Top 5 Tuesday #68: Top 5 New Authors of 2021

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 new authors of 2021

(Tell us all about your favourite new authors, either debut authors from 2021 or new-to-you this year.)

I met some great new-to-me authors this year who I’d love to read more from. Here are my top five.

Camilla Bruce

At the top is Camilla Bruce whose In the Garden of Spite I read earlier this year, thanks to Mogsy and Tammy. The novel is a historical thriller about a female serial killer in the late 1800s. It’s slow paced but such a riveting read. Both my aunt (who I made read it) and I want to read more from Bruce, and I need to get another copy of the book to let my mom read it too (I gave my copy to my aunt).

Top 5 Tuesday #67: Top 5 covers of 2021

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 covers of 2021

(What are some of your favourite covers that you have seen this year? Maybe these were reprints, redesigns or alternate covers that came out this year, or maybe they are brand new books.
Whatever they are, tell us all the pretties you have been coveting.)

I love a meme about book covers 😊 and I’ve been looking forward to one like this all year, lol! My favorite thing about December is looking back on all the things I read in the year and chatting about the best of the best.

Well, here are my favorite covers of books I read this year.

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is a gaslamp fantasy novel about a poor fire witch who lucks into the chance to make some money by serving as a bodyguard, along with other women, to protect a young lady from being assassinated before her wedding. I read this early in the year with Millie from Milliebot Reads and really enjoyed it. The protagonist is one of my favorites that I’ve encountered this year.

Top 5 Tuesday #66: Books on My Wishlist

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books on my wishlist

(No matter what you celebrate in December, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, Hogmanay, Jolabokaflod, Koliada, Kwanzaa, Krampusnacht, Nikoldjan, Pancha Ganapati, St Lucia Day, St Nicholas Day, Winter Solstice, Yule, Erastide, Hogswatch, Festivus, Kaldoran, Snoggletog, Yulemas, Decemberween or Chrismukkah, tell us what books are on the top of your wishlist!!)

I have several books on my wishlist, but here are the ones that are at the top.

The Deep by Mayur Vayeda & Tushar Vayeda (illus.)

It’s a beautifully crafted picture book created using the Warli style of painting. The creators are from the indigenous Warli community in western India. I believe the book is about their experience travelling from the familiarity of their home all the way to Japan, and it also explores how water connects all life.

Top 5 Tuesday #65: Creepy Covers Coming 😱

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 creepy covers

(Let’s chat about all those book covers that give you super creepy atmospheric vibes!!)

Brace yourself. This is about book covers, so naturally I went overboard with the pics.

I haven’t read any of these books, so I’ll link to the Goodreads page.

Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom (illus.)

This cover is one of the creepiest to me. I try not to look at it and will quickly scroll past whenever I glimpse it because it’s the type of image that annoyingly sticks around in my mind long after I see it.

Top 5 Tuesday #64: Spooky Worlds I’ve Seen

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 spooky worlds

(Spooky worlds are a THING. Let’s talk about all the places you never want to go… Or maybe you do want to go, if you’re into that sort of thing!!)

Yes, indeed. I’ve visited some spooky worlds in books and TV shows.

Here’s one I’ve visited often:

Supernatural

I love the show, but I wouldn’t want to live in the world Supernatural is set in. Too much drama. Too many battles against supernatural creatures. And the world is always ending because someone — the Winchesters, usually — is always doing something to fuck it up.

Top 5 Tuesday #63: Umm… Zombies Don’t Scare Me 😨

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 horror/thriller tropes that don’t scare you

(Let’s talk about horror tropes that you are brave in the face of… or that you find mildly ridiculous to funny.)

Well, if I stick to this week’s topic, I’ll have a very short list because I’m a bit superstitious and scare easily, so just about all horror tropes scare me. Exceptions are only for slasher films and zombie movies because zombies are funny.

So, continuing on that zombie thought, here are some zombie books I’ve read/are on my TBR.

Feed by Mira Grant

Top 5 Tuesday #62: More of These, Please

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 sequels you would sell your soul for

(What are some books that don’t have a sequel (either not announced or was never published) that you would really like to read?)

I do prefer series than standalones, although I hardly ever move past the first books in series, lol. I just prefer when a story I love keeps going for a bit. The following are mostly standalone comics (so far) that I’d like to read a sequel of.

Conspiracy of Ravens by Leah Moore & John Reppion, illus. by Sally Jane Thompson

Top 5 Tuesday #61: Retellings, Series, Standalones

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

I haven’t done this meme in a while since last week was BOOK TAG WEEK!!! and… I don’t know what the excuse is for the other weeks. But I’m doing it now! 😊 I think I’ll just catch up on the ones I haven’t done in this post since I like the topics. I’ll start with this week’s topic.

---

This week’s topic:

Top 5 standalone books

(Perhaps standalone books are more your thing. Tell us your top 5 standalone books.)

I tried to select books I haven’t mentioned or haven’t chatted about often.

Best Books So Far in 2021

The following are the best books I’ve read so far this year. They are a combination of favorite reads and ones so entertaining that I HAD to rate them highly and include them on this list. I wanted this to be a nice, round 10 books, but instead I have 9 with some honorable mentions.

The variety of books here reflects my reading taste, so you’ll see novels but also comics and picture books as well. They are listed in order of what I most recently read.

---

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray
★★★★★

Top 5 Tuesday #60: I Love Buildings on My Covers

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic:

Top 5 books with buildings/vehicles on the cover

(What are your 5 favourite covers with either vehicles or buildings on them??)

---

Well, guess who got carried away with this topic? I love illustrations of buildings, and a couple of the books I’ve bought and read over the years are due to this reason. So I went beyond the required 5 and listed a good bit below that I own.