Top Ten Tuesday | June 23, 2020

Happy Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a Bookish Meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week is very special! Top Ten Tuesday is celebrating it’s TENTH BIRTHDAY TODAY! In celebration of that, this week’s theme is DO A TOPIC YOU MISSED OR UPDATE ONE YOU’VE ALREADY DONE!

Happy Birthday Top Ten Tuesday!!! I’ve been participating off and on for about four years now and I’ve absolutely loved every week. I hope this continues for at least another ten years and makes other bloggers feel as happy as it makes me.

Now, onto this week’s TTT… I’ve decided to take a theme that I missed before and do it today! Today’s Top Ten Tuesday on Kait Plus Books is… CHARACTERS LIKE ME! You may have noticed in my little bio on the right (or at the bottom if you’re on mobile) that I am: asexual, biromantic, fat, autistic, chronically ill, and really bad at texting. I’ve chosen books this week that feature characters who share some of these traits with me and make me feel seen.

And now without any further ado, here’s this week’s Top Ten Tuesday!

Quentin: Anxious, Autistic, Bi

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Published on August 11, 2009 by Viking
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer
Pages: 402
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Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.
He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.
At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

(full disclosure: this book is the only one on the list this week that I haven’t read. I’m relying on the five seasons I binge watched on SyFy and the fact that people who had read the book saying that Quentin was even more anxious and autistic in the books for it. Yell at me if I’m wrong, I guess.)

(also, another sidenote: thank god for Quentin Coldwater and his ‘these books saved my life but the author is a complete piece of shit’ storyline because wow… applicable.)

Leah: Fat, Bi

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
Published on April 24, 2018 by HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray
Genres: Contemporary, YA, Queer
Pages: 352
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.
When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

Molly: Anxious, Fat

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Published on April 11, 2017 by Balzer + Bray
Genres: Contemporary, YA, Queer
Pages: 336
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.
There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

Alice: Asexual, Biromantic

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
Published on January 23, 2018 by Swoon Reads
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, YA, Aspec, Queer
Pages: 288
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Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.
But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).
When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Nancy: Asexual

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Published on April 5, 2016 by Tor.com
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer, Aspec
Pages: 173
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Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.
No matter the cost.

Lia: Anxious, Autistic

The Game by Linsey Miller
Published on August 4, 2020 by Underlined
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, YA, Queer
Pages: 240
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Every year the senior class at Lincoln High plays assassin. Lia Prince has been planning her strategy for years and she's psyched that not only does she finally get to play, she's on a team with Devon Diaz. But this year, the game isn't any fun--it's real. Abby Ascher, Ben Barnard, and Cassidy Clarke have all turned up . . . dead. Can Lia stop the ABC killer before he reaches D?

Emilie: Autistic

Annette: Asexual

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller
Published on February 4, 2020 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Queer, Aspec
Pages: 384
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Tumblr

Emilie des Marais is more at home holding scalpels than embroidery needles and is desperate to escape her noble roots to serve her country as a physician. But society dictates a noble lady cannot perform such gruesome wor.
Annette Boucher, overlooked and overworked by her family, wants more from life than her humble beginnings and is desperate to be trained in magic. So when a strange noble girl offers Annette the chance of a lifetime, she accepts.
Emilie and Annette swap lives—Annette attends finishing school as a noble lady to be trained in the ways of divination, while Emilie enrolls to be a physician’s assistant, using her natural magical talent to save lives.
But when their nation instigates a frivolous war, Emilie and Annette must work together to help the rebellion end a war that is based on lies.

Edie: Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Meet Me in Outer Space by Melinda Grace
Published on March 12, 2019 by Swoon Reads
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, YA
Pages: 272
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Smart and unflinching, this #OwnVoices debut contemporary novel stars an ambitious college student who refuses to be defined by her central auditory processing disorder.
Edie Kits has a learning disability. Well, not a learning disability exactly, but a disability that impacts her learning. It isn't visible, it isn't obvious, and it isn't something she likes to advertise.
And for three semesters of college, her hard work and perseverance have carried her through. Edie thinks she has her disability under control until she meets her match with a French 102 course and a professor unwilling to help her out.
Edie finds herself caught between getting the help she needs and convincing her professor that she isn't looking for an easy out. Luckily for Edie, she has an amazing best friend, Serena, who is willing to stitch together a plan to ensure Edie's success. And then there's Hudson, the badly dressed but undoubtedly adorable TA in her French class who finds himself pulled into her orbit...

Haley: Anxious, Demisexual

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson
Published on June 25, 2019 by Scholastic Press
Genres: Contemporary, YA, Queer, Aspec
Pages: 384
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When a guy named Martin Nathaniel Munroe II texts you, it should be obvious who you're talking to. Except there's two of them (it's a long story), and Haley thinks she's talking to the one she doesn't hate.
A question about a class project rapidly evolves into an all-consuming conversation. Haley finds that Martin is actually willing to listen to her weird facts and unusual obsessions, and Martin feels like Haley is the first person to really see who he is. Haley and Martin might be too awkward to hang out in real life, but over text, they're becoming addicted to each other.
There's just one problem: Haley doesn't know who Martin is. And Martin doesn't know that Haley doesn't know. But they better figure it out fast before their meet-cute becomes an epic meet-disaster . . .

Eliza: Anxious

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Published on May 30, 2017 by Greenwillow Books
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 385
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Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.
Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Lydia: Fear of Failure that keeps her from trying at all

The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet by Kate Rorick, Rachel Kiley
Published on September 29, 2015 by Gallery Books
Genres: Contemporary, Retellings, YA
Pages: 336
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Before her older sister, Lizzie, started her wildly popular vlog, Lydia was just a normal twenty-year-old plotting the many ways she could get away with skipping her community college classes and finding the perfect fake ID. She may not have had much direction, but she loved her family and had plenty of fun. Then Lizzie’s vlog turned the Bennet sisters into Internet sensations, and Lydia basked in the attention as people watched, debated, tweeted, tumblr’d, and blogged about her life. But not all attention is good…
After her ex-boyfriend, George Wickham took advantage of Lydia’s newfound web-fame, betrayed her trust, and destroyed her online reputation, she’s no longer a naïve, carefree girl. Now, Lydia must work to win back her family’s trust and respect and find her place in a far more judgmental world.
Told in Lydia’s distinctive, eccentric, and endearing voice, The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet picks up right where The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet left off and “offers a fresh take on Pride and Prejudice without ruining it” (The Washington Post, on The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet). Featuring fresh twists, wonderful new characters, and scores of hilarious texts, doodles, and tweets, The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet takes you behind the webcam and into the lives of your favorite sisters in a way that’s sure to satisfy existing fans and delight new ones.

What did you do for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous week!