Ten Books on my Fall TBR 2020

This week’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday (created by The Broke and the Bookish and carried on by That Artsy Reader Girl) is Ten Books On My Fall TBR (2020 Edition). I enjoyed creating a TBR for Fall last year, so I’m repeating this tradition in hopes to finish or at least make progress in a couple of book series I’ve started (this year or before). 

The following books will not be the only ones I read between today, September 22nd, and December 21st, but I want to make sure I make time for series that are new, that I’ve already started, or want to revisit before the end of the year, and this is the best way for me to do so. I have made note of a couple of books within a couple of series that I’m either almost finished rereading or have started rereading prior to today, and I am counting these as part of the total ten.

If you prefer to bypass my ramblings in the following paragraphs, I have listed out the books at the bottom of this post (in no particular order). So without further ado, here are the Ten Books on my Fall 2020 TBR.

207 pages of The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold
(The Daevabad Trilogy #2 and #3)
by S.A. Chakraborty

Back in April I finished my reread of The City of Brass, and as of this morning I have 207 pages left for my reread of The Kingdom of Copper, so once I finish that last section of Book #2 (hopefully in the next couple of days), I will start the 752 page conclusion of The Daevabad Trilogy: The Empire of Gold. I could go easy on myself and say I want to read at least half of it by the end of Fall, but instead I am making the announcement that this is a book (and series) I will finish by December 21st (don’t worry, I go easy on myself for the rest of this TBR). 

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth Trilogy #2)
by N.K. Jemisin

I started rereading Book #1 of this trilogy (The Fifth Season) a couple of weeks ago, but have many pages to go (I’m currently on page 46 of 449). I went back and forth trying to decide whether or not to reread it before moving on to The Obelisk Gate (I read The Fifth Season in May of last year), but decided it would be more beneficial to my memory and reading experience for Book #2 if I reread it. 

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro (Chronicles of the Bitch Queen #1)
by K.S. Villoso

This is the book that gave me the idea to fill my Fall TBR with book series. I became familiar with it via an email from Caffeine Book Tours promoting the sequel, The Ikessar Falcon (which just so happens to be out today). I purchased The Wolf of Oren-Yaro with the intention of spending cozy Fall nights with its 426 pages, and with the knowledge that if I was captivated by it (which many reviews indicate I will be), the sequel would be available for me to read almost immediately (as for my Fall TBR, however, I will only be focusing on The Wolf of Oren-Yaro).

The Gilded King and The Silver Queen (The Sovereign Trilogy #1 and #2)
by Josie Jaffrey

I read The Gilded King two years ago (read my book review here), but have neglected the rest of the series for no reason other than the typical “putting too much on my plate” tendency readers like me have. And as I combed through the series on my shelves that I have not continued but want to continue, this one was an obvious choice. So I will be both rereading The Gilded King and doing my first reading of The Silver Queen this fall. I know from experience that I can fly through Josie Jaffrey’s writing, so the choice not to include The Blood Prince (Book #3) on this TBR is not based on my own reading pace, but on shipping times. I want physical copies of these books (I have the physical copy of Book #1), so I had to place an across-the-pond order, and should expect them in the middle of October (although with the state of the world I would not be surprised if they arrive in November). My reading optimism is pressuring me to go for it and finish the entire trilogy by December 21st, but in the chance that shipping gets pushed back, it’s safer to have just one book (The Silver Queen) on this TBR be affected.

A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #1 and #2)
by Deborah Harkness

Both of these will be rereads, and if you find it odd that I would forego, say, the last book in a trilogy—like The Blood Prince or The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth Trilogy #3) for example—in order to read parts of a series I’ve already read, I don’t blame you. But my desire to start a reread of the entire All Souls Trilogy stems solely from my purchase of the boxed set back in May. I read this series in 2016 in library book form, but have yet to read my copies; and as such, they don’t really feel like mine yet (I have this same feeling about The Fifth Season, which I also purchased—in a boxed set with the following two books—this year). Plus, I have been in a mild slump for the past couple of weeks, so they are also my safety net in case I continue on a slumpy path this Fall (rereading a book or books I love usually cures my reading slumps).

Turning the Storm (Eliana’s Song #2)
by Naomi Kritzer

Fires of the Faithful (Book #1) was sent and recommended to me by the owner of one of my favorite bookstores (read the post about the related book haul here), and I recently devoured it over one of my weekends at camp. It is the perfect fantasy novel for those who enjoy political/religious/social conflict, a setting in a school for specially skilled young women, music, magic; and readers who appreciate an author who can portray certain male leaders as evil without a descriptive rape scene, include a war sequence that is done and over with in a couple of pages instead of forcing dull chapters of descriptive fighting scenes (I don’t need to know how someone was killed or wasn’t killed; just tell me which happens and move on with the aftermath), and a potential [female/female] romance that does not overwhelm the story. 

I’m going into so much detail about the first book because it and Turning the Storm were published in 2002 and 2003, respectively, so it is likely neither are as well known as the series I’ve mentioned above. Anyway, this is a duology (with a trilogy featuring similar cover imagery that comes after, though it is not clear to me if the series are connected), so I hope to finish the second and final book this Fall.

Ten Books On My Fall TBR (2020 Edition)

1. *The Kingdom of Copper (final 207 pages)
2. The Empire of Gold
3. *The Fifth Season (all but 46 pages)
4. The Obelisk Gate
5. The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
6. *The Gilded King
7. The Silver Queen
8. *A Discovery of Witches
9. *Shadow of Night
10. Turning the Storm

* indicates a reread

If you also have any of these books on your immediate TBR, or if you’ve read any already, let me know—it would be fun to chat about them (spoiler-free, please). You can stay up to date on my TBR progress in my Instagram stories and on Twitter, and share the book or books you want to read in the next month or so in the comments. Happy [Fall or general] reading! 🍂