This week’s topic was a great one for me, because I have so many books that I’ve been meaning to try for a long time that I keep putting off! I loosely set myself a goal of reading some of the books that had been on my reading challenge TBR lists more than once already, and even though I didn’t have a definite list or number in mind, I’m pretty aware of which books would fit for that. Aside from those though, I also have a number of backlist books from authors that I’ve previously enjoyed that I would love to catch up on. I had to qualify backlist a bit since I technically have several authors that are new-to-me, such as CJ Tudor or JP Delaney, whose older books would likely be considered backlist by now, but I haven’t read any of them yet. Those authors are high on my priority list to try, so in my mind, it’s not quite the same as a backlist even though it technically is. I decided to limit myself only to books from authors that I had read at least once before, and especially books that I’ve planned to read before. It was actually a little harder than I expected to find books to fit, since I have quite a few newer releases on my challenge plans and also quite a few new-to-me authors.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
I was so happy to finally find a hardcover copy of this one on Book Outlet! I absolutely loved The Wife Between Us and I’m very interested in trying both of this author duo’s other books. I was especially looking forward to this one because I’ve had it on my TBR for such a long time, but had trouble finding a copy, at least if I wanted to get the hardcover. It’s actually a little soon to call this one a backlist book I guess considering it only came out in 2019, but considering another book has already been published after it, it feels appropriate. This book is about a young woman named Jessica who signs up to be part of a study as a way to earn some extra money. As the study becomes more invasive and the therapist in charge becomes more controlling, Jessica begins to question whether she can really trust what is real and what is part of the experiment. The entire premise of this one sounds absolutely fascinating, especially since I studied psychology myself, and I can’t wait to try it. I also really enjoyed the authors’ writing style and was already looking forward to trying more of their thrillers. I have both of their remaining books on my list to read this year, but of the two, this is the one I’m more interested in getting to since it’s been on my list that much longer.
2) Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
I’d love to include The Last Time I Lied on this list too, but unfortunately that’s the only one of Riley Sager’s books that I haven’t been able to buy yet. I’d ordered a copy and was hoping to get it soon, but I’ve just been notified that it got lost in the mail and the company will refund me instead. This book is about a woman named Jules who takes a new job as an apartment sitter in a high-profile building in Manhattan. As Jules gets to know the other residents there, especially another apartment sitter who reminds her of the sister she lost 8 years ago, Jules starts to learn that the building has a darker history than she realized. When Ingrid, the other apartment sitter, disappears, Jules begins to dig deeper into the building’s past and discovers that Ingrid was not the first to disappear, forcing her to race against the clock to find out what is really happening. I absolutely loved Home Before Dark and also really enjoyed Final Girls when I read them both last year, and I’m very excited to try more by this author. I also had some trouble getting a copy of this one, but was lucky enough to see one hardcover copy that I was able to snap up from Book Outlet! I’m hoping I’ll be able to grab The Last Time I Lied too!
3) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
I was actually very surprised to realize just how old this book was! I thought it had been published around 2014 or so, but it actually came out all the way back in 2011. I’ve been a little hesitant to pick it up because I have so little familiarity with Achilles, and I was worried I’d have trouble understanding the book without more background information. After reading and loving Circe a couple of years ago, I finally decided I should give this one a chance. I have seen so much hype around this one over the past few years, and I hope it will live up to it! I do have an interest in Greek mythology and history, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to understand this one without too much trouble or outside research. I don’t mind having to do some research, but that would make it a little harder to find a good time to try it, since I’m at my busiest time of the year at work right now. Given how many people have absolutely raved about this one though, I’d imagine it doesn’t require a ton of background knowledge since I doubt every reader has a strong understanding of Greek myths. I’m very excited to try this one, and I really hope I will love it as much as everyone else seems to.
4) Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson
I finally tried one of Peter Swanson’s books for the first time last year, and I loved it! I have several more on my challenge plans for this year, but this is the only one that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned before. This book was released in 2017, and it is about a woman named Kate who suffers from panic attacks after being kidnapped by an ex-boyfriend. When her distant cousin Corbin offers to temporarily switch apartments with her, Kate hopes the time away will help her get control of her life again. Soon after she arrives, she learns that Corbin’s next-door neighbour Audrey had been murdered and she finds herself being questioned about her cousin. Kate also meets Alan, the tenant who lives across the way who may have seen Corbin leaving Audrey’s apartment, although Corbin had insisted he didn’t know her, and she also runs into a man who claims to be Audrey’s ex-boyfriend and also accuses Corbin of the crime. Despite his insistence on his innocence, Kate begins to find disturbing things around the apartment that hint that her cousin might not be who he seems. This sounds like such an interesting thriller and one that I actually knew very little about. Now that I’ve seen the synopsis again, it’s made me even more interested in remembering to pick it up soon!
5) The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes
This is the oldest of the books here, which was published all the way back in 2008. So far, I’ve only read Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You series, and I’ve been loosely meaning to pick up more of her work. Each year, I consider adding them into my challenge plans, but often end up putting them off. I added this book specifically because I had a prompt asking for a book that was becoming a movie this year, since this is due out this summer on Netflix. It is about a woman named Jennifer who wakes up in the hospital in 1960 unable to remember anything, until she stumbles upon a passionate letter signed “B” asking her to leave her husband. In 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers this same letter in a file in her newspaper’s archives, and becomes obsessed with the story of this couple and hopes their store might revive her career. There isn’t really a single good reason why I haven’t read any of Jojo Moyes’s historical fiction books until now. I enjoy the genre, and I also loved her writing in Me Before You. Knowing that the movie will be coming out relatively soon also gives me an extra push to pick this one up soon, because I’d love to read it before I see the movie!
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