Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. I love to look back at previous TBR’s and see what books are still waiting to be read. There were definitely a lot of books for my Read the World Project I didn’t manage to get to and my reading slump at the end of 2020 (which I’m slowly getting out of) didn’t help matters.
The first five on this list are books that featured on various Top Ten Tuesday’s or readathon TBR’s in 2020, and the other five are books I was looking forward to reading but I don’t think I’ve mentioned them here before.
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
This is my book for Togo in my Read the World Project. I think it’ll be really interesting to see how a Togolese man becomes fascinated by Greenland and his determination to go there.
Beyond the Rice Fields by Naivo
This is the first novel from Madagascar to ever be translated into English and it’s set in the nineteenth century and it’s about the relationship between a slave and his master’s daughter.
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić
I actually started to read this before 2020 but I only got a few pages before I realised I wasn’t in the mood for it. I always meant to get back to it soon.
Mama Hissa’s Mice by Saud Alsanousi
This will be my Kuwait read for the Read the World Project and is about friendship and protest.
Palestine+100 edited by Basma Ghalayini
This is a short story collection which has a range of genres, science-fiction, dystopia, noir and is about what the future of Palestine might look like.
The Ultimate Tragedy by Abdulai Silá
This is the first novel to be translated into English from Guinea Bissau and is about a girl who leaves her village to seek a better life in the capital, finding work as a maid for a Portuguese family.
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
The Old Kingdom series is one of my favourites and is a formative influence but I haven’t really read any of his recent books and I want to fix that.
The Madwoman of Serrano by Dina Salústio
The first novel by a female author to be published in Cape Verde, and the first to be translated into English. Serrano is an isolated village where a madwoman roams. But is she really mad or is she marginalised because she is wise and a woman?
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
While I have heard this book isn’t as good as the first, and I’m unsure if this series is a duology or more it has more books to come, I did really like Children of Blood and Bone (except the romance/love interest) so I’m interested in seeing what happens next.
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod
It follows two Jewish stepsisters, Elza and Sarith, descendants of the settlers and their pampered existences become intertwined with the fate of the plantations as the slaves decide to fight against the violent repression they have endured for too long.
What books did you mean to get to last year?
Elena Square Eyes 
Children of blood and bone got lost on my reading list(it’s supposed to be so good) and I didn’t even know there was a second one out.. Thanks for the reminder! =)
Haha! No problem! I definitely didn’t see as much hype for the second book as I did for the first…
There have been so many books everyone has introduced me to, simply because I didn’t know another in the series had come out. 😅
I hope these are all awesome when you get to them. I’ve heard good things about the Garth Nix series. 🙂
Thanks!
Great list! So many of these sound so interesting–especially The Madwoman of Serrano. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is one I still need to try, too. I hope you enjoy all of these!
What a marvelous list. I’m especially drawn to African in Greenland.
Thanks! I plan to read An African in Greenland in February – fingers crossed I actually do read it! 😀
Mama Hissa’s Mice sounds like a good read.
My post.
Thanks, I hope to get to it soon 🙂
I was kind of disappointed with Children of Virtue and Vengeance, it wasn’t as good as the first one for me. It’s a trilogy, so there’s one more book to come.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/19/top-ten-tuesday-299/
Thanks for letting me know it’s a trilogy! Yeah I’d heard the second one was a bit of a let down. Know I have a copy I think I’ll give it a go and then decide from there if I want to finish off the series – that’s if I don’t DNF Children of Virtue and Vengeance 😉
No worries! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
The Cost of Sugar sounds like an interesting read. I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you 🙂
I tried reading The Children of Vengeance and Virtue but couldn’t remember enough of book one and was confused. I set it aside. I hope you do better. Thanks for visiting.
Haha thanks! Yeah I think I might look for a recap as it’s been a couple of years since I read the first one.
I also picked up The Left Handed Bookseller, with fond memories of Abhorsen and the Old Kingdom series… I wonder whether that fondness was one of the reasons I put off actually reading it: I didn’t want to ruin the memories!
These are the books I didn’t get around to last year!
Think you might be onto something there! I do find it difficult sometimes when an author is so linked to a certain world/characters/genre in my mind to read different books by them.
I really want to read The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix soon too!