The theme for this week’s Top 5 Tuesday is series books that you want to read this year for the first time. Keeping with my theme of reading books I already own but haven’t read, here are five ‘first in a series’ books that are either sitting on my bookshelf or on my kindle. Okay, one is actually sitting in front of me at my computer desk but you get the idea.

CHIEF INSPECTOR GAMACHE SERIES by Louise Penny

I’ve been meaning to read this series literally forever since the first time I recall Anne @ Modern Mrs. Darcy singing its praises. Luckily my book club will be reading the first book in the series, Still Life, this year so I finally have no more excuses.

Here’s a description of the first book if you haven’t heard of it before:

As the early morning mist clears on Thanksgiving Sunday, the homes of Three Pines come to life – all except one…

To locals, the village is a safe haven. So they are bewildered when a well-loved member of the community is found lying dead in the maple woods. Surely it was an accident – a hunter’s arrow gone astray. Who could want Jane Neal dead?

In a long and distinguished career with the Sûreté du Quebec, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has learned to look for snakes in Eden. Gamache knows something dark is lurking behind the white picket fences, and if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will begin to give up its secrets…

DOROTHY MUST DIE SERIES by Danielle Paige

I spotted the first book in this series at Barnes and Noble a year or two ago and basically bought it on the spot pretty much based on the cover alone. That and the fact that I’d just finished falling in love with a series that reimagined fairy tales – no big deal, just The Lunar Chronicles guys. Anyway, like most impulse book buys, it’s been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. I’d love to fix that problem this year. Here’s the premise:

“I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado – taking you with it – you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I’ve read the books. I’ve seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can’t be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There’s still a yellow brick road – but even that’s crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy.

They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm – and I’m the other girl from Kansas.

I’ve been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I’ve been trained to fight.

And I have a mission. “

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES SERIES by various authors apparently

This is another spotted it at Barnes and Noble splurge! Being a fan of all things Cumberbatch and Baker Street, this series appealed to me right off the bat. I like the idea of Sherlock interacting with famous people from history and this alternate history premise is super intriguing.

“When Harry Houdini is framed and jailed for espionage, Sherlock Holmes vows to clear his name, with the two joining forces to take on blackmailers who have targeted the Prince of Wales.

It’s a case that requires all of their skills — both mental and physical. Can the daring duo solve what people are calling “The Crime of the Century”?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s timeless creation returns in a new series of handsomely designed detective stories. From the earliest days of Holmes’ career to his astonishing encounters with Martian invaders, the Further Adventures series encapsulates the most varied and thrilling cases of the worlds’ greatest detective.”

THE DISCWORLD SERIES by Terry Pratchett

This feels like one of those series that I probably should have already read by now but somehow I missed it entirely. There are over 40 books in this series so if I like it, I will have a lot of reading to do. Funny, light science fiction/fantasy seems to be the general description of the series. Here’s a little more for the first book:

“On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet…“

RED RISING SERIES by Pierce Brown

I’ve heard great things about this series so I don’t really have a solid excuse for why I haven’t read this yet except, like, get in line. This one is for the fans of dystopian stories:

“Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.”

Have you read any of these? Which one should I read first?