorpio Races I'd definitely recommend this as a read-alike. 

I felt like the sibling relationships were really well written in this - I'm really loving great sibling pairs in YA at the moment!

Now, aside from the beautiful setting and sweet romance, this book deals with lots of pretty heavy issues that teens might face (but that I don't really feel that I know enough about personally to go into much here) - it is about grief and loss and mental health issues (and a trigger alert for death - look into it a bit more if this is something you would prefer to avoid).

Overall I thought this was a wonderful read, and I'm definitely adding Eliza Henry-Jones' other books to my TBR.

Xo Bron

P is For Pearl is out now - thank you so much to Harper Collins for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review (I loved this so much and the finished copy is so beautiful that I'm going to need to buy my own copy anyway!)

Now, here are a couple of things I loved about this book...

• the language is so accessible and authentic. The writing felt to me like an actual teen was writing it, which made it feel really personal and intimate, almost like I was reading a diary. The dialogue also felt pretty spot on.
• there was a broad range of characters, and the way that characters reacted to Alex and Phoenix was really varied, from people cheering for them, to shrugging, to saying some really really terrible things to and about them (trigger warning for some really awful treatment of LGBTQIA+ people!)
• the feelings! When this is described as 'heart-wrenching' they aren't messing around! This book gave me ALL THE FEELINGS! I had a little cry on the bus one morning (over a happy/sweet bit), and a full on ugly sobbing cry in a cafe over a part that was so sad it destroyed me (I had looked up from the book to compose myself, when my friend walked into the cafe and asked how I was doing and I couldn't stop!). I honestly can't overstate how much this story touched me!

The other thing that I feel like I need to talk about in relation to this book is how important I think it is that this story is out there for teens/young people to see and read and relate to. When this book arrived from the publisher it came with a note from the author, who talks about not being able to find herself in the books that were available then. So to have a book about a f/f relationship, set in rural Australia is amazing. While no one story is ever going to be everyone's story, the more stories we get out there the more likely people are to see themselves, or parts of themselves, represented in literature, which is huge.

So, obviously, this gets all the thumbs up and stars from me - give it to your teens, and to parents, and teachers, and libraries. (And maybe give them a box of tissues too!)

xo Bron

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If I Tell You by Alicia Tuckerman is out today from Pantera Press, who kindly sent me a copy for review. All views are my own.