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. This week, we’re looking back at the 2022 releases we haven’t read yet – but plan to.

The cadence of my reading year is often skewed by the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards and this year that’s reassuring as there’s a lot of 2022 I would like to catch up on and I’m sure the shortlists will help (I’ll be contributing very few nominations myself, as I simply didn’t read enough 2022 titles in the year of release).

Several of the books I’m yet to read were eARCs that were unreadable in dark mode (anything else can trigger a migraine, so this is a pet peeve – publishers, stop forcing a white background). I will get round to them on the Kindle eventually, but as I’m often on the go and choosing my next read on my phone, this places these titles at a massive disadvantage. Which is a shame, because I’m still excited about them.

The Stars Undying by Emery Robin (Cleopatra and gender-swapped Antony in SPAAAAACE), Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott (post-Roman magic and metal-working), Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda (what if you were only half vampire?) and Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (Indian epic retelling).

Then there’s the books that I bought and have no excuse for remaining unread other than I’m a bookwyrm (okay, that’s not fair – I only just bought two of them so one may be my next audio read). I predict I’ll read at least half of these in 2023, as The Oleander Sword is a must-read for me, and The Kaiju Preservation Society is on my 12 in 2023 challenge. The only reason I’m not reading Dead Silence right now (because space horror would probably be the perfect antidote to my current reading slump) is that I have this as an audio book and I want to read with my eyeballs at the moment. Picky picky, I know.

The Hollows by Daniel Church (Peak District folkloric horror), Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather (unintentionally revolutionary space nuns), The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri (the murder lesbians are in charge, what can go wrong) and The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (time travelling with dinosaurs), The Coral Bones by EJ Swift (multi-period/POV ecological musing) and Dead Silence by S A Barnes (in space, nobody can hear you scream. Scream for me)

So that’s the top ten already on my shelves – but there are so many that I haven’t even got my hands on yet! Some are from favourite authors whose work I need to read:

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard (lesbian space pirate romance), The Ends by James Smythe (but what if we didn’t die? Would that be worse?), The Witch In The Well by Camilla Bruce (telling the tales of dead witches can be dangerous) and The Way The Light Bends by Lorraine Wilson (a haunting tale of sibling love and loyalty)

…and others are from authors whose work I’m yet to explore, but am very excited to try.

The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler (forget dolphins, the octopus are the ones to watch), Leech by Hiron Ennes (post-apocalyptic Gothic SF? Yes, please), The Book Of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti (magic and cooking are the way to my heart), The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning (a modern urban fantasy homage to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop), The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (cartomantic conspiracies) and Spear by Nicola Griffith (gender-bent, queer retelling of a late Arthurian tale).

What do you still want to catch up on?