It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic: Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist
(if you could make authors write about these things you would. Could be a specific type of character, an issue tackled, a time period, a certain plot, etc.)
A while back, I threw some ideas out there for the #RBWL, which stands for Reader-Blogger Wishlist. I hopped in the hashtag frenzy, adding some of the things I wanted to see in books that I hope and pray someone will do! Here I go back to my hashtags to share in an official blog post my wishlist desires!
I feel like there aren’t a lot of YA books that are strictly mystery. A lot of times that mystery is wrapped up in paranormal or fantasy or dystopian. I guess would you call it “contemporary mystery”? I read a lot of adult “cozy mysteries”, essentially the lighter mysteries for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term (I wasn’t when I first started reading them) and I think those could be a lot of fun!
I love the New Adult genre. It’s been something I’ve been craving for years… But so much of the New Adult books seem like romances set for older teens & twenty-somethings versus ACTUAL stories about being “new adult”. I want more things involving college, moving away from home for the first time, figuring out roommates, college classes.
I would love to read a retelling of a classic, a fairy tale, or historical story from the male’s POV instead of the female or vice versa if it’s originally a male POV, or even just another character connected to the book. I think that would be so interesting to see another POV in something like that. I think that was one of the reasons I loved Tiger Lily so much…
I’d love to see more adventure that’s closer to straight up adventure without being tied into fantasy, sci-fi, or paranormal. Quest in the jungle? Something like National Treasure? A Goonies-like treasure hunt? I’m totally in.
How about a book with a totally different concept of time? A year that’s only 100 days. A place that has completely different season than what we know. A day that lasts 30 hours. A week that’s only four days. Hey, it’s a made-up world. The sky is the limit!
Okay, I know this is a don’t want and not a want, but I cannot tell you how tiresome the football players & cheerleaders have become. We had all kinds of people on our football team & cheerleading squad in high school and not all of them were popular so that’s one stereotype I feel is way overdone or at least that I don’t connect with. Not all cheerleaders at mean girls. Not all football players are dumb jocks. One of the reasons I liked The Summer I Became A Nerd was because it was such a role reversal!
I love interesting forms of magic. Books like Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy, powers like the Lunars in The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, elemental powers like Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger… I absolutely love different magic AND different ways of performing magic and exactly what it requires. I love seeing authors get creative with magical abilities and I’d love to see more!
I’m all for the romances, but I’d love to see more sibling relationships! I don’t know what it is about an older brother that just makes me tear up and I love seeing fantastic sister relationships because it reminds me of my own!
Always more nerd & geek culture. I am LOVING IT.
God, I love prequels or “young” [insert person/character here]. Historical fiction, fairy tales, classics, you name it. I love the imagined story of what happened BEFORE the story!
15 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – January 21, 2014: Top Ten Things On My Reading Wishlist”
I have found with the ya mysteries have read that they are too easy to figure out for eveen teens I think so I agree but I would add make them more suprising!
I would LOVE to have more college-heavy NA books! It would be great to read a book that’s about what it’s like to go to college, how it changes things and even the experience of making friends, attending classes and so on. So I’m definitely with you on that one! (And on pretty much everything else on this fantastic list of yours!)
I would love more college stories about normal college kids.
I’ve seen college stories on quite a few lists, and I agree! I also like the mystery idea, and of course more nerds!
We have SO many in common!!! I am all for the NORMAL college experience…. MORE FANGIRL!!!! I love your idea about time warp, that sounds so interesting!! I would definitely be down for a book that mixes it up like that!
I have more sister relationships on my list! I have two sisters and the relationship between sisters is just so unique. I want to read more about it! And definitely unique powers in fantasy. Love the Lunars! Still have to read S&B. I’m getting there… 🙂 I would also love a retelling from another POV like maybe Little Red Riding Hood from the Wolf’s perspective. Or Peter Pan from Captain Hook’s POV. Something like that would be awesome.
I just read Phoenix Island by John Dixon and it’s a lot like the adventure-type book you were talking about. There’s a TINY bit of sci-fi involved, but mostly it’s just a really dark story about people running around in the jungle and being scared. I ended up liking it a lot, and it’s so different from other YA novels out there.
Re-tellings of fairy tales and classics are not my thing, but I really like the idea of a role reversal for them. I won’t expect me to say this, but I might read a fairy tale from the prince’s perspective, it would be really interesting! Great idea 🙂
Such a great list! So many I have never thought of but I found myself nodding along to it and definitely agreeing with you. Like role reversal retellings, how awesome would that be?! It would be great to get a glimpse into the other character’s mind. And yay, you love Tiger Lily too! It’s one of my favorite books and yeah it was great to see the story from someone else’s view. The Time Warp idea sounds also really amazing and the possibilities with it could be endless.
And a big yes to more college heavy New Adult. I wanted college stories for years and I was really happy when I learned about New Adult books, but unfortunately most NA books aren’t what I wanted. There are a few though, and I definitely want more!
Yes, yes, yes, there needs to be more YA mysteries. I get asked a lot at the library for YA mysteries, and I feel like I have limited choices to recommend. I mean, the adult genre is ridiculously popular – why wouldn’t ya mysteries be popular?
Oh more unique magic sounds great, I’d love to see that! I also agree that there need to be more adventure stories! Do you have any recommendations for good ones! I feel like this is an area that I really haven’t explored but I definitely need to!
Great list! I had a hard time thinking of any, so I interpreted the question a little differently…
I totally vote YES to all of the above. There really aren’t that many straight-up mysteries in YA, which I’ve never really thought about but is sort of surprising given everything. I’ve read ARCs of two mysteries(The Secrets of Lily Graves & Far From You), but I can’t think of any sort of backlist title mystery. It’s not a favorite genre of mine, so I wouldn’t expect to be completely in the know, but now that you’ve pointed it out, it is rather interesting that the other mysteries I can really think of have a dose of paranormal or something else.
College-heavy NA=YES, please. I want books that remind me of the both wonderfulness and awkwardness that is beginning college. I’m all for a good college-setting romance too, but I want characters to actually have to make friends and GO TO CLASS and deal with roommates and being away from home.
I would have never thought of a time warp but now that you’ve mentioned it, I would TOTALLY read something like that. I mean I love time travel, and so screwy time-stuff would be right up my alley.
I have more sibling bonds on my list too! Sibling relationships can be so interesting and complex and it’s just perfect for fiction exploring, but so few authors ever do.
A fairy tale retelling with a male POV would be amazing! It’s my favorite genre and having something else sounds good to me. I think that’s also one of the reasons I love Tiger Lily. So unique. But if you haven’t read it: Beastly by Alex Flinn is written from a male POV. Sibling bonds are adorable to read about! Especially when it reminds me of me and my sister 😀
A lot of these are good but I’m 100% in favor of “real” NA. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I heard New Adult was becoming a thing… and then how disappointed I was as I realized it’s pretty much a sub-genre of romance. Yawn. I totally want the “finding my place in the world as an adult” stories. No romance. Or, at the very least, not as the main plot.