Top Ten Tuesday: Top Seven Recent Reads ( + 3 I Know I'll Love When I Get to Them!)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish!

Well, the first day of my last Quarter of school has come and gone, which means we're now back to our regularly scheduled programming... ie, another Top Ten Tuesday! This time, we're running down some of my top rated reads from the first third or so of 2016. I wasn't able to come up with 10 unique titles, I tagged on a couple near the end of books I know will be 5 stars, too... just as soon as I actually get around to reading them! 

10 out of 10, would read again

1. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly 
This reread from my middle school years was a really enjoyable way to work some middle grade lit into my regular reading schedule... even though I still don't think the subject matter is all that kid-friendly!

2. Hark, a Vagrant! and 3. Step Aside, Pops, Kate Beaton
Beaton's clever riffs on literary, historical, and pop cultural references bring new nuance to the ways we think about these stalwart studies. Well, most of them do. Some of them rely on irreverent and inappropriate humor. The best often include both.

4. Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay
This accessible and eloquent collection of essays, reflecting on many aspects of modern-day feminism, successfully transforms a nuanced and delicate topic into a discussion that I would recommend to any woman - or man! - I know.

5. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan 
Probably one of my favorite books so far this year, this non-fiction account with one woman's desperate struggle to be diagnosed - and her subsequent attempts to reconstruct the harrowing experience after the fact - is another must-read for me.

6. Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Raven Cycle #3), Maggie Stiefvater
Out of all the series I've struggled to get into over the past couple of years, I never thought that The Raven Cycle would be so close to my heart. But it is, and I love it, and I still think it deserves better cover art that more adequately reflects its themes (I'm sure it's not just me!).

7. Beka Cooper: Terrier, Tamora Pierce 
Another reread from my middle school days, I reread this first installment in the Beka Cooper trilogy shortly before Break, and I've got its sequel sitting on my nightstand right now. Forever and always, one of my favorite Tortall heroines!

i know i'd love them, but i just haven't gotten there yet!

8. Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
My very wonderful sorority sister Alyssa lent me her copy of this recent release - one that even President Obama said was one of his favorites of 2015! - and I honestly meant to get to it over Break, but I just couldn't dedicate the time necessary to meaningfully sitting down with it, and giving it a try. Soon, though!

9. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes
I recently picked up this hardcover for about six dollars at a recent University Bookstore sale, and my heart fluttered a little bit just walking it to the cash register (along with five other titles of course... should I do a mini-book haul?). I'm so excited to read it!

10. Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal, G. Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Sara Pichelli 
I not only have Volume 1, but also Volume 2, as well as installments in the Captain Marvel series saved up, as well. I'm just waiting for the kind of sunny, lazy Spring Sunday, where I can lay in a patch of sun on my couch, in my leggings and a sweatshirt, and just give myself over to contentment.

What's in your Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below!