Top Ten Tuesday Book Stack: Purple and Green Fantasy Covers

February 16, 2021 Top Ten Tuesday 12

Top Ten Tuesday: Purple and Green Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The meme was originally the brainchild of The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Purple, Yellow, and/or Green Book Covers (in honor of Mardi Gras, which is today!)

Mardi Gras, as celebrated in New Orleans, is a fantastical festival, with its spectacular floats and over-the-top costumes. Since today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is book covers in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, yellow (gold), and green, I decided to feature my favorite fantasy novels with those colors in a spine stack. Unfortunately, I don’t have any fantasy novels with yellow covers, and the only really gold one is far from a favorite, so you’ll have to make do with green and purple. (And I’ll be honest: in one or two cases, it’s only the spine that fits the color scheme; the front cover is more colorful.)

Top to bottom:

(Title links take you to my review, if one exists. Given that these are, for the most part, favorites of mine, I clearly need to review more of them.)

  • The Wounded Sky, by Diane Duane. One of my favorite Star Trek novels ever.
  • Deryni Checkmate, by Katherine Kurtz. I discovered this series in high school, back when the first trilogy was all she had written.
  • Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman. A marvelous YA novel about shapeshifting dragons, and discovering who you are.
  • Circle of Magic: Briar’s Book, by Tamora Pierce. Fourth in a MG/YA series featuring four children in turn.
  • Queen’s Own, by Mercedes Lackey. A three-in-one volume of Lackey’s first trilogy: Arrows of the Queen, Arrow’s Flight, Arrow’s Fall. I fell in love with these, and Lackey’s books in general, way back in the 80s when they first came out. 30+ years later, I’m still reading (and rereading) her novels.
  • Spindle’s End, by Robin McKinley. One of the finest Sleeping Beauty retellings ever. EVER.
  • The Black Gryphon, by Mercedes Lackey. Takes place well over a thousand years before the Queen’s Own trilogy. Explores a story we’ve only gotten hints of in other books. Plus, there are gryphons.
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J. K. Rowling. No introduction needed, I’m sure.
  • Winds of Fate, by Mercedes Lackey. The first in a trilogy that chronologically takes place after the events of Queen’s Own.
  • The Book of Life, by Deborah Harkness. Third in the All Souls trilogy that began with A Discovery of Witches. Answers most, but not all, of the questions raised in the first two books.

12 Responses to “Top Ten Tuesday Book Stack: Purple and Green Fantasy Covers”

  1. Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits

    That is a FUN picture! I love how it worked, that’s just perfect for this week! Also, I recognize some of those books spines. I had that omnibus of The Queen’s Own also, though I have since unhauled it because I’ve gotten pickier about which books I’m keeping. (The Mage Winds trilogy is still on my keeper shelf, though.)
    Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Mardi Gras book coversMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thanks! I will probably hang on to the Queen’s Own omnibus as long as I can read the print, because I still love the trilogy. And I’m keeping all the other Valdemar books, except one: I let go of the Lavan Firestorm book. It was too sad and depressing and I knew I wasn’t ever going to reread it.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I love Mercedes Lackey’s early and mid-career books. Lately, she has been a bit unpredictable when it comes to writing quality, but I still follow several of her series eagerly. Even when the writing isn’t quite up to what I know she can do, she still usually manages to tell a good story.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      The beads are from several years’ worth of Mardi Gras suppers at our old church (now closed.) Now I’m glad I kept them! After I took the photo, I covered my “coffee table” (a wicker chest) with the gold tablecoth in the background, and spread the beads on it for a bit of Mardi Gras cheer. Then I made pancakes for supper. 🙂