Gifts I’d Like, Have Given, and Have Received

Hello! Welcome to this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly theme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where we talk about books! This week, we’re supposed to talk about Books That I Hope Santa Brings, but I’m going slightly different. I’m in a very fortunate place where I don’t really have any books on my Christmas wish list. We have a very nice library system where I live (we’re the largest library district in Colorado, having taken over the Denver Public Library District this year), and my husband has a good job (working for the library district) and I also work part-time, so I can fortunately afford books if I want them (this hasn’t always been the case; there have been years where I had $10 total to spend on Christmas gifts for my entire family).

So this week, I’m going to talk about books that I have given, will be giving (Angel if you find my blog do NOT read it until after Christmas!), or have been given. With maybe a book or two that you can’t buy yet that I would like to get.

1. Book of Night – Holly Black. I considered giving this book to my niece this year. I probably spend the most money on gifts to my niece (outside of my husband and kids) because she likes books! More importantly, she likes some of the books that I like, so I know I can pick out something she’s bound to like.

Anyway, Holly Black came to Denver earlier this year, and she was signing books. I would have bought an extra book for my niece, but she was only signing one personalized book and one non-personalized book, so I didn’t do that. And I can understand why she wouldn’t want to sign a bajillion books, but she did lose out on a sale from me.

Marie Lu did sign a whole bag of books for me, so sometimes you can get authors to sign a lot of books.

2. Red City – Marie Lu. This is the book I did get my niece. This will not be the first Marie Lu book I’ve given Angel, but it is the first adult Marie Lu book I’m giving her. I hope she likes it! Angel’s in her 20s now, so I think it’s okay to give her an adult book. And I know she has liked her books in the past.

3. The Last King of Fairie – Cassandra Clare. I’ve been reading one of her Kickstarter books, Better in Black, at lunch at work lately. This is the first book in her upcoming Wicked Powers trilogy. It’s not even available for pre-order yet; if for some reason Santa could slip this (probably even unfinished) book under my tree, that’d be really nice.

I’ve already been waiting years for this book to come out so if it did appear under my tree, it would be an amazing Christmas.

4. Seek the Traitor’s Son – Veronica Roth. This is another one that Santa could leave for me. I have it pre-ordered, but it doesn’t come out until May. Roth is one of the two authors that really got me into writing again, and I love her Divergent trilogy (up until chapter 50 of Allegiant) as well as Carve the Mark (one of the books I hope to reread this winter). This book seems to have similar feels to these books and I’m looking forward to reading them.

5. The Cruel Prince – Holly Black. I gave this series to my niece last year. I hope she liked it. She tends to like books in this genre, and I really liked reading this series, so that was what I chose last year.

This is a trilogy and Black released a duology, The Stolen Heir and the Prisoner’s Throne, that is a little like a sequel to this book that I read earlier this year while at work, and it was pretty good too.

6. Legend – Marie Lu. This was the first series I ended up giving my niece. She told me that she liked Divergent, which I liked as well. A librarian, knowing I liked Divergent, suggested Legend, which is how I ended up finding this series too. She liked it too, which is how she ended up getting books from me every year.

Years later, the fourth book in the now tetralogy, Rebel, was released, and I gave her that one year.

7. Warcross – Marie Lu. Since my niece liked Legend, I had to give her this series too. It takes place in the same universe as Legend, only in a near-future time, rather than about 100 years into the future.

Yes, Angel gets a lot of Marie Lu books from me.

8. The Young Elites – Marie Lu. This is another series that I love, and that I gave to my niece in another year. It has a wonderful morally gray character and one of my favorite love stories.

My dad usually gives my mom a new Stephen King book every year; when you know someone likes a specific author it makes gift-giving a little easier. If I didn’t pre-order every Marie Lu book, they might make good gifts for me too, but by Christmas I’ve already read them.

9. The Twelfth Imam – Joel C. Rosenberg. This was a book that I received for Christmas several years ago. I loved this series and have read it several times. I like most of his works, but this one has a love story that I really enjoyed. Which is probably not something you expect from a political thriller type book, but I think that was what really drew me in the most to this series.

10. My True Love Gave to Me – Stephanie Perkins (editor). I mentioned a couple weeks ago how I often reread this book, but I don’t own it yet. I still haven’t gotten around to buying it. Maybe if Santa left it under my tree I could stop talking about Getting it.

Update on this book: While I was writing this blog post, I noticed that the Kindle edition of this book was on sale for $1.99. Well, I couldn’t pass up a deal like that. So now I have a Kindle copy. Still, if Santa left me a hardback edition of this book, I wouldn’t mind.

So here are ten books that I have either given, been given, or would like to be given this Christmas. What books would you like to be given, have given, or were some of your favorite books you’ve been given as Christmas gifts? Or other holiday gifts if you celebrate other holidays.