Top 10 Tuesdays: Childhood favorites

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Childhood Favorites.

I read lots and was also read to a lot. I also read (and still read) a lot of comics, such as Donald Duck, Asterix, and Tintin. These are the books I remember liking the most:

1, Walter Farley: The Black Stallion
I so much wanted to be Alex and ride the Black Stallion. I loved that first book so much. Actually, I’ve only read the four books which were translated into Finnish. According to Wikipedia those were books 1, 3, 5, and 9. Weird. I still have the first book.

2, Carolyn Keene: Nancy Drew
I loved reading about Nancy (Paula in the Finnish translations) and her friends solving all sorts of mysteries. I still have a handful of them.

3, Enid Blyton: the Famous Five
One of the most popular translated children’s series in Finland. In Finnish, the names of the kids are Leo, Dick, Anne, and Pauli/Paula.

4, Enid Blyton: The Adventure series
Another Blyton series I adored. I loved Jack and his pet parrot Kiki. I also loved Philip’s supernatural ability to bond with animals.

5, Enid Blyton: Secret Seven
I liked this series a lot but not nearly as much as the previous two.

6, Franklin W. Dixon: Hardy boys
I read quite a few of these, too, although I didn’t like them as much as the Blyton series.

7, Robert Arthur Jr.: The Three Investigators
46 books were translated to Finnish, but I preferred the first 10 or so. I liked the eclectic group of friends and the strange mysteries.

Of course I also read books from Finnish and other Skandinavian authors. I don’t think any of them have been translated to English.
8, Merja Jalo
Her series are set in various stables. Some of the plots were about horses but some are mysteries which deal with typical teenager issues.

9, Marvi Jalo
She also writes about horses but mostly stand-alone books rather than series.

10, Merri Vik
She was actually Swedish and wrote in Swedish. The Lotta series tells about a clumsy but otherwise pretty ordinary girl. They’re very funny books.

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Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 books on my summer TBR

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Summer TBR.

I have so many books I want to read! But I can’t read them all the same time so here’s what I expect to read:

Currently, I’m reading
1, The Mammoth book of Steampunk Adventures
This short story collection has been on my shelves for at least a couple of years so it’s time to read it. Looks fun and first couple of stories have been enjoyable.

2, Thomas K. Carpenter: Trials of Magic
I’m also reading this ebook about sisters with magical powers.

3, John Vornholt: the Troll King
This is apparently the first book in a children’s fantasy trilogy and I don’t even remember when I got it. I’m again behind on my TBR challenge so I need to get the off the shelves.

4, Martha Wells: Rogue Protocol
I got from the library the third book in the highly entering Murderbot series and I can’t wait to read it.

5, Aliette de Bodard: On a Red Station, Drifting
The first in her science fiction series which I’ve been wanting to try for a couple of years.

6, Aliette de Bodard: In the Vanisher’s Palace
A retelling of Beauty and the Beast but with f/f romance.

7, Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness
This book is from a recent 2 books for 1 credit sale at Audible. It’s humorous spy story set in 1932 Britain.

8, S. A. Chakraborty: The Kingdom of Copper
The second book in a fantasy trilogy. I’m eager to get to it, but it’s over 23 hours long…

9, Theodora Goss: The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter
I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and I got it from Audible.
10, Kim Newman: Anno Dracula
Another fantasy book I’m really eager to read. It has Dracula as Queen Victoria’s husband!

 

Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book.

1, The next book in the series
By far the most common reason for me to pick up and actually read a book is that it’s the next book in a series I enjoy.

2, Familiar author
When I know and (mostly) enjoy the author’s work, I tend to read more from them.

3, Reviews
When I don’t know the author I’ll read some reviews from GoodReads or Amazon or other bloggers. They don’t have to be favorable but the book must have something to interest me.

4, Genre/subgenre
I’m quite picky about the (sub)genres I read.

5, Interesting description
The best way to get me to pick up a unfamiliar author’s book is with a description which tempts me.

6, Part of a tempting bundle
I’ve bought more than a few bundles which are from genres I enjoy, even when they don’t have any familiar authors.

7, Dinosaurs
Not many fiction books have dinosaurs and I’d love to read more of them.

8, Heist
They’re also not very common in SFF books.

9, Tie-in books
I read novels from various franchises, such as Star Trek and Star Wars.

10, The book has a trope I enjoy
Such as enemies forced to work together (e.g. X-Men and Magneto) or an eclectic group of characters become friends/family (X-Men, Firefly, Farscape…).

 

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 books on my spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Top 10 books in my spring TBR.

It was snowing here in Finland just a couple of days ago so talking about spring seems more than a bit premature. But here goes:

1, Q-Strike by Greg Cox
First, I’m going to finish the Q Continuum trilogy.

2, Fahrenheit’s Ghost by Trish Heinrich
The next book in the Vigilantes historical superhero series. It’s also the start of a new series, Pandora Project.

3, The Triangle by Dan Koboldt Mindy McGinnis, and Sylvia Wrigley
I got an ARC from Serial Box! It’s set in the Bermuda Triangle where a team of shipwrecked experts must find out the secrets of the place.

I’ve got a lot of unread ebooks and I’m not sure which ones I’m going to read next but I do know which of my unread printed books I’ll read.

4,Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The first book in the Lady Astronaut SF series.

5, The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
And the next book in the series.

6, Lady Astronaut of Mars Mary Robinette Kowal
This is a novellette set in the same world and it’s available for free here: https://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-mars/

7, Desperate Hours by David Mack
The first Star Trek: Discovery book which is apparently set on starship Shenzhou so we’ll get more captain Georgiou!

8, Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
Alternate history where Dracula is Queen Victoria’s husband!

I’ve also got a couple of audio books I haven’t listened yet and currently I’m thinking of listening these next:

9, Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
I’ve loved Huff’s other fantasy books.

10, Einstein’s Secret by Irving Belatche
Another alternate history book which sounds very interesting.

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Places Mentioned In Books That I’d Like to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Places Mentioned In Books That I’d Like to Visit .

There are a lot of places I’d love to visit, especially those fantasy and SF places which don’t, yet, exist. I’ve only traveled to a few places and these days I don’t really care for the travel itself. I’d love to go someplace and spend couple of months there, at least. But on our Earth I’d like to visit…

1, Venice
For a long time I’ve wanted to visit Venice. Donna Leon’s mystery book are set in Venice but also several fantasy books have been inspired by Venice, such as the Masked City by Genevieve Cogman.

2, Rome
I’ve been to Rome a couple of decades ago and I’d love to visit it again. Many ancient history books are set in Ancient Rome, such as the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor.

3, the Valley of Kings
Many places associated with ancient Egyptian history fascinate me. I’d love to travel all over Egypt. I picked the Valley of Kings because it’s probably the easiest today for tourists. Of course, my main inspiration comes from Elizabeth Peters’ great historical mystery series with Amelia Peabody-Emerson as the main character.

4, San Francisco
A lot of fiction is set in San Francisco and I’d love to see it, although I know that none of the fae people from Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye series are really there. It’s also close to Sunnydale.

5, New York
I recently had the great pleasure of visiting New York for a week and a half and it was a blast! I’d love to visit again. I know that the Avengers Mansion and Baxter Building aren’t really there but someone is building something that looks a lot like Avengers Tower from the movies.

5, Melbourne
Kerry Greenwood makes Melbourne feel very interesting in her Phryne Fisher series and lots of the places in the books are real.

6, Sherwood
While I’ve visited London a couple of times, I’ve never been to Sherwood forest. Even though I know that is has a lot of Robin Hood related tourist stuff, I still want to visit.

7, London
Another obvious choice. Many books are set in London. Even though the London Below doesn’t exist, like in Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, it’s still a great place to visit.

8, Transylvania
Another place which has fascinating fictional history and it seems to be a very beautiful place, too.

9, Alexandria
I couldn’t resist adding another Egyptian city. Founded by Alexander the Great, I’ve always wanted to visit it.

10, Paris
Another favorite place for writers to use as a setting. I’ve actually visited it once, just long enough to visit the Eiffel Tower and Versailles. I’d love to go there again!

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads.

A surprising number of my favorite books and comics are in this category. I ended up choosing these:

1, Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear
Ratings: 691. The third book in the Promethean Age series which has two duologies and one stand-alone book, so far. This book is the first one of the second duology, set in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. However, the duologies can be read in any order. The main characters are William Shakepeare and Christopher Marlowe who get mixed up in the schemes of the fairy court, including Morgan Le Fay.

2, Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock
Ratings: 917. A beautifully haunting fantasy book about former exorcist Lucien who is trying to make amends for his past mistakes.

3, Buried Deep by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Ratings: 747. The fourth book in her wonderful science fiction series, Retrieval Artist. The series has quite alien-feeling aliens and this book focuses on the Disty who inhabit Mars. It’s one of my favorites in the series because we get to see Disty’s culture more and how it’s really different from humans.

4, A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan
Ratings: 381. The third book in Brennan’s Onyx Court series. It’s a historical fantasy series with each book set in a different time but in the same place: London. The faerie characters, being immortal, are mostly the same but the humans change. This one starts during the great London fire 1666.

5, Serpent’s Sacrifice by Trish Heinrich
Ratings: 63. The first book in a superhero trilogy set in 1960s America with a female main character.

6, Demon and the City by Liz Williams
Ratings: 826. The second book in mythical urban fantasy series set in near future China and filled with gods and demons.

7, Christopher Golden: The Lost slayer
Ratings: 816. The omnibus edition of the four books. One of the best Buffy the vampire slayer stories I’ve read.

8, Twin-Bred by Karen Wyle
Ratings: 140. Thoughtful SF about how humans and one alien species could maybe live together.

9, Shadow by Anne Logston
Ratings: 268. Delightful fun fantasy about a free-spirited elfwoman who is also a thief.

10, Ice Song by Kirsten Imani Kasai
Ratings: 187. A beautiful and haunting fantasy book where Sorykah Minuit has a secret that could kill or enslave her: when she’s scared or sad, she involuntarily changes into a man. Sorykah can remember almost nothing about that man’s life and the man doesn’t remember Sorykah. She also has twin babies that she must care for.

 

Top 10 Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today, the topic is The Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read List.

My list is a huge, huge thing (I have 1417 books in my to read shelf on GoodReads) and I don’t know I’ll ever get around to reading all of them. However, these books have recently caught my eye mostly through recommendations or reviews from other bloggers:

1, The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde
I read the first novella in this series, ”the Jewel and Her Lapidary” and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I’m very interested in reading the next story.

2, Genrenauts by Michel R. Underwood
This sounds like a lot of fun, agents who find and fix broken stories. Luckily, it’s part of the current SFWA fantasy bundle at https://storybundle.com/fantasy so I’m going to get it.

3, Shadows over Baker Street edited by Michael Reaves
Sherlock Holmes and Watson vs Lovecraft horror. A short story collection.

4, The Geneva Decision by Seely James
A thriller with an action heroine lead.

5, Queen Zazzau by J. S. Emuakpor
Mythological fantasy book that sounds very interesting.

6, Sherlock Holmes: the Breath of God by Guy Adams
Another supernatural Holmes story and the first in a series. I actually ended up adding this because I recently read the first Firefly book by James Lovegrove and when I looked up what else Lovegrove has written, this same up. Apparently, Lovegrove continues this Holmes series.

7, Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
A historical magical realism story. Honestly, I don’t really care for magical realism but this one is apparently a story about stories.

8, The Pendragon Legend by Antal Zerb
Apparently, it’s a King Arthur tale set in modern times by a Hungarian author. It’s been way too long since I last read a King Arthur book. It has been translated into Finnish and so it’s available in the local library which greatly increases the odds that I’ll read it.

9, The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang
The third book in the Tensorate fantasy series. I enjoyed the first two novellas in this series and will continue with it.

10, Aurelia by Alison Morton
The fourth book in the thriller series set in alternate universe where Rome’s legacy continues to modern day in a nation called Roma Nova. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first two books and will continue with the series.