Top Ten Tuesday: Quick Reads (aka a list of novellas!)
Hi friends! Tuesday has come around again, and I hadn’t done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while, so it’s time to fix that! Today’s topic is about quick reads – aka novellas and other short fiction. I don’t read a ton of novellettes and other short fiction, so my list will be only novellas. However, a good friend of mine is an author and write short fiction, so I’m learning more about that scene from her! So maybe I’ll share more of that in the future. BUT ANYWAY. Back to today’s list!
- Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
- Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
- Even Though I Knew the End by C.L Polk
- Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
- The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
- Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn
- The Deep by Rivers Solomon
- The Practice, The Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (releases April 16th 2024)
- The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
- The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi
Of these ten, I’ve only read two!! Which is embarrassing! Though to be fair, one of them isn’t even released yet haha. The two I’ve read are the first two, Remote Control and Riot Baby.
Remote Control was my first read from Nnedi Okorafor. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking sci-fi novella about a young girl with the power to kill with a single thought. I really enjoyed it, and it made me read another one of her novellas (Noor) just ten days later haha. Binti is one of her most popular books, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading that one.
I have a review of Riot Baby here, but to lift a bit from that review: “There are so many things that this novel is about. Magic – black girl magic, black anger, the experience of growing up black in America, family, racial injustice, police brutality, etc. It’s incredibly hard to summarize in one review.”
The other books are ones on my TBR that I’m very excited about. They all come highly recommended from friends! Well with the exception of The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain, only because since it hasn’t released yet I don’t know anyone who has read it haha.
Have you read any of these? If yes, how did you like them? If not, are any on your TBR?
Also – I’m looking for more novellas that are from publishers other than TorDotCom Publishing. I LOVE their books, but they tend to dominate novella publishing so I want to branch out. So please let me know if you have recs for other novellas or publishers!
Even Though I Knew The End is one of my favorites!! It was really special. A lot of my favorite Japanese authors publish novellas. I love what I’ve read of those so far (i.e. Banana Yoshimoto).
Remote Control was so good.
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
I haven’t heard of any of these books, but looking into them, some of them sound fairly interesting.
Riot Baby looks like a good read.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
If you liked Remote Control, I suspect you’ll like The Deep as well. They are very different in terms of subject matter, but I got very similar vibes from them when I read them.
Happy reading! My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2024/02/06/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-novellas/
The Deep is a fantastic read. Happy reading. My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/top-10-short-books/
I haven’t read any of these, but I hope you enjoy them when you get the opportunity.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/under-read-books-i-read-in-2023/
Love a novella! I’ve only read The Deep from your list but it’s so good and so emotional! I’ve wanted to read Ring Shout for a while too
The Ballad of Black Tom is really good, especially since it challenges the racism of the story it’s based on. And I really want to read Ring Shout too 🙂
Ring Shout is an incredible read. I have Even Though I Knew the End on my TBR and I’ve been meaning to read it for ages. Flowers for the Sea is also one I’ve been curious about.
I’m very bad at reading short fic, but I hope to try some this year!! Some of these I’ve had my eye on for a while.
I have not read any of these, but THE DEEP and RING SHOUT are on my TBR. The cover of FLOWERS FOR THE SEA has caught my eye as well.