Hi and welcome to the reading world!
I didn’t read many novels in October this year so I’ll skip the wrap up for last month, but today I want to highlight some of the books I’m hoping to finish by the end of the year! Some of these are ones I’ve had on my currently reading list for awhile, and a few are off of previous TBRs! As always, I am a mood reader and the end of the year is always a fun but busy time, so this is just a list of potential reads and by no means a list of books I’ll certainly be picking up.
Let’s get into the TBR!
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Published by Simon and Schuster on August 9, 2022
Genres: Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, Family & Relationships / Dysfunctional Families, Family & Relationships / General
Pages: 320
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Fantasy fiction. Released in two volumes due to size of book. According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed . . . They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won. Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne. On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few days is a young spearman ,forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight. What happened deep in mankind's past? Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Published by Gollancz on November 3, 2022
Pages: 608
Bram Stoker’s gothic horror masterpiece pits good against evil and life against death, all under the thrall of the original vampire.... “Listen to them—the children of the night. What music they make!” He is a creature of darkness. His face deathly pale, his eyes ablaze with the fires of hell. He has been dead for centuries, yet he may never die. He waits in his crumbling castle in the mountains of Transylvania, as his prey draws closer and closer to destruction.... Here begins one of the most celebrated horror stories in history, the tale of an undead monster who craves the blood of his victims and relishes his dominance over mankind. With its delicious mix of action, suspense, and looming dread, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has terrified and inspired readers for more than a hundred years. With an Introduction by Leonard Wolf
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Published by Penguin on August 24, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Classics, Fiction / Gothic, Fiction / Horror
Pages: 416
and an Afterword by Jeffrey Meyers
The Wheel of Time is now an original series on Prime Video, starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine! The Eye of the World, the first novel in Robert Jordan's #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, follows Moiraine Damodred as she arrives in Emond's Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One. The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the Two Rivers seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light. Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. The last six books in series were all instant #1 New York Times bestsellers, and The Eye of the World was named one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. The Wheel of Time® By Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson By Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson By Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons By Robert Jordan and Amy Romanczuk
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Published by Macmillan on January 15, 1990
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Pages: 670
New Spring: The Novel
#1 The Eye of the World
#2 The Great Hunt
#3 The Dragon Reborn
#4 The Shadow Rising
#5 The Fires of Heaven
#6 Lord of Chaos
#7 A Crown of Swords
#8 The Path of Daggers
#9 Winter's Heart
#10 Crossroads of Twilight
#11 Knife of Dreams
#12 The Gathering Storm
#13 Towers of Midnight
#14 A Memory of Light
The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time Companion
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE "Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior. My sincere admiration for her brilliant work." —Annie Proulx In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . . A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Published by Penguin on August 11, 2020
Genres: Fiction / Crime, Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Satire
Pages: 288
"A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune
A Darker Shade of Magic, from #1 New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive. "A Darker Shade of Magic has all the hallmarks of a classic work of fantasy. Schwab has given us a gem of a tale...This is a book to treasure."—Deborah Harkeness, New York Times bestselling author of the All Souls trilogy Shades of Magic series
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab
Published by Macmillan on February 24, 2015
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Gaslamp, Fiction / Fantasy / General, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical
Pages: 400
1. A Darker Shade of Magic
2. A Gathering of Shadows
3. A Conjuring of Light
An International Bestseller! Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known. Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else. Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Published by Tor Publishing Group on November 2, 2021
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Gaslamp, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Fantasy / Romance, Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Gay
Pages: 384
Winner of the 2022 Romantic Novel Award in Fantasy!
Locus Award Finalist!
An Indie Next pick and LibraryReads pick—with four starred reviews!
A Best of 2021 Pick for NPR | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies.
Soon to be a major Netflix original series! Translated from original Polish by Danusia Stok
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Published by Orbit on May 1, 2008
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Fantasy / Collections & Anthologies, Fiction / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures, Fiction / Fantasy / Epic
Pages: 384
Geralt the Witcher -- revered and hated -- holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in this collection of adventures in the NYT bestselling series that inspired the blockbuster video games.
Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.
But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good...and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.
Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. The Last Wish short story collection is the perfect introduction to this one of a kind fantasy world.
Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny
Witcher novelsBlood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire The Tower of SwallowsLady of the LakeSeason of Storms
The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)
What books are you planning on reading at the end of the year? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by!
Rae