It is that time of week when I post a top 10 things to read. The prompt provided for this week by The Artsy Reader is new to me authors I discovered in 2023. That was just too hard so we are going with new to me authors that I have not yet tried but want to in 2024. I own so many books, of authors I have never tried.

So below are some authors of which I own books but haven't read anything or haven't read enough and authors that intrigue me to try them.

1. T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher is a pen name used by Ursula Vernon. I just want to say, such an amazing pen name, that was the first thing that intrigued me. One of my favorite Booktubers Ashleigh of A Frolic Through Fiction has been a big fan of her work and when she first described one of the books

I was like yes, give this to me. I need this in my life. Also, I want to read more horror books, I enjoyed Mexican Gothic and House of Hollow, which were my first two horror books. T. Kingfisher's "What Moves The Dead" revolves around fungi in horror. So I am looking forward to that. I do not own any of the T. Kingfisher books at the moment so it doesn't have top priority but I hope I will manage to read at least one this year. Also, horror fairy tale retellings are something I am down for as well.

2. Travis Baldree

I think in the fantasy book world if you haven't heard of Travis Baldree yet, you have been living under a very large rock. As Legends and Lattes have a hype around it that is the likes of Sarah J. Maas. It has been read, reviewed, and mentioned by almost all my favorite Booktubers, and has been all over the place. It is such a cool thing to see an author come from self-publishing a book, getting picked up by traditional publishing, and seeing how it has grown into the hype it has now. I like these kinds of success stories. No, getting that out of the way, a cozy story about an Orc wanting to open a coffee shop, sounds just like my kind of read. I got this one for Christmas and I can tell you that I have already started it last night, next to Queen of Shadows, which I am also still reading. I was so surprised that I got this one, I had not expected this book, but I am so happy to have it and finally read it!

3. Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones has made a name for himself in the horror genre as well. The title of his book The Only Good Indians, got stuck in my head, so when I saw it in the books store you know what happened, I took it home.

There are in total 4 books on my want-to-read list, I just keep piling them on, so I should at least see if I like his writing style.

Also, can I just say that I love the cover for The Only Good Indians? Anytime you put a deer on a cover I am bound to at least consider buying it. The same goes for foxes by the way.

4. Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is still as popular as ever in the fantasy and science fiction genre. All of his series are highly regarded and have been on my to-read pile for the longest time.

Brandon Sanderson scares me a bit, I don't exactly know why, it is not that I am scared of reading big books. Says the girl who just received 2 over 800-page books. So that is not why this author scares me. I think it is more a case of What if I do not like it? I will be divining in with sky-high expectations, so what if I don't like them, is not something I would like the conclusion to be. I own Elantris, so I could dive into my first Brandon Sanderson book whenever I feel like it.

5. Joe Abercrombie

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am a fantasy reader. So it is probably not surprising that I am posting almost all the greats in the genre. This was kind of accidental though, back to Joe Abercrombie. I do own the first book in the First Law trilogy, called The Blade Itself. It is currently sitting nearby where I am writing this post, down on the windowsill, with a couple more books all staring me down, fighting for my attention, shouting, when are you going to read me?

There is a change, my boyfriend decides to pick it up before I do, this has happened before, and he has devoured the Green Bone Saga in record time. I wish I could read as fast as he can, so I can finish more books on my TBR.

6. Jeff VanderMeer

I have read Annihilation the first of the Southern Reach trilogy, it was such a fascinating book, full of strange things and not a clue as to what we are dealing with in this strange piece of our world, but is it?

I kind of like this sort of mysterious story, it was very well executed and so damn cool. And yet I still have to continue reading the rest of the series. I am sure that I am going to love it, and I am curious about what else he has written, all the covers of the other books are so bizarre and I love them for it.

Before I can treat myself to any of his other works I will have to finish Southern Reach first. Wish me luck it will take me a while probably.

7. Jim Butcher

Now having all the epic fantasy writers down, let's move on to some urban fantasy. Jim Butcher has been on my wish list for years, however, there is where his works remained until last year when I finally picked up the first book of the immensely popular Dresden Files, Storm Front.

I have a special place in my heart for urban fantasy, I have enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and Bitten by Kelley Armstrong.

The above were both written by women, I am curious if there is a difference between the urban fantasy worlds women write and males write. I think Jim Butcher will be a great place to start.

8. Jay Kristoff

The books that first caught my eye were the books you can see here on the right, the Nevernight Chronicles, which is also sitting on that same windowsill, other unread books on my shelves are the Empire of the Vampire in the stunning Illumicrate edition and in my upstairs library there is also a copy of Illuminea. I think my first attempt will be at the Nevernight series, I just want to know if I will love what is beneath the beautiful covers.

9. Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle is by far my favorite of the Studio Ghibli films, it is my go-to movie for when I am sad or mad or just want to be happy.

I have not read the source material yet that was written by Diana Wynne Jones in the 1980s. I want to fall in love with the world of Howl's Moving Castle in a new way.

Also, I have always thought that there was much more to the story than we see in the film. I want to find out which parts are different or missing.

Would you be interested in reading about a comparison between the movie and the book?

Let me know and I might try this out.

10. Nicki Pau Preto

Concluding this list, is the newest, new to me author, Nicki Pau Preto. I was an active FairyLoot subscriber for as long as I could afford it, I had to cancel my subscription a while ago as I could not anymore.

But not before The Bone Smith arrived in my mailbox. I think Fairyloot has outdone itself with this edition.

Also, the synopsis caught my attention and this now is a must-read book for 2024.

What do you think of my free interpretation list of this week's TTT?