4.1.2025 | Tuesday

Tuesday Meme-ing

category: Reading Memes

tag(s): top ten tuesday

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this week’s theme

books you’d be a fool not to read

I hesitate to call one a fool, since to each his own in reading tastes. But here are my 10 must reads and why.

Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey (review | StoryGraph): This one was my very first Lackey book, and it instilled a lifelong love of this saga, which is still ongoing. I’ve been reading and rereading it for decades now.
The Power by Naomi Alderman (review | StoryGraph): This is not just a feminist take on gender equality. It’s so much more than that. There was such a sense of female empowerment over the course of the first half of the novel, and I loved it so much that I almost felt guilty through the rest of it. The author holds up a mirror and forces an unflinching look at power and how it can be wielded, regardless of gender. It’s a difficult novel to read at times, even more difficult to describe why it was so meaningful, but it feels like an important read.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (review | StoryGraph): This is one I almost didn’t include. It was life-changing for me when I first read it several years ago. Especially when I read an interview with the author where she discussed that every horrific thing in the book had been directly inspired by something that had occurred or was occurring some place in the world. Right now? I don’t think I could reread it, so I offer it up as significant, but with caution.
The Weaver and the Witch by Genevieve Gornichec (review | StoryGraph): I could not put this book down! I loved the Norse mythology, the three women at the forefront of the story. They were very different, living disparate lives, but so loyal to one another. It was just incredibly well written!
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James (review | StoryGraph): I adored this book! It’s told in two timelines through two narrators, both of whom are unreliable in their own ways. There was something deeply intriguing about both of them that kept me on the edge of my seat.
The Replacement Wife by Darby Kane (review | StoryGraph): This is a thriller, one with another unreliable narrator. The FMC was cast in a world of gray, making me, as a reader, question everything about her. What was actually happening? What was a figment of her damaged mind? Is there a bit of the tropey “damsel in distress” about her? Yes, more than a little. She’s traumatized, mentally unstable, and heavily depended on meds, leaving her vulnerable and open to being victimized. But it was a deeply rooted part of the story, not a trope for trope’s sake. And it led to parts in the story that enraged me to the point that I sometimes had to set it down and walk away. I felt everything the FMC did and became so involved with the story. It was utterly engrossing, and so twisty.
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw (review | StoryGraph): This is a very atmospheric novel, with vibes that reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. Like that, this book had a cultish group that began as a community of like-minded people. But over time, as happens, the idyllic turned less so, leading to cracks in the foundation.
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (review | StoryGraph): This book… it is mesmerizing in the weirdest possible ways. It’s both dystopian and feminist in genre, telling the story of a society in which women are raised to believe that they wield a dangerous and terrible power over men. So they are banished into the wild for their sixteenth year to rid themselves of that magic before they come back, properly subdued for the men of the community. But there is something else going on out there, and it’s dark and twisty. It had deep themes that matter, especially in today’s world.
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (review | StoryGraph): I read a lot of thrillers, but this was one of the most chilling I’ve read. The structure of it was unique, but done in a way that was incredibly effective. It’s told through the multiple perspectives of a serial killer’s daughter, his girlfriend, and his sole surviving victim. Each of them knows the man in a different way. Most of the narratives are told in the first person, but one is told in the second, which is fascination. The pace is a little slower, but in a way that makes the suspense truly build.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (review | StoryGraph): I love this author, and I love this book. There is something deeply touching and hopeful about this book. It features an unwilling hero and an unlikely friendship that had me in tears more than once. I love that the author can present hardcore science in a way that is understandable without resorting to near-lecture narrative. A must read!