Hi! It's Penny here and today I'm going to be talking about the 10 books
on my tbr that I am the most excited for. Now this
isn't going to include any books that aren't released yet and
it's probably going to change as soon as I film this video because what I'm
excited about in the moment changes depending on my mood, but we're
going to lock in this list. And I have also filmed another video about the top
10 highest rated on my tbr. And then once I have read
all of these books, we're going to compare whether the average rating
was a better predictor of which books I enjoyed or whether
my picks were a better prediction. Basically, this is a test
of whether I actually know my reading tastes. So at number 10
we have The Power by Naomi Alderman. This book is set in a world where everything
is pretty much as it currently is, or as it currently was in 2016 when this book
was released because the world has changed a lot since then! But regardless,
kind of set in contemporary times except that
teenage girls have now gained the ability to cause people immense pain and
even potentially kill them and that is changing the balance of
power. That sounds like a really interesting
concept so I'm really excited to read this book. I've also seen a lot of people
say good things about it so fingers crossed. Then at number nine
we have the Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. This is the story about a group
of siblings who have the day of their death prophesied for them
by this travelling psychic. And I believe it just looks at
how that prediction of how early they're gonna die impacts
the way that they live their lives and whether the way that they then
live their lives impacted the day of their death.
This is one that I have seen mixed opinions on but
personally I'm just excited about the concept so
I want to read it. Then at number eight we have the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
This is a story about this boy who finds a book
with his own story in it and then that leads him into all sorts of
strangeness. I read the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and I did really enjoy
it. So I'm hoping that I'll like the Starless Sea
as well. Again, this is one where I have seen mixed reviews
of it but I think it's just because it's so strange. Personally, I really
like strange stuff and I think Erin Morgenstern's writing is very beautiful
so I'm hoping that I will enjoy it. Then at number seven
we have If Cats Disappeared from the world by Kawamura Genki. This is a
japanese novel about this man who is going to die but then he makes a
deal with the devil that he can gain an extra day as long as every day
that he gains he chooses one thing to disappear from
the world. Again, this sounds like a really
interesting concept but as well I think I've enjoyed every single
japanese translated work that I've read so I think that's a good sign
for this one. Then at number six we have the Stone Sky
by N.K. Jemisin. This is the third book in the Broken Earth trilogy.
I've actually got this on my tbr for this month. I'm super excited to see how
the trilogy is going to wrap up. Of the first two books on the series, I did like
the first one better so I'm somewhat tentative going into this
but there are just some really cool things
in this world and I really care about the characters so I want to
see how everything's going to end. This is set in this world where there's
like constant apocalypses, earthquakes all the time, and it's
changed the way society works quite a lot.
There's also these people who have the power to control the earth
and to sense the earth but these people are feared
and often treated really badly. They're put in a special school
where they're expected to serve the people, they're practically enslaved. And
in the first book we're following three different characters who all have
this power but they're experiencing it in different ways.
Some really horrible things happened in the first one and I'm fairly certain
some horrible things will happen in this one too.
Then at number five, I have the first volume of Blackbird by Sam Humphries and
Jen Bartel. So Jen Bartel is the illustrator for
this graphic novel series and I have followed her art for quite a while.
She just uses beautiful colors and she has quite a
clean drawing style that I really enjoy.
I have also seen some people really loving this graphic novel series
so that's another good sign. I don't really know much about it other than
there's a girl who discovers that there is magic in the world
but it really doesn't matter what the story is about because even if I don't
enjoy the story, I'm sure it will still be pretty to look
at. Then at number four we have the first novella in the Murderbot Diaries, so that
is All Systems Red by Martha Wells. So this
series is all about this artificial intelligence robot that has
hacked their system so that they can just watch
tv all the time. Unfortunately, they do sometimes still
have to help the humans out with the different expeditions that the humans
take it on in order to help them out with physical
power and security. I did once read the first chapter or two
and then I had to return it to the library. And I really enjoyed those first
chapters so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love this.
Again, it's a really popular series so I'm pretty confident about this one.
Then at number three we have the Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. This is
the first book in the Rain Wild Chronicles,
which is the fourth series in the larger Realm of the Elderlings. I've been
working my way through it. I just want to read
this short story anthology that kind of goes in between
ish. I mean it was published about then so I'm going to read this first and then
I'm going to continue on with the Rain Wild Chronicles. As you can probably
guess from the title, it has dragons in it.
Basically, in the earlier Liveship Traders series, some things
happen with some dragons and now there are a bunch of baby
dragons, I assume, that people need to help look
after. I have just loved every book in this
series so far so I can't see why i wouldn't love this one
too. Then at number two we have the Nemesis by S.J. Kincaid. This
is the third book in the Diabolic series, which is a series
I really love and I can't wait for this final book and for the series to wrap up.
We're basically following this genetically engineered bodyguard. In the
first book she had to take the place of the girl that she
protects and go to the capitol where things go crazy.
It's set in this world where they have all sorts of technology.
They're all living in space but they've banned people from like studying and
reading and so nobody really knows how a lot of
the technology works and things are starting to break down.
In the second book there was a slight time travel...
sort of... and things went in a very unexpected direction so I'm so excited
for this final book. And then number one is also on my tbr
for this month because of course I'm going to be getting to these books that
I'm excited about sooner rather than later. And that is the
second volume of Ascender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. So this
is a series that follows on from the Descender graphic novel series. In
Descender where we basically had a war between
humans and robots. In this one we follow some of the same
characters in the fallout from that war as well as robots and AI and humans in
space, we've also got a bit of magic going on now.
And I just really love this series so I'm sure I'm gonna love this.
So those are all the books that I'm hoping to read hopefully
sooner rather than later. And then once I have read all of these and also read the
top 10 highest rated. I will check back in and we'll see
whether I was excited about the right books or
not. Do let me know if you have read any of
the books on this list because I would love to talk with you more about them
down in the comments. Otherwise thank you so much for watching! I hope that you are
doing well and I will see you next time :)