(I doubt I’ll ever get the the Top Ten Tuesday meme done and posted on the right Tuesday. This was last week’s topic. At least I’m posting one and that’s an amazing batting average of .50; I’ll take a baseball stat to improve my tardiness any day!)

The topic is

 Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don’t Own Yet

Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor  – I listed Dust in an earlier To Be Read post. I need to reiterate that I want to read this book that everyone is raving about. If you’re among those not talking, or you haven’t heard, about this book, then do add it to your wishlist or something!

Kintu by  Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – A historical novel based a creation tale of the Baganda people from Uganda. Another dazzling (I hear) novel from East Africa!

Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique –  I keep saying that my reading of Caribbean Literature is woeful compared to a decade ago. So wanting to read Yanique would be good for catching up purposes but, I really just want to read her.  How to Escape a Leper Colony, Yanique’s award winning collection of short stories, is already on my list of collections to read in 2014.  Land of Love and Drowning is about two sisters in early 1900s Virgin Islands.

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay –  My timeline on Twitter has introduced me to a number of writers, perhaps I’ll do a post on that one day. Anywho, yes Roxane Gay!  She’s also an essayist and has written for many online publications, so Google her.  She released two books this year (yes, that’s right: TWO) — Bad Feminist ( a collection of essays) and An Untamed State, about a Haitian American woman’s trauma from, and survival of, a kidnapping.

A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava – Back in the blogging-day, I had a somewhat regular feature titled “Oh, I Should Read That, Or Additions to My Wishlist”.  Adding to wishlists is a favored activity of book bloggers (and that feature was fun, maybe I’ll bring that back). I added this 700-page novel about a public defender to the seventh edition of the wishlist, in 2012. It was initially self-published then later traditionally published after some bloggers raved about the book. I heard the critic James Wood calls is ‘hysterical realism’. What is that? I still want to read it.

 Zone by Mathias Énard – Another book added to the same list as the one above. My desire to read it was recalled and triggered by a review at Winston’s Dad. That it’s a 512 page one-sentence novel is apparently not the most sensational thing about this book. It doubles as a spy thriller, and a historical account of happenings in the Mediterranean. (Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell).

Satantango by László Krasznahorkai or The Door by Magda Szabo – I’m a fan of Peter Nadas which means I should want to read more Hungarian Literature. And I do. Also, how can one escape the acclaim of Krasznahorkai in translated circles?  Satantango is set in a bleak village where the inhabitants wait for something to happen.  And it reads that a messiah does come. Well.  The Door is about the relationship between a young Hungarian writer and her cleaner.  I’m not picky; either one will do. (Santantango is translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes, The Door is translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix).

Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante – Rave, rave about Ferrante is all I see now. So I’ve bitten. Any of her novels will do. Days of Abandonment is about a “woman’s descent into devastating emptiness after being abandoned by her husband with two young children to care for” (Amazon.com).  Ferrante is considered one of the greatest Italian writers and isn’t wonderful that she’s a woman? I’ve read mostly men, of Italy – Calvino, Di Lampedusa, Bufalino.  So looking forward to reading Ferrante. (Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein)

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye – This book has been on my mind since it won the 2009 Prix Goncourt.  It looks at family histories and moves between France and Senegal. (Translated from French by John Fletcher)

In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar – (I shan’t moan about not reading enough North African lit, I shall not). Aaron Bady (@zunguzungu) did a four-part serial treatment of this book and I was hooked. A child narrates the effect of Qaddafi’s rule on his family.

So that’s my ten.  I hope some of these books sound interesting to you!

What’s on your list of “book you want to read but don’t own yet”?