Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the bloggers of The Broke and the Bookish. This week everyone is supposed to post the top ten books on his/her summer TBR list. 

Summer's usually my time for light reading. In between reading lots of academic and more critical books for school and then writing papers about them, I savored having more fun reads in the summer, where I could focus on characterization, plot development, and writing styles as little or as much as I wanted. Now that I'm not in school right now, I can read my "summer reads" type books all the time. So my top ten books on my summer TBR list don't necessarily have anything to do with the summer and everything to do with what I need to read within the next few months. And unfortunately I live over 1000 miles from any beach, so these books below will probably be read in my air-conditioned house. I want a mostly fantasy-driven summer, so here are my top ten picks for my summer TBR list.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – I bought this for my Kindle, so it will be read in the very near future. I am super excited about this one, particularly because YA high fantasies do not seem to be in high demand lately. And this has gotten rave reviews by just about everyone. Fantasy is my favorite genre, and high fantasy is my favorite subdivision of that. If anyone has recommendations for great YA or adult high fantasies, please let me know! 

Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore – Since there are three books in this series, this counts as three of my books. I read Graceling a few years ago and I enjoyed it very much. I remember a great story with a strong female protagonist and very detailed world-building. I am such a sucker for a strong female protagonist – it's a bit ridiculous, really – and Katsa doesn't disappoint in the slightest. I loved the idea of certain people being gifted with "Graces." I started to read Fire last summer, but realized I didn't remember Graceling enough so continuing with Fire would have become very difficult. Now that Bitterblue has just been released, I think it's high time to reread Graceling so that I can move on to the next books in the series.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – I was not the biggest fan of An Abundance of Katherines, but John Green receives so much praise for his books that I feel obligated to try out something else of his before I make any lasting opinions on his work as a YA author. I'm fully prepared for the range of emotions I'll go through as I read this book. This can be my one true contemporary read of the summer.

The Stand by Stephen King – Reading this book is going to be a task in itself, I just know it. The unabridged version of the book is over 1000 pages. But I have yet to read any Stephen King, so I need to remedy that problem. My good friend is a huge Stephen King fan but has not read this book of his either. This is apparently one of his classics, and one of the books that helped to establish him as a great force in the horror/science fiction genres. We're going to read the book at the same time, so hopefully through discussions and moral support this won't be too difficult to read through.

Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta – Since the beginning of the year, Melina Marchetta has become one of my favorite YA authors. I adored both Finnikin of the Rock and Jellicoe Road. While I'm a little more hesitant to read Froi of the Exiles, knowing that Froi is the protagonist now, I'm more than willing to give it a try. After all, Marchetta has taken many unusual twists in her writing and they've all ended up being executed perfectly. 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – The premise behind this book sounds really interesting, and I love the fact that it seems to transcend the YA and adult audience boundaries. Plus this just won the 2012 Locus Award for Best First Novel. And apparently it's just come out in paperback, so I may even go and purchase a physical copy of it.

 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth – My biggest regret with Divergent was that I read it during the week. Being unable to read until the wee hours of the morning and having to go to work in the mornings was super frustrating. I just wanted to stay home and do nothing but read the book. For Insurgent I plan on reading it over the course of a weekend this summer. That's if all the people on the library waitlist can hurry up with their copies.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers – I have not read a zombie book yet. Not only has this book been receiving great reviews, but I love how it uses the premise of a zombie invasion to really examine six high school students and their interactions in the midst of a terrible situation. I don't think I'd mind a contemporary book masquerading as a horror/sci fi book at all; I love intense focus on characterization in books, which is what this promises to be.

I'll see how many of these books I actually end up reading this summer (hopefully most – if not all – of them!). What's on your summer TBR list?