Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s all about books, lists and sharing the love we have of both with our bookish friends. As we’ve made significant in-roads into September, it’s time to consider our autumn TBRs…

This year I’ve oscillated between required reading (which I’ve done well at completing) and mood reading (which I’ve been hilariously bad at predicting) on my seasonal TBRs. With the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards awarded for the year, I get to spend autumn hoovering up 2022 releases before the process starts afresh. That said, I’ve got a lot going on in my life right now and I’m going to hold to mood reading for the most part (with apologies to 2022 releases), so take today’s TBR with a pinch of salt.

There are a few 2022 releases that I’m absolutely determined to read in October. I’ve been enjoying darker fantasy and horror thrills through the summer, so I’m very excited to turn the lights down and read The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett. Ancient legends, haunted forests and modern scientists who are definitely going to find out the truth and not get eaten by it? Quite. I’m just as keen to sink my teeth into Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda, a very contemporary spin on vampires which tackle themes of cross-cultural heritage in modern London. The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt should get me in the mood for SciFiMonth, a fast-paced space opera of linguistics, salvage horror and outwitting your alien overlords.

Speaking of SciFiMonth, I’ve got four reads lined up for November already (in addition to a huge stack of backlist titles to choose from). I’ve been a big fan of James Smythe’s timey-wimey philosophical series The Anomaly for years; the final volume – aptly titled The Ends – came out this summer to no fanfare and this is my chance to catch up on how humanity is coping now the Anomaly has swallowed the Earth… Also on my slate is the upcoming pirate-scholar-spaceship political romance from Aliette de Bodard, The Red Scholar’s Wake and The Stars Undying, Emery Robin’s reimagining of Cleopatra as queer space opera. Last but not least, I’m excited to dive into Warlady by Jo Graham, a magical space opera in which two unlikely allies must find an assassin and hold a foreign navy at bay to preserve their planet’s independence.

There’s plenty of time for other reads this autumn, but I’m less certain what they’ll be. Having been determined to read more backlist I might actually do so – but there’s a heap of 2022 releases that I’d like to catch up on and may not be able to resist…

What will you be reading?