Top Ten Tuesday: My Summer 2024 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl! This week, we’re talking about the books we’re reading this summer. As usual, my books are not remotely summery-themed, but they’re what I’ll be reading over the next few months!

The Darkening Age: This is a book about a time period I’ve always found interesting but haven’t ever read about before, when European peoples went from largely engaging in pagan folk practices to practicing Christianity. It has wildly diverging reviews on Goodreads, so I’m curious to read it for myself.

The Shining Girls: This seems like a fascinating genre mash-up, with elements of science fiction and horror and a thriller.

The Invention of Everything Else: I read Samantha Hunt’s follow-up novel to this one several years ago and really liked it, so I’m looking forward to going back and reading this book, rooted in the life of Nikola Tesla.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: I’ve had Jenny Lawson’s (The Bloggess) memoir recommended to me several times, and it’s supposed to be hilarious, and I am excited to finally get to it!

The Hired Man: This one is historical fiction about war and secrets in Croatia that is supposed to be really well-written.

The Children’s Book: I loved A.S. Byatt’s Possession and am hoping this scratches the same kind of itch!

Diamond Doris: The true story of a Black woman from a small town in West Virginia (also home of one of my favorite musical artists, Bill Withers) who became a professional jewel thief, which seems like it will be completely bananas!

Geek Love: This has been recommended enough by reviewers I trust that I’m going to try it, but honestly I am not sure how I’ll feel about this book about a family of circus “freaks”.

Hum: I don’t know a ton about this pending August release, except that it’s speculative fiction about AI and surveillance technology and that feels very intriguing to me!

Play It As It Lays: I am SO excited to read more Joan Didion.