The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner.

Revenge
When Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, stole Hamiathes’s Gift, the Queen of Attolia lost more than a mythical relic. She lost face. Everyone knew that Eugenides had outwitted and escaped her. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered…she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.

…but
Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.

…at what price?
When Eugenides finds his small mountain country at war with Attolia, he must steal a man, he must steal a queen, he must steal peace. But his greatest triumph, and his greatest loss, comes in capturing something that the Queen of Attolia thought she had sacrificed long ago…

This is the second book of the Queen’s Thief series and, apparently, it’s way better than the first book. All the people who commented on my review of The Thief said so! So I should probably get on that (she says three years later). You know what, though? I want to reread The Thief, too! I have a feeling I might like it more now than I did the first time I read it. Hopefully I still have my copy somewhere…

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor.

Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits. And then she discovers something amazing—she is a “free agent,” with latent magical power. Soon she’s part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal who knows magic too?

I want to read this because of Jenny, basically (also she technically only felt so-so about it). She ALWAYS makes me want to read a million books, and then I never do and I feel terrible. However! Whenever I DO read a book she’s (mostly) liked, I tend to like them, too, and thus this book is in this post.

The Tar-Aiym Krang by Alan Dean Foster.

Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings — two great golden clouds suspended in space around it.

Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers — a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest … most of the time.

In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn’t really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn’t quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place…

I have written TWICE now about reading the actual, proper first book in the Pip and Flinx series and I’m determined to actually do it this time. I think it’ll help that I’ll still have the characters/setting/whatever pretty fresh in my mind, right? Hm.

I also want to read some Indiana Jones books, but I got rid of the ones I had before and the Young Indiana Jones books I DO have aren’t exactly what I’m looking for. Have any of y’all read an Indiana Jones book? And can recommend me one, maybe?

Okay! So what’s a book YOU want to read sooner rather than later?