Into the Woods: Wyrd & Wonder Plans and Top Five List

ARTWORK by chic2view from 123RF.com

Here we are, it’s May at last and the 5th(!) annual Wyrd & Wonder has begun! A month-long celebrations of all thing fantastical, ready to tempt you with new books to add to your already teetering TBR piles, bring new authors to your attention, find new friends among fellow fantasy-lovers, and test your ability to find a book to fit each day of our picture prompts! This is only my second year participating but I’ve basically been looking forward to it since the last one ended. It’s my favourite time of year! And, even more exciting, I am one of the hosts for this year, along with Imyril, Lisa, Jorie, and Annemieke! Getting to be a part of the team has been awesome, and I hope you love this month as much as we’ve loved planning it! Having more of us involved has meant being able to do a bit more than usual; more give-aways (keep an eye on each of our pages for those!), more guest posts, a shiny new instagram page, and TWO read-alongs!

If this is the first you’re hearing about Wyrd & Wonder and it all sounds exciting, it’s not too late to join! You can see my previous posts with more info on the event: February’s introduction | March’s post | April’s anticipation. You can also still sign up using the Sign Up sheet and check out the Master Schedule to get yourself organised! And speaking of getting organised, we have a great group already signed up and ready to go, with over 60 participants!

One of my favourite parts of Wyrd & Wonder is blog-hopping and reading everyone’s posts, and here are our fellow adventurers so far for this year:

Celeste of A Literary Escape, JD Weber of Alligators and Aneurysms, Amanda, Ashley, Heather of Based on a True Story, Rowena of Beneath a Thousand Skies, Beth’s Bookish Thoughts, Nicky the Bibliophibian, Jen of the Book Den, Mayri the Bookforager, Tammy of Books, Bones & Buffy, Nicole of BookWyrm Knits,

The Captain of Captain’s Quarters, Charlotte’s Library, Clara, Maryam the Curious SFF Reader, Ellie of Curiosity Killed the Bookworm, Cynthia, Sia of Every Book a Doorway, Giulia of Every Fandom Has a Story, Jenna of Falling Letters, The Fantasy Hive, Rachelle of Fortified by Books, Louise of Foxes and Fairytales, Lorraine of Geeky Galaxy, Rachael the Green Tea Librarian, Filip Magnus of The Grimoire Reliquary, Jen, Jenni Elyse, Jess of Jessticulates, Johanna, Heather of Just Geeking By, Kate, Laura Jane, Lex of Lexlingua, Calypte of LittleFrogScribbles, Lydia Schoch,

Charlotte of Mug Full of Books, Athena the One Reading Nurse, Starr K of Pages & Procrastination, Peat of Peat Long’s Blog, Candy the Purple Shadow Hunter, Queen’s Book Asylum, Caitlin of Realms of My Mind, Sahi, John of SciFi Mind, Maddalena of Space and Sorcery, Alex of Spells & Spaceships, Alex of Soulfully Alex, Susy of SusysCozyWorld, Arwen The Tech Chef, Nicole of Thoughts Stained With Ink, Anouk of Time for Tales and Tea, Natalie of Too Short to Read, Kirsten of Video Games as Literature, Lynn of Wanderinglynn, Tanja of Where Stories Lie, Peyton of Word Wilderness, Zakiya, and Zezee With books

If I missed you or you’ve only just signed up, give me a shout in the comments!

Be sure to give people a visit and see what they have planned… Here is what I will be up to:

My TBR

I will be taking part in both the readalongs because when it comes to books I am always over-ambitious and both of them sounded super fun! Imyril will be hosting The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay (an author I have wanted to read for some time) and Lisa will be hosting The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black (also my first one by the author). I’m mostly keeping my reads forest fantasy themed, which is why I couldn’t resist Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer, and found the perfect excuse to pick up The Stone Knife by Anna Stephens and Beast of Prey by Ayana Gray, both set in/around forests. I’ll also be reading The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner and Equinox by David Towsey because I have review copies of those and they’re both published in May. And lastly, I am planning to reread Starborn by Lucy Hounsom for the SFF Backlist Challenge. Looking at it now, I realise that all but one are by women, and I promise I did not plan that!

Best Laid Plans indeed, not sure I’ll get to all of these but I always like to be ambitious! I’ll also be answering prompts over on instagram, both on our Wyrd & Wonder page and my own @booknookreview as well as using some of the prompts to create posts. I have a few fun posts in the works, and hopefully time allows me to get to them!

My Top Five Fantasy Books since the last Wyrd & Wonder

Today’s prompt is the Wyrd & Wonder TBR, but we’re also doing a fun Weekly Top Five every Sunday, and this week it’s ‘Top 5 Fantasy Books since the last W&W’

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen is simply indescribable and was at the top of my 2021 fantasy reads. Minor gods, heists, curses, and the best found family you could ask for. I absolutely need to read this again.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is another one that is hard to put into words… it is gritty and real as well as poetic and fantastical. It is unlike anything else I have ever read.

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James has been my best read of 2022 and a brilliantly executed sequel to Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It gives a whole new perspective to the first book and opens the world wide open.

The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart is another exciting sequel – in fact we read The Bone Shard Daughter last year for W&W – and I flew through it! Another favourite for this year so far.

The Pariah by Anthony Ryan was one of my rogue favourites from last year. I did not expect to love it as much as I did, but the characters were just so compelling and the world felt so real!

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So let the fun begin – wave the banner (and remember to credit the artist), pack your stack of books, and journey into the fantastical in any manner you desire! We’ll be right beside you cheering you on and tempting you to stray from your path with shiny new books, as always! And don’t forget to post your links to the master schedule so we can see what you’re up to!