Top Ten Tuesday | July 13, 2021

Happy Tuesday!

Top Ten Tuesday is a Bookish Meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and this week’s theme is BOOK TITLES THAT ARE QUESTIONS! (which I kind of did?)

Happy Tuesday! I had a difficult time finding ten books with question marks, so I expanded the theme. I decided to feature books that have funky punctuation in their titles- question marks, exclamation points, and (my personal favorite) ampersands!

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

Siri, Who Am I? by Sam Tschida
Published on January 12, 2021 by Quirk Books
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Adult
Pages: 343
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Mia might look like a Millennial but she was born yesterday. Emerging from a coma with short-term amnesia after an accident, Mia can't remember her own name until the Siri assistant on her iPhone provides it. Based on her cool hairstyle (undercut with glamorous waves), dress (Prada), and signature lipstick (Chanel), she senses she's wealthy, but the only way to know for sure is to retrace her steps once she leaves the hospital. Using Instagram and Uber, she arrives at the pink duplex she calls home in posts but finds Max, a cute, off-duty postdoc supplementing his income with a house-sitting gig. He tells her the house belongs to JP, a billionaire with a chocolate empire. A few texts later, JP confirms her wildest dreams: they're in love, Mia is living the good life, and he'll be back that weekend.
But as Mia and Max work backward through her Instagram and across Los Angeles to learn more about her, they discover a surprising truth behind her perfect Instagram feed, and evidence that her head wound was no accident. Who was Mia before she woke up in that hospital? And is it too late for her to rewrite her story?

Would You Rather?: A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out by Katie Heaney
Published on March 6, 2018 by Ballantine Books
Genres: Contemporary, Queer, Romance, New Adult, Non-Fiction
Pages: 256
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram

When Katie Heaney published her first book of essays chronicling her singledom up to age 25, she was still waiting to meet the right guy. Three years later, a lot changed. For one thing, she met the right girl.
Here, for the first time, Katie opens up about realizing that she is gay. She tackles everything from the trials of dating in New York City to the growing pains of her first relationship, from obsessing over Harry Styles (because, actually, he does look a bit like a lesbian) to learning to accept herself all over again. Exploring love and sexuality with her neurotic wit and endearing intimacy, Katie shares the message that it's never too late to find love--or yourself.

Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht
Published on June 12, 2018 by Tin House Books
Genres: Queer, Historical Fiction, New Adult, Thriller
Pages: 266
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New York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She's working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA.
Next thing she knows she's in Argentina, tasked with wiretapping a congressman and infiltrating a group of student activists in Buenos Aires. As Vera becomes more and more enmeshed with the young radicals, the fragile local government begins to split at the seams. When a betrayal leaves her stranded in the wake of a coup, Vera learns war makes for strange and unexpected bedfellows, and she's forced to take extreme measures to save herself.
An exhilarating page turner and perceptive coming-of-age story, WHO IS VERA KELLY? introduces an original, wry and whip-smart female spy for the twenty-first century.

Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker
Published on September 24, 2019 by Delacorte Press
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 327
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Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she's in therapy. She can't count the number of times she's been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her "weird" outfits, and been told she's not "really" black. Also, she's spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there's that, too.
Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat--and it's telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself?
Life may be a never-ending hamster wheel of agony, but Morgan finds her crew of fellow outcasts, blasts music like there's no tomorrow, discovers what being black means to her, and finally puts her mental health first. She decides that, no matter what, she will always be intense, ridiculous, passionate, and sometimes hilarious. After all, darkness doesn't have to be a bad thing. Darkness is just real.
Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms--and for themselves.

Turn It Up! by Jen Calonita
Published on January 2, 2018 by Scholastic Press
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Pages: 272
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The Nightingales are in a serious funk. Bradley Academy's all-girl a cappella group used to be the pride and joy of the sunshine state, but the Nightingales have fallen out of harmony. Best friends and co-captains Lidia Sato and Sydney Marino aren't speaking. A boy has come between them -- none other than Griffin Mancini, the obnoxious lead singer of Bradley's smug all-boy a capella group, the Kingfishers. The Nightingales have no chance at winning the big state final if their captains are at each other's throats. Their only hope is new girl Julianna Ramirez. She's super shy, but she has some serious pipes. The three girls -- and the whole group -- will have to come together if they want to beat the Kingfishers and their rivals from Julianna's old school. Told from alternating points of view, this novel explores the ups and downs of friendship, romance, competition, and finding the perfect song!

Smash It! by Francina Simone
Series: Smash It! #1
Published on September 22, 2020 by Inkyard Press
Genres: Contemporary, Queer, YA
Pages: 368
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Olivia "Liv" James is done with letting her insecurities get the best of her. So she does what any self-respecting hot mess of a girl who wants to SMASH junior year does...
After Liv shows up to a Halloween party in khaki shorts--why, God, why?--she decides to set aside her wack AF ways. She makes a list--a F*ck-It list.
1. Be bold--do the thing that scares me.
2. Learn to take a compliment.
3. Stand out instead of back.
She kicks it off by trying out for the school musical, saying yes to a date and making new friends. Life is great when you stop punking yourself! However, with change comes a lot of missteps, and being bold means following her heart. So what happens when Liv's heart is interested in three different guys--and two of them are her best friends? What is she supposed to do when she gets dumped by a guy she's not even dating? How does one Smash It! after the humiliation of being friend-zoned?
In Liv's own words, "F*ck it. What's the worst that can happen?"
A lot, apparently.
#SMASHIT

Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Published on March 9, 2021 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genres: Queer, Fantasy, YA
Pages: 368
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram

Tamsin is the most powerful witch of her generation. But after committing the worst magical sin, she’s exiled by the ruling Coven and cursed with the inability to love. The only way she can get those feelings back—even for just a little while—is to steal love from others.
Wren is a source—a rare kind of person who is made of magic, despite being unable to use it herself. Sources are required to train with the Coven as soon as they discover their abilities, but Wren—the only caretaker to her ailing father—has spent her life hiding her secret.
When a magical plague ravages the queendom, Wren’s father falls victim. To save him, Wren proposes a bargain: if Tamsin will help her catch the dark witch responsible for creating the plague, then Wren will give Tamsin her love for her father.
Of course, love bargains are a tricky thing, and these two have a long, perilous journey ahead of them—that is, if they don't kill each other first..

The Bright & the Pale by Jessica Rubinkowski
Series: The Bright and The Pale #1
Published on March 2, 2021 by Quill Tree Books
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Pages: 328
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Seventeen-year-old Valeria is one of the only survivors of the freeze, a dark magical hold Knnot Mountain unleashed over her village. Everyone, including her family, is trapped in an unbreakable sheet of ice. Ever since, she’s been on the run from the Czar, who is determined to imprison any who managed to escape. Valeria finds refuge with the Thieves Guild, doing odd jobs with her best friend Alik, the only piece of home she has left.
That is, until he is brutally murdered.
A year later, she discovers Alik is alive and being held against his will. To buy his freedom, she must lead a group of cutthroats and thieves on a perilous expedition to the very mountain that claimed her family. Only something sinister slumbers in the heart of Knnot.
And it has waited years for release.

Once & Future by A.R. Capetta, Cory McCarthy
Series: Once & Future #1
Published on March 26, 2019 by Jimmy Patterson
Genres: Queer, Romance, YA, Fantasy, Futuristic, Mythology, Retellings, Science Fiction
Pages: 368
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When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.
No pressure.

Among the Beasts & Briars by Ashley Poston
Published on October 20, 2020 by Balzer + Bray
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Retellings
Pages: 352
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Cerys is safe in the kingdom of Aloriya.
Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden. Cerys knows this all too well: when she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse—the magic—in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything. The most danger she faces now, as a gardener’s daughter, is the annoying fox who stalks the royal gardens and won’t leave her alone.
As a new queen is crowned, however, things long hidden in the woods descend on the kingdom itself. Cerys is forced on the run, her only companions the small fox from the garden, a strange and powerful bear, and the magic in her veins. It’s up to her to find the legendary Lady of the Wilds and beg for a way to save her home. But the road is darker and more dangerous than she knows, and as secrets from the past are uncovered amid the teeth and roots of the forest, it’s going to take everything she has just to survive.

What books did you find with punctuation in them? Were you able to find ten that were questions? Let me know in the comments below and have a splendiferous week!