Earl Grey Books

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is a Thanksgiving freebie, so I’ll be sharing ten books I’m thankful for this year.

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

When I decided this would be my topic for this week, The Last True Poets of the Sea came to mind before I even started writing this post. I read this one back in May, and it’s a definite contender for best book of the year. It’s just such a beautiful story, but it’s also one of those really quiet and unassuming books, which as you’re about to see, was something I really enjoyed this year.

There Was Still Love by Favel Parett

Sticking with the whole quiet and unassuming thing, this is an absolutely stunning book. It’s such a simple tale looking at the importance of grandparents and other family relationships. This was one of those books that I finished and then suddenly realised I was sobbing.

In the Prince’s Bed by Sabrina Jeffries

A little bit different now, but I couldn’t not mention at least one historical romance on this list. Whenever I’m struggling to read anything or if I’m anxious or depressed, historical romances are the only things that make me feel better. I had to go with Sabrina Jeffries, in particular, because she has bought me so much joy this year.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

This was a reread for me, in fact it was the fourth time I’ve read this, but sometimes you just need to re-enter a book that you already know. While this is my second favourite Austen, I still consider it one of my favourite books ever. It was just the thing I needed to make me happy.

Women In Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

I love a good book that introduces me to incredible women throughout history that I might not have heard of before. Science isn’t my area of expertise at all and I think I knew a couple of women out of this. But I learnt about so many incredible women, including a number of them who researched and invented treatments and whatnot that I use everyday to treat my T1 diabetes.

Seeing Ourselves by Frances Borzello

I would consider this one of the art books that changed my life. I started an Art History degree this year, and one of the essays I had to write was about female self-portraiture. Enter this book. I’ve always been interested in female artists, but this made me realise not only how few I actually knew, but that I had a specific interest in portraits. I’ve read a few other books and papers about the topic now, but I owe this one for making me realise that interest

The Theory of Hummingbirds by Michelle Kadarusman

I wanted to sneak some middle-grade onto here and it had to be this one. I was lucky enough to be a part of the blog tour for this one earlier this year. This is the story of Alba, a young girl born with a club foot and her dream to compete in a race at her school’s sports day. I’m incredibly thankful that this book exists because I was born with a club foot too and I never got to see myself represented in anything as a kid.

Unbroken edited by Marieke Nijkamp

What do I even say about this book that I haven’t already? This book deserves so much more attention than it’s gotten. It’s a short story anthology written by all #OwnVoices disabled authors, many of whom are at the intersections with other identities. Each of the stories features disability in some form, of course, but other than that they are all widely different. Some are contemporary, some are sci-fi and so on. I am a huge believer of the fact that disability representation can fit into any and every story and people who say otherwise are just trying to make excuses, and this book totally proves that theory. I’m sorry but it’s 2020, we deserve to have our voices heard too.

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

I completely owe it to Angel for making me read this one recently. This is not the type of romance book I’d usually ever even consider, but she made me read it and I loved it. I think I enjoyed it so much because it was so different. While I don’t think I’ll be jumping headfirst into more sort of fantasy/post-apocalyptic romance right now, I will be continuing this series in December and maybe from there, who knows?

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers

This is not one of my favourite books of the year like most of the others on here, but like Pestilence it opened my eyes to something new. I’ve been trying to love crime fiction for literal years and I’ve probably liked maybe five that I’ve read in that time. (This is, of course, excluding my love for Christie!) So I’m so glad that I finally read and enjoyed Sayers this year. Look, no detective will ever take Poirot’s top spot in my heart, but I enjoy Wimsey and the people around him. I’m eagerly awaiting my library to get a new copy of the third one and then I planned to keep going with the series.

Well there we are! Have you read any of the books on this list?