Top Ten Books On My TBR List For Summer 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is: Top Ten Books On My TBR For Summer 2015

1. Armada by Ernest Cline – All the science fiction TV shows, video games, and movies that we enjoy these days have actually been designed by the government to prepare us for an impending alien invasion. How could you not want to read this book? I’ve only read the beginning of Ready Player One, but I found the writing good and the story interesting. I just got distracted by other books.
2. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley – I really enjoyed this author’s short story in Neil Gaiman’s Unnatural Creatures collection. She has a unique style that I hope will be present in this book. A young girl has a respiratory illness that has plagued her for life, until she finds her way into a magical world where she is no longer weak and dying. Instead she is powerful and strong, and can make a difference in this new land she has discovered.
3. The Truth Commission by Susan Juby – When the people at Penguin Random House told us about this book I thought it sounded awesome. At this high school rumours don’t get a chance to spread because “The Truth Commission” makes it their business to find out what the real story is. If only my own high school had something like this when I was there! That boyfriend that my entire school dreamed up for me (mass hallucination?) would never have existed!
4. Of Silk and Steam by Bec McMaster – I really enjoyed the first four books in this series, so I’ll be making an effort to get to this one some time throughout the summer. I’m a sucker for anything steampunk, but these books really captured my interest. In this one we finally get the story of Lady Aramina and Leo, which has been brewing over the last four books. Although Leo isn’t my favourite character in the series, knowing that his actions will finally be explained is what is making me need to read this book.
5. The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins – Everyone is reading this book, so when it went on sale I decided I had to buy it. Although I’ve heard mixed reviews, I still feel like it’s something I should read just so I can talk intelligently about it to customers. I’ve currently loaned it to my mother-in-law because I have so many other books to read right now, so I guess we will see if I ever get it back.
6. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – This has been on my TBR list for a long time, but there’s something about the opening chapter that has kept me from reading much more. I’m going to have to give it another go because I’m sure that I will like it. I love the idea of a dystopian circus, and the comparisons people have made to The Gracekeepers (which I loved) make me want to give this a real effort.
7. The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler – Another one of my not-so-secret reading weaknesses is books about booksellers or librarians. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book from the publisher, so I plan to read it as soon as I am done reading any books that come out before this one. This book also features a circus, so I was pretty much sold from the beginning. There’s a mysterious book, a possible family curse, and an estranged sister… I can’t wait!
8. The Fog Diver by Joel Ross – I’m finding it hard to get into any of the books I have on hand at the moment, so I went looking for something full of adventure. This was recommended by Goodreads while I was looking at some dystopian steampunk, so I decided to purchase it and take the risk. Humanity has been clinging to life at the tops of mountains because a toxic fog lies below. The richest and most powerful families live at the top of the mountain and take the best of what the fig divers (ie. scavengers) can collect from the ruins below.
9. All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey – This is going to be a reread for me. I was reading a Top Ten Tuesday post the other day and someone mentioned one of these books. McCaffrey managed to capture both science fiction and fantasy readers with this series, and it is only as you get further into the stories that you realize how much thought she put into her world building. I plan to reread all my favourites from this series, but this one is especially exciting for me because it is my all time favourite of the entire series.
10. The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack – I stumbled across this book in the store while shelving and was intrigued by the name. A famous painter is inspired by extremely vivid dreams, and is confronted by a scientist when she recognized one of her own dreams on his canvas. When they meet the painter has the most vivid dream he has ever had, of events that happened to other people in another time. Together they begin to discover the secret of their shared dreams and the mystery of what happened in their shared past.

Coming up with 10 was a bit of a stretch for me because I don’t always map out my reading plan very well. It usually comes down to what is at hand. So what books are you planning to pick up this summer?