Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes June 2022

Posted on by The Book Lover's Sanctuary

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

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I love these wishlist posts, but I have to admit that I feel a little uncomfortable as the price of food, petrol and living reaches critical levels and the newspapers are talking in terms of crisis, and the unions are talking of striking again… But books are an inexhaustible source of pleasure and escape from those issues and now, perhaps more than ever, we are all in need of the joy of human contact and thought that receiving a bookish gift can give.

So, hopefully, this week’s TTT is about us connecting with each other and sharing our joys and our passions and knowing that somewhere out there, there is someone who thought of you enough to fulfil a wish.

At the same time, it is also my daughter’s birthday coming up – she has featured on a number of my posts recently, hasn’t she? Not anything I offer any apology for – and a number of the books on my wishlist might be ones I would like to read with her, perhaps to help with her autism, mainly for the sheer joy of adventure. I do, however, want to share these. After asking for a Raya and the Last Dragon, Sisu cake – made by me, not bought – I thought I’d practise on a small cupcake-scale last weekend…

Oh dear!

Anyway, this is the link to the list, which I have compiled with her very much in my mind!

Elle McNicoll

This was an author I stumbled over when looking for neurodivergent characters and representation, and her A Kind of Spark was wonderful.

I am particularly intrigued by Like a Charm‘s blurb

Edinburgh is a city filled with magical creatures. No one can see them… except Ramya Knox.

As she is pulled into her family’s world of secrets and spells, Ramya sets out to discover the truth about the Hidden Folk with only three words of warning from her grandfather: Beware the Sirens.

Plunged into an adventure that will change everything, Ramya is about to learn that there is more to her powers than she ever imagined.

Siobhan Dowd: London Eye Series

Once again, looking for neurodivergent representation and the mind behind the concept of A Monster Calls is worth looking at – even if the final novel was Patrick Ness’s!

11.32 a.m. Ted and his sister Kat watch their cousin Salim get on board the London Eye. The pod rises from the ground, high above the city.

12.02 p.m. The pod lands and the doors open. Everyone exits – everyone but Salim.

Has he spontaneously combusted? (Ted’s theory.)
Has he been kidnapped? (Aunt Gloria’s theory.)
Is he even still alive? (The family’s unspoken fear.)

Ted doesn’t see the world like most people he knows and is sure that with his “unique operating system” of a brain he can uncover the truth about Salim’s disappearance.
So, teaming up with Kat, Ted sets out to do just that – following a trail of clues across London. But with time ticking dangerously by, can Ted solve the mystery before it’s too late?

Robin Stevens: Murder Most Unladylike Series

It is no surprise to readers of this blog that I love – and have even turned my hand at writing – crime fiction and – however strange it sounds – am looking forward to introducing my daughter to crime! Many students I teach have raved about these, though they are possibly a little too old at the moment!

At Deepdean School for Girls, Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have set up their own detective agency. But they are struggling to find any real crimes to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t.)

Then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. To add to the mystery, when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove one happened in the first place.

Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning and intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

Jessica Townsend: Morrigan Crow Series

Once again, this is a series I have heard an awful lot of praise for – and I remember getting a little obsessed about Celtic mythology when I was younger – Me? Obsessed? Surely not! – and the name Morrigan Crow is highly redolent to me!

Morrigan Crow is cursed, destined to die on her eleventh birthday. But, as the clock strikes midnight, she’s whisked away by a remarkable man called Jupiter North and taken to the secret city of Nevermoor.

There she’s invited to join the Wundrous Society. Mystery, magic and protection are hers – if only she can pass four impossible trials, using an exceptional talent. Which she doesn’t have…

Kieran Larwood: Podkin series (second trilogy)

The first Podkin trilogy, revolving around the iron-infected Gorm rampaging through the Five Realm and threatening the peaceful rabbit existence, was lapped up by both me and my daughter. Yes, possibly a little derivative in the first book… but it grew!

From the Ice Wastes beyond the Cinder Wall emerges an unlikely hero. Rejected by his village and left to die, young Uki is given life and unique powers by a long-buried spirit from the time of the Ancients . . . and a life or death mission.

Joined by two other outcasts – a trained assassin who refuses to kill people and a very short rabbit who rides the fastest jerboa on the plains – Uki must capture Valkus, the Spirit of War, before rabbitkind destroys itself in conflict.

B. B. Alston: Amari and the Night Brothers

This one, once again, has cropped up on my social media to rave reviews and, on the strength of that and the blurb, I am intrigued!

Amari Peters knows three things.

Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it.
His mysterious job holds the secret…

So when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon.

Amari must compete against kids who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent – one that the Bureau views as dangerous.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton …

And one final one for me… being selfish!

Andrew Caldecott: Momenticon

I loved Caldecott’s Rotherweird series – Rotherweird, Wyntertyde and Lost Acre – and loved the weirdness, the quirkiness, the Britishness of them! A new novel is going to be worth a risk!

The world is on the brink of utter destruction.

Despite the climate activists’ best efforts, the atmosphere has turned toxic, destroying plant life, animals, and most of humanity too.

The few survivors live in domes protected from the lethal smog, serving Tempestas and Genrich, the world’s last two great companies. They both have plans for mankind’s future, but their visions are very different – and an uneasy collaboration between them is about to end, with desperate consequences.

But not everyone is bound to the companies: far from these centres of power stands the Museum Dome, where persons unknown have assembled mankind’s finest paintings and artefacts. Fogg, the curator, thinks he must be the last man left alive, for in the three years he’s been there, he’s not had a single visitor, and his only company is AIPT, his automated physical trainer, who’s very good when it comes to hamstrings and push-ups, but rubbish at actual conversation.

Then a single mysterious pill – a momenticon – appears in the Museum, proving he’s not alone after all. Before Fogg knows what’s hit him, he is embroiled in a desperate fight against time and the rival forces which threaten to overwhelm all that remains.

So there we have it, a range of books, mainly for the little one although our bookish tastes are rapidly converging, that I would love on my wishlist. I suppose all that is left to do is to actually share that wishlist!

Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes

June 28: Books On My Summer 2022 To-Read List
July 5: Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022
July 12: Book Covers That Feel Like Summer (Submitted by Ellie @ Curiosity Killed the Bookworm)
July 19: Freebie (Come up with your own topic!)
July 26: Books From My Past Seasonal TBR Posts I STILL Haven’t Read (Submitted by Dedra @ A Book Wanderer)

Published by The Book Lover's Sanctuary

#bookblogger, teacher, father | he / him |

26 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes June 2022”

  7. Happy birthday to your daughter, and if you do end up reading any of these with her I hope you both enjoy them! The London Eye series looks fabulous- maybe it’s those covers-and I love the look of the Unladylike books also!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I would like to buy one of these for your daughter. Do you have a Kindle and associated email address that I could send it to since I’m in the States? Or maybe you two dislike e-readers. I’m just trying to think of a way to buy one for her.

      Liked by 1 person

  14. Those cupcakes are awesome! Happy birthday to your daughter. My youngest just celebrated their birthday last week, as well. June birthdays are so fun! Happy summer reading!

    Liked by 1 person

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