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.

Hello lovely readers! Welcome to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! This one is fun because it means I can look at my very lengthy TBR list and think about the ones I want to read over the next couple of months. However – I am prone to changing my mind kind of frequently when it comes to books so I can’t promise that I will completely stick to this list, but these are the ten books that I am really looking forward to reading this autumn! It is a mix of new releases and some older books that I am really keen to get to.

1. Little by Edward Carey

Summary: from Amazon

‘There is a space between life and death: it’s called waxworks’ Born in Alsace in 1761, the unsightly, diminutive Marie Grosholtz is quickly nicknamed “Little.” Orphaned at the age of six, she finds employment in the household of reclusive anatomist, Dr Curtius. Her role soon surpasses that of mere servant as the eccentric doctor takes an interest in his newfound companion, and begins to instruct her in the fine art of wax modelling. From the gutters of pre-revolutionary France to the luxury of the Palace of Versailles, from clutching the still-warm heads of Robespierre’s Terror to finding something very like love, Little traces the improbable fortunes of a bloodstained crumb of a thing who went on to shape the word…

Why:

I honestly cannot tell you how excited I am to read Little. It’s the origin story of the founder of the famous London waxwork museum Madame Tussauds and it sounds so incredibly interesting. I find waxworks so fascinating and sometimes creepy so I can’t wait to read the story of a woman who sounds like she had a hugely varied and exciting life. I have an arc of this one and the cover is simply stunning! I’m actually going to start reading this one later this week so my review should be on here just before the book’s October 1st release date.

2. Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood

Summary: from Amazon

Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth’s, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute – unless she does as he says. This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally as the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way. Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.

Why:

I know that reading this book is going to be difficult because of the extremely harrowing subject matter. The fact that it’s a true story makes it even more horrific. However, I have read so many good reviews about how beautifully written Rust & Stardust is, so I have to read it for myself and find out. I was shocked to learn recently that the Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita is loosely based on a real life kidnapping and I think it’s important that that is not forgotten and, as the summary indicates, to tell the story of the victim herself.

3. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Summary: from Amazon

In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave.

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he’s drowning. She saves his life – and it will happen again and again.

Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.

And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it’s even begun.

Why:

This book has been on my TBR for so, so long and I just really need to get around to reading it because it sounds fantastic. I bought it a while ago but for some reason other books keep popping up that I need to read and I forget about Kindred. It’s not a long book so it shouldn’t take too long to read and I’ve made a promise to myself to read it before Christmas at the very latest.

4. Nasty Women by 404 Ink

Summary: from Amazon

With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it’s more important than ever to share real experiences and hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. Punk, pressure, politics, people – from working class experience to racial divides in Trump’s America, being a child of immigrants, to sexual assault, Brexit, pregnancy, contraception, identity, family, finding a voice online, role models and more, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, Zeba Talkhani, Chitra Ramaswamy are just a few of the incredible women who share their experience here. Keep telling your stories and tell them loud.

Why:

This book caught my eye at the Edinburgh Book Festival which I spend too much money at every year because I live in Edinburgh and keep popping in and buying more books! I picked Nasty Women up because the title felt familiar to me and because I really enjoy reading essay collections – especially ones with feminist themes. I can’t wait to read this one because the contributors sound great and the subject is so important.

5. Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Summary: from Amazon

It’s been five years since Mia and Brynn murdered Summer Marks, their best friend, in the woods

Increasingly obsessed with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn and by their fan-fiction imagining of its sequel, the girls were drawn by an undertow of fantasy into the magical world they’d created. But eventually, their delusions turned sick, and the Shadow, Lovelorn’s central evil, began to haunt them.

Or so the story goes. The only thing is: they didn’t do it

Brynn and Mia have both found different ways to hide from their notoriety, seeking refuge from a world that hates them-a world that will never feel magical, or safe, ever again.

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as past and present, fiction and reality, begin again to intertwine, Brynn and Mia must confront painful truths they tried for so long to bury-and face the long shadow of memory that has, all this time, been waiting.

Why:

I’ve got this one on my Netgalley TBR and I’m really excited to get to it. I read Oliver’s Delirium series years ago and I enjoyed it immensely so I’m intrigued to see where she goes with a totally different story. The plot sounds intense and twisty and there are some clear connotations to the Slenderman phenomenon which I am fascinated by. I read The Tall Man by Phoebe Locke a little while ago and loved it and Broken Things sounds like it may be a similar sort of read.

6. Brain On Fire by Susannah Cahalan

Summary: from Amazon

Susannah Cahalan was a happy, clever, healthy twenty-four-year old. Then one day she woke up in hospital, with no memory of what had happened or how she had got there. Within weeks, she would be transformed into someone unrecognizable, descending into a state of acute psychosis, undergoing rages and convulsions, hallucinating that her father had murdered his wife; that she could control time with her mind. Everything she had taken for granted about her life, and who she was, was wiped out.

This is Susannah’s story of her terrifying descent into madness and the desperate hunt for a diagnosis, as, after dozens of tests and scans, baffled doctors concluded she should be confined in a psychiatric ward. It is also the story of how one brilliant man, Syria-born Dr Najar, finally proved – using a simple pen and paper – that Susannah’s psychotic behaviour was caused by a rare autoimmune disease attacking her brain. His diagnosis of this little-known condition, thought to have been the real cause of devil-possessions through history, saved her life, and possibly the lives of many others. Cahalan takes readers inside this newly-discovered disease through the progress of her own harrowing journey, piecing it together using memories, journals, hospital videos and records. Written with passionate honesty and intelligence, Brain on Fire is a searingly personal yet universal book, which asks what happens when your identity is suddenly destroyed, and how you get it back.

Why:

This book is another one I’ve been meaning to read for a while and I want to get to it this Autumn for sure. The author’s story sounds absolutely terrifying and so intriguing. The idea that you can completely lose yourself because of a disease no one can diagnose is so scary and I want to hear the full story. I have been dealing with a serious chronic pain problem for two and a half years and I am still without a real diagnosis so I am immediately interested by other people’s struggle to understand what is happening to their own body.

7. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Summary: from Amazon

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend. Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.  But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.  Timed with the 200th anniversary of FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley, THE DARK DESCENT OF ELIZABETH FRANKENSTEIN is a stunning reimagination of the classic, speaking to the fears we all bury deep inside.

Why:

I can’t wait to get my hands on this book which is coming out near the end of September. I like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley a lot and this sounds like such a great and subversive retelling from a new angle. I’m definitely going to be buying this upon it’s release and reading it probably in October.

8. A House of Ghosts by W. C. Ryan

Summary: from Amazon

Winter 1917. As the First World War enters its most brutal phase, back home in England, everyone is seeking answers to the darkness that has seeped into their lives.

At Blackwater Abbey, on an island off the Devon coast, Lord Highmount has arranged a spiritualist gathering to contact his two sons who were lost in the conflict. But as his guests begin to arrive, it gradually becomes clear that each has something they would rather keep hidden. Then, when a storm descends on the island, the guests will find themselves trapped. Soon one of their number will die.

For Blackwater Abbey is haunted in more ways than one . .

Why:

I received this one in the mail at the end of last week and I was instantly in love with the gorgeous cover. The story sounds like a fantastically creepy mystery with kind of an Agatha Christie feel to it. I love a spooky read near Halloween despite being a scaredy-cat and A House of Ghosts sounds like it will fit the bill perfectly. I also like the historical aspect of the book and World War I is always captivating to read about as such a major event for every single person who lived through it.

9. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Summary: from Amazon

After years of cruel bullying from his classmates, Peter Houghton snaps one morning, and in nineteen minutes, ten residents of the town of Sterling are dead. When the case goes to trial, the reeling town is determined to seek justice for the innocents Peter killed.

But as the trial unfolds, Peter’s testimony casts light on the terrible role the residents of Sterling have played in turning a sweet, loving boy into a killer, and it isn’t long before Sterling’s illusions of innocence find themselves shattered forever. . .

Why:

I used to be such a big fan of Jodi Picoult. In my late teens / early twenties I read her books obsessively. However I haven’t read one of her books in about five years now – I’m not sure why but I kind of left them behind for some reason. Now I would like to revisit them and maybe read some of her newer releases too. I remember being really affected whilst reading Nineteen Minutes so I think that would be a good Picoult book to read again and see if I still find her books as engrossing as I used to.

10. The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

Summary: from Amazon

The Wicker King is a psychological young adult thriller that follows two friends struggling as one spirals into madness.

Jack once saved August’s life…now can August save him?

August is a misfit with a pyro streak and Jack is a golden boy on the varsity rugby team–but their intense friendship goes way back. Jack begins to see increasingly vivid hallucinations that take the form of an elaborate fantasy kingdom creeping into the edges of the real world. With their parents’ unreliable behavior, August decides to help Jack the way he always has–on his own. He accepts the visions as reality, even when Jack leads them on a quest to fulfill a dark prophecy. August and Jack alienate everyone around them as they struggle with their sanity, free falling into the surreal fantasy world that feels made for them. In the end, each one must choose his own truth.

Written in vivid micro-fiction with a stream-of-consciousness feel and multimedia elements, K. Ancrum’s The Wicker King touches on themes of mental health and explores a codependent relationship fraught with tension, madness and love.

Why:

I have read a few really complimentary reviews of The Wicker King and I am so curious about it. The story sounds exciting but the structure of the book and the multimedia elements are what really caught my attention. I think it will probably be a book I either absolutely love or hate and I can’t wait to find out which of those will be the case! I also find books that touch on mental health so interesting and important for everyone to try and understand.

Well that’s it for this week! This was a fun one to put together and now I’m even more excited to get to these books than I was before! Lets chat in the comments, let me know what you think of my list and if any of these books have caught your eye! And feel free to link to your own Top Ten Tuesday so I can read about your Autumn reading plans!

xxx