‘Top Ten Tuesday’ is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
This week’s theme is ‘Top Ten Books I’m Excited To Read in 2012′. I get to list the books that I’m looking forward to reading this year. There seem to be a lot of good books coming out this year and I can’t wait to get to read them.

1. The Nightmare Garden by Caitlin Kittredge – This is the sequel to ‘The Iron Thorn’, which was a really great read last year. It’s a combination steampunk, fantasy, dystopian, young-adult novel. I’ve recently been turned on to steampunk and dystopian novels, which seems to be the current trend. (I’m such a follower.)

2. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross – Yet another steampunk sequel. I loved the first book in this series, I think this may be the series that sealed by love of this genre. May is way too far away.

3. The Wood Queen by Karen Mahoney – This is the sequel to ‘The Iron Queen’ which was a really good if short book. I hope this one is longer. This seems like it may be a great fantasy series.

4. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore – The ‘Graceling’ series was a serious favorite of mine last year and I’ve been waiting for this book for a long, long time. I’ve loved the main characters of this series so much and I don’t think this book will disappoint me.

5. The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood – Is the third in a children’s series, but it’s so much fun! I found a review that describes the series perfectly, it’s ‘Sound of Music’ meets ‘The Series of Unfortunate Events’. It’s a funny read with some adorable characters.

6. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen – I’ve always loved Robin Hood, I think I’ve watched pretty much every movie or tv version that tells his story. This book talks about a possible love interest for him, not Maid Marien, but Scarlet, the main character. It looks to be a fun read for this year.

7. Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep – This is the third in the Mythos Academy series which I’m loving right now. I love anything to do with mythology so this series is right up my alley.

8. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami – I’ve been seeing a lot of this book online, especially on Goodreads. It’s grabbed my interest for sure. It’s not a new book, but I definitely plan to read this book before the year is out.

9. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson – Jack the Ripper. Need I say more? I love Maureen Johnson anyway, so this is definitely a must read for this year.

10. Ashfall by Mike Mullin – This is a post-apocalyptic novel about the aftermath of the explosion of a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park. The main character is a teenage boy left alone for the weekend when the volcano erupts. He goes across the United States to find his family.

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading. All you have to do is answer three questions.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?
I’m actually am between books right now, but I plan to start reading New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear. It’s actually a collection of short stories about Abigail Irene Garrett, a forensic sorceress, and Sebastien de Ulloa, a famous sleuth and vampire. I’ve recently become interested in the steampunk genre and now I’m officially obsessed. This is just the latest in a line of steampunk books that I’m devouring.

What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished reading The Steampunk Detective by Darrell Pitt. As is obvious, this was another steampunk book that I read. I really liked this one. It was very similar to Sherlock Holmes in that this duo solves crimes using the powers of deduction. However the assistant is a teenager that used to be from a family of acrobats. I hope the author plans to write more books in this universe, it’s definitely something I’d be interested in.

What do you think you’ll read next?
In wrapping up this weeks steampunk theme, I’ll be reading Writing Steampunk by Beth Daniels. This is actually in preparation for next month! Since I plan to participate in NaNoWriMo again, I wanted to do some research in advance. Since I’ve been obsessed with steampunk lately, I figure the best way to stay interested in what I’m writing it just to stick with what I like. So the plan for the moment, which is of course liable to change any second now, is to write a steampunk novel this year. So hopefully this book will get me in the mood for that. It’s supposed to have a really good historical context and some prompts for writing. Perfect!

What are you guys reading this week?

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading. I found this meme through Marie from Ramblings of a Daydreamer. All you have to do is answer three questions.

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading The Emerald Talisman. I just started and I haven’t had too much time to read so I’m not that far into it yet.

What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished reading Scarlett Fever. It was the second in a series by Maureen Johnson. I really liked it and I do hope that she writes another book for the series soon.

What do you think you’ll read next?
I’m not really sure yet. Right now it’s tie between Maureen Johnson’s Devilish and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. I’ve been on Maureen Johnson kick lately, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about ‘The Night Circus’ as well. It depends on what I’m in the mood for.