Top Ten Halloween Reads

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) in ages, and this week's theme is a really fun one, so here goes!

Top Ten Books to Read During Halloween

Well, for me, Halloween isn't necessarily about horror. Or rather, it's not just about the scares. It's also fun, colourful, a litte cheesy, a little goofy, funny, and a bit wicked. For me, it's about the supernatural more than serial killer horror; it's about wonder and magic, about the lines between worlds becoming thinner for one night. So with that in mind, here are my top ten Halloween reads...

1) The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. This book just sums up Halloween for me. It's the perfect read for this time of year!

2) Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice. The ultimate gothic vampire book. A must-read for vampire fans. The whole series is good, so if you like his one, carry on to later books too!

3) The Bartimaeus Series, beginning with The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud. An alternate London run by warlocks, a charismatic demon, and lots of fun. This is a fantastic series and highly recommended.

4) The Whitby Witches, by Robin Jarvis. This is a must for a Halloween read. Witches, sea-people, weird goings on as the mist rolls into Whitby. Atmospheric and entertaining!

5) Strangewood, by Christopher Golden. A very creepy and definitely adult read. This fits in with Halloween's 'line between worlds' idea in an unexpected way. This is a book that's stayed with me a long long time after reading it.

6) Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett. This is a Discworld book, but you don't need to have read others in the series to enjoy it. Vampires and witches and very funny!

7) Poison, by Chris Wooding. Oh god the spiders... and they're far from being the creepiest part. This is a brilliantly written book that offers a fun, scary tale, with a fantastic ending.

8) The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. It's funny how many of these books have a similar idea running through them, actually. Perhaps books that make me question the reality of my own existence are oddly the scariest kind for me? Anyway, this has plenty of weird beasties in it too. A classic, and always fun.

9) The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente. This is another book like The Graveyard Book that just seems perfectly suited to Halloween. A slightly sinister but charming view of fairyland, which involves a trip to a land of always-Autumn.

10) Hollow Pike, by James Dawson. Witches, strange dreams, and a killer in a small Yorkshire town.This is a fun, creepy YA story that captures something of the feeling of old R. L. Stine books.

What are your Halloween reads? This year I'll be at World Fantasy Con, so I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing on the night. Over the Halloween period I think I might read Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, which looks fantastic, and of course I'll be sticking on all the Buffy Halloween episodes. :-)

Top Ten Standalone Fantasy Books

Today's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is actually supposed to be about books we wish there was a sequel to. Well... I just couldn't think of enough.

The trouble is that I read more fantasy than anything, and it's actually more common for those to have sequels. In fact, so common that it's hard enough to think of standalones I've read, never mind ones that I wish there was a sequel to. In fact, sometimes reading a standalone is a bit of a relief, and in most cases they are just the one book because that's how the story is best told. I wouldn't want sequels, because I wouldn't want to drag them out or spoil the effect.

As tempting as it was to list books that are actually meant to have a sequel but the sequel still isn't out yet (*cough*A Dance with Dragons*cough*), I decided to do something a bit different...

...and list (in no particular order) some amazing standalone fantasy books that I've read.

Top Ten Standalone Fantasy Books

1)  Sharps, by K.J. Parker. A fencing competition that turns out to be so much more. Politics and the threat of war in a very low fantasy (no magic) secondary world.

2) Best Served Cold, by Joe Abercrombie. An intelligent revenge novel with fantastic characters. Another low fantasy secondary world. This has some of the same characters as his first series, and is set in the same world, but it's not a sequel and, as far as I'm aware, doesn't have a sequel.

3) The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. A beautiful book about magic and the circus in the Victorian world.

4) Poison, by Chris Wooding. A half-fantasy, half-fairytale world with some excellent writing and mind-bending twists.

5) The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. Set in our world, a man mysteriously travels through time with little control. A love story, but with some very siniter notes too.

6) Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones. Our world meets the fairy world and a girl battles to save the one she loves. This sounds like quite a standard plot nowadays, but I guarantee you this book is nothing like what you might expect. Another sort-of-love story that's just a bit sinister under the surface.

7) The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. I don't think this has a sequel. A boy in our world is adopted by the dead.

8) Hollow Pike, by James Dawson. I'm not sure if this is intended to have a sequel one day, but it works very well as a standalone, which is a rare find amongst young adult paranormal books. A very subtle supernatural element, realistic characters and some well-written horror.

9) Holes, by Louis Sachar. Well, I suppose this is technically not fantasy at all, but I actually think it is. There's a really strong element of fate guiding everything, it feels a bit folklorish, and things are far too neat for there to be no magic involved. Plus, it's a wonderful book.

10) Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes. People's guilt/sins/emotional-baggage/whatever-you-think-it-is manifest as animals, granting the humans they are connected to some kind of extra power. Quite gritty urban fantasy set in Johannesburg.

What about you? Do you have any favourite fantasy standalones that you could recommend me? :-)

Top Fifteen Books Of The Year So Far

I didn't have the time last Tuesday to do last week's Top Ten list, but I really liked the theme, so I'm going to cheat and do it this week instead! And since I'm already cheating... I'm doing a Top Fifteen! :-) These are all books I've read in 2013, rather than just ones published this year.

My Top Ten Fifteen Books of 2013 So Far (in no particular order)

1) The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. Magic, a circus like no other, Victorians, romance, wonderful writing... I adored this beautiful book. My review is here.

2) Any Other Name, by Emma Newman. The second in her Split Worlds trilogy. Magic and manners, evil Fae, and great characters. And here's my review.

3) The Case of the Good Looking Corpse, by Caroline Lawrence. I love this mystery series for children, set in the Wild West! My review is here.

4) Geek Girl, by Holly Smale. Very funny and observant, and a really enjoyable read. Here's my review.

5) The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester. Finally got round to reading this science fiction classic and I'm so glad I did. My review is here.

6) Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion. Zombies... with a difference! A really surprising book. My review is here.

7) The Reapers are the Angels, by Alden Bell. More zombies with a difference! My review.

8) The Other Half of the Sky, edited by Athena Andreadis. A collection of wonderful science fiction short stories. Here's my review.

9) The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes. Time-travelling serial killer! My review is here.

10) The Eternity Cure, by Julie Kagawa. Second book in her Blood of Eden series and such a fun, exciting read! My review's here.

11) Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong. Werewolves, action and romance. Here's my review.

12) The Red Knight, by K.T. Davies. Fantasy, with great characters and a gritty world. My review.

13) Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman. A collection of magical and strange short stories and poems. Here's my review.

14) Feersum Endjinn, by Ian M. Banks. My first Banks book. Recently finished reading this with the Fantasy Faction book club, and a review will come soon. I loved the ideas and world of this book.

15) The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa. An interesting and fun vision of Faeryland. My review is here.

Honourable Mention: Best Served Cold, by Joe Abercrombie. The only reason this isn't on the list is because I'm still only halfway through it. I'm loving it so much that I really wanted to include it, but I thought I probably shouldn't, seeing as I haven't actually finished it yet. However, I'm pretty sure this will be on future lists of favourite books.

Top Ten Books That Feature Travelling

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday post in a while, mainly because I was starting to list the same books over and over! So, despite totally being able to fit a moving castle (with doors that open onto different locations) into this category, I'm going to hold back from adding Howl's Moving Castle to the list AGAIN, as I think you've all got the idea by now...

This week's topic is:

Books That Feature Travel in Some Way

1) The Odyssey. Well, this is pretty much the travel fiction, right? A fantastic story that tells of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War, and the strange things he faces on the way.

2) The Black Magician trilogy, by Trudi Canavan. There's a really great subplot involving travel in these books.

3) Sharps, by K.J. Parker. The fencing team is travelling to another country to compete in a tour of competitions, but are they just pawns in a larger political plan?

4) The Spellcoats, by Diana Wynne Jones. All the books in this series involve travel, actually, but this was my favourite one. It involves a river journey, and I thought the story and world-building were wonderful.

5) The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula le Guin. Okay, this one pops up on my lists quite a bit as well, but it really needed to be included in this category. This book is one long journey across the frozen lands of a distant planet, and it is so beautifully and vividly described.

6) The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett. It's not the only Discworld book involving travel, but it is one of my favourites, and, along with its sequel The Light Fantastic, it does pretty much explore the whole Disc.

7) The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Another one involving travel through a frozen landscape. This is a memorable book, and one of my favourites when I was younger.

8) Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Great book, and lots of travel in this one! By sea, by train, by carriage... across a large part of Europe.

9) Railsea, by China Mieville. This is a bizarre and fun mix of stuff, involving rail travel across the 'railsea': large stretches of flat ground crisscrossed with rails, and where giant burrowing creatures lurk.

10) The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Travelling through Middle Earth! :-)