Top Ten Tuesday #3: Wishes for My TBR Pile #5

I’m back this week with another Top Ten Tuesday post. Last week was so hectic, I couldn’t participate. By the time I got home, my brain was too mushy from the busy workday to think up answers to the question. But not so this week!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For the Rest of 2015

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness (Aug. 27, 2015)

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

I included this in the last TTT post I did and I’m including it here as well because I really can’t wait for it to be published though I’ve never read a book by Ness before.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (Sept. 22, 2015)

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.

Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work,  embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

I don’t consider myself a huge fan of Gilbert’s but I do admire how she writes. So when I read in January that she would write a book about creativity and writing, I mentally added it to my TBR pile. Also, I love the colors on the cover.

The Wheel of Time Companion by Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons (Nov. 3, 2015)

Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. Over the course of fifteen books and millions of words, the world that Jordan created grew in depth and complexity. However, only a fraction of what Jordan imagined ended up on the page, the rest going into his personal files.

Now The Wheel of Time Companion sheds light on some of the most intriguing aspects of this fantasy world, including biographies and motivations of many characters that never made it into the books, but helped bring Jordan’s world to life.

Included in the volume in an A-to-Z format are:

An entry for each named character

An inclusive dictionary of the Old Tongue

New maps of the Last Battle

New portraits of many characters

Histories and customs of the nations of the world

The strength level of many channelers

Descriptions of the flora and fauna unique to the world

And much more!

The Wheel of Time Companion will be required reading for The Wheel of Time’s millions of fans.

I’m looking forward to this as well. I’m almost halfway through the series but I don’t mind being spoiled and learning more about the WOT world.

The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (Oct. 6, 2015)

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die…

This is the first book in a new series by Riordan—Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard—that will be based on Norse mythology. I’ve enjoyed all his books thus far so I’m looking forward to this one.

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (June 16, 2015)

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can’t turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

I’ve heard about this one around booktube and I like the synopsis since I enjoy reading books that discuss mental illness.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older (June 30, 2015)

Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in SHADOWSHAPER, an action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent.

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “No importa” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order’s secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick’s supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family’s past, present, and future.

Caribbean legend = SOLD

Protagonist is an artist = SOLD

Based in Brooklyn = SOLD

Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession by Elizabeth Benedict (Sept. 2015)

These twenty-seven “hair pieces” offer up reflections and revelations about family, race, religion, ritual, culture, motherhood, politics, celebrity, what goes on in African American kitchens and at Hindu Bengali weddings, alongside stories about the influence of Jackie Kennedy, Lena Horne, Farrah Fawcett, and the Grateful Dead. Layered into these essays you’ll find surprises, insights, hilarity, and the resonance of common experience.

Marita Golden writes about her grief over what so many African American women still endure to obtain “good hair.” Patricia Volk itemizes her seventeen hair care products, each with a price tag. Myra Goldberg tells of how ill equipped she was to tend the hair of her adopted biracial daughter. And Suleika Jaouad describes the ravages of chemotherapy and the empowerment of shaving designs onto her head.

These writers know that a woman’s hair is her glory, her nemesis, her history, and her self-esteem. They know, too, that many things in life matter more than hair, but few bring as much pleasure as a really great hairdo.

I found this one in a Mailbox Monday post over at BermudaOnion. I left a comment on the post saying “story of my life” because the book’s title reflects how I feel about my hair. But after reading the synopsis, it seems that snippets of my life/culture will be included. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book.

So that’s 7 books. I can’t think of anymore.

Is there a soon-to-be-published book you’re looking forward to?

Other books to consider

• Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Rest of 2015 (bibliophilials.com)
• Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Rest of 2015 (onceuponabookcase)
• Top Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Rest of 2015 (hootreads.wordpress.com)
• Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases For The Rest of 2015 (dandelionnwine.wordpress.com)
• Top Ten Fall 2015 New Releases I’m Most Excited About (nikihawkes.com)
• Where’s Your Bookmark? (06/09/2015) (www.literaryfeline.com)

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