Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s about sharing our love of books and lists with our bookish friends. I’m not on the fence about any 2019 releases, so I thought I’d book-end last week’s TBR with a look at my wishlist. After all, it’s my birthday next week…

My wishlist is a beast: recent releases, backlist, coming up – it’s a mix of them all, and sometimes books stay on there for years (not least because I often buy a book before I even get round to actually adding it to my wishlist). I buy tactically when I see books on offer (or second hand); and I buy passionately when I just need it now okay?

My family used to assume that if a book had been on my wishlist for a couple of years I mustn’t want it any more. HA. It just means I haven’t got it yet (I do actually prune books if the urge to read fades). Of course, now I’ve got an Amazon wishlist plus To Read shelves on both Goodreads and Litsy, that pruning is as haphazard as my buying. Another job for the list…

In the meantime, here’s ten books – excluding 2018 books I’m still excited to read (as we talked about them very recently) – that I’m wishing for really hard!

Planetfall / After Atlas / Beyond Mars – Emma Newman

I’ve been meaning to delve into Emma Newman’s well-received space opera novels since Planetfall first came out. Shamefully, it has never quite happens for various reasons (including getting side tracked by the Split Worlds), and she keeps writing more – so I just have more catching up to do!

Doomsday Book – Connie Willis

There’s always a selection of classics on my wishlist. Doomsday Book sounds right up my street (I studied archaeology; the black death is an unhealthy fascination of mine; and hell yeah time travel). I’d like to get back to my Confessions of a Bad SF Fan, and female Hugo winners is a good place to start.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe – Lauren James

Lauren James caught my attention when she talked enthusiastically at SFX Bookcon about the complex Excel spreadsheet she designed to ensure the timings all worked out. I can’t resist a well-applied bit of Excel geekery, and luckily the book sounds lovely too!

The Copper Promise / The Iron Ghost / The Silver Tide – Jen Williams

Considering how hard I fell for The Winnowing Flame trilogy, it only seems right to go back, grab some beer and seedcake, and discover Jen Williams’s original warm-hearted dungeon crawl.

A Woman of the Iron People – Eleanor Arnason

Eleanor Arnason’s books always have such interesting titles. I know absolutely nothing about this (or To The Resurrection Station), but I want to read them on the basis of their titles alone. Silly? Maybe, but it’s a classic that won the Tiptree Award, so I think I’m on safe ground…

The Freeze-Frame Revolution – Peter Watts

I can’t resist reading Peter Watts’s work, even though it usually leaves me grumpy with a sore head. He writes the hardest of hard SF, with great vision and little optimism. Here he gives us a revolution – where the rebels are awake only one day in a million. How hard can it be?

Sourdough – Robin Sloan

I loved Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, and Sourdough ticks more boxes than I know where to start with. This sounds like a perfect blend of SF tech culture, bread porn and conspiracy thriller. Yes, really, those elements will make a perfect blend.

The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century – Jane Loudon

I only discovered this book when I researched proto SF for Dancing with Fantasy and SciFi recently, but it’s an instant must-read. This is an example of early Victorian futurism – Loudon predicts the future through the eyes of a resurrected Pharaoh. Sounds quirky? Apparently it is; I can’t wait.

Infomocracy – Malka Older

Essential reading for our time, Older’s novel looks at the intersection of tech, media and politics in a near-future direct micro-democracy. I’ve just been putting it off because I’ve not had the stomach for a political thriller with tech at its heart, as we seem to be living in one…

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club – Genevieve Valentine

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favourite fairy tales: a king promises a royal bride to the suitor who can figure out what his daughters do at night. Valentine has rewritten it in the Roaring Twenties and oh my heart, I don’t actually know why I haven’t bought and read this already.

What are you wishing for?